Kosher Blog

Kosher pastured poultry now available in Boston

Starting this month, Grow and Behold Foods will be offering its pastured chicken to customers in Boston, delivering to Hebrew College in Newton and Temple Emunah in Lexington on August 31. (Order by 6pm on Friday, August 27th.)

G&B’s pastured products are two to three times more expensive than industrial kosher poultry because it is produced with exceptional attention to kashrut, animal welfare, worker treatment, and sustainable agriculture. According to CEO Naftali Hanau:

Our poultry is produced under the supervision of the OU and the USDA. These chickens are the real deal: they are raised to our exacting specifications by Amish farmers, who move them daily to ensure that they eat from a fresh salad bar of growing pasture. Their diet is supplemented by a small amount of GMO-free grain. None of our meat is ever given hormones or antibiotics. You’ve never had chicken this good before!

The fact that a properly raised and processed chicken costs this much has forced me to reflect on just how much meat my family eats. Decades of artificially lowered meat prices in America have caused consumption to reach unhealthy and unsustainable levels—and the kosher community has not been exempt. I would bet that if families calculated how much they spend annually on meat, and instead used that amount to purchase Grow and Behold products, they would be more satisfied (by the higher meat quality) and far healthier (from lower overall consumption).

It’s not an easy step to take, especially since cultural expectations for lavish Shabbat and holiday meals push people to excess. It’s not even a step I’m fully prepared to take just now. But it’s important to start thinking about what and how much we consume. Without adopting sustainable practices in our homes, we can’t expect the meat industry to follow suit.

Here are all the details about Boston delivery:

Chicken will be delivered frozen. If there is enough interest, we will make regular deliveries to the Boston area. Please let us know – info@growandbehold.com if you’d be interested in ordering fresh or frozen chicken throughout the fall! There is no minimum order. Order only the cuts and quantities you want! Orders over $75 will receive 10% off. Enter the coupon code ROSH10. A small delivery fee of $7 will be added to your order to cover the cost of getting the chicken to you.

Brookline’s new butcher: Grape Leaves

Well, “Grape Leaves – Gourmet Glatt” to be complete. The Naggars took inspiration from all the submissions and came up with a name they felt best fit their store’s offerings – Grape Leaves being related to wine, meat (dolmades), and cheese (accompaniment to wine).

Read all the details and see some photos over at Brookline’s newest source for online news, Brookline Patch.

Thank you to all the participants and voters. We will be in touch with all participants about prizes.

Rami’s 20th Anniversary Party

Haim over at Rami’s just contacted us with the news:

I wanted to let you know that on Sunday, June 6, we will be hosting our official 20-year anniversary party. We have taken over the back parking lot and will be having music and outdoor seating!

Also throughout the week (until June 7), we will be offering falafel sandwiches for only $5.99, including a medium soda!

Update on Brookline Butcher

EXCLUSIVE TO THE KOSHER BLOG

After yesterday’s post about a hearing scheduled for a new butcher shop on Harvard Street, Brookline Butcher owner Morris Naggar (a lifelong Brookline resident) contacted the Kosher Blog with details.

He hopes to open in a month or two as strictly glatt-kosher gourmet shop, offering fine wines, exotic beers, and an old-fashioned butcher.

It sounds like aesthetics will also be a priority: they are restoring the space’s original hardwood floors and tin ceiling.

Says Naggar, “We are fulfilling a real need in Brookline and Brighton. The next goal would be a kosher steakhouse for Boston (a la Le Marais).”

Sounds delicious to us.

New “Brookline Butcher” on its way?

This public notice appeared in a recent issue of the Brookline Tab:

Notice is hereby given under Chapter 138 of the General Laws that Brookline Butcher, Inc., d/b/a/ Brookline Butcher, Morris Naggar, Manager, Owner, has applied for a license to Expose, Keep For Sale and Sell Wine and Malt Beverages as a Retail Package Goods Store at 414 Harvard Street. Premises consisting of approximately 58′6″ x 17′10″ sq. ft., first floor retail store. Exits in front and rear of store.

Hearing to be held in the Selectmen’s Hearing Room, 6th floor, Town Hall 333 Washington Street, Brookline, Massachusetts on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 8:40 P.M.

The location formerly housed the Audio Studio, adjacent to Israel Book Shop and steps from the Butcherie.

Specialty Provisions: All new for 2010

It’s been a few years since we last formally checked in with Specialty Provisions, and a lot has changed.

They’ve moved from Malden to Newmarket Square, the heart of food distribution in Boston. The new location boasts a USDA- and HAACP-certified meat-cutting facility, and expansive refrigerated and freezer rooms.

With USDA certification, Specialty Provisions can pack their own retail cuts of beef, veal, lamb, and poultry and distribute them throughout New England, across the country, and internationally. This new retail line supplements their familiar bulk options, which are still available. New products have been added specifically to help synagogues and other Jewish organizations save money by catering events in-house — items like gefilte fish, oversized challahs, herring, smoked salmon, ready-made kugels, frozen hors d’oeuvres, and high-end pareve cakes.

This week, Specialty Provisions has announced even more good news — a 10% discount on all products, and they will now provide inexpensive home delivery for customers in all locations.

I had the pleasure of visiting Specialty Provisions recently to retrieve an order. The frozen meats I ordered — quartered chickens ($2.49/lb), lamb chops ($9.99/lb), and veal chops ($12.99/lb), veal bones ($2.59/lb), cross-cut short ribs ($7.99/lb), London broil ($8.99/lb) — were all thoroughly vacuum sealed and boxed neatly for transport. The two-pound package of smoked salmon ($11.49/lb) also came frozen, standard for commonly available salmon products — upon serving, the slices were large, distinct, and tasty. Specialty Provisions also carries fresh fish now — I received four generous haddock fillets ($5.50/lb), cut to order under supervision, and packed in a convenient reusable plastic box.

Check the online order form for their entire product line.

If you’ve been hesitant to try Specialty Provisions, or it’s been a while since you last ordered, now is a fantastic time to give them a shot.

Specialty Provisions
Supervision: R’ Dovid Moskowitz, Congregation Chai Odom, Brookline, MA
Phone: 617-455-8384
E-mail: orders@specialtyprovisions.com
Warehouse location: 124 Newmarket Square, Boston, MA 02118

Mosaica · Vauxhall, NJ

In the last year, my colleagues have managed to discover some great food in our office environs in Boston and Cambridge: from Vietnamese sandwiches in a Chinatown dating service office, to chickpea fritters in Kendall Square’s dirt-cheap food trucks, to the freshest $7 vegan lunch at the Buddhist center in Central Square.

Having been witness to great food in offbeat places, I had no qualms with the unconventional location of Mosaica, tucked into the ubiquitously suburban Millburn Mall in Vauxhall, New Jersey. Once inside, the Staples and Walgreens stores fade away, and you feel as if you’ve entered owner Michelle Toledano’s personal dining room. His decor is comfortable but classy, the 40-person-capacity room cozy and quiet.

It’s a fitting backdrop for chef Moses Wendel’s cuisine: each dish possessing a Moroccan soul but taken to a stylish level with ample French influence. We were given a few moments to review their menu before it was spirited away and the tasting menu experience began.

We were first presented with a lentil soup, featuring a perfectly hard-cooked egg. I powered through the overly exuberant cilantro and enjoyed the soup; it was well spiced, but tame. Personally, I would have appreciated some kick — hot sauce served on the side for adventurous diners would be welcome.

Our fish course was unexpectedly delightful: fresh sardines, dusted with fennel, and served atop a salad of roasted tomatoes, eggplant, and basil. The accompanying sauce paired well, but we were at a loss to identify its contents.

Next, individual tagine dishes appeared, and the lids came off to reveal not a braised preparation, but instead crispy sweetbreads, light and juicy, with an equally crisp salad of celeriac, shaved fennel, tomato, and pine nuts.

Our appetites thoroughly whetted, we ventured into duck territory. A slice of perfectly seared duck breast (crisp skin, rare meat) accompanied roasted figs, a silky arak-infused sauce, almond-potato puree and olive tapenade. The intellectual stimulation of these highly disparate flavors gave way to a giddy emotional response once I combined them into harmonious mouthfuls– rich fat complementing licorice and almonds, sweet figs complementing olives. A consummate professional, I resisted licking my plate.

To conclude the savory courses, our group of three was presented with lamb tagine, served family style in a roasted pumpkin alongside a dish of spiced couscous. By this point, I futilely wished the lentil soup had been much smaller; I could manage only a small portion of this exquisite lamb, braised slowly with prunes, Moroccan spices, sunchokes, and pistachios. (With the experience still fresh in my memory, I prepared Gourmet Magazine’s take on the dish a week later to satisfy my heightened desire.) Rest assured, my companions polished off what I couldn’t.

Fortunately, there’s a separate compartment for dessert. The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports that Chef Wendel was previously a pastry chef; his talents are put to fine use in Mosaica’s desserts. The chocolate souffle is a nod to the now commonplace Manhattan kosher dessert, and doubtless there to please more conventional diners. (The peanut brittle ice cream and caramel sauce help it stand out from the pack.)

The real star was their interpretation of a plum clafoutis, paired with orange spice ice cream.

The financier with lemon curd was also well-suited to the French/Morrocan menu; a nice option for a lighter dessert.

I was delighted to have enjoyed a menu full of things I doubt I’d have ordered individually. I put my meal in Mosaica’s hands, and they responded admirably. (At $60 per person, the tasting menu was also a good value.)

I’m already finding excuses for another trip to New Jersey.

Mosaica
2933 Vauxhall Road, Vauxhall, NJ
mosaicakosher.com
(908) 206-9911

See all the photos from Mosaica on Flickr

Sushi @ Cafe Eilat, Brookline

Cafe Eilat (406 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA) began serving sushi several weeks ago, and I’ve had the opportunity to try it twice. Both times, fortunately, I’ve been pleased.

The tuna avocado roll (pictured above) tasted very fresh, with ample contents, and plenty of wasabi and pickled ginger alongside. My only minor culinary complaint is that the rice could be seasoned a bit more heavily — the roll risks tasting bland without some sweet acidity from the rice.

I will say that the price was a touch off-putting: $7.49 for the above roll. Non-kosher prices for tuna maki in the area range from $3.50 – $6; restaurants with serious ambiance command $6-$8. (Ingredients alone should not cost more than $3/roll.)

In all, it’s great to have kosher sushi in Brookline once again. I’m happy to enjoy a roll or two each week, despite the price. (For a crowd, I’d still be tempted to make it myself.)

Sushi is available on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturday nights, and Sundays.

Gordon & Alperin kosher again!

A dark time in Boston kashrus — marked by the absence of a full-service glatt kosher butcher — has come to a close, and right in time for the holidays.

Today, the Va’ad Harabonim of Massachusetts announced that Gordon & Alperin (543 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, MA) is under their supervision as of September 2, 2009. A message from the Young Israel of Brookline further stated that Gordon & Alperin has a mashgiach temidi and all meat is glatt.

My long-weekend barbecue plans just got tastier!

Happy Birthday Pomegranate Supermarket

I just received this press-release, about the birthday celebrations for Pomegranate Supermarket in Brooklyn, NY. Sounds like a party!:

WHAT: From 9:00am – 10:00pm on Wednesday August 19th, the gourmet kosher store known as POMEGRANATE will celebrate its first anniversary on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn with a host of special events for kids and adults alike.

WHEN: Wednesday, AUGUST 19 ( 9:00 AM – 10:00 PM)

WHERE: 1507 Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 718-951-7112

EVENT LINE UP:

• First 1,000 customers will receive a gift valued at $10.00; Clown with balloons for kids
• Anyone who makes a $50.00 purchase is eligible to win the grand prize of two round trip tickets to Israel
• Tastings & Samplings all day from bakery, deli, take-out and all departments
• Anyone celebrating a birthday on Aug 19th receives a $100 Pomegranate Gift card
• 4:00 PM- Community VIP’s
• Assemblyman Alan Maisel
• Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz
• Borough President Marty Markowitz
• Councilman Michael Nelson
• To be confirmed: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson
• 7:00 PM – Ventriloquist Show
• 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM – Country Yossi Live Radio Broadcast/webcast from Pomegranate featuring singers, entertainers, interviews with customers & more
• 10:00 PM- Grand Prize winners announced