Food for Thought Archives

Is Microwaving Food Healthy or Unhealthy?

grzymkiewicz/Depositphotos.com Is Microwaving Food Healthy or Unhealthy? The Surprising Truth from Harvard Medical School #health #wellness These days, it seems like everywhere we turn thereRead More

A Tribute to Gil Marks

Me and Gil Marks at a kosher tapas restaurant in Manhattan, 2013 The culinary world recently lost one of its most important voices. Gil Marks,Read More

How I Feel About Organics

In my grandpa’s garden. I’m coming out of the organic closet. Since starting my blog, I have tried to remain fairly neutral on the subjectRead More

Why I Switched to Whole Organic Milk

Valentyn_Volkov/Depositphotos.com Let’s talk about milk. Do you drink it? Have you sworn it off? A lot of people have limited their dairy consumption lately forRead More

The First Kosher Cheeseburger?

pumba1/Depositphotos.com Okay folks, this might be a tough one to “stomach.” While browsing the New York Times this week, I came across an article thatRead More

Food Trend for 2013 – Fermentation

Olegkalina/Depositphotos.com It’s the beginning of 2013, and culinary publications are starting to forecast the coming “food trends” for the new year. Last year could haveRead More

Cheese – The New Health Food?

Valentyn_Volkov/Depositphotos.com When a photographer wants us to smile for a photograph, we are often asked to “say cheese.” It works! Cheese makes us smile becauseRead More

To Big Gulp, or Not to Big Gulp?

broker/Depositphotos.com In a recent blog post, I discussed California’s ban on foie gras. The post sparked a terrific discussion about the government’s role in whatRead More

The Great Foie Gras Debate

iStock.com/NightAndDayImages A new law went into effect this week banning the use of foie gras in California. Gourmet restaurants across the state are in aRead More

Saffron – A New Path for Afghan Farmers

iStock.com/marilyna I was so pleased to watch this report on CNN’s Eatocracy blog this morning (watch the video here). In one Afghan province, farmers areRead More

Hebrew National – Answering to a Higher Authority?

iStock.com/kcline The kosher community is abuzz today as allegations surface that Hebrew National hot dogs, which have been kosher certified for decades, may not beRead More

Salt – Friend or Foe?

Yesterday, the New York Times published a feature called “We Only Think We Know The Truth About Salt.” The article discussed the flimsy science behindRead More

Do Happy Animals Produce Better Food?

iStock.com/ThinkDeep Coming out of a weekend filled with dairy foods for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, I was tickled to read a story about dairyRead More

Planning a Culinary Staycation

A food vendor in the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market near Bangkok, Thailand iStock.com/IlonaBudzbon With summer fast approaching, I’ve got the travel bug. I can’t helpRead More

Gefilte Goes Mainstream

iStock.com/Elzbieta Sekowska Well, it’s official– gefilte fish is going mainstream. A few weeks ago I heard about a new modern-day pushcart in Manhattan called Gefilteria. TheyRead More

The Great Truffle Debate

iStock.com/helovi On Sunday I watched a story on 60 Minutes about the most expensive food in the world– truffles. They talked about how European whiteRead More

Gershwin’s Roly Poly Lyrics

George and Ira Gershwin When composers write music, they’ll often create “dummy lyrics” as placeholders for what eventually will become the real lyrics of aRead More

The History of Food

As many of you know, I’m a bit of a history buff. And by a bit, I mean I’m obsessed. We can’t truly understand ourselvesRead More

Ten Commandments of Jewish Cooking

Happy 10/10/10 everybody! The calendar abbreviation 10/10/10 will only happen once during this century. This day has no other particular significance that I’m aware of,Read More

Sukkot – The Harvest Holiday and Thanksgiving

iStock.com/gianlucabartoli Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 15th of Tishrei on the Hebrew calendar. While notRead More

Emma Lazarus

In honor of our upcoming Independence Day weekend, I’d like to share with you a piece of writing by Jewish poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887).Read More

iStock.com/zoom-zoom During Passover, the Jewish kosher laws become a lot more challenging. Leavened/fermented grain products are prohibited to commemorate our freedom from Egyptian slavery. WhenRead More