I don’t think Chen Kenichi would even think of offering up General Tso’s/Gao’s/Chow’s Chicken in his role as Iron Chef Chinese, but that didn’t stop me from trying out this new sauce when I spotted it at the Stoughton BJ’s. (The bottle I purchased is much larger than the one pictured to the right.)

This General Tso’s Sauce & Glaze will save you precious minutes during your at-home Iron Chef bouts, and it tastes pretty good, too. Even better, it lets you enjoy the sweet, tangy flavor of your favorite Gao at home with big chunks of white-meat chicken (recipe included on bottle) instead of the usual deep-fried masses of batter.

In fact, we enjoyed it tonight on chicken wings… broil your wings for about 10-15 minutes on each side (until brown) and toss with a generous helping of sauce. Sticky deliciousness best served with plenty of napkins.

Kashrut by Kof-K (pareve).

This kabbalah nonsense has consumed another scantily-clad victim — at least if Asia News International is to be believed. NewKerala.com reports that Madonna has influenced Britney Spears into adopting a kosher diet, which, according to the article, seems to revolve around such mystical cornerstones as “vegetable oil” and “avoid[ing] gelatine”.

The goals of online retailer David Brawer seem to go hand-in-hand with the Kosher Blog: “We feel that although kosher products are widely available in supermarkets throughout the country, in the gourmet specialty product area there is very little and sometimes nothing available. We are attempting to fill that void.”

Filling the void is KosherItalia.com, which we first “discovered” last month. A month later, they still offer authentic products (with strict Orthodox certification) direct from Italy, but they’ve made a big change — the website. Online ordering is now fully operational, and each item available on the site is accompanied by a short description which includes full kashrut information.

Mr. Brawer asserts KosherItalia.com’s prices “can rival their non-kosher counterparts.” So, to put this to the test, we visited Cheese.com for some comparison shopping. Interestingly, both sites use the same open-source e-commerce platform, so they’re quite similar in that regard; descriptions at Cheese.com are more detailed, and their “Product Metrics” section is very useful. As for prices:

Fontal/Fontina
KosherItalia: $6.89 - 9 oz. ($0.77/oz)
Cheese.com: $6.95 - 8.8 oz. ($0.79/oz)

Pecorino
KosherItalia: $8.79 - 10 oz. ($0.88/oz)
Cheese.com: $6.10 - 8 oz. ($0.76/oz)

Provolone
KosherItalia: $6.49 - 8 oz. ($0.81/oz)
Cheese.com: $5.32 - 10 oz. ($0.53/oz)

By and large, all prices are competitive — that last comparison isn’t entirely fair, as Cheese.com’s offering is made in the US, not Italy.

But what about the important part — taste? Fortunately, we were sent samples of four cheeses — Fontal, Italico, Provolone, and Grana Padano — which arrived cold from thorough packing with styrofoam and a reusable ice pack. The short answer: each cheese was delicious. To taste, I was joined by two friends, Chaim and Kevin (the bona-fide treyf-eye to serve as “control”).

The Provolone (unsmoked) is the first kosher Provolone I’ve ever liked (The Good Life’s “Aged Provolone” was terrible), with a smooth, firm texture and full flavor. We enjoyed eating it in chunks and on crackers, but it would also serve well sliced thin on a sandwich. Kevin noted that on the grand scale of Provolones, it was on the mild side.

The Italico, an ivory-colored cheese with a thin whitish rind, was quite soft and had a delicate flavor.

The Fontal was a bit softer than the Italico (spreadable when room-temp) and had a much more pronounced flavor — Kevin’s favorite. I thought it was like a strong Brie — very nutty, earthy. The very soft red rind had an even stronger flavor, but we found it to be enjoyable. Though Cheese.com equates Fontal with Fontina, this cheese is entirely different animal.

Grana Padano was probably Chaim’s favorite — he happily ate large chunks of this hard cheese which is akin to Parmesean. True to the description, we found it crumbly and well-suited to sit atop pasta or salad, or, like Chaim, eat in chunks with a good wine.

I also had a chance, a few weeks ago, to try some of KosherItalia’s other products, which were available locally at the Butcherie. Their gnocchi, a fun alternative to pasta, was tasty and easy to prepare — altogether equivalent to Bartenura’s gnocchi product. Their vacuum-packed mixed olives were fragrant and flavorful, but I thought they were much too soft (perhaps they were sitting on the shelf too long, presumably not a problem if purchased direct from KI.com).

All in all, KosherItalia is a great addition to the limited number of kosher gourmet outlets, and will be even better as they add new products to their selcetion — roasted peppers and other vegetables, Gorgonzola cheese, and Italian tuna in olive oil are in the works.

As with any site that sells perishables, the shipping rates can be daunting — but the quality of the products certainly won’t let you down. Just get those orders in before sundown Friday — the site actually closes during Shabbat and reopens shortly after nightfall on Saturday.

Some final suggestions:
* Bigger product pictures (and more of them)
* Detailed shipping information should be available before checking out
* Italian salamis, cheese-stuffed cherry peppers, and aged balsamic vinegar would be wonderful, if there are any kosher sources available
* Keep working on the layout, it’s getting better! Some of the colors clash on my screen.
* Fix the broken “osCommerce” image on the bottom.

During my weekly visit to the Butcherie this morning, I discovered the arrival of Sugar River Cheeses to Boston.

At least four varieties are on sale (White Cheddar/Chipotle, Monterey Jack/Tomato/Olive, Monterey Jack/Jalapeno/Cilantro, Prairie Jack/Green Peppercorns). I purchased the Chipotle and Tomato/Olive varieties. Both are delicious.

The cheddar is creamy and the chipotle flavor, which can be seen threaded throughout the cheese, is just right — slightly smokey and slightly spicy.

The jack is rich and crumbly, with intense flavor from flecks of sun-dried tomato and black olives.

At $4.99 per 8 oz. block it may be a dollar more expensive than your usual kosher Cheddar or Monterey Jack, but it’s certainly worth it.

If you ever decide to fork out the dough for some kosher Foie Gras, it may be useful to know that the French Delice brand (glatt, OU) is fully cooked (as is appropriate for liver) and ready to eat out of the container. Thanks to the OU’s Webbe Rebbe for the info.

Though the British government has already abandoned the absurd possibility of completely banning Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter, the site at ShechitaUK.org still remains a valuable resource in explaining the methods of shechita. Worth a read.

When it came to picking a belated honeymoon destination, we opened up our atlas and said, “Okay, where can we eat?” We toyed with France and Italy briefly, but after the erruption of antisemitism across Europe, we removed them from our list. We thought about the Caribbean briefly, but our culinary options would have been severely limited (though the head chef of the St. Thomas Ritz-Carlton indicated it would not be a problem for them to fly-in Kosher food from Miami).

In the end, we decided the natural choice would be Israel, where our culinary options would be wide and our travel dollars would be most beneficial. Next month, we’ll be staying oceanside in Tel Aviv for a week, then with friends in Alon Shvut for Shabbat.

Our only concern is that neither of us have been to Israel except on organized trips. We’re not really sure of how to get around and what we should do on our own. Currently on our list: soak up the sun on the beach, and eat at nice restaurants.

As for the restaurants, the Jerusalem Post has had a few decent reviews of Kosher places (I couldn’t find any Kosher reviews at the Haaretz site). eLuna.com’s Kosher focus has been quite useful, though I’m not sure how up-to-date their information is.

That said, can anyone recommend:

* great Kosher dining in/near Tel Aviv?
* interesting things to do/visit that aren’t the typical teen-summer-in-the-holy-land stuff?

In exchange, I’ll gladly post on our experiences when we return.

I was at the Brighton Stop & Shop on Wednesday night, about to buy a bagful of green beans, our usual Shabbos vegetable, when I spotted the neatest new fresh vegetable product from the Los Angeles Salad Company: microwave-in-bag baby green zucchini (6 servings) and baby carrots (2.5 servings). They come washed and trimmed — all you do is snip off a corner of the microwaveable plastic bag and zap for two minutes. Voila, delicious minature vegetables the likes of which show up in the fanciest of catered meals.

At $3.99 per 12 oz. bag, it’s a pricier than adult-sized alternatives, but for ease and presentation, they can’t be beat.

Kashrut supervision by KSA.

I have not been a big consumer of dessert wines, and had not tried a Port previously, but was alerted before Pesach that the Dalton Admon Port was worth trying. We had it over Pesach, with a fairly large group, some of whom appreciated good wine, others who were more “blue bottle” and equivalent drinkers. We all really enjoyed the Port. I’d be interested in hearing from other members whether they have tried it and if they liked it. At the Teaneck Wine Celler, it was running about $12 on pre-pesach sale, probably about $15-$17 now.

Avi

The great wine debate has spilled over to Strat’s Place, with some interesting perspectives and more commentary by industry heavy-hitters Welner and Winchell.

While shopping at the Brighton Mills Shaw’s yesterday, I noticed in their expansive Kosher section a bottle of Paesana aged balsamic vinegar. All the many Paesana products I’ve used in the past have been hekshered, so I didn’t bother to look at this bottle.

When I got home, I noticed that it did not have a heksher, and after reviewing the product description at the online Paesana store, I discovered that is indeed not kosher. I’ve sent an e-mail to Shaw’s regarding the vinegar, and hopefully they’ll rectify the situation.

According to this article in “tomorrow’s” Forward (for some reason it’s dated May 7), all Empire products have been removed from Trader Joe’s markets in five west-coast states, and replaced with Aaron’s Rubashkin poultry.

The Forward reports that TJ employees indicated Empire products were often spoiled, inaccurately weighed, and not consistently available.

TJ’s VP of Marketing says they have no plans to “reinstate Empire” … Empire’s CEO thinks the shut-out is only “temporary.” As for me, I’ll be extra careful when I pick up boneless chicken breasts in the Coolidge Corner Trader Joe’s tonight.

This incident just happens to coincide with my recent sighting of Vineland poultry products at the local Shaw’s. I picked up a decent-sized roasting chicken at a competitive price, so at our next big Shabbos dinner, I’ll do a side-by-side comparison with an Empire hen. The “feather factor” is my biggest concern… I can’t stand Empire’s feathers.

UPDATE 5/10/04: Our friends at the Kosher Nexus admonish Empire in light of the scale scandal.

From the Money Saving Tips Dept.: So you don’t waste an entire half-gallon carton of soy milk when your favorite pareve recipe calls for half-a-cup of it, buy convenient juice-box-size 3-packs. Our local Shaw’s has several appropriately-sized products in its earthy-crunchy organic section. Eden Soy may be the only pareve brand in this size, so watch out — “Dairy Equipment” products (like Silk) may not be eaten or cooked with meat products, though they may be eaten immediately after meat meals.