Here are few interesting pieces that came over the ticker in the last week or so…

A FISHY TRADITION
The Forward expounds on the Rosh Hashana minhag to eat fish heads. There are at least two Yiddish holiday food traditions they missed, which is surprising, as the Forward began as a Yiddish daily. 1) Carrots. In Yiddish, they’re called “mer’n,” which also happens to be the verb “to increase,” i.e. the wish to be fruitful and such. 2) Cabbage Soup. The Hoshana Raba liturgy makes frequent mention of “kol mevaser,” or “proclaiming voice,” which sounds an awful lot like “kohl mit vasser,” or cabbage with water.

HAWAII GETS A KOSHER DELI & CATERER
From Chabad.org, we learn of Yudi’s Deli, a new restaurant & caterer on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

TOFUTTI SOUR SUPREME TO DITCH THE TRANS FATS
Vegetarian Belly reviews Tofutti’s sour cream substitute and reports that they’ll be ditching the partially hydrogenated nonsense sometime soon.

NATIONALIST UKRAINIAN PARTY DEMANDS BOYCOTT OF KOSHER PRODUCTS
The thinking goes that kosher food supports Zionists who support Israel, and Israel is somehow trying to conquer Ukraine and destroy its economy. I’d recommend a counter-boycott of Ukrainian products, but I’ve never, ever seen one in this country. While these nuts frantically uninstall ICQ from their computers, I guess we’ll just avoid Ukraine’s “ferrous and nonferrous metals” or something.

SAN FRANCISCO TO LOSE KOSHER DELI
Deli owner can’t manage to keep business closed on Shabbat and still pay the bills, drops supervision.

GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF EXORBITANT MEAT PRICES
Apparently, AgriProcessors will put customers in touch with regional distributors for making bulk orders, with lots of money to be saved. Some of the 63 comments generated are worthwhile, if you skip past the vegetarianist rants.

WHEN IN ROME, ACT JEWISH
Ynetnews has a nice little travel guide for the kosher visitor to Rome, listing observance-accommodating accommodations and kosher restaurants (including delicious-looking non-dairy pizzas).

OH, THE CONVERSION IS COMPLIMENTARY
The Forward reports on a German beer called “Simcha” that’s kosher certified (which, by the way, is unnecessary) and is potentially connected to the local Jews for Jesus chapter (also completely unnecessary).

JUST TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME FIRST
Gary VAY-NER-CHUK samples three kosher wines — Pardess Reserve Merlot, Hevron Heights Syrah Reserve, and Covenant Napa Cabernet Sauvignon — in this spirited video chock full of … NFL predictions and hilarious wine descriptions.

More from Rabbi Avi Finegold. Cross-posted at jcarrot.org.

For many of you, having guests at a Shabbat meal means often juggling various dietary restrictions preferences that guests may bring to the table. Michael Pollan makes the interesting point that the French consider it improper to impose your diet onto your host, and yet how many of you can recall meals in which you were left with virtually nothing to eat as a result of your kashrut/vege- pesce- ovo- lacto- tarianism/ or any possible allergies. Peter Berley’s The Flexitarian Table may hopefully solve at least some of the issues.

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This has been a busy summer in the kosher cheese world — or, at least, in my kosher cheese world — as I’ve discovered two new brands of high-end cheese — Mainland and 5 Spoke Creamery.

For no particular reason — the wonderful smells, maybe — I often spend a few minutes dallying through the troves of specialty cheese whenever I get to my local Whole Foods. On one such expedition the most peculiar thing caught my eye — a heksher, and a legitimate one, no less! Of course, on further inspection, the OK heksher was the least extraordinary aspect of the product which caught my eye.

This particular mild cheddar was organic, made of milk culled from grass-fed cows, and imported from New Zealand. The grass-fed milk gives Mainland Organic Cheddar a more complex flavor than any other mild cheese I’ve tried — definitely worth including on your next cheese platter. (The steep price — $7.00 for eight ounces — might preclude you from enjoying it on a more frequent basis.)

Over at my local kosher market, new cheeses also popped up, with equally delightful credentials: these were made of hormone-free raw milk by an Amish farmer. (I can practically hear Garrison Keillor saying “Made by Norwegian bachelor farmers … so you know they’re pure, mostly.”) Well, “5 Spoke Creamery” presents us with three Kof-K certified, artisanal varieties — Red Vine Colby, Redmond Cheddar, and Herbal Jack — all with the complexity of flavor and superb texture one should expect of finer raw-milk cheeses.

They’re also on the pricey side, but I couldn’t help myself from devoting some to a decadent macaroni and cheese. After the jump, enjoy an excellent recipe I’ve adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

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Rabbi Avi Finegold recently visited the Zachlawi Arak factory in New Jersey to see their production run and hear about upcoming products. Here is his report.

Mordechai Kairey decided to produce arak, a fig-based liqueur also known as ma’hia (pronounced “mach-i-ya”), after obtaining a recipe from his former landlord, an elderly Sephardic man who used to make homebrew arak for his friends. Armed with this recipe, Kairey studied at the Ethanol Technology Institute and he was off. The main component of his arak is a concentrated fig juice that he distills to make a lightly fruit-flavored spirit, which is then distilled five times with a combination of fennel, anise seeds, and star anise — which he tells me was used in the arak made by the famed Abuchatzeira family. This is all cooked in a copper still. much like mash is cooked for scotch and bourbon.

To create a truly fine drink, one needs to have a good nose and palate. The first spirits off the still are called “heads” and are not of the same quality than the later spirits. A series of tastings determine at which point the right taste is achieved and bottling can begin.

This is definitely not your typical light aperitif. For those of you who have never had arak, know that it packs a serious punch. At 86-proof and above, this definitely qualifies as a serious alcoholic beverage, yet there is much less harshness than one would expect, and there is a definite fruitiness to it. This is enhanced even more in the Zachlawi “Fig” variety, a darker, richer and smoother option. While traditionally served straight up — when I asked Kairey how he thinks it should be drunk, he responded “With good friends!” — it can be served over ice, which turns the liquid a milky white, and I can easily imagine some great mixed drinks, if that’s your thing. Kairey also mentioned that he knows of people who use it as a marinade for chicken kabobs with excellent results.

So, what’s in the pipeline for Zachlawi? In the coming weeks, they will be releasing a kosher sambuca — an Italian-style anise liqueur — and shortly thereafter, they’ll have a pareve Irish Cream ready to be bottled. Longer-term plans include a caramel-apple liqueur to coincide with Rosh Hashana. Kairey also has a cask of arak aging in the factory — he has “no idea” what he’s going to do with it yet, but I imagine it will result in a much smoother and darker arak. (Though I would opt for a seasoned cask for such aging, kashrut issues likely preclude him from doing that).

Right now the product is only available in New Jersey and New York, though he hopes to be distributing throughout the northeast and other Jewish markets shortly. Visit his website at www.zachlawi.com for more information, and product updates.

As a bonus to Kosher Blog readers, I have a Zachlawi t-shirt ready to mail out to the first person who emails me at avi at avtherav dot com and tells me what “ma’hia” means.

Raspberry isn’t the first flavor that comes to mind when I think of Ben & Jerry’s, but it’s listed in the “Greatest Hits” chapter of their recipe book, so I figured I’d give it a whirl. I’m glad I did. This ice cream is delicious, creamy, and very fresh-tasting, with little juicy bits of berry throughout. And the raspberries came from the farmer’s market, so I get to use Blush again!

One thing I should mention about the Ben & Jerry’s book is that the recipes couldn’t be much easier. They’d never ask you do anything as complicated as tempering eggs or seeding berries. I’m okay with a few seeds, but I’m not comfortable feeding my guests raw eggs, so I substituted their egg-free sweet cream base for the one with eggs. If you’re willing to live on the edge, you can add two whole eggs and substitute one cup of milk for the half-and-half. Ice cream with eggs supposedly keeps better long term (not that I would know).

Since my raspberries were pretty mild, I also reduced the sugar from 1 1/2 cups to 1 cup, and I thought it was about right. Use your judgment.

Without further ado:

Raspberry Ice Cream

1 pint fresh raspberries
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
2/3 cup half-and-half

Combine the raspberries, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and the lemon juice in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

Pour the cream into a mixing bowl. Whisk in the remaining sugar, a little at time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the half-and-half and whisk to blend.

Drain the juice from the raspberries into the cream mixture and blend. Mash the raspberries and stir them into the cream mixture.

Transfer the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes a little over 1 quart.

(Cross-posted to Apikorsus.)

We foodies tend to get excited when summer comes around and farmer’s markets start popping up everywhere. Summer’s almost over, though, and so far, I’ve found very little at my local farmer’s markets that seemed blog-worthy. Maybe it’s because it’s been a drought year, or maybe I’ve been making lousy choices. Either way, most of the the produce I’ve picked up has been no better than what we get at the supermarket. A few times I bought “interesting” items, such as shungiku, which the sign at the market said was “good in stir-fries.” When I got home to my computer, I learned that shungiku is also known as “edible chrysanthemum,” and that’s what it tastes like — a flower. (Sorry, but eating flowers has never been my thing.)

Then, recently, the yield started to improve, culminating in this batch of heirloom tomatoes, which I bought on Monday:

They were a mixed bag, but the good ones were very good. As I collected the tomatoes at the market, I scribbled down their names with little descriptions (such as “big bumpy red”); if my notes are accurate, the ones in the picture are (from top, left): Green Zebra, Black Plum, Red Zebra, Speckled Roman, Brandywine, Pineapple, and Costoluto Genovese. The Speckled Roman was decidedly the sweetest and most flavorful (though this probably has more to do with the individual crop and even the particular tomato I selected than the cultivar). The Black Plum and Green Zebra tomatoes were also very good. In general, the greener tomatoes were crisper and easier to slice, but otherwise they tasted very similar to the red ones.

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As Team KosherBlog prepares for the ASBEE/Kroger BBQ competition, I felt obligated to share this picture with you:

Let’s all practice our best Homer Simpson impression together - “Mmmm, Brisket” [drool, drool, drool]. That is the best looking brisket I have ever made.

Neil Rosenbaum, Kosher Blog reader and president of Kosher Community Surveys LLC, has published the results of the 2007 Boston Kosher Survey (PDF). No big surprises among the top scorers — Milk Street Cafe, Cheryl Ann’s, Stop & Shop bakeries, Gordon & Alperin — but the detailed written summaries should be very helpful for store owners looking to improve, and are an enjoyable read for the rest of us.

Here’s a big thank you to Neil for keeping up with these surveys — always a professional job!

I just received my registration packet for the 19th Annual ASBEE/Kroger Kosher BBQ Contest & Festival in Memphis, Tennessee. If you plan on being in the Memphis area for the weekend of October 21st, 2007, come out and cheer on team Kosherblog! (For now that’s just me and Jabbett, so we’ll need all the support we can get!) Teams can compete for Best Brisket, Best Ribs and Best BBQ Beans.

If you’d like to enter a team of your own, here are the parts of the registration packet:

• BBQ Team Manual (483K, PDF)
• Kosher Ingredient Pre-order Form (58K, PDF)
• Registration Form (41K, PDF)

Do two northerners (I won’t call us Yankees, out of respect for Jabbett’s sports loyalties) stand a chance, cooking BBQ in one of the BBQ capitals of the country? Stay tuned, and find out…