Moroccan Candied Eggplant
My partner David Suissa returned from a family Passover in Montreal with a gift for me from his mother, Meme Suissa: berenjenitas en dulce. Moroccan candied eggplants are a post-Passover treat, laid out on a groaning table of sweets for the celebration of Mimouna. The last time I tasted them was in a Moroccan Jewish home […]
A High Holiday Restaurant Guide to Koreatown
Each year my wife Rabbi Naomi Levy holds the High Holiday services for her outreach congregation Nashuva at the large, round ecumenical Church of Religious Science in Koreatown, at Berendo and 6th St. Over a thousand people attend. They ask my wife, “Can I really change?” “Can I overcome my challenges?” “Can I achieve my […]
Koreatown Lunch
At night Koreatown is Manhattan– packed restaurants, backed up valet stands, lines out the doors to even the diviest BBqs. By day, it's a different story. You might be the only customer. You'll see the families behind these family-run places. You'll see the servers plucking the stems off a haystack of sweet peas piled on […]
Why Ditmas Kitchen and Cocktails on Pico Will Succeed
High-end kosher restaurants in LA last about as long as an American Idol’s singing career. Every few months, one arrives in a blaze of publicity and expectation—Prime Grill, La Seine, etc.— and a captive audience of people who keep kosher and are wealthy enough to drop a couple hundred bucks on a bottle of Castel […]
The Kosher Bacon Donut
Harry Ben-Zvi, the founder and owner of something called The Glazed Donut Bistro, had a problem. He opened a new donut shop, and as a strongly-identified Jew, he wanted to post a mezuzah, the ritual amulet marking the entrance to a Jewish home or business, on his door. The problem was … well, I should […]
Stuffed: Thanksgiving on Hope Street
Last Sunday, my job was to make stuffing for 400 people. I said I’d do it because there’s a part of me that prefers to forget that it’s been 25 years since I was a caterer, and I assumed it would be as easy now as it was then.
My lunch with a Los Angeles Tea Partier
Of the 3,977 angry e-mails I received last week, one stood out. “I am a Jew, a member of Temple Emanuel in Los Angeles, and the founder of the largest local, grass-roots Tea Party group in Los Angeles called the Hancock Park Patriots,” Mark Sonnenklar wrote.
Israeli Breakfast Buffet Parfait
The Israeli Breakfast Buffet Parfait is my attempt to recreate Israel in a glass. The normal breakfast in an Israeli hotel is an endless buffet of fresh vegetables, pickles, olives, salted fish, fresh cheeses, boiled eggs, fresh breads, olive oil and za'atar. I was 12 when I first laid eyes on one, and it was […]
Anthony Bourdain’s visit to Israel: Parts unknown
If you like food and you like Israel, this past week’s episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” was a win-win.
Anthony Bourdain (Finally) Goes to Israel
This week I columnized about Anthony Bourdain's visit to Israel, which aired as an episode of his “Parts Unknown” series on CNN. Two years ago I wrote a column in the Jewish Journal urging Bourdain, the most articulate of all the food personalities on TV, to include Israel as part of his then-popular show, “No […]