Kosher Style

Clockwise from top left: Braised Beef Brisket, Chicken Matzoh Ball Soup, Chicken Liver Pate, Noole Kugel, Potato Latkes, Latkes and Spiced Apple Compote



Kosher Style Dining

Today's Menu:

Potato Latkes

Noodle Kugel

Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Soup

Matzoh Balls

Braised Beef Brisket

Jewish dietary laws are drawn from Biblical references; instituted to help keep Israel a holy nation, seperate from idol-worshipping neighbors. Keeping Kosher provides a strong sense of identity from one generatiion to the next.

Kosher (Hebrew: Kasher) literally means "ritually correct or ritually fit"

Certain animals are designated as allowable for food, others as prohibited (Allowed - must have genuine split hooves and it must chew its cud)

No birds of prey, no animal not ritually slaughtered, no consumption of blood in any form

Meat and dairy foods are not to be mixed or served together: seperate dishes, silverware, pots and pans, etc are kept for each type

Foods considered neither dairy or meat are called pareve (Yiddish word for neutral)

Foods that are manufactured under rabbinic supervision and certified as kosher have an identifying symbol, either a circled U or a "K"

"prosim k stolu" - Russia Day I

Clockwise from top left: Borscht, Blini and Caviar I, Blilni and Caviar II, Slavic Chocolate Pie, and Kasha

"prosim k stolu" - Russian for "Please to the table"

Long tradition of hospitality and comaraderie.

Common foods: bulgur, yogurt, grilled meats, river and lake fish, sheeps cheeses, sumak, pomegranates, fenugreek, beets, cabbage, potatoes, pork, sausages

Influences:

• Profound French influence from late 17th to early/mid 18th century
• In Caucasus: Chinese and Indian
• Scandinavian in Baltic states
• Commonalities with Polish, Hungarian, and Romainian cooking
• Large populations of Jews and gypsies

Zakuska - "little bites" - Russian hors d'oeuvres

Culturally isolated from Western Europe till 17th century (Peter the Great)

Marie-Antoine Careme worked in St. Petersburg: time of Charlotte Russe, Beef Stroganoff, Beef Shish Kebob, Salmon Coulibiac, Chicken Kiev, Chicken Crouquettes Pozharsky