JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
St. Nicholas is one of many saints adored in Beit Jala, my hometown. His church, which is built atop the cave where he lived, has a golden dome that distinguishes Beit Jala from any other town in Palestine. But across the street from Saint Nicolas is a more captivating place: A building that hosts a…
(Ed. Note: The Forward is delighted to welcome Vivien Sansour as a regular food columnist. You can read more about Vivien here) The flowers on my eggplants are getting full. I had never taken much notice of how the eggplant flower suddenly transforms into a heavy shell that produces a perfectly purple vegetable, but in…
Co-authoring the bestselling “Jerusalem: A Cookbook” in 2012 with business partner Yotam Ottolenghi made Sami Tamimi realize he’d someday do a cookbook of Palestinian food. Tamimi, a Palestinian Arab born in Jerusalem, has been with Ottolenghi, a Jewish Jerusalemite, since the beginning, often working as an executive chef. For this book, he has teamed up…
Conflict Kitchen goes Palestinian. Screenshot from Conflict Kitchen Some members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community are none too happy with Conflict Kitchen’s latest menu. Every few months, the popular local restaurant features a cuisine from a country that’s in conflict with the U.S. Currently on the menu is Palestinian food, which has stirred up a bit…
This hearty Palestinian soup known as rushtay is more commonly prepared by West Bank cooks than by those in Galilee; I learned how to make it from friends I met in Jerusalem. It is a meal in itself and a favorite among vegetarian patrons of Tanoreen. If you don’t have one of the greens on…
I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, land of the constant restaurant. I once heard that Toledo was a pilot city for new restaurant ventures. Mind you, I’m not talking the latest in gastronomy or raw food, I’m talking Applebee’s, Carraba’s Italian Grill, or BW3 (now known as Buffalo Wild Wings). Meat, potatoes and, of course,…
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…
