There’s a bagel in all of us
The best bagels are so much more than pieces of bread. For me, a solid bagel is an experience. A memory of cultural musings, the celebration of which, honors its centuries in existence with every…
Passover Cake You Can Eat All Year
I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a food restriction. Scratch that, I totally can. I did the Ideal Protein diet a few years ago and lost 40 lbs in three months eating only…
Vegetable Kugel with Matzah
When I think of Passover I think of two things: my stepmother’s guest list and vegetable kugel with matzah. For years my stepmother has been channeling her mother (Grandma Shirley) who was notorious for opening…
Honeymoon Israel “It’s Good for the Jews”
We’ve all been there. Three hours of high holiday services, your neck is starting to stiffen and you’re slumped in your seat in hope it will make it easier to nod off discretely when the…
Motion Sickness
Part 1 of 4 Part 1: Motion Sickness Part 2: “Jew eat?…No. Jew?” Part 3: So Gay Sorbet with Grandma Shirley Part 4: Adulthood Begins: The UCLA Dorms “Life lesson: The past will never change…
Ancestral Food Crawl through the Lower East Side
The humidity of that September Manhattan afternoon was unbearable in the subway. So thick was the air steeped with body odor and piss that I practically choked on every other breath. I had to get…
You Had Me at Brioche!
Baking used to terrify me. Granted it was before I had a KitchenAid standing mixer, which can make a newbie baker feel like a professional, but there were just too many rules and it freaked…
A Miami Wedding’s Indecent Proposal
There I was, standing over the photographer’s table with two small plates, one in each hand, of mini desserts piled high and delicately balanced. I was on my way back to the “college friends” table…