Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic
By Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic
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Food South Philly’s Hippest Bakery Has A Yiddish Name
JTA — Opening a Jewish bakery with a Yiddish name in an Italian neighborhood sounds crazy, but it didn’t take long before Essen had a crowd of regular customers lining up for its fresh-baked challah on Fridays. Tova du Plessis opened Essen, which means “to eat,” in South Philadelphia in April 2016 after stints as…
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Food Got Passover-Product Overload? You’re Not Alone
Passover, the weeklong holiday that celebrates the Israelites’ freedom from slavery in Egypt was simpler back in the day. There was just one recipe for charoset, the mixture that symbolized the mortar the Israelites used to make bricks for the pyramids. That recipe had apples and walnuts — not dates, pistachios and ginger. There was…
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Food Fun With Hamantaschen
In the beginning, there was mun. And it was good. Mun, sometimes spelled mohn, is the Yiddish word for sweet poppy-seed jam. It was a key ingredient in many Eastern European baked goods, from mohnbrötchen (poppy-seed bread) to munstrudel (a sweet, swirled bread). So it’s no surprise that Ashkenazic Jews used mun to fill their…
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Culture 10 Ways to Make a More Modern Seder
The modern American Seder is as varied as the families who gather to celebrate it. There are more than 1,600 Haggadot to choose from, including a hip-hop version for those who want to rap their Seder tunes, an ecological Haggadah that asks us to consider the trees and a 30-Minute Seder that has you nibbling…
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News Six Excuses To Celebrate Jewishly This Summer
Sadly, between Shavuot (May 15) and Rosh Hashanah (September 5) there is a shortage of Jewish holidays. Sure, there’s Tisha B’Av (July 15), a day to recall the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other Jewish tragedies. But who wants to throw a party on a fast day? Tu B’Av, the Israeli equivalent…
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