I schlepped over to Brooklyn and arrived just in time for the event’s second session. Just near the entrance I was greeted with crocheted bagel headbands and keychains from Treesley, which were unexpectedly cute and of course, Bantam bagels’ samples which were superb.

At another corner there was a photo-op station with a pool of bagels a la museum of ice cream’s sprinkles pit. At least I assume that’s what they were before I got there. By 1PM, all that was left was bagel puree, and some inflatables including bagels, palm trees, eggs, and… bacon? I don’t know how to feel about the treif vibes here. All I’ll say to the organizers is: next year I’d opt for a bagel wall. No bacon for me.

One of the highlights was a panel of “bagel experts” including Jake Cohen, Morgan Raum, and Hannah Albertine, in which Cohen provided a diplomatic response to the Montreal vs. New York bagel controversy. Common, Jake! We need answers. The panelists also discussed bagel orders and other very important bagel debacles in an overall lighthearted and fun half-hour, which hit the spot after rounds of bagel samples.

Kosha Dillz’s performance was energetic and drew a crowd, but so did his merch. My personal favorite being an “In God We Trust” T-shirt with a bagel smack in God’s O. The messaging! The symbolism! The relevance! And Kosha’s merch was not the only one on display. Oh, the merch. It was totes, and tees galore. Anna Sanders’ Lox of Love tote bag is a 10/10, Katie Brookoff’s prints were adorable, and BagelFest’s own t-shirt was really cute too.

All in all, Brooklyn BagelFest provided a space to schmooze with other Jews, and fill our delicate stomach with carbs and cream cheese. BagelFest is as much about the bagels as it is about the experience, and a showcase of how iconic the bagel has really become. I can’t wait for next year’s undoubtedly bigger and better BagelFest, and in the meantime, I will be obsessing over how I will become a “bagel expert” so I can serve on the next star-studded panel.

The post Celebrating the Art of the Bagel at Brooklyn BagelFest appeared first on Jewcy.

Have you heard the good news? Starting later this year, when you text your friends asking to go out for a bagel brunch, there will be a bagel emoji to help you emphasize your point.

Is the new icon the most robust looking of bagels? Well, no, as The Forward angrily points out. There’s nary a poppy nor sesame seed in sight, no cream cheese or lox spread, and the poor thing is thin, the kind you would get from a coffee chain, not your New York deli.

But the bagel has long been dead (long live the bagel). Just be grateful the emoji wasn’t a rainbow bagel monstrosity.

Besides, the bagel emoji is so versatile! You now have the perfect emoji for being bageled— that is, when a person realizes that you’re Jewish and makes a faux-casual comment at you that is really intended to communicate that they know you’re Jewish.

Another suggestion: Let’s make the bagel the new taco/peach emoji. Jewish ladies— you know what I’m talking about. The emoji even features two halves of a bagel lying together— it should be the main emojis for wlw.

So many possibilities! But this begs the question, now that we finally have a foothold in the emoji world (premium poorly rated add-on apps do not count), what Jewish symbols should come next?

1. A Torah— Duh. It’s the single greatest shared piece of iconography among all Jewish people. (That said— would the emoji be a Sephardic or Ashkenazi Torah? Best have both to be on the safe side.)
2. Matzo— Yes, it’s seasonal, but just picture the string of matzo emojis you’ll be sending out by the third day of the holiday when you’re so sick of the stuff you’ll explode.
3. A kippah— Let’s be real, it will probably look terrible as an image the size of your pinky nail, but there are already like, four hat options. We can make it work.
4. Shabbat candles— Does using this emoji count as lighting candles on Friday night? Yes, it absolutely would.
5. Guilt— The smilies include a smug cat, but none of them even come close to capturing the feeling that you’re disappointing your parents.

Obvi, send us your own ideas for Jewish emojis, so that we can work towards a universal language of symbols that simultaneously speaks to a wide variety of cultures and also creates homogeneity as we gradually gravitate towards some kind of singularity, probably controlled by either Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.

Shalom!

The post Welcome, the Bagel Emoji appeared first on Jewcy.

What more indignities can the poor bagel possibly suffer? Over the last several decades it has had to manage ubiquity, and like many aging celebrities, despite its persistent charm, has taken on a peculiar appearance; a bit too well-preserved, lacking some of the original authenticity. And the last few years in particular have been especially unkind. The rainbow bagel is like a poodle that has been died pink for the amusement of others, at expense of its dignity. And you can get it with funfetti-infused cream cheese.

So, sure, go ahead. make a bagel with caffeine in it. Save a step in the morning, and combine your food and your coffee into one, as the Einstein brothers of Colorado have done.

Yes, the espresso bagel has about a third of a cup of joe’s worth of caffeine baked right into the dough. (They have also released the Cherry-Chia bagel, but I can only handle one bagel crisis at a time, here.) Is the bagel sacred? Certainly not anymore; the Einstein Brothers are promoting this new bagel with a photo that features it has a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, after all. And in a day and age where meals are drunk as that paint-like mixture that is Soylent, perhaps it’s natural to eat your morning beverage.

But the bagel and coffee are a delightful duo, enjoyed together like peanut butter and jelly. Yes, you can buy a jar of a PB&J swirl, but this is more like injecting sugar into peanut butter to give it that jelly sweetness. Don’t be gross.

Bagels are a convenience food, but one that makes the world slow down ever so slightly when you take a bite, even on the go, the yin to your sip of coffee’s yang. An artificially injected stimulant is counter-intuitive.

Image via the Einstein Brothers

The post The Caffeinated Bagel is Here appeared first on Jewcy.

“See that God has given to y’all the Shabbat. Therefore God gives to y’all, on the sixth day bread, for two days.” (Exodus 16:29)

“Man does not live by bread alone.” (Deuteronomy 8:3)

I love fruit—mango season may be my favorite season—but if I had to choose only one food group for the rest of my life, it would be bread.  Bread is the universal staff of life onto which most cultures have held since the dawn of domesticated agriculture and civilizations. It’s also one of the few examples of foods that’s universally identified within the Jewish tradition as Jewish. (I am not saying all bread is Jewish, just that there are breads with unique or deep roots in Judaism.)

Case in point: matzah. “For seven days you will eat matzah [unleavened bread cakes]…” (Exodus 12: 15)

Matzah, the flatbread unique to Passover and kitschy Brooklyn startups, is described in the Torah, detailed over the ensuing millennia in various commentaries, and maintained as an annual ritual for Jews of all backgrounds and identities. There are different manifestations of matzah—some are more cracker-like while others tend towards a large, dry pita; but, the chemistry is the same: flour + water + hot, dry oven = kosher for Passover matzah in under 18 minutes.

Some other popular, historically Jewish breads include bagels (real bagels; don’t be fooled by the circular breads sold at McDonald’s, Einstein’s, and many other bakeries that are not boiled before baking), jachnun, and Moroccan mofleta (served at their post-Passover mimouna celebrations).

Aside from bagels, none of these are quite so famous or ubiquitous as challah.  This enriched bread is prepared for Shabbat and most other holidays (not Passover!). Recalling the showbreads in the temple, these loaves are historically grander and more refined than weekday breads. Furthermore, challah is presented in pairs, recalling the double portion of manna the Jews collected in the desert every Friday morning. For Shabbat evening in a traditional Jewish home, even if it’s a small gathering, the festive meal begins with a blessing over two loaves.

At a Shabbat meal I recently was welcomed to in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, one of the guests was so surprised to see two substantial challah loaves on the table. She asked why we needed two huge breads. Our host explained the tradition of remembering the commandment for Jews living in the land of Israel to tithe their bread (Numbers 15:20). The injunction to set aside a “challah” is the basis for the mitzvah of hafrashat challah, and a good reason for why the challah loaves for Shabbat are generally quite large. (Most orthodox rabbis hold that the dough must use between 3.66 and 5.5 lbs of flour to be eligible for a blessing.)   

I don’t make such large batches of challah, meaning that I don’t normally say the blessing. I still want to do something special with my challah. When I bring challah to a friend’s meal, or if I am hosting, I want people to take a moment to reflect on challah and Shabbat, which is how I came to make challah messages.

At the end of the day (or week), messages and bread sacrifices are simply proverbial cherries in my practice. Simply serving challah and matzah, the two core Jewish breads, makes that meal significant. A blessing over these breads, an explanation, or even a pause before eating, helps these cultural carbs create a link to a national history and communal identity.

These foods with their gluten (or not), bind me to Jews across history because at their very core, they are Hebrew breadstuffs derived from the Torah. From atheists to ultra-Orthodox, Zionist and not, using these Biblical Hebrew names reminds us that we are connected.

Jews are not a unified people—including in many aspects of cuisine— but we are brought together by our cultural breads. Hopefully we will always have a space to break bread with others, giving us a delicious space to share of ourselves, our history, and our tradition.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The post Man Does Not Live By Challah Alone appeared first on Jewcy.

Gothamist just published an excellent, comprehensive round-up of their favorite bagel spots in NYC.

There are some notable omissions, like Tompkins Square Bagels, Best Bagel & Coffee (the only redeeming thing about the hell-hole that is Penn Station), and the new H&H in Midtown (different owners, same recipes, still really good)—but, amazingly, pretty much everyone on Twitter seems to be in agreement that this is A Good List. Which is incredible. A New York City Bagelisticle That Did Not Come to Blows on Twitter?! What next, Gothamist, what next? WORLD PEACE?

This week’s Best Of is a bagel shop roundup. Please do not threaten me with physical violence. http://t.co/UmgslJG1xY

— Rebecca Fishbein (@bfishbfish) February 26, 2014

Which are your favorites?

The post Are These The Best Bagels in New York City? appeared first on Jewcy.

Borscht is a nasty sounding word. With five consonants crushed together at the end, it makes me think of a hearty sneeze or an irate Israeli telling her students to be quiet (shtok!). It’s also nasty by association—how many American-born Jews would say they find oddly bright-colored food appetizing?

In the last few decades, borscht has quietly slipped off the High Holiday menu, but it was once a crucial component of Jewish culinary influence in the United States. Like bagels and whitefish salad, borscht wasn’t associated with Jewish cuisine until throngs of Eastern European Jews arrived on Ellis Island and concentrated on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Initially, this iconic beet soup had nothing to do with beets. As it turns out, the word “borscht” comes from the Old Slavonic word “brsh,” which referred to a soup made of chunks of a white root vegetable. It was basically an “everything in the fridge” soup–bits of vegetables, bones, greens, and anything else lying around. It came from the cold northern regions of Europe, where meals were largely comprised of tough bread and starchy tubers. Gil Marks explains that peasants in this region used “sours”—pickles, sour cream, and borscht—to add flavor to their meals. Thought it might not have been known at the time, fermented foods like sours help boost the immune system and protect our bodies from invading organisms. When sweet, earthy beets became popular and began to dominate the soup’s ingredients, cooks started adding vinegar or fermented beet juice in order to keep the traditional sour flavor intact.

As borscht made its global journey, different bits were picked up or left off along the way. The Slavic version included meat, but the dish was almost always served with a dollop of sour cream, so Jews developed a vegetarian iteration. Since the vegetarian recipe was essentially beets and onions with vinegar and sour cream, the soup became a distinct pinkish purple color. Like its Eastern European cousin the blintz, by the time borscht had spent a few years in Manhattan it was being mass produced and sold in jars.

Here’s the thing, though: somewhere between borscht’s commercialization and the filming of Dirty Dancing, people stopped liking borscht. Maybe it was the jars or the sweetness from added sugar; either way, borscht somehow disappeared. But here we are in the 21st century and everyone loves beets (seriously: beets are so hot right now).

So I propose we take borscht back to its roots, no pun intended. Let’s celebrate the star of this show—the beet—by cooking it in season. A friend of mine has a small urban homestead here in Chicago, and last week she came by and dumped a bag full of pretty little white and pink beets into my very willing arms. These were some happy-looking beets, begging to be treated with love and respect. This salad is inspired by borscht, celebrating its many components with beets, pickled onions, and a little sprinkle of dairy on top. But unlike the smooth soup, the texture provided by the roughly chopped vegetables diminishes the creepiness of their color.


Not Your Bubbe’s Borscht Salad

Ingredients:

3 cups washed, peeled, and diced beets
½ medium onion, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons pickling or Kosher salt
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon miso
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh burrata or goat cheese, crumbled (optional)
Chives, minced

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add beets and continue boiling until fork tender. Set aside to cool.

2. While the beets are boiling and cooling, place diced onions in a bowl and add salt, vinegar, and sugar. Place a plate or flat object in the bowl directly on top of the onions and put a weight on it. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes.

3. Whisk together lemon juice, miso, and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. When the beets are cold or at room temperature and the onions are pickled, toss the beets and onions in a bowl with the dressing. Fold in the cheese (if using) and chives.

Also try:

Not Your Bubbe’s Deconstructed Baba Ghanoush

Not Your Bubbe’s Pistachio Mandel Bread

Not Your Bubbe’s Savory Cranberry Crunch

The post Not Your Bubbe’s Recipe: Borscht Salad appeared first on Jewcy.

Though we’re not entirely certain we agree with BOTMC co-founder and CEO, Andrew Hazen, when he says, “We are a team of experts who give the word ‘bagel’ a whole new meaning” it sounds like these guys might be onto something. For $69.99 each month (or $64.99 a month if you commit to a carb-filled year), a loving relative can surprise you with 12 bagels, half-pound containers of Nova and cream cheese (two kinds!), and brownie bites at your doorstep.

It’s weird, though, because I think the site’s FAQ’s are reading my mind:

Q: Will I be able to track my shipment?

A: Not quite yet, we’re working on it! If you’re anxious and wants to know when your bagels are arriving, drop us an email and we’ll let you know.

But seriously, where are our bagels?

(Image via Shutterstock)

The post There is a Bagel of the Month Club, and We Want to Be Part of It appeared first on Jewcy.

• It’s official: Barbra Streisand will perform at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in October.

• A moving tribute to the greatest chef in Israel you’ve never heard of.

• The key to a great bagel? Sodium hydroxide.

• Dayenu, the Joe Biden edition:

The post Daily Jewce: Barbra Returns to Brooklyn, Dayenu to Joe Biden, and more appeared first on Jewcy.

• Real men use…Hitler-endorsed shampoo?

• Drake’s bar mitzvah, the music video.

• Happy first birthday, Skyler Morrison Berman—and congrats again on being the youngest Big Jewcy ever.

• RIP, Murray Lender, the man behind Lender’s Bagels.

The post Daily Jewce: Judy Blume’s New E-Books, Drake’s Bar Mitzvah, and more appeared first on Jewcy.

Breakfast. Mothers, nutritionists, and teachers alike tell us that it’s the most important meal of the day, and we Jews have a handful of unique breakfast dishes all our own. Have a killer recipe for one of the dishes listed? Share it in comments, below.

	Matzo Brei: It certainly isn’t a visually pleasing dish, but don’t let that dissuade you. Matzo Brei combines crumbled matzo and scrambled eggs in what has become a filling, satisfying, Passover breakfast food.
	Bagels: Easily the most popular Jewish contribution to breakfast, everyone loves a bagel–especially when it’s slathered with the traditional cream cheese and lox.
	Shakshuka: This popular Israeli egg dish, which translates to “all mixed up,” is made with tomatoes, onions, and lots of spices.
	Blintzes: Whether filled with cheese or fruit, blintzes are always a sweetly satisfying way to start the day.
	LEO (Lox, Eggs, and Onions): A deli favorite, Sam the Cooking Guy calls it a “Jewish classic” and offers his own recipe up on his site. If you love eggs and salt, this is your dish.

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