OU Kosher Essay Contest for Grades 4-12
I like getting the word out there about Kosher contests. In this case it’s not a cooking contest, but a writing contest. The Second Annual OU Kosher Essay Contest is now open to students of grades 4-12:
Among the suggested topics in the essay contest are: describing your favorite OU certified candy, snack, food or drink; how eating kosher makes you feel better about being Jewish; writing a letter to a non-observant friend about keeping kosher; describing the kosher experience of walking the supermarket aisle; and how someone stranded in Montana can eat while keeping kosher. Applicants can also make up their own topic. Prizes will be $50 gift certificates to Eichlers.com, a leading Judaica website.
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Other topics that would be interesting include: how to pack a Kosher lunch to take to school and how to eat Kosher at your favorite fast food restaurant.
How to eat kosher at your favourite fast food restaurant? Apart from picking a kosher place to be ones favourite, how would one do that? At what common fast food chain is there *anything* one could eat?
Since many fast food places now offer salads, I’m guessing that’s the most likely option for many/most kosher keepers.
Hmm… let me put my nostradamus hat on and see where this thread is going.
Incidentally, my nostradumus hat: highly sparkly.
just to note (so howard would be happy). Besides for issues of “charif” (i.e. not a good idea to get a salad w/ chopped onions in it), there’s an issue of bugs. Then again, my gut tells me that those who eat salad out, also ignore the issue of bugs in their own home made salads.
When I go out w/ colleagues to a non kosher restaurant, all I get is water or a coke (beer would be an option too I guess, but not much of a beer drinker).
Finally… someone who considers my happiness. And it’s someone with a talking gut too! Awesome.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and posit that an orthodox, kosher certification agency wouldn’t be looking for essays on how to eat kosher in places that aren’t certified-kosher. The Montana suggestion was probably a push towards the topic of how many mainstream brands are actually kosher certified - oftentimes by the OU.
This isn’t a judgment of anyone’s food choices.
Simply put, The official stance of the OU is ‘don’t eat at any restaurant that isn’t kosher certified’. That stance should be taken into consideration when composing an essay.
(I knew I shouldn’t have left this thread open to comments.)
Actually, I’ve seen at reststops that there are fast food chains that have some packaged foods that are kosher certified. Pretty funny to see actually, McDonalds has a packaged danish with an O-U.
sp:
it’s quite easy to judge other people’s choices. when you go out with clients, you only have a drink. what about the glasses in which the drinks are served? even if they’re cold drinks, the glasses are being washed with plates on which non kosher foods were served. in addition, i feel it’s more important when eating out with clients that one order a food item, such as salad, and eat a bit from it. why make yourself the odd man out?
And Legal Seafoods packaged oyster crackers (my boss gets takeout of their chowder all the time) have an O-U too!
What I often times do at McDonald’s is order a Double Cheeseburger, without the cheese, and on and untoasted/unheated bun. Now how’s that for a gentile attempting to eat kosher from a fast food chain?