Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish food, which draws influence from Israeli, Middle Eastern, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Palestinian traditions, among others.
Food
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Food New Study: Falafel Is The Cheapest Healthy Food Out There
When I lived in Tel Aviv, there was a small, rickety food stand run by an angry old Turk next to the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv. There I could snag a falafel for 12 NIS (about three American dollars). It came with a bowl of delicately swirled hummus, positively quivering with delight at…
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Food A Seder Plate For Refugees
The traditional seder plate is a towering figure in the world of Jewish iconography. From the sting of the bitter herbs to the smooth implacable roundness of the egg, every item in the seder plate symbolizes some aspect of the Jewish redemption from slavery. This year, anti-genocide group Jewish World Watch is asking that you…
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Fast Forward How Matzo Became A Household Item For Dutch Christians
([JTA](http://www.jta.org ” “JTA”)) — For most matzah bakeries, Passover is their lifeline and only claim to financial viability. After the weeklong holiday, during which Jews are commanded to consume matzah to commemorate their ancestors’ hurried flight out of Egypt, demand for the famously tasteless cracker drops sharply. Except, that is, in the Netherlands. A centuries-old…
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Food How The Non-Jewish Begyl Became The Jewish Bagel
There’s no arguing with the tight grip the Jews have over the bagel. Like gefilte fish and matzo, the bagel seems uniquely Jewish in origin, indigenous to the European Jews who first enjoyed it. But imagine my astonishment when I found out this wasn’t the case. According to WhatscookingAmerica, bagel (BAY-guhl) – Bagel derives from…
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Food Chef Natasha Feldman Rages Against The Instagram Food Machine
Celebrity chefs abound on the television these days. You know, with their perfect three thousand dollars knives, their whip-sharp cutting skills and their picture-perfect dinner creations. The gap between the home kitchen and the restaurant kitchen is ever-widening. Gone are the days when you went to the diner to eat a heaping pile of sloppy…
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Food Alon Shaya on #MeToo, Weed Recipes and His Jewish Heritage
Is Alon Shaya cooking’s new socially conscious heir apparent? In his new restaurants, Saba and Safta, he’s planning to pay competitive wages far and above the median average payscale of restaurant employees, and provide health benefits, continuing education, and mandatory cultural training on a regular basis. In his new cookbook, Shaya, an ode to the…
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Food Nur NYC Has The Best Brunch In Town — All The Way From The Middle East
If you’re like me and love the variety of a brunch but hate the procedure of it, from the endless line of hungry people to the fight for the last breadstick, maybe it’s time for you to try a new kind of brunch. At Nur, the new Middle Eastern joint in Flatiron that’s been open…
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Food Joan Nathan Looks Back On Her Legacy
Eleven cookbooks. Four decades in the food industry. Fifty countries visited. Recognition from the James Beard Foundation and the IACP. Her latest cookbook, King Solomon’s Table is a reminder of just how prevalent Joan Nathan is in the Jewish culinary world. Has Joan Nathan done it all? To most people in the food world, Joan…
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