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I look back on my childhood and wonder how I felt as a young girl walking through the front door of our home knowing that the language would shift from English to Yiddish. My recollection is that I always liked Yiddish, having positive associations with the language and understanding that the words were so much more […]
Last week I turned on the Food Network and Giada De Laurentiis had just blanched a pot of Brussel Sprout leaves. Unfortunately I missed her technique for separating the leaves, but the result looked so appealing that I decided to try to duplicate it. My friend Sheila had invited us over to try a new […]
I have something to share about my husband. He has a tendency to reveal the ending of a play or movie plot before the rest of us have seen it, or share the final score of a sports event when others are watching in a different time zone. It is something we joke about, and […]
As a child having an August birthday was always a little disappointing. Children who were born during the school year had typical parties that included games and home-made birthday cakes, but in the heat of the summer not too many kids were hanging around the Bronx. It also stemmed from the fact that my parents […]
Several months ago I had the pleasure of spending the morning at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles listening to several innovative chefs and speakers discuss food. One of the speakers was Michael Stern, the author of Roadfood, who shared humorous stories about his search for great meals while “on the road.” He reflected on the difference between fine dining and dining on local fare, and […]
Despite the fact that we lived in the city, The Bronx had enough natural beauty for my father to enjoy. There was Mosholu Parkway, Pelham Parkway, Poe Park, and Van Cortlandt Park, just to name a few of the places where one could escape to. On Sundays my father and I would walk to St. […]
Growing up, all of my parents’ friends were Polish Jews. As immigrants, they wanted to surround themselves with people who had similar experiences and backgrounds, people who shared common customs, language, and food. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I met Jews who looked different, spoke Hebrew or Ladino (as opposed to Yiddish), […]
