Food, Faith & Culture

[amarante]

This seems like an interesting show - I loved my Bubbe's kreplach, all manner of dim sum and ravioli.


FOOD, FAITH & CULTURE,” AN INTERFAITH SPECIAL, WILL BE BROADCAST SUNDAY, SEPT. 16, ON THE CBS TELEVISION NEYWORK

FOOD, FAITH & CULTURE, a CBS Interfaith Special, will be broadcast Sunday, Sept. 16 on the CBS Television Network. Please check your local station for exact time.

This program looks at the relationship between food and faith in three world religions: Judaism, Islam and Sikhism. These three traditions are rich and varied, and an interesting way to learn more about what they believe and why.

Our program meets with Moshe and Shana Wendel, the husband-and-wife team behind Pardes, an innovative kosher restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y. Kosher food laws stem from the Old Testament, or Torah, which lay out what observant Jews can and cannot eat. Pardes serves kosher French food with a twist of Americana, a reflection of Chef Wendel’s training at well-regarded French restaurants. In the last five years, as the couple became more traditionally observant, they made the transition from non-kosher to kosher. In order to honor their faith tradition and professional aspirations, they opened their own kosher restaurant in 2010.

Yvonne Maffei, food writer, cook and founder of My Halal Kitchen.com, is also featured. Yvonne created the site as a way to share halal-friendly recipes and to help dispel myths around eating in accordance with Islamic law. For practicing Muslims everywhere there is a mandate to eat halal, or pure foods ordained for mankind by Allah (God) as written in the Qu’ran and Hadith, the holy books of Islam. In this country, halal is most commonly understood in the context of Middle Eastern food such as curries, kebabs or lamb stews known as haleem. Yvonne talks about how any dish can be adapted for halal including Italian, Mexican and Scandinavian, among others.

Within any Gurdwara or Sikh house of worship you will find a place where freshly prepared vegetarian food is served twice a day, seven days a week. It’s called a langar, or common kitchen. All the food is free and prepared by volunteers who chop, cook and serve the meals. The tradition dates back to the 15th century, when the religion was founded by Guru Nanak. This program visits the langar at the Sikh Cultural Society in Queens, N.Y., the oldest Gurdwara on the East Coast. We speak with Harpreet Singh Toor, one of the Gurdwara’s leaders, about the tradition and how serving others is a central tenet of the faith.

John P. Blessington is the executive producer and Liz Kineke is the producer. This documentary is produced in cooperation with the National Council of Churches, a consortium of Roman Catholic organizations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Union of Reform Judaism and the New York Board of Rabbis.

[heavy hedonist]

interesting! Catholic foods would have to have twelve shows alone, i suppose-- Irish, Polish, several kinds of Italian, Spanish, Mexican, etc...

love this show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-s1bkr8iPM

[1grl1by]

I just put it to record, my local station is showing it at 4 am on the 23rd. I don't see a listing for the 16th. I think it will be interesting.

[amarante]

interesting! Catholic foods would have to have twelve shows alone, i suppose-- Irish, Polish, several kinds of Italian, Spanish, Mexican, etc...

love this show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-s1bkr8iPM

I think the same could be said of "Jewish" cuisine since it varies quite a bit depending on the country. The main divide is between Ashkenazi (Eastern European) versus Sephardic (Middle Eastern and Northern African). Even the foods which are considered okay to eat on Passover differ somewhat.

My grandmother was from Poland and a lot of the foods she prepared were rooted in Polish tradition like stuffed cabbage. She also made what I later found out from Martha Stewart is a traditional Polish cookie in which dough is rolled thin, cut into rectangles, slit with one end going into the slit and then fried. I think the Italians also make a cookie like this. I would suspect a LOT of peasant cultures do since it is cheap and doesn't require an oven.

What the three religions have in common (as opposed to Catholicism) is that the religion itself places dietary restrictions on what can be eaten - i.e. kosher, halal and vegetarianism.

[tbb113]

I think the same could be said of "Jewish" cuisine since it varies quite a bit depending on the country. The main divide is between Ashkenazi (Eastern European) versus Sephardic (Middle Eastern and Northern African). Even the foods which are considered okay to eat on Passover differ somewhat.

Not to split hairs, but Sephardic is actually Spain and Portugal and their descendants. Middle Eastern and Northern Africa is actually called Mizrahim.

But I agree with you, depending on where your family originally came will influence what you eat.

[RiverFarm]

I've never heard of Mizrahim, just Ashkenazic and Sephardic. I'll have to check that out.

[amarante]

Not that it really matters but I had never heard of Mizrahim being a separate cultural identity. I just checked The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden which is really as much a cultural history of Jews and their foods as a cookbook and she divides into Ashkenazi and Sephardi.

I'm paraphrasing but Sephardic is the cooking of Mediterranean and Oriental Jews with four "broad" styles - Jews of Iberian ancestry who went to live n the Ottoman heartlands. North African or Maghrebi which includes Moroccan, Tunisianm, Algenian and Libyan food. Judeo-Arab which is at its best in Syria and Lebanon and the Jewish cooking of Iran and Iraq.

Riverfarm, if you've never read Roden's book, it's a fascinating read and has an exhaustive collection of recipes in all the sub-genres.

I do see that wikipedia has a group of self identifying Mizrahim from North African and Middle Eastern descent but they are generally lumped in with Sephardim - probably because it's difficult to differentiate between them and those who migrated after the expulsion in 1492.

So I think either is correct. My neighborhood became very heavily populated with Sephardim in the 1970's after the original Ashkenzi population who had moved in the years immediately before and after WW II moved to the suburbs and they self identified as Sepharim although they were from the Middle East.

[RiverFarm]

I have one of Claudia Roden's Book of Middle Eastern Food. She offers background material for the dishes she includes there, but it's probably a different set of recipes from the one you mentioned. And I did look up Mizrahi and found that it's considered to be a subgroup of Sephardim. But I would never have known that if not for this board!

[amarante]

I have one of Claudia Roden's Book of Middle Eastern Food. She offers background material for the dishes she includes there, but it's probably a different set of recipes from the one you mentioned. And I did look up Mizrahi and found that it's considered to be a subgroup of Sephardim. But I would never have known that if not for this board!

If you have any interest in the subject, you should check out the Book of Jewish Food as it's really as much a book about the culture and history with all kinds of subgroups of food - Georgian, Salonika etc.

I have a book that is almost the antithesis of Roden's book which is a 1977 book by Naf Avnon called So Eat, My Darling: A Guide to The Yiddish Kitchen which contains fascinating background and pictures of the shtetl food which my Bubbe cooked. Where else can one find a recipe for Schmalz and Grieben.

[RiverFarm]

Oho, you can find a recipe for Schmaltz and Greben in Love and Knishes by Sara Kasdan. That's my go-to book for Jewish cookery. But I had to make up the recipe for stuffed cabbage that my grandmother cooked, because she died when I was eleven and therefore I couldn't pick her brains when I got my first apartment. Turned out that the secret ingredient was sour salt; an aunt told me that.

[amarante]

Oho, you can find a recipe for Schmaltz and Greben in Love and Knishes by Sara Kasdan. That's my go-to book for Jewish cookery. But I had to make up the recipe for stuffed cabbage that my grandmother cooked, because she died when I was eleven and therefore I couldn't pick her brains when I got my first apartment. Turned out that the secret ingredient was sour salt; an aunt told me that.

Unfortunately even picking my Bubbe's brain didn't help since she measured out her recipes in Yahrzeit glasses.

[RiverFarm]

So nu, you couldn't get a Yahrzeit glass?

[tbb113]

Well, it was shown at 5am in my area. Maybe it will be aired again when people are actually awake and able to watch it.

[syzygy]

Unfortunately even picking my Bubbe's brain didn't help since she measured out her recipes in Yahrzeit glasses.

I think that used to be the standard measuring cup in the 50's. Nowadays too many people make Yahrzeit glasses in all different shapes and sizes...

[syzygy]

Oho, you can find a recipe for Schmaltz and Greben in Love and Knishes by Sara Kasdan. That's my go-to book for Jewish cookery.

This one's mine, and it's a treasure trove of Bubby's food:

[heavy hedonist]

I think the same could be said of "Jewish" cuisine since it varies quite a bit depending on the country. The main divide is between Ashkenazi (Eastern European) versus Sephardic (Middle Eastern and Northern African). Even the foods which are considered okay to eat on Passover differ somewhat.

What the three religions have in common (as opposed to Catholicism) is that the religion itself places dietary restrictions on what can be eaten - i.e. kosher, halal and vegetarianism.

Yep, knew it.

[RiverFarm]

This one's mine, and it's a treasure trove of Bubby's food:

That image didn't come up, but I can see the url when I quote you!

[amarante]

Oy Yoo Hoo Mrs. Blume.