Stuffed with cream cheese – and love

The allure of Jewish food.

By Felicity Cloake Published 23 May 2012

Kosher food: A salt beef sandwich on rye, as served at Deli West One in London.

Chopped liver, boiled fish balls, beetroot soup – to the uninitiated, a kosher restaurant menu reads like printed proof of that famous Jewish sense of humour. Even Ruth Joseph, the author of a new book of classic Jewish recipes, Warm Bagels & Apple Strudel (Kyle, £25), concedes that many of them can sound “a bit weird” to those of us who have never basked in the warm embrace of a bubbe’s borscht.

Yet this once frumpy food is suddenly some of the hottest in London – frigid fish balls and all. Gone are the days when kosher institutions such as Bloom’s were known more for their extraordinarily rude service than their food. (“I don’t want to name names,” Ruth tells me, “but we’ve been to Jewish restaurants where the fellow’s got grease all down the front of him, his thumb is in your soup and then he argues with you for complaining.”)

First, Deli West One popped up in chi-chi Marylebone last November, swiftly followed by a modish pop-up called Kosher Roast, and Mishkin’s, a “kind-of Jewish deli” from the capital’s restaurateur de jour, Russell Norman. And when Norman gets involved, that officially makes it a trend.

What’s striking is that none of these places is subverting stodgy stereotypes by embracing the fabulous kaleidoscope of kosher cooking around the world. They’re not introducing us to the aromatic rice and vegetable dishes of Claudia Roden’s Egyptian childhood, or the delicate curries of the Indian Jewish community, but instead celebrating eastern European Ashkenazi cuisine in its schmaltz-laden, rib-sticking glory.

At Deli West One, packed with kippah-clad men lunching on soup and matza balls, I eat a magnificent salt beef on rye; at Mishkin’s, it’s all about the chicken knishes and lox bagels. There are blintzes and latkes, pickles and pastrami, all in authentically generous portions: as Ruth proudly tells me, “we don’t do any of these little dishes with a drizzle of oil round them. Oh no, we want to feed you!”

There’s no disputing the comfort factor of it all – whether you grew up on ham or herring. She smiles at the intense nostalgia such tastes can spark: “A single spoonful and you’re back – it’s instant. Jewish food is like music.”

Indeed, slow-simmered Shabbat stews, starchy dumplings and creamy cakes and puddings are the kind of food we can all take succour from when we’re feeling in need of a big hug. As Ruth observes, “you don’t need to be Jewish to enjoy Jewish food”.

And while few truly Jewish joints will be adopting Mishkin’s cheeseburgers, there’s a definite smell of change in a world where old recipes are often cherished as rare links to a vanished past. Kosher culinary culture values tradition – the joke about bubbe’s brisket springs to mind – but Deli West One serves up latkes with salt beef chilli, and Kosher Roast offers turkey scotch eggs and organic chicken liver mousse, alongside its rabbinically approved Sunday roasts.

Lokshen key

Ruth believes that health-conscious home cooks are increasingly willing to update the classics to suit modern tastes. “I know when I was a kid, if you had a piece of lokshen pudding, you were confined to a seat for an hour afterwards. That’s not the way to live now.” Her “almost fat-free” version of this much beloved noodle bake replaces the traditionally lavish quantities of butter and cream cheese with soya milk – but she’s included the old-fashioned recipe in the book, too.

After all, the most important ingredient in any Jewish mother’s kitchen might be love – but as the Yiddish proverb has it, “Love is grand, but love with lokshen is even better”. I think we can all say amen to that.

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6 comments

Tue, 2012-06-05 20:38 — Westerner (not verified)

Now that I live in the West, I really miss the real bagels from back East. I have great memories of freshly made bagel after church every sunday as a kid growing up in Massachusetts. MLS

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Thu, 2012-05-31 19:52 — GawdLuvr (not verified)

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""The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet OUR LORD AND SAVIOR MOHAMMED CHRIST MOSES TAMMUZ and make mischief in the land, is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides...their doom is dreadful. They will not escape the fire, suffering constantly." (Surah 5:33)

Man shall not lay with man else the LORD GOD JEHOVAH YAHWEH shall deliver mankind into the hand's of slavers and thieves and we will receive the PUNISHMENT that is due to us. If you want to make mufti-million dollar fortunes please just read the WORD OF GOD and PRAY and OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST will preserve your soul. Do not scoff for GOD JEHOVAH has destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and will do so again. BAAL and PAZUZU will be unleashed to destory the homosexual capital of the world NEW YORK CITY in the year 2014. DO NOT SCOFF LOVE THY NEIGHBOR SAID OUR LORD MAN SHALL NOT LIE WITH MAN IT IS AN ABOMINATION!

I WILL NOT HURT YOU IF YOU COME NEAR! I have drank ten drinks every night for my entire life and my bladder only works through the GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. Before I was saved as an adult and was BORN AGAIN INTO ETERNAL GRACE FOR IT SAYS IN THE HOLY BIBLE THAT ONLY HE WHO IS BORN AGAIN WILL COME INTO OUR LORDS GRACE LOVE THY NEIGHBOR DO NOT TOUCH THE CHILDREN PHILIPPIANS 69 I had very poor bladder control due to constant alcohol abuse FOR I HAVE SINNED my bowels also were not working very well and I spoke to the LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HIS ANGELS and asked with my heart that HE should send his spirits to clinch my bowels and bladder so that I may serve him out in the world LO IT HAS OCCURRED I now only have three accidents a week on average.

And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man.--Ezekiel 4:12

Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?.--Isaiah 36:12

DO NOT SCOFF AT THE POWER OF THE LORD FOR HE WILL SEND HIS ANGELS Humanity must recycle their waste ALL OF THEIR WASTE to enter into LORD JEHOVAHS ETERNAL KINGDOM we must save our feces to be used as fuel and mortar I HAVE SOLVED THE ENERGY CRISIS THROUGH THE GRACE OF JESUS THROUGH WHOM I CAN DO EVERYTHING

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And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.--Leviticus 26:29

DEATH TO THOSE WHO SCOFF LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

PRAISE HIM ALWAYS JESUS CHRIST JEHOVAH

Thu, 2012-05-31 17:44 — Will Avery

"Restaurateur de jour" means, if anything, "restaurateur by day".

Was "restaurateur du jour" meant?

Mon, 2012-06-04 06:35 — Mikeami (not verified)

Yes,you are right.

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Wed, 2012-05-30 12:26 — JJJ (not verified)

A wonderful, warm article celebrating Jewish food. Although very tasty, Ashkenazi food is quite unhealthy, unfortunately. The proper response should be 'in moderation'.

And the delis in NewYork put London to shame. Though considering the population sizes ad American culture that is not a mystery!

Personally, I prefer the North African, Turkish and Spanish cuisines which have elements that resemble Sephardi Jewish cuisine. Or was it the other way round? Either way, the combination of flavours and textures of Sephardi food is more pleasureable.