Silverbrow on Food

Kosher Food Week

I can't remember which book it was, but in one of his earlier works Bill Bryson declares his love for local newspapers.  He argues that it's only by reading what's going on at the community level can you get a feel for the people who live there.

Whilst I wouldn't deride The Jewish Chronicle as merely a local paper, it is as the title suggests a community paper and is rightly proud of it.  It can generate rather mixed feelings across the UK Jewish community, some think its too parochial, others argue its too sensationalist and others still just enjoy reading it after dinner on a Friday night.  (As an aside, if you really want to see a parochial title go and check out The Jewish Telegraph.)

Personally, I don't agree with everything I read it in the JC, but that's true for any paper and being challenged is good.  Under the editorship of Stephen Pollard the JC has at last embraced the internet and has been running some pretty interesting content on its still-slightly-clunky website. 

I was particularly taken by a series of guest articles proposing suggestions for how best to improve the Jewish community in the UK.  The ones I liked most were those focused on making the most out of being a small community: creating a community service programme to provide further support to the least fortunate in society and streamlining our charities to ensure they are providing the right services.

Obviously I couldn't pass up the chance of offering my thoughts on how we could do more with our food and it is on the site now.  For context, it's worth noting that I wrote this during the recent festival of Passover, during which the Seders are the ne plus ultra of Jewish festive dining.

The basic premise of my idea is that we really need to be reminded of the value of what we're eating.  For a community that sets so much store in food, we seem blithely unconcerned about it.

One final point, in the JC article they've titled my idea Kosher Restaurant Week, that was just one idea, part of a bigger picture. But I like it, as this post's title shows though I'm keen to widen it beyond restaurants to kosher food in general.

This is cross-posted from the JC's website.

I know the point of maxims is that they are poignant because they ring true and for me “They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat." is a nice encapsulation of the Jewish approach to eating. Along with images of bubbes or Jewish mothers force-feeding their offspring, food is both perceived as, and is actually, central to the Jewish identity.

Yet as a community in the UK, food is rarely a topic for debate. Food is something we all do, it is something we sometimes do together as a community, but it is rarely a topic of discussion.

In the United States there is a vocal movement discussing the ethics of kosher food. These are not debates about shechitah, rather it is a discussion about why is kosher meat so expensive? Why have animals destined for the shochet`s knife lived in conditions rarely much better than factory farms? Is it all about quantity, or does quality matter as well?

The secular world has handled similar issues, focusing on provenance, animal husbandry and alternative farming methods. The kosher community in the UK blindly goes on eating puffy, watery chickens and heavily processed foods.

In the UK, kosher shops or restaurants get credit for selling food approximating treyf [not kosher] equivalents, not the quality of their produce.

I'm advocating that we shouldn`t just be celebrating with food, we should celebrate our food.

We should have a kosher restaurant week where restaurants show off the quality of their cooking rather than crowing that they can cook kosher versions of sizzling beef or an ersatz version of the already ersatz chicken tikka massala. Butchers should do blind tastings comparing organic-style and `normal` chickens. Fishmongers should remind us that it was Jews who brought fish and chips to the UK.

It’s time to embrace what we eat and how we eat it and stop being so reticent about something so self-defining.

Silverbrow on Food one of top 10 food blogs around the World

Seriously?  No shurely, not.  It can't be.

Well, so says The Times and I'm not one to argue with The Thunderer.

I'm rather chuffed to be on The Times' website, I have to say. 

But I'm really chuffed that the article was written by Simon Majumdar, one half of Dos Hermanos.  The man knows more about his onions than a frog with a string of them around his neck.  He also knows a fair bit about blogging.  It may not be fair to describe the Evening Standard as a pudding, but it does provide some proof of my hagiography by listing him as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London. 

Which is why I'm chuffed.

Whilst I'm in such a good mood with Simon, I'm going to plug his forthcoming book Eat My Globe: One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything. I haven't seen it so I've no idea if it's any good and it's not out for yonks. But, read his blog and the assumption has to be that it's going to be excellent.

Check out the other blogs on the list, they're ones I read and admire.  They, unlike me, deserve to be there.

The first meal

This is cross-posted on the Observer's Word of Mouth blog.

For the last few nights I have been peeling, chopping, stewing and pulping vegetables because our daughter, Silverbrowlette, has started eating. She's still on the breast-milk wagon, but she needs a top-up of something more substantial. So far, solids have been only part of one meal. From tomorrow however, she moves on to having solids for breakfast and lunch.

We can look at first meals one of two ways: either the po-faced but serious approach of what the hell do we actually feed the sprogs - is the received wisdom of organic baby rice the way forward, or are there other options - or, we could indulge our fantasies and wonder what we would choose for this formative experience if we could travel back in time and keep down more than slop.

First let's be serious. In every possible way I want to give my daughter the best start in life. I want to make sure that everything she eats is good for her.

I also want to do everything in my power to ensure that she isn't a fussy eater and that she appreciates her food. It's not an easy task, especially as there's no agreed theory as to what makes for a fussy child.

So far, she has quite happily scoffed baby rice, stewed and mashed carrots, pears, apples and sweet potatoes. The larger the portion, the happier she is - that's my girl.

To many people, that list of fruit and veg might read like a mishmash of relatively sweet staples, which is true, but for the parents out there who have recently weaned their babies it is as a semaphore signal that tells you a lot about the way we're bringing our daughter up. It tells you whether Silverbrowlette is a Gina Ford baby or an Annabel Karmel baby and those in the know will identify her as the latter.

The approaches of these these two arbiters of feeding are fundamentally different but as parents you become wedded to one or the other. What if you want to plough your own furrow? After all, I rarely eat what an overbearing woman tells me to eat.

From what I can see, unless one follows the strictures of Karmel or Ford, you're on your own - and it's bloody scary. For example, received wisdom dictates that baby rice should be on the menu very early on. Let's dismiss the issue of being a slave to received wisdom and instead focus on the horror of arsenic in baby rice. Yes, arsenic. According to the NHS we shouldn't worry. But it's arsenic ... in baby rice. Does it come much more scary?

In the UK, the NHS baldly states that it's breast milk until at least six months, but the reality in our household and that of many of our friends, is that the baby needs proper food before that. Silverbrowlette started diving for the knife and fork at about four and a half months old. Does that make the NHS advice worthless? Probably not, but trying to get a clear answer to that question is tough, because after all, it's the NHS. They must know what they're talking about ... I think.

There is surprisingly little independent guidance (ie not written by those trying to flog a series of books) on what babies should be fed. There's a mini-industry around last meals, there's a lot of gnashing of teeth about what to give early meals, but first solid meals seem to be overlooked.

Is any meal more significant than our first? For the food obsessed, does it get any more existential than pondering what to pass between our lips for the very first time? I have a gut feeling that the first meal will determine how that child approaches food for the rest of their lives. I'm interested to hear what you fed your baby as their first meal and why.

And what about you? If you could choose your first meal what would it be? For me it's either a beautifully roasted side of beef or bollito misto. Both reflect the type of food I love to cook and eat. They're big and bold dishes but with subtle flavours and are best eaten with a glass of red wine and surrounded by family. Both also benefit from my wife's astoundingly good roast potatoes.

Yankee superiority?

This is cross-posted on The Jew & The Carrot a food focused blog written by the team at Hazon - a US based organisation that has the stated vision to "create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community -- as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all."  The website and blog have some great content.  I strongly recommend you read it.

Earlier this year, Leah asserted that Great Britain could claim "foodie superiority" over the US thanks to the work of Jamie,  Hugh and Gordon.  But while television shows are good indicators of the cultural zeitgeist, what interests me is the quality of food and in particular, the  quality of kosher food.

And it's there that I believe we in the UK are the laggards.

There is much the US cannot be proud of: Agriprocessors and additives  are two good examples.  But when it comes to ethical, good quality food, the US is  miles ahead.  We need look no further than The Jew and the Carrot.  Hazon is an organisation that has around it a thriving community and has received national recognition.   It's an organisation that asks bold questions of its members.

In the UK, not only is there nothing comparable, there's not even a conversation, not a murmur of discourse about what we as Jews should be eating.  One week I  try to convince the readers of the Jewish Chronicle (the leading  British, Jewish newspaper) of the sheer awfulness of much that we consume in the name of our religion, and the very next week the editors are extolling the virtues of kosher food, just because it's kosher.

British kosher consumers, in particular kosher meat consumers, seem to have a total disregard for what they eat.  How can I justify such a sweeping statement?  Because all the facts point to it being the case.   There is no call to arms.  Not a single religious leader has pointed out that the quality of our food is appalling, nor have the community screamed for it.   Equally, the butchers haven't dragged us into the modern era and imposed high quality food upon us.  Instead, there has been a collusion of silence from consumers, religious authorities and those selling our food, and everyone, bizarrely, seems quite content with the  situation.

Here are a couple of examples of what we have to put up with:

- The London Beth Din, one of the largest British certification authorities, only allow battery farmed eggs in kosher shops. (see update below)  The reason, as far as I can tell is because chickens that grow in small cages and rot in their own faeces tend to  breed eggs that are sufficiently unnatural that they don't have blood spots - or  at least blood spots are easier to identify in factory farmed birds.

The LBD, the  body we look to for spiritual guidance, prefers abnormalities to nature.  It's an interesting choice from the agency that  says (scroll all the way to the bottom) The motto of every Kashrut agency should be the words of Rashi at the end of the Parsha of Kashrut: (Shemini Chapter 11 Pasuk 16) "To distinguish between the impure and the pure".  I suppose if one is being fair they can't be faulted.  They are as good  as their word, they've distinguished between pure and impure, it's just a  surprise which one they prefer.

- Kosher, Organic Meat, until very recently, it was impossible to get a kosher, free range chicken in London.  In fact, it was possible, from the right supplier, but protectionism got the better of the London Beth Din and they decided their butchers needed their pound of flesh.

So why the parlous state of affairs?  I reckon it's a combination of naivety, protectionism and a good dose of embarrassment.

Naivety on behalf of many consumers who assume that kosher food is good to eat, because 'it's  religious, so it must be good'.  Yet I guess that many of these consumers are the same people that are driving sales of organic produce in the leading supermarkets and doyens of the various box schemes (similar to CSAs).

Complicity on behalf of religious authorities who benefit financially from their very uncompetitive existence.  In the US there is an interminable roll-call of authorities that dole out heckshers.  In the UK, there are barely a handful.  Any high-school economist can tell you that a lack of competition means the consumer loses out.

That same economist will also fully understand the implications of supply and demand.  As I wrote in a  recent article in the JC, there is a race to the bottom when it comes to kosher food in the UK.  Not enough people buy kosher meat which understandably makes it more expensive.  But is collusion the inevitable outcome of that?  To me the religious authorities and meat processors are embarrassed by what they do, they seem to obfuscate at every turn.  They imply kosher meat is healthy, but the uncomfortable facts tell the truth.

Am I being unfair to my fellow consumers, the religious authorities and those selling us our meat? If I am, I have yet to see proof to the contrary.

So Leah, right back at ya.  Things might be  bad in the US, but cheer up, you don't have to eat kosher food in the UK.

UPDATE: I was delighted when I spotted a poster tonight in the window of Menachem's, my preferred kosher butcher, announcing that they are now selling free-range eggs.  Maybe I should cut the LBD some slack? No, not yet.

Does size matter?

This is cross-posted on The Guardian's Word of Mouth blog.

I had always assumed that big equals bad.  Fay Maschler's recent review of Quaglino's (400 seats) did nothing to dispel this fear, nor did the legion of poor reviews of Gilgamesh (680 seats).

My fears were only compounded when I heard that Guinness World Records had a category devoted to the World's Largest Restaurant.  According to the BBC, it was a hard-fought contest. The winner was Bawabet Dimashq in Damascus (6,014 seats), trouncing its closest rival Mang Gorn Luang (5,000 seats) by 1,014.

Is it possible that somewhere that makes more of its size than food can really be any good?

Of the four restaurants named so far, I've only eaten at Quaglino's. A surprise I know, especially as I don't live in one of the seedier corners of Kent. Nor am I a barrow boy. But, in its 90s heyday I did go. I can't remember a thing about it. Oh, except for its size.

It was, to a whip of a lad like me, ebloodynormous. And that staircase, well, was there ever a more suitable handrail to slide down? The food was little more than a side show.

But is this any surprise? Aren't gastrodomes doomed to serve mediocre food to the braying masses? Is small ever more beautiful than when wrapped up in fine napery and better ingredients? A meal I had on a beach last year in Brazil would appear to live up to this romantic vision. Sylvinha's is on a hard to access stretch of a hard to access beach. It has two tables and two staff: the eponymous Sylvinha who is host and chef, and a helper who serves and cleans up. The food was outstanding.

Without local knowledge and much planning there wasn't a hope in hell of finding the place. The chase was half the fun. It's hard to imagine there would be quite as much enjoyment if there were another 5,000 diners stuffing their faces. Surely big places can never maintain such high quality and are doomed to mediocrity.

I was mulling this received wisdom over on Sunday as I was tucking into Father's Day lunch at The Wolseley. By any standard The Wolseley is both good and large - according to the restaurant's website, they serve over 1,000 people a day. This is no mecca of mediocrity. My schmaltz herrings had a decent bite, indicating they were soused not sozzled. My omelette Arnold Bennett was richly unctious from the uber-yellow eggs, not too creamy and had enough haddock to give it all a rather sexy, smoky taste. The meal was digested whilst watching Bill Nighy, Dita von Teese and Jimmy Nail clearly enjoying their meals - as well as the other couple of hundred people tucking into their Father's Day meals.

There is definitely something about restaurants and size. I'd be interested in your thoughts. Are you swayed by the size of a restaurant? Do you run a mile if your restaurant resembles anything other than a boite, or does the concept of not eating with at least 500 other diners reduce you to paroxysms of claustrophobia? And finally, is the little Italian place around the corner ever nice?

Olive Magazine & Dizengoff

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Tony Naylor for the BBC's Olive Magazine. It was for a feature in this month's magazine about bloggers' favourite but unknown restaurants.

Mine was Dizengoff. I've never done a full on review of the restaurant, which is a bit remiss because it's the restaurant I visit most frequently. I'll let the Olive article be a proxy for my review, as I really don't have time to write one now. Suffice to say though that for simple grilled meat, with fresh salads, I love Dizengoff. Given the tone of the article, I thought the photo accompanying the article (a dessert) was a bit of a non-sequituir. I've never eaten a dessert there, so am not in a position to express a view one way or the other.

You can download a pdf of the article here.

Google Maps
Google Earth (download)

Dizengoff, 118 Golders Green Road, London, NW11 8HB, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 8458 7003

What others think

Time Out - Dizengoff's is (sic) producing some great meals

Interview with Trusted Places

I always had a problem understanding Trusted Places. I couldn't understand what they were all about.

That was until I met Walid at a fascinating shindig arranged by Andrew of Eating Albion fame. After a bit of explaining it all made sense and I see that it's not simply another London Eating.

That night Walid asked me if I'd like to do an interview with them, I said yes and it's up now on Trusted Places. Thanks to Laura who asked all the questions. Welcome to all those who have come over here, from over there.