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As questions go, few are more central to the thought process of any self respecting Jew. Given the title alone, one can tell the directors of this new film understand something of what makes us tick. I haven't seen it, but from what I understand When Do We Eat? is a fairly close approximation to the seder nights so many of us experience. The trailer is promising.
This summer will see the third incarnation of Taste of London. This time it is set in Regent's Park rather than the grandeur of Somerset House. No doubt elements of it will be exceptionally commercial, food fares seem to be going that way, but there is a good line-up of chefs over the four days (15-18 June) including Tom Aikens, Michel Roux Jr and Atul Kolchar.
It rankles that I'll have to pay £5 to enter a park that I can otherwise enter for free. It seems I'm not the only one who is slightly peeved that the lungs of our city are being used as commercial workhorses (how's that for mixed metaphors?). Nonetheless, the two previous events have been quite enjoyable, so I'll probably end up going again this year. A summer's afternoon, in the park, eating and drinking? It could be worse.
Further to my post on kosher shopping, The Kosher Blog has an interesting take on what you can and cannot eat over Pesach.
It's that time of the year - around Easter - when etiquette, driving skills and good humour sink into an even deeper morass than usual in North West London. The reason is Pesach (aka Passover), or more particularly Pesach shopping.
There are many aspects to Pesach, but the central focus of it is the Jews' Exodus from Egypt under Moses. One of the major features of the festival is the rule that we must not eat any leavened food, which is known as chametz. The most well known manifestation of this that we don't eat bread and instead eat matzos - unleavened bread - which are basically glorified crackers.
A ban on anything bread-like sounds relatively straight-forward and for eight days I really shouldn't have a problem. However, the reality is, I find it quite tough. Wheat, rye, barley, spelt and oats are all grains that if they are leavened for more than 18 minutes (why 18 minutes?) are considered chametz. In addition, Ashkenazi Jews need to steer clear of rice, corn, beans and peanuts because these were traditionally used in bread making and our rabbinic leaders want all avoidance of doubt as to what we're eating. It seems that the Sephardic rabbis don't have such concerns regarding the fallibility of their flock and they're allowed to eat these foods. It has to be said that for Sephardis not eating rice or beans would be a bit like telling a Frenchman that onions and garlic were off the menu - they would wither and die.
In addition to not being allowed to consume these items, we are forbidden from benefiting from them and therefore need to be certain that none are in our houses. That means that even those things that are okay for the rest of the year need to be dumped (or 'sold') in favour of explicitly kosher for Pesach products. The practicality of that, for those of us who are even vaguely observant, is that we need to empty our store cupboards, change our cutlery, crockery, pots, pans and anything else that has come into contact with the dreaded chametz. So, imagine it, across the world there are millions of Jews desperately cleaning, sorting, storing and most importantly buying, buying, buying.
I have just returned from a two hour shopping trip and have spent over £200 on eight days worth of food. This year is slightly unusual because Silverbrowess will be stuck at home throughout the eight days of the festival so I've had to buy for every meal of the entire eight days. Normally we try to foist ourselves upon our respective parents and get them to go to the hassle of doing the cooking. However, that is not a choice a lot of people have, so they have to undergo the tortuous shopping expedition and the result is long queues and bad tempers. My mood was lightened by the impressively humorous bag packer who told me he was on a break from yeshiva in Gateshead. Clearly though he was bored senseless if the excitement he displayed when a disgruntled customer returned to shop complaining about the three bottles of wine that had smashed over his food, was anything to go by. The other customers looked ever more weary and kept an especially beady eye on the packers to ensure their bottles of wine didn't suffer a similar fate.
As often seems to be the case with kosher food, over Pesach, it is of impressively crap quality. Yoghurts that have only the vaguest hint of what a cow is, food that is deep fried or deep frozen or conveniently dehydrated so all I need to do is add water. Why do I buy it? I'm really not sure, except that with the advent of Pesach I'm beset by a malaise that results in cooking being at the very bottom of my agenda and eating to survive at the very top. Every year I'm shocked that a belligerent big-gob like me can be swayed into buying this crap and every year it happens without fail.
The first night of Pesach is Wednesday 12th April and it goes out on Thursday 20th April (in Israel it goes out on the day before - a quirk of the Jewish calendar.) I don't imagine I'll be minded to post too much during the period so apologies if I'm a bit slack.
My culinary heart sinks with the first whiff of the Pesach shopping trip and doesn't return until I've wiped the crumbs from my lips of my first post-Pesach bagel.
