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04/07/2006 Archived Entry: "My Yiddishe Cocoon & The Wine Chick"

You could say I have been living in a Yiddish cocoon, doing nothing but thinking about, reading and writing about, cooking and eating Ashkenazi food. That’s the food of Central and Eastern European Jews, in case you are Welsh or something.

Ashkenazi food, the food of my heritage and youth, is the main focus of “Arthur Schwartz’s New York Jewish Food,” the book I am working on. I have to tip my toque (a good alliteration, but I don’t actually own a toque, a chef’s hat) to the Sephardic food of New York, too. It was 23 Sephardim from Holland who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654 -- by way of Recife, a Dutch colony in Brazil -- that were the first Jews in New Amsterdam. But even my friends in the Sephardic Syrian community here in Brooklyn have to admit that when you think of New York Jewish food you don’t think of hummus, or of anything Jewish Spanish, Greek or Turkish for that matter.

One thing I have learned in this process: You can’t eat Eastern European Jewish food everyday. After three days of Yiddish, you need a Chinese or Italian break. On the other hand, I am feeling that because these days both secular and observant Jews eat this kind of food mainly on religious holidays and for family celebrations, and because we mainly eat everything we know and love and feel nostalgic about all at one meal, we can’t appreciate the dishes as much as we could if we ate them more often and under less auspicious circumstances.

For instance, I have a pot of sweet and sour flanken in the oven as I write this. I am no longer testing this recipe. I love this recipe. My family loves this recipe. My friends love this recipe. (You will, unfortunately, have to wait for this recipe until the book is published – contractual obligations). I even served it at a dinner party recently – to Italians – and they thought it perfectly elegant. (I even served them mushrooms with egg barley as a separate pasta course. They loved that, too.) Now, the next time someone asks me what is my favorite short rib recipe (people actually ask me these things), I will say sweet and sour flanken.

We’ll eat this tonight with broccoli – just plain broccoli – and either boiled potatoes or noodles or kasha. I haven’t decided yet. If you got this meal in a restaurant you would be bowled over (and pay plenty). But because the meat is called flanken instead of short ribs – same thing – we demean the former as old-fashioned ethnic food and we clamor for the later because short ribs are trendy. I mean they even serve short ribs in fancy French restaurants like Daniel. I recently ate at the Park East Grill, a glatt kosher restaurant on the Upper East Side, and they actually listed flanken as short ribs. Even in a kosher restaurant short ribs sell better than flanken. As I keep saying, I have learned too late in life that it’s all about marketing.

Actually, I thought it was time for me to drop some restaurant names, the places I have been eating between bites of kishka and salami and eggs, but I have a more timely message today. The restaurants will have to wait for another day.

The news is:
The Wine Chick, my former radio sidekick, Carol Berman, is teaching a series of four classes at Wine Country of North Plainfield, starting this Friday.

April 7: “Same Grape, Different Wine” is a comparative study of six different varietals with two wines per grape.

April 28: “Italy, To Boot” features the wines of Southern Italy

May 12: “The Wines of Northeastern Italy”

June 2: “Sparkling Celebrations” features an international selection of bubbly.

All classes are $50.

Wine Country of North Plainfield is at 781 Route 22 West, N. Plainfield, NJ. Call for reservations: 908-791-3888

Also, Carol Berman’s first article for New Jersey Savvy Living Magazine is on the newsstands – the April issue. It is sold at King's Supermarket Stores, Barnes & Noble bookstores, and by subscription.

I promise the restaurant round-up comes next.