Christian Clarke’s 4th grade birthday party was not all that spectacular. Late afternoon, roller rink, lights dim with the “disco” lights swirling about in a clockwise fashion. I wasn’t even friends with Christian, it was just one of those parties to which everyone in class was invited. In fact, he pestered and teased me horribly, […]

In honor of Passover, a holiday that has always been more about the food shared than it has been about religious significance to me– I give you Haroset, or Charoses as it may be. Why the difference in spelling, thus the difference in pronunciation? Well its a matter of both transliteration and place. If you […]

A peculiar thing is happening to Bay Area farmer’s market, and I’m not sure that I like it. They are becoming very much in fashion, in vogue, and not always in a good way. In other parts of the country a farmer’s market is a place to get wholesome farm fresh produce, much better than […]

Maneschewitz wine, the Boone’s Strawberry Wine of sacrament beverages. It is syrupy sweet, fortified, mustache-staining purple, concord grape. What more can be said than, it’s a twist-off top? I love the stuff, it’s the Passover beverage of my youth. I didn’t come from one of those up-tight American families where drinking before the age of […]

Sometimes it is the simplest meals that are the most delicious. A soft-boiled egg, small and self-contained, proudly standing tall in its porcelain cup is the perfect brunch-time antidote to a weekend filled with too much wine, hearty foods, or both. An ideal vessel in which to dip a slice of lightly grilled rustic country […]

Call it what you will, pop, soda, soda-pop, soft-drink, hiccup inducing sugar water, from time to time I do love a Coke. In fact it’s just about the only soda I will have in all of its permutations; vanilla, chocolate, and cherry from the fountain. And I adore the fountain Cokes, but they are a […]

The sunchoke, otherwise known as the Jerusalem artichoke was unfamiliar to me. Sure I’d read about it, even heard about this little knobby tuber in certain circles; I just had never gotten around to trying it. That was until this week, when the gorgeous buttery, potatoey, artichoky bulb came into my home via a Berkeley […]

About five years ago I received a blow torch for a birthday present. Now this isn’t just any torch, the kind they sell at kitchen gadget stores, with a minute flame, and hardly enough heat to burn an ant. No, this is the Bernz-o-Matic propane torch, a pint-sized tool that when lit, holds enough power […]

I love chicken soup of all kinds, matzoh balls lying heavy in a pool of hot chicken broth with a sprinkling of mandel (kosher-style oyster crackers), noodle soup, with puffy homemade egg noodles, and pho chicken soup, slurping up the toothsome noodles and dipping your spoon into the slightly piquant, garlicy broth. And now, I […]

Well, go to 99 Ranch, that’s what. Easter is a strange holiday; it’s not quite as all-consuming as Christmas, but I was surprised at just how many places were closed. On Christmas I join the rest of the Jewish masses and usually go to a movie and then settle in for a lovely Chinese meal. […]