Food

Taste the Real Quenelle

Image by Wikimedia Commons

By Anne Cohen January 21, 2014

The first time I heard that Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala had adopted the “quenelle” as his trademark, my first thought was that the controversial French comedian had a strange affinity for fish.

That’s because a quenelle, in my mind, refers not to an anti-Semitic inverted Nazi salute, but to a delicious dish from the south of France. A specialty from Lyon, the quenelle is a dumpling-like mixture of minced fish (usually pike) or meat, combined with breadcrumbs, seasoning, butter and eggs, then rolled, poached and served with sauce (often lobster or crayfish-based, replace with dill or red pepper sauce for a kosher alternative).

Wikimedia Commons

Sound familiar? It probably is. Jews may recognize the dish as a lighter, fluffier and more upscale version of a little something known as gefilte fish.

In fact, restaurants trying to take Jewish comfort food up a notch often end up with quenelle on the menu (case in point, Kutcher’s Tribeca in New York).

Even the Anti-Defamation League sees the similarities between the two: in a statement denouncing the anti-Semitic gesture, the quenelle was referred to as “sort of a French version of gefilte fish.”

Comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala is credited with creating and popularizing the gesture now known as quenelle — described by Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) as “a gesture which is performed by pointing one arm diagonally downwards, while touching that arm’s shoulder with the opposite hand” — in 2009 as part of the electoral campaign of his Anti-Zionist Party.

But the word didn’t make headlines (or Google) until 2013, when a French soccer star Nicolas Anelka, a player for the British team West Bromwich Albion celebrated a goal with the gesture, which he called “anti-establishment” rather than anti-Semitic.

That’s a lot of hidden meaning for one little plate of fish.

Don’t let the haters put you off — try it! Recipe here.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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