Eat, Drink & Think is your daily destination for recipes, restaurant news, holiday menus and great food journalism — all through a Jewish lens. From the traditional to the cutting edge, we explore the worldwide Jewish culinary landscape and bring…
Food
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The Roots of Lentils
“You’ll have to crawl on your hands and knees to find the lentils” warned Dr. Gideon Ladizinsky, a researcher at the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot, Israel. We were on a field trip to explore the wild progenitors of agricultural plants, scuffing up our clothes in the process. Even with my face centimeters from the…
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Ben Stiller Breaks His Fast in a Jewish Wonka Land
Imagine this: It’s the end of Yom Kippur, you’re famished, verging on delirious, and suddenly, you’re transported into a Wonka Land filled with matzo ball soup ponds, pickles, matzo farfel and a large deli sandwich. In this scenario, you’re also Ben Still hosting Saturday Night Live this Saturday just after Yom Kippur. Stiller and Andy…
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Mixing Bowl: Bagel Wars; Lemon Cheese Blintzes; DIY Herring
We hope you all enjoyed the Forward’s first Food & Drink special section. Check out stories on brisket, Yiddish vegetarianism, the history of the bagel, DIY pickled herring and more. Have an easy fast. We’ll pick up with more delicious food stories on Monday. Meatpaper has teamed up with Pork Memoirs to ask how the…
The Latest
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Break Fast Traditions From Around the Globe
With Yom Kippur upon us, thoughts of fasting loom. But take solace: Jews are not alone in this practice. Fasting is observed by religions around the world. While the reason, time of year, length, and type of fast vary greatly, almost every ends with a traditional but sumptuous meal. Through the ages fasting has been…
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News Off the Plate and Into the Bar Glass
Is there such a thing as a Jewish cocktail? Although wine is part of the Shabbat blessings and Jews are urged to drink on Purim until they can no longer tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai, mixed drinks are rarely part of the traditional Jewish lifestyle. But, as the culture of cocktails grows, professional…
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What’s the Best Bagel in New York City?
In the Forward’s first Food & Drink special section, coming out this Thursday, we trace the 600+ year history of the bagel. But where’s the best bagel in New York City? Read on to find out. New Yorkers are an opinionated bunch. And few subjects are as polarizing as the city’s best bagels. When the…
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Of Bees and Men: Fixing the Bee Problem
During the first summer in my current home in Denver, there were plenty of bees in the garden. Every time I walked outside to see how things were growing, I could see the bees buzzing around the plants, happily pollinating my zucchinis and herbs. I had an abundant harvest that year; in fact, I probably…
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A Shabbat Potluck Amid the Protests and Shouting
While Sabbath is a day of rest, some prefer unrest. Dan Sieradski, a new media activist, organized a Shabbat dinner last Friday amid the hubbub of the Occupy Wall Street protest taking place in Lower Manhattan. Around 20 gathered in a corner of Zuccotti Park to welcome Shabbat, not far from the din of protestors…
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Honey, Milk, and Ethical Kashrut
For centuries, the system of kashrut helped us to decide whether food was “fit” for us to eat, but contemporary food issues are raising a whole new set of questions about what food we should and shouldn’t eat, which kashrut may or may not be able to answer. Last May, Siach: An Environment & Social…
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How Do We Measure Sustainability in our Food?
While attending the Hazon Food Conference at the University of California, Davis campus last month, I had the pleasure of leading a table learning and discussion at the Community-Wide Beit Midrash (house of study) program on Saturday morning. Sitting at separate tables in the large room, I was one of two people who lead sessions…
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Food and Palestinian Identity
It all started in 1996, when Liora Gvion first wondered why the food served at a local restaurant in an Arab-Israeli town with a primarily Arab-Israeli clientele was the same as what was on the menu of Arab-owned restaurants that catered to Jewish Israelis. The sociologist of food, who lectures at the Kibbutzim College of…
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