For Canadian author Michael Wex, the process of researching Yiddish cuisine was almost as distasteful as a glass of a p’tcha (calves foot jelly) on an empty stomach. Everyone who discovered that he was writing about Jewish food seemed to have a comment, complaint or bagel store to boycott. Friends and acquaintances alike insisted their…
One of the most popular and enduring shops in the Bronx’s Little Italy is a third-generation family business run by a Jewish immigrant family — not from Italy, but from Austria. Teitel Brothers Imports, opened in 1915, does not sell kosher goods, but rather all kinds of Italian items from salami and balsamic vinegar to…
This is a sporadic column in which the writer evaluates a new cookbook by making some of its recipes, sharing them with friends and asking her guests what they think of the results. She recently cooked her way through “Israel Eats” by Steven Rothfeld with Nancy Silverton (Gibbs Smith). A food photographer in his mid…
My ad man dad was never a morning person. He said that when he slept, his best ideas came to him — including his award-winning slogans for “Leggo My Eggo,” “Soup is Good Food” and “Coke is It.” On the weekends, my little sister April and I knew the only way to awake my father…
Steven Rothfeld flips through his new book and stops on a page showing a focaccia with pieces of charred cauliflower dappling its surface. “This is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life,” he says. Then he stops on a page showing a deep-orange kumquat marmalade. “This is one of the best…
As the interview drew to a close, the founder of the Bay Area’s latest kosher food startup checked notes on his cellphone to make sure he’d covered everything he wanted to discuss. At one point, he paused to take a call. A delivery of rice paper was late, stalling his operation. For a business owner,…
Breakfast is a sadly underrepresented category in the field of Jewish cookbooks. Scanning through the table of contents in most of them, you’d be hard pressed to find a category devoted to the morning meal. Even foods that theoretically belong in a breakfast chapter, such as blintzes, bourekas and matzo brei, tend to be assigned…
On a recent Tuesday night at the Chabad House Bowery on the Lower East Side, a crowd began to form. Tables covered in craft paper filled the room, tea lights flickering in mason jars. At a long table at one end, servers set up paper plates and jugs of ice tea — but no food….
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