Kosher Blog

Direct wine shipments in MA now legal

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that states cannot discriminate between in-state and out-of-state purveyors when regulating direct shipment of wine to consumers. What this means for us in the Bay State is that our legislators can no longer prevent us from buying wine online from out-of-state sellers.

Naturally, this is good news — for now. Many of our legislators and other critics of the ruling profess a desire to protect our children by prohibiting direct shipment of alcohol: “direct wine sales will open the floodgates to minors obtaining wine over the Internet.” Utter nonsense. A minor would have to be pretty enterprising to both unlawfully acquire a credit card, make an online purchase, and receive the delivery at home without a parent noticing. Even were such an occurrence commonplace, as the critics insist it is, there’s a simple solution which wouldn’t penalize those of us who would legally and responsibly buy spirits online: require shippers to obtain a signature from someone who is over 21 years of age. Both UPS and FedEx offer adult signature options, and other shippers would doubtless add the service after such legislation was enacted.

The real issue at stake for our local governments, though, is tax revenue. They simply can’t tax wine sales as effectively (or at all) if you buy it out-of-state. Sure, Massachusetts has a “use tax” that is theoretically assessed on all out-of-state purchases to be used in-state, but have you ever paid your share of use tax?

So, enjoy your wine cautiously — but get ready to write your representatives should the need arise.

Atlanta Falcons go kosher

Fans of the Atlanta Falcons will be able to enjoy glatt kosher hot dogs next season at the Georgia Dome, according to this week’s Kosher Today update and originally reported in the Atlanta Jewish Times. Thanks to fan David Lubin, MGR Food Services has “agreed to create a cart serving Abels & Heyman hot dogs” and will be staffed by non-profit groups that will earn cash from their sales revenues.

According to the article:

The Atlanta Kashruth Commission (AKC) will oversee the operation of the cart and will approve whomever is designated to staff it. The cart will be in operation at all home games, as long as they do not conflict with Shabbat or Jewish holidays. The gate location of the cart will be announced before the start of the season.

To volunteer your organization, contact Mr. Lubin at (404) 597-5016.

Isn’t it about time we gave Bob Kraft some flack for not offering kosher food at Gillette Stadium? After all, several area synagogues already volunteer their time manning concession stands to raise money. Use this form to e-mail the Patriots front office and politely ask that they consider a kosher concession stand. Feel free to cite the recent news in Atlanta.

Discount on Cabot’s OU cheddar ends Monday

Cabot’s introductory discount on OU-certified Sharp Cheddar ends Monday, according to an e-mail from Clay Whitney at Cabot:

The introductory sale is ending this Monday, May 16th, but this great new item will continue to be available through the Cabot website at www.shopcabot.com (under Waxless Cheddar on the left hand bar).

…

The results so far have been good, and we are continuing to review the response.
If there is a kosher market in your area that might be interested in carrying the Cabot OU Kosher Sharp Cheddar, please ask them to contact me at the web address or phone number below, or I would be happy to contact them if you give me their phone number.

Cabot’s contact information:
• 802-371-1246
• www.shopcabot.com

Queer Eye, Brandeis, and Pareve Tiramisu

KBlog afficionado Dan informs us of the May 8 episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Girl which featured fellow Brandeis ‘02 alumni Lauren and Lex Friedman. The personal transformation and home improvements were great, but, as usual, this blog is most interested in the episode’s recipe — a kosher, non-dairy tiramisu. Of course, any Hebrew scholars in the audience know that the word “tiramisu” is (could be?) a linguistic corruption of the phrase “you should fear it” — and the recipe posted on Bravo’s website confirms that translation.

In fact, the show’s recipe is entirely bogus. They completely neglect to share what quantities to use of half the ingredients. I’d suggest screwing Bravo’s version and using the pareve Tiramisu recipe from Levana’s Table (e-mail the blog if you’d like it).

But Dan asks a couple poignant questions: where to find pareve lady fingers and kosher Kahlua. We’ve purchased Paskesz lady fingers from the Butcherie, but they were crispy/crunchy rather than cake-like. If you have a pastry bag around, they’re not too hard to make using Fanny Farmer’s 1918 recipe or this more recent rendition. Try asking at your local kosher market first, or cut strips of sponge cake and toast in the oven them until slightly brown as a quick substitute.

As for Kahlua, I’m told you can still get the hekshered liqueur in Mexico, but I don’t have the full scoop. There are worthy replacements, though, such as Yikvei Zion Kava Coffee Liqueur available from Queen Anne Wine or Carmel Azmara Coffee Liqueur available from Kosher.com.

Diet Coke with Splenda

You probably think you’re drinking new Diet Coke with Splenda, but if you’re a devoted TAB drinker like me, you know the truth… it’s TAB’s robust flavor without traditional sweeteners aspartame and saccharin. Of course, I love that it’s now, once again, hip to drink TAB, albeit in a surreptious modern “Diet Coke” container.

Only question is: will this go the way of other fad flavors, or will Coke do the smart thing and abandon aspartame/Nutrasweet altogether in favor of sucralose/Splenda?

New Layout

I’ve updated the layout quite a bit to maximize the use of horizontal space, and bring more sidebar content “above the fold.” It’s been tested on a Windows XP machine with both Firefox 1.0.3 and IE 6. Comments welcome.

UPDATE: I’ve been informed of a buggy view in Internet Explorer (observed on a WinXP Pro box with IE 6). When viewing a posting in detail, the left side of the content spills off the side of the browser window. Though I will work to fix the issue, this problem does not exist in Firefox, so consider switching!

UPDATE: A report of problems in the Safari browser; title bar doesn’t fill entire width of display. Testing fixes.

Ruth’s Kitchen Renovations

The glass front of Ruth’s Kitchen (401 Harvard St., Brookline) has been completely torn away and boarded up a couple feet back. Has anyone heard about what they’re up to? Almost looks like they’re creating a cafe area outside the store.

Recent kosher articles at Ynetnews

A couple recent articles at Ynetnews should be of interest to the kosher community. The first, “The rabbi and the antelope”, briefly discusses the religious, diplomatic, and economic efforts behind Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar’s ruling on the kosher status of African antelope. The second, “Empire strikes back”, is an interview with Empire Poultry CEO Robert Van Naarden.

Sweet Satisfaction closing

We received word last week (sorry for the delay) that Sweet Satisfaction (318 Harvard St., Brookline) will be closing at the end of the month. Starting tomorrow, all products (including fixtures and equipment) will be going on sale.

Emily, the owner, hopes to “get a website up and running within the next year that will focus on specialty products.”

Choosing Frum Appliances

My wife and I closed on a condominium this week, and given the scheduling of the purchase and length of our current lease, we’ll have a couple months to get the new place in shape before we move. Given my affinity for the kitchen, we’ll be replacing some of the appliances. I started by consulting the Star-K appliance guide, and visiting each manufacturer’s website to collect information on their approved models. I laid the data out in an Excel spreadsheet for easy comparison. Here’s what we’ve chosen so far:

OVENS
The kitchen has an existing electric oven and microwave built into a 27″-wide wall space, but the oven is of a certain, older ilk that does not make wise use of its overall volume. The insulation around the oven cavity is substantial, and thus, the interior cooking dimensions are quite small. Luckily, manufacturers are doing good things with 27″ wall ovens these days, and offer substantially more cubic feet of interior volume.

Because all major U.S. manufacturers offer “Sabbath” modes in select models, our search is a bit easier, though Sabbath-compliant features vary from brand to brand. The Sabbath mode will typically disable any automatic 12-hour shut-off; disable beeps, digital displays, and interior lights; and sometimes allow the temperature to be changed indiscriminately on yom tov. On models with that last feature, it’s quite preferable to have a numeric panel to punch in temperatures (3-2-5) rather than a dial or up/down arrows that leave you guessing what the temperature is. (Certainly, over the course of the year, we don’t do an incredible amount of cooking on yom tov, so it’s not such a big deal.)

With plenty of religiously-sensitive models out there, we’re mainly left to choose from plenty of other nifty features that vary from one model to the next, like fully extendable racks (Dacor), temperature-probe cooking (Dacor, GE), convection (all brands, some models), self-cleaning cycle (all brands, most models), hidden bottom heat elements (most brands), and more.

In terms of our priorities, we definitely want a self-cleaning model, convection would be ideal, color isn’t so important, and temperature-probe cooking might be nice. Oh, and price: the simplest double-oven models (sans accouterments) start at around $1,300 MSRP and climb considerably higher, but actual retail prices can be much lower than MSRP depending on a variety of factors.

With all this in mind, and our spreadsheet in front of us, we quickly settled on the Frigidaire GLEB27T9DB. It has convection in both ovens, a numeric input panel, self-cleaning, and a bevy of other features. The Sabbath mode on this model is such that the temperature may be changed at any time on yom tov. Its MSRP is $1,749, but a Boston-area appliance supplier gave us a price of $1,249.

Wanting to see one in person, we visited our local EXPO Design Center, where we were told that they no longer carry Frigidaire products because they’re the “Yugo” of the appliance industry: less expensive, but poor quality. Dejected and confused, I decided to consult my parents on their recent appliance purchases. Turns out they have Frigidaire ovens, a Frigidaire cooktop, and a Frigidaire fridge, and they’re very happy with each of them.

Choice made!

COOKTOP
This choice was much easier, because I have peculiar tastes. The kitchen already has a perfectly useable five-burner gas cooktop, but since the condo has no porch or other outdoor space suitable for grilling, I really wanted a cooktop with a grill. And Dacor makes the perfect product. Four burners and a 10,000 BTU gas grill all in one, model SGM464GG. The Star-K approval was reassuring, and as a further nod to proper kosher use, Dacor sells a stainless-steel cover for when the grill is not in use to prevent dairy splashes from treyfing up the fleishig surface. The cooktop retails for about $1,200; nothing to sneeze at, but much cheaper than the “commercial-style” burner/grill combinations from Viking and Wolf. Plus, if we sells our existing appliances through the Want-Ads or Craig’s List, we can recoup some of the expenditures.

DISHWASHER
No research done yet. Recommendations welcome.