I have enjoyed now for the second time in a week the most delicious breakfast: Eggs and Bacon.

Now hold a second, Rabbi, bacon is trief! Or so I thought.

Jewlicious Festival veteran, and supervisor of culinary arts at the Festival’s VIP wine tasting, Chaim Davids, delivered to me as a house warming gift a package of his home-made Lamb Bacon. LAMB BACON!

Davids is the chef behind The Kitchen Table in Mountain View, CA:

The Kitchen Table serves California Artisinal cuisine with a twist: We are the only certified glatt Kosher restaurant in northern California. We dairy-free and peanut-free, and use only the freshest ingredients. All breads are baked on premises, and the pastrami and corned beef are cured and smoked in-house.

I have not made the pilgrimage to TKT, but those who have – including many of the guests I met at Herzog Wine Cellar’s Tierra Sur Resturant for the Lorne Mackillop & Tomintoul Whisky Dinner last week – rave in superlatives about TKT.

I came across a quote by Anthony Bourdain: “If you want to make people happy, give them bacon.” I get it now. The umami alone is enough to beg for more.

Thank you Chaim Davids, thank you TKT, thank you Rachel. Good Shabbos.

If you are anything like me, you hate pretty much all Israeli t-shirt designs that you see at Shuk HaKarmel.   I think the one I hate the most is

No direct object or adverb to say HOW Uzi does it! Or whom he does it to.

Don’t worry.  Benji Lovitt, from What War Zone,   is remedying the situation by selling his own wittily-captioned t-shirts based on some content from his blog and Israeli life in general, which you can buy here and which are wittier than anything currently available on Ben Yehuda.  I should take this opportunity to mention that Benji is my favorite Israeli comedian, aside from Avigdor Lieberman.

My favorite shirt is this one :

Yihyeh B'seder, Bernie Madoff! (no, it doesn't actually say Bernie Madoff. Just implied.)

But he has a bunch of great shirts available, so check them out and support!

]]> http://www.jewlicious.com/2009/11/chumus-larious-t-shirts-from-benji-lovitt/feed/ 0 http://www.jewlicious.com/2009/11/letter-from-chicago/ http://www.jewlicious.com/2009/11/letter-from-chicago/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:28:29 +0000 Rabbi Yonah http://www.jewlicious.com/?p=11353

I received this note from Becca Neril, a very active member of Jewlicious during her tenure as an undergrad at the Claremont Colleges, and one of the Jewish leaders on campus. She brought nearly 50 students to the festival last year, thanks to her organizing. Becca is working in Chicago, with AVODAH. Needless to say – we are very inspired by Becca and her work.

Dear friends and family,

Two blocks away from my apartment, on the street where my grandfather attended high school, there are eight deciduous trees whose flaming red and golden yellow leaves rustle in the Chicago autumnal wind. I woke up on Saturday morning to bare ivy vines lining the outside of our apartment windows and to the last remaining leaves, now auburn and dusty brown, solitarily swaying on the now bare tree branches. O how I love the fall here!

This email has been in the works for the past…two months. I have only recently gotten around to finishing it, hence the delayed update on my post-college adventures. In late August, I moved to Chicago to be part of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, which is an intensive Jewish learning program that seeks to educate the Corps Members about how Judaism relates to social justice. I am working full time at a Jewish anti-poverty organization called The Ark, which provides vital human services to the Chicago Jewish community. The Ark has a free community medical clinic, dental clinic, pharmacy, kosher food pantry, job placement and legal services, transitional housing for the homeless, psychological services, and intensive day program for mentally ill patients. Let me just say that I LOVE my job. My boss is so so so wonderful and everyone is really friendly at work. Because I am the youngest person on staff, some of the staff consider me like their own daughter. One case manager, for example, has already tried to set me up with her friend’s son!

My days at work focus mainly around food and drugs. The Ark is home to the largest kosher food pantry in the Midwest and I get to spend two hours every day filling clients’ orders and unpacking and checking hechshers on donated food items. I also have my own caseload of clients who I help prepare for their visit to the food pantry. I often reflect on how for many of these clients, handing us their shopping list strips them of some of their dignity. They are not able to complete one of the most basic tasks-that of supplying food for their family-and have to submit to other people to pick out their food for them. Whenever possible, I ask clients if they want crunchy or creamy peanut butter or whole wheat or white pasta in an attempt to give them back some autonomy that I feel they have lost. I often mull over these ethical issues and would love to discuss them with you! In terms of drugs-I work to secure free medications for our clients by enrolling them in patient assistance programs. I don’t have too many juicy stories about the pharmaceutical companies.

In short-I LOVE my job and I LOVE being part of AVODAH. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please give me a call or email! Also, I would love to hear any updates on your life adventures, whatever they may be.

Warmly,

Becca

We are in the final hours of a contest that I never thought I would be in—let alone be leading. However, thanks to amazing support from around the world, we are a couple thousand votes shy of our goal.

The winner of the UJC Heroes Contest receives $25,000 to donate to the charity of their choice. I have pledged to expand Jewlicious Festival if we win, doing more than ever before.

Can you spare a few seconds to vote? To post a link on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?

Jewlicious Festival is a place in time for young Jews to gather, to explore, to celebrate being Jewish. It’s an event unlike any other in Jewish history, uniting people from across ethnic, social, religious and political lines.

Jewlicious is Woodstock, Jewish Summer Camp, Mt. Sinai and Burning Man rolled into three non-stop days. We had 1,000 participants last year in just one location – we hope to bring the experience to 10,000 more.

Please – take a second to vote, and spread the good news – Jewlicious Festival, a place of unity that we so badly need in the Jewish world today, is leading the UJC Hero Contest and only a few votes from our goal of 100,000.

Please – pass the word. Don’t delay – we have only until tonight, 9pm PST.

Vote now! http://bit.ly/18HEXA

Check out this Tribute Video also placed below: http://bit.ly/2rMwyy

May all your dreams and prayers this year be realized.

As you may or may not remember (probably not because it’s not like I’ve already been a contributor here for a couple months and have pretty much told you about my life history in order to give you a better understanding of the Suffering of Russian Jews, except that now probably you hate us even more,)  my Hebrew name is Vered and I am pretty depressed that I don’t know any other Vereds. (Vardot?)

So it was uber-exciting when I found out that not only is Vered Guttman named Vered, but is also a caterer in the Washington, DC metro area, owner of Cardamom and Mint Catering,  specializing in Mediterranean food, and my favorite, Palestinian lamb dishes (I was sad to find out that Bamba is not considered a cuisine choice.)  Although I was fearful that I would be impinging on froylein’s take of the Jewish food beat, I haven’t seen her post any cakes in the past couple of weeks, so the ball’s totally in her court now.

I  immediately plied Ms. Guttman with questions about Israeli cooking and the relationship between food and family, and begged her to teach me how to make something that would prove my worth as a housewife to Mr. B once and for all so I could quit my job and just do my housewife thing and watch The Tyra Show at the actual hour it comes on every day.

When did you start catering?

I started catering after moving to the US and not being able to find a job as a software developer. Coming from Tel Aviv, a foodie’s paradise, where many consider themselves as potential chefs, it fulfilled my dream as well.  I’ve been catering for almost 5 years now. I was happy to find that people in DC were open and excited with the new palate. For example – a dry fava bean salad, with only garlic, cumin, olive oil and parsley became a big hit. Who would have thought?

Is there such a thing as Israeli food?  Or did we  just Xerox Lebanese cuisine?

We did not steal  from Arab cuisine.  Jewish families that lived in Arab countries adopted the local traditions under the Kashrut laws, and then brought those traditions with them to Israel. So did my family – on my father side they brought the wonderful Iraqi cuisine, and on my mother side – the Polish.  Israeli cuisine is a fusion between the different cuisines the Jews brought with them from the Diaspora plus a strong influence from our Palestinian neighbors. What we got is a kitchen that’s rooted in its area, using the olive oil, dates, figs, lamb and fish and a bountiful variety of vegetables. Israeli chefs and home cooks feel comfortable mixing traditions from Morocco with spices from Iran, French baking with Yemenite dough (no, seriously). Or serving Chrayme (spicy fish in tomato and paprika sauce) for Rosh Hashanah, followed by chicken matzo ball soup.

The one unique Jewish element you can see in many of the different origins is the Shabbat dish. A dish you prepare on Friday afternoon and cook it all night on low heat, until Shabbat lunch. This was, and still is, done so not to work on the Saturday, and produced brown, moist dishes that fill the house with their wonderful smells until they’re finally served.  The Iraqi Tbeet – a chicken stuffed and covered with rice and chicken’s inner parts becomes so tender that you can eat its bones. The Eastern European Cholent – potatoes, beans, meat (plus numerous additions, I can’t even begin to describe here). The Yemenite Jachnoon - rolled dough that becomes sweet and brown, usually accompanied by tomato salsa. These are just a few.

What Israeli dishes can I make at home for Mr. B without having to buy a shwarma rotating thingy and some guy named Avi from Bat Yam to turn it?

The one Israeli dish I would recommend for every family is the Israeli salad (by the way, in Israel we call it Arabic salad or vegetable salad. It got the Israeli title in the United States). It’s easy to make, it’s colorful and delicious, healthy and my kids fight for it. I hope you’ll have it almost every day, as we do.

• Get tomatoes, Israeli cucumbers (the small greenhouse cucumbers) and an onion. No quantities needed.
• Chop the vegetables and mix. If you’re using the Israeli cucumber you don’t even need to peel it.
• Add kosher salt and a little strong flavored olive oil.
• Fresh lemon juice is also welcomed.
• Now you can add other vegetables to your taste – chopped green or red peppers, hot pepper, shredded radish, cut lettuce.
• Let the kids dip a good slice of bread into the juices accumulate at the bottom of the bowl, and they’ll be happy.

Here’s my Israeli salad from a couple months ago.  It’s the only thing I make that doesn’t poison Mr. B!  Shana tova u non poisonous-a to everyone.

Benji Lovitt – who entertained us at Jewlicious Festival 5.0 – in his latest hilarious video for the New Year.

OctoDad Press Conference @ OctoMom’s House

A man claiming to be “the real OctoDad” surfaced outside the circus that is Nadya Suleman’s home carrying a turkey baster and three test tubes filled with white liquid. Did someone order takeout?!— TMZ.com

Smooth-E, a veteran of several Jewlicious Festivals, has written a song about the Octomom. Meanwhile, check the video for a really good laugh during this “Octodad Press Conference.”

It’s been a week since the Jewlicious Festival ended. I thought some kind of broad recap would be in order and might even prove to be somewhat instructive to those of you out there who are into that sort of thing, like readers of eJewish Philanthropy or the Fundermentalist. Both of those aforementioned blogs deal with issues related to Jewish philanthropy as well as with organizations and projects they fund. Both have also expressed an interest in issues related to youth, innovation and social entrepreneurship – buzz phrases that one often hears uttered by Jewish organizations both large and small.

As far as the Festival goes, it was in almost every respect a smashing success. We had nearly 1000 Jewish students and young adults enjoy a weekend full of fun, food, music and over 120 individual programs. Our success was due in no small part to a grass roots effort by a large crew of volunteers who helped guide almost every aspect of the weekend’s programing. Add to that both local and national philanthropists and organizations who allowed us to keep costs down while still offering a world class event and you have a supposedly simple recipe for success. Yup, as simple as uniting close to 1000 young Jews representing every denomination and orientation in Judaism for a spirited, fun, educational and inspiring weekend… so much for that whole “2 Jews, three synagogues” malarkey!

Of course nothing is ever quite that simple. Raising funds for this event is a difficult job – to say the least. Most of the large grant making organizations out there do not fund us at all – it’s kind of difficult to compress the totality of what the Festival is into 5 double spaced pages faxed in triplicate by 9am EST. Who even uses fax machines anymore? Very few people in the organized Jewish community really get what we do. Of course we try to be as transparent as possible – you could have tuned in to our UStream channel and watched a live video stream of the madness that was the unofficial Jewlicious office the week before the Festival. Or you could have followed our #Jewlicious tweets. Or read our blogs. Ever try explaining to Fred and Francine Federation what a tweet is? Good luck…

Baking Challah with Eli Winkelman and Challah For Hunger

All around us all we heard about was recession, depression and the ever present specter of Bernie Madoff. Large, established organizations were cutting back or shutting down entirely. Even our good friends at Jewcy.com had lost their funding, perhaps, we feared, signaling the end of an era. But we persevered because we’re nuts that way I guess. Our early ticket sales indicated another record breaking Festival – we couldn’t disappoint all those people. So we took an already trim event and trimmed even further, without sacrificing quality. Somehow… we pulled it off.

What lessons did we learn? Nothing outrageous I guess. Listen to your constituents and empower them – like for real empower them. Anyone can throw money at a problem but the real key to success is vision, creativity and communication. In that respect those wishing to make a difference ought to embrace transparency and not fear it. Also, I guess since we’re talking Jewish I should also add “food” to that list. The resources are still out there for those of you who want to make a difference in your community, your country and your world.

So here’s a big shout out to Rabbi Yonah and Rachel for all their hard work. Thanks also to Sasha Perry and her Dad who were at the helm of an incredible kitchen crew that just kept the good eats coming. More thanks to the volunteers who ran our whole Greenkeit initiative that allowed us to run a clean, eco-friendly festival, generating only one container of trash over the course of three days – that was impressive! Big ups to our local patrons without whom none of this would have been possible – Deanna and Allen Alevy, Barbara and Ray Alpert and Jim and Liz Breslauer. Also we can’t forget the continuing support we have received from the Schusterman Foundation, the ROI Community and Birthright NEXT as well as all our other sponsors. Finally, another big thanks goes to the dozens and dozens of student and community volunteers who ran themselves ragged making this happen. So I don’t have a dental or retirement plan, big deal. It was worth it. Now if things go well, we’ll see you again at Camp Jewlicious in August and Jewlicious NYC in September. God help us…

Good lord. Talk about hyper connected. I have to remind myself NOT to pick my nose…. So the Jewlicious Festival starts February 27th and we’ll broadcast the prep as well as much of the Festival as we can, including the live show Saturday night (9:30 pm PST). You’ll see frazzled organizers, delirious attendees and lots of cool stuff I am sure. I’m probably going to regret this… enjoy!

Free video streaming by Ustream

LimmudLA was a terrific success and the organizers and their sponsors should be thanked again and again. LA brought out its best and brightest for this weekend retreat. The program was alive, the vibe good, and the entertainment first rate. Sunday’s concert featured a variety of Jewish performers for a PBS style showcase. It was a unique feat, created by Robbie Helperin. Kudos to Linda Fife & Shep Rosenman, conference co-chairs, & Ruthie Rotenberg, Executive Director of LimmudLA, and all the dozens of volunteers.

The LA Times covered the Limmud LA conference, where Rabbi Yonah, Festival Director and Rachel, Program Director, taught sessions this past Presidents Day Weekend. Jewlicious Festival presenters MATISYAHU and Adam Weinberg brought the crowd to their feet with an inspiring acoustic set on Saturday night, then invited everyone to join them at Jewlicious for another round. The LA Times interviewed another JF5 presenter, Avi Averbach, of Jewish World Watch:

“It’s been an amazing weekend. It’s very relaxed, and you’re meeting all these new people from different areas and different parts of Judaism,” said Ari Averbach, 25, who works with Los Angeles-based Jewish World Watch, an organization focused on ending genocide…. Most of the conference sessions were rooted in Jewish traditions with modern adaptations and messages. Read More,,,

Thanks LimmudLA — it was a great weekend.