I feel like I'm constantly ranting about how people always equate Jewish food with Eastern European food: matzoh balls and gefilte fish, bagel and lox. I didn't try matzoh ball soup until college, was introduced to lox at a weekend sleepover in elementary school (and thought it was really weird;
I've come around), and have yet to meet a gefilte fish I want to eat.
So, I wanted to share some photos from an event I participated in September. Having had so many "yes, I'm Jewish, and no, I never tried matzoh ball soup until college" conversations, I jumped at the chance to demo a traditional Iranian Jewish recipe at
A Taste of the East, a night welcoming Rosh Hashana -- the Jewish New Year, with flavors from The Middle East and Mediterranean. It was a night of dinner, music, and storytelling, all celebrating the culture of Sephardic Jews.
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| LISA GRISSOM |
I performed one of three demos of Sephardic Jewish food. Orly Olivier of
Petit Takett made Tunisian harissa, and Deborah Gorman of
Sorbabe made bourekas–Turkish-Greek cookies filled with ground walnuts and dipped in a sweet syrup. And I made
faloodeh sib–a refreshing combination of rosewater and shredded apples that is the traditional Yom Kippur fast-breaking food among Iranian Jews.
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| LISA GRISSOM |
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| LISA GRISSOM |
It was a great time. I'd never done anything like this before, but cooking and
chatting in an industrial kitchen with these ladies was a treat and an education, and sharing my family recipes with a warm, interested crowd, while being schooled on some foods that were new to me, felt wonderful.
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| NICOLE YOUNESI |
As people milled through the space, I stood at a table decorated with black and white photos of my grandparents and shredded apples against a box grater, and then added sugar, water, rosewater, and ice to perfectly balance the rosewater's intense aroma with just the right amount of sweet.
I had a couple friends, a few cousins, and my parents in attendance. I was really happy to have these familiar faces in the crowd when we arrived at the storytelling portion of the evening. I spoke about my uncle, a distinguished physician, affectionately known by his grandkids as "Lulu", who would leave Yom Kippur services at the synagogue early to go home and prepare
faloodeh sib for his family. I wasn't the only one tearing up as we remembered this sweet man.
Recalling old memories of food and family, as we make new ones with new friends. More of this, please.
Very interesting post, Tannaz jan. As a result of this post, I Googled a few things to learn more about the Jewish community. Is there a recipe that goes with this post? :)
ReplyDeleteFae jan, recipe will have to wait for the cookbook, but honestly it's pretty simple -- you can figure it out to your own taste with the description in the post. happy to answer any questions for you about your recent research =)
DeleteHi Tannaz,
ReplyDeletedo you bring all this to a boil or you just mix everything. Is it a hot thing or is it eaten cold?
Hello! No cooking at all. It just sits in the fridge (usually throughout the Yom Kippur day), and is eaten cold, over ice.
Delete