ASHKENAZI CUISINE: IDENTITY, MEMORY, AND CULTURE
Guest Speakers:
Leah Koenig, Michael W. Twitty, and Jeffrey Yoskowitz
September 9, 2020
CHATBOX
- You have just answered a questionI’ve had for a long time – could not understand why lookout, sesame candies, and halvah were eaten by New York Ashkenazi – thanks.
- cholent!
- I love cholent.
- Stuffed cabbage?
- is there really tzimmes without prunes?
- Yes my Mom was polish and her tzimmis was carrots only
- borscht
- kasha and bow ties figured prominently in my first date as a 15-year-old, I was mortified when the kasha kept spilling off the plate onto the table
- blintzes with almost no flour, matzo meal or potato starch in the egg batter
- oops, I had sent my earlier text to panelists only.I added kugel–potato and lokshen (noodle), savory and sweet. And babka and apple cake.
- Chopped liver!
- kasha knishes!
- matzo meal pancakes
- cholent is similar to Brazilian feijoada
- Mandel bread and rugelach!
- fleyshik borscht!
- Just had Falafel for lunch from Taim which opened today in Dupont Circle. Not Ashkenazi per se, but still relevant! $5 for everything on their menu today!
- Falafel???
- beigels not bagels…. is it just a London thing?
- My grandma made stuffed helzel
- Yes, just a London thing.
- beigels yes – not just a London thing
- Pogach from Hungary!
- flodni Hungarian Jewish cake
- My Bubbi said Beigels
- Flódni layer cake!!!
- Re kugel, there is afleischich kugel with apple and raisin and eggs and cinnamon if I am remembering correctly. There is also dairy lokshen kugel.
- anything paprika’s!
- my mom made stuffed helzel every friday
- .. I hate autocorrect
- I remember my Bubbie making “Tchav” (variety of spellings and pronunciations “shavay”), which I think was served cold. Haven’t seen since I was a kid.HELP!!!
- beigels quite different from US bagels
- bialys versus bagels,
- stuffed cabbage
- what is helzel
- I ate flodni at Rachel in Budapest
- I make my own shmaltz – learned from my Mom.
- the chicken skin around the neck, opened and stuffed with an onion flour mixture, sewn up and roasted next to chicken
- Kamish (Mandel bread)
- black/white cookies…NY Ashkenazi
- Mandel brot and noodles with cottage cheese
- Matjes herring!
- Lokshen pudding?
- “In 1944 after my brother was born my father started a cherry slivovitz with grain alcohol and bing or sour cherries and sugar, I believe.
- He brought it to serve at the Kiddush lunch after my brother’s bar mitzvah.
- When my mother and I went to the kitchen to get the lunch on the tables after the service, we found the hired help passed out drunk on the floor and the slivovitz gone”
- schmaltz herring..
- Don’t forget chopped herring….
- has no one said lutkas?
- best thing about pickled herring was the onions.
- great slivovitz story!
- my mom always added extra onions to the herring jar
- What is maigele?
- only my grandfather could make good chicken soup;his reward at the table (which the others never would have wanted) was that he could eat (meaning suck on) the chicken feer.
- chicken feet!
- Maigele is the chicken neck stuffed with a breadcrumb/onion mix – I remember my Booba doing it every week…..the sewed up the neck skin…
- If I heard Leah correctly, she said that potato dumplings were Hungarian. However, I’m Jewish Polish and we make our version of gnocchi called kopitkes.
- What about matzah?!
- In present-day Poland, grocery stores sell Challah and Matzah – they have entered the culture – and many or most present-day Poles probably have no idea these were Jewish foods
- Chicken feet are ESSENTIAL. Years ago in Mass. they were free because no one else wanted them. Now I live in California and I have to purchase them because so many different cuisines use them.
- Lokshen kuegel
- yes we caled them Jaggedes!
- My mom made those and called them Blueberry Bilkelach
- brick lane beigel bakery
- Sokolov wrote a great Jewish Cook Book
- What about Jewish deli ‘tongue’? It’s not kosher, but Jewish style….from my childhood at Barry’s Deli in Waban, Ma (part of Newton, MA)
- Lekach – honey cake – esp as we are near Rosh Hashana.
- tongue isn’t kosher?
- eiglach – the little eggs (unborn/unhatched) floating in the chicken soup
- Never my favorite but one shouldn’t overlook biallies.
- Huluptches (spelling?) stuffed cabbage
- Yes, tongue is kosher….
- chaluptches
- ..gefilte fish with wasabi
- Yes, Lekach – thanks for reminding me. I can hear my mother’s voice when I see the word!
- Prakas+stuffed cabbage
- “There is an interesting book called Recipes From Auschwitz by Dr. Alex Sternberg…
- it is basically a memoir, a story of his mother’s survival in the concentration camp, but included Hungarian recipes that the women discussed there to help keep them “”connected and alive”””
- where did stuffed cabbage originate from?
- what’s prakas?
- stuffed cabbage – very popular Polish dish, I’m guessing it’s Polish in origin, not sure
- Reminding me of my children’s favorite Chicken Soup made by their beloved grandfather, Sam called ” Sam’s Soup”made with lots of mashed carrots and love……
- dill was a key ingredient in soups by my Polish Jewish grandma
- Love Chulent!
- Sorry prakas ARE stuffed cabbage
- There’s a cucumber salad (with sour cream and vinegar and sugar?).My mother made it. Not sure what she called it. I re-discovered it when I stayed in Poland.
- it’s called mizeria in Polish, which can also mean a situation when things are not going well
- holubtsi (various spellings) or stuffed cabage.Often find it in Russian restaurants
- anything with sour cream seems Jewish to me.
- stuffed cabbage is said to originated in roumania there is called Halushka
- Garlic is manna from heaven
- Cholent comes from the French word for heat chaud.
- 97 Orchard is an interesting cultural read
- best ashkenazie cookbook?I received Ray Sokolov Jewish cookin.
- honey and apple
- matzo kugel; fried matzo
- Wise Sons Deli in SF just bought Beauty’s Bagels (Montreal style) in Oakland…a result of Covid closures.
- Lisa, the best advice is to cook it low and slow. I actually cook mine twice — and I put gravy in between each slice. (The second cook is at 200 degrees for at least 6 hours.)
- for fish hashana: kugel, brisket with leaves and plums, honey cake
- matzoh brie
- I highly recommend watching DELI MAN for a wonderful addition to this. (warning- eat first!)
- gefilte fish=quenelles in France!
- if you want more Jewish food info go to the Unorthodox podcast and look for their 100 Greatest Jewish Foods book.
- Schav is a sorrel soup.