Purim is upon us, and as with any Jewish holiday these days, that means viral videos. This year’s bunch has everything: stars, snacks, and the return of the foul-mouthed Bubala Please guys. Also a lot of old-timey Jewish background music.

Here are the poppy seed season’s most noteworthy videos:

The Family-Friendly: Maya Rudolph stopped by the set of Shalom Sesame with a riddle—what has three corners, three sides, and a sweet middle?

As Cookie Monster eloquently puts it, “Hamentaschen is one of me favorite cookies! (Om nom nom.)”

The Master Class: Joan Nathan shows you how to make the ‘ultimate hamentaschen‘ in a Food 52 and Tablet collaboration.

Feeling inspired? Try her recipe.

The Delightfully Festive: In what feels like a Woody Allen movie, the Aish Center set up a booth outside of Zabar’s and traded hamentaschen for jokes.

The highlight is probably the one about Levi moving to Israel and getting stuck at customs with five sets of dentures.

The Hamentaschen How-To: Chavie Lieber and Beryl Shereshewsky bring some DIY flair—and dancing hamentaschen—to JTA’s easy-to-follow video recipe.

The bright-colored bowls are, sadly, sold separately.

The very, very NSFW: Bubala Please is back with another bizarre rap, this time about “homies noshing hamentaschen.” Here’s hoping the word ‘Jewgina’ doesn’t catch on.

Which is your favorite?

Previously: The Top Five Jewish Viral Videos of the Year

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The post The Top Five Purim Videos of 2013 appeared first on Jewcy.

There’s something special about sitting around once a year and simply being grateful. Just as the pilgrims observed the day to give thanks for their safe arrival in a new world, Jewish immigrants and their descendants can, and have, easily latched onto that idea. While not all Jews in America observe the holiday, my family Thanksgiving has always been seen as a chance to show our pride in being American.

Like countless other Eastern European Jews, my great grandfather wanted to leave his home and move to the United States. He made a pit-stop in Havana, Cuba to wait for his visa, but quickly fell in love with the country. He and the rest of my family stayed until Fidel Castro came into power and then they finally headed over to Miami (with a short detour in Brooklyn).

There are small traits that mark my family as new Americans and descendants of immigrants. First, we take voting very seriously. Second, we have a history of fairly traditional views on gender roles and curfews. Third, like every good immigrant family, we treasure our culinary inheritance. At least once a week, usually on Shabbat, we feast on a classic dish from Cuba, Romania, or Hungary. But no meal fuses these two parts of my family’s story like Thanksgiving dinner.

My whole extended family eats Shabbat dinner together at least once or twice a month. We rotate houses, and thus cooks and cuisines, but the format is basically the same. When Thanksgiving comes around, we gather around the table and awkwardly wait for Kiddush to start before realizing that it’s not, in fact, Shabbat.

In researching her book, Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan interviewed a number of Jewish Cubans (also known as Jewbans), who regularly returned to the theme of Thanksgiving, the “real melting pot.” A typical Jewish-Cuban Thanksgiving “includes a roasted turkey as the centerpiece surrounded by cranberry sauce, plantains, rice, black beans … with pumpkin pie for dessert.” This is more or less a description of nearly every Thanksgiving I’ve ever celebrated (at least, the ones I can remember).

Like the typical American Thanksgiving, turkey is the main entree, but this is no ordinary American turkey. It’s not carved at the table with a flourish or deep fried. It’s not dry and sandpapery, doesn’t require greasy gravy, thick with fat. So maybe it’s not as photogenic as those whole glistening birds that belong in a Norman Rockwell painting, but it is juicy, flavorful, and a star in its own right.

Using citrus juice and carving the turkey half-way through the cooking process allows the turkey to retain flavor and moisture. Cutting the turkey in the kitchen also adds a secret reward—there is nothing so delicious as using your fingers to pick bits of meat straight off the bone. Plus, this is one of those rare dishes that actually tastes better after being defrosted and reheated, so you can make it in advance without panicking. It’s also great on a sandwich for lunch the next day. I think the pilgrims would have been impressed with that kind of thrift.

Not Your Bubbe’s Cuban Turkey
Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients

15 lb whole turkey
1 tbs Lawry’s season salt (enough to cover surface of turkey)
1 tsp paprika
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup vino seco (white cooking wine)
4 cloves garlic, chopped

Special Equipment

Cooking bag

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Wash turkey and season inside and out with Lawry’s and paprika. Place turkey in a cooking bag.

3. Mix lemons, limes, orange juice, and wine (about two cups total) and pour over and inside the turkey. Rub garlic over turkey and leave the pieces under the skin.

4. Cook for about two and a half hours (or follow directions on cooking bag based on turkey’s weight). Then take the turkey out of the bag and cut the legs while still hot so that the skin does not stick. Slice the entire turkey and place in a large pan. Pour liquid through a colander and over the turkey.

5. Cook for one more hour, covered. Continue to cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

Also try:

Not Your Bubbe’s Stuffed Cabbage Kugel

Not Your Bubbe’s Squash Pie

Not Your Bubbe’s Kasha Mac and Cheese

The post Not Your Bubbe’s Recipe: Cuban Thanksgiving Turkey appeared first on Jewcy.

• The New York Times goes house hunting in Poland.

• Not everyone liked Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris: the Faulkner estate is suing Sony over Owen Wilson’s character’s unauthorized use of a Faulkner quote.

• Jewcy contributor Hillary Busis talked to the Degrassi creator in advance of the series’ 300th episode—and yes, Drake came up.

• In what should come as no surprise whatsoever, everyone is making a really big deal about Lena Dunham’s pro-Obama video.

• Curbed takes a look at Manhattan’s synagogues-turned-condos.

• Watch Joan Nathan make the ultimate roast chicken:

The post Daily Jewce: ‘Midnight in Paris’ Legal Drama, Lena Dunham Obama Drama appeared first on Jewcy.

This past weekend, Mile End, Tablet Magazine, and ABC Home teamed up to present The Future of Jewish Food, where insiders from across the food industry talked Jews, food, and Jews eating food. Top Chef’s Gail Simmons (who wrote “keep cooking” in my copy of her book!) and Mitchell Davis of the James Beard Foundation (the only acronym that night where the ‘J’ didn’t stand for ‘Jewish’) discussed the future of the Jewish kitchen with food writer Joan Nathan, and then David Sax, author of Save the Deli, probed the future of the Jewish deli with the guys behind uber-trendy new-wave delis like Brooklyn’s Mile End, San Francisco’s Wise Sons, Portland’s Kenny and Zukes, and Saul’s Deli in Berkeley.

The highlight of the event was when Nathan asked her panelists to predict what Jewish food will look like in the year 3000. Simmons assured the crowd, perched on stylish chairs in the ABC Home event space, that there would still be matzoh balls. I like to imagine the ensuing sigh of relief as collective and not just mine.

Check out Tablet’s footage from the event, just be sure to wipe the drool off your computer keyboard after. We fully endorse event MC Alana Newhouse’s endorsement of lox:

The post I’ve Seen the Future of Jewish Food, and There Are Matzoh Balls appeared first on Jewcy.

• An Estonian newspaper ran a mock advertisement for a weight loss pill with images of prisoners in a concentration camp. Fail.

• Google glasses, coming at you from…the DVF fashion show?

• Aly Raisman fell during a gymnastics tour, but she’s okay!

THANK YOU so much for all the kind words & support. I’m so thankful that I am OK, just some bruising on my knees and the rest of my legs!

— Alexandra Raisman (@Aly_Raisman) September 10, 2012

• The Red Hot Chili Peppers rocked Tel Aviv, with a shout out to the band’s original guitarist, the Haifa-born Hillel Slovak.

• Joan Nathan wants you to make better brisket.

• Lea Michele, aka Glee’s Rachel Berry, does not like being compared to Screech:

The post Daily Jewce: Lea Michele is No Screech, Red Hot Chili Peppers Jam in Tel Aviv appeared first on Jewcy.

Bagels, coffee, and orange juice will be served in Arnold Hall (96 Wentworth St) beginning at 9:00am. The event is free and open to the public.

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