ASHKENAZI CUISINE: IDENTITY, MEMORY, AND CULTURE

Guest Speakers:
 Leah Koenig, Michael W. Twitty, and Jeffrey Yoskowitz

September 9, 2020

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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.

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