Immigrant Days

A wonderful article by Joan Nathan appears in today's New York Times food section. "Rosh Hashana, Circa 1919" describes life in an immigrant Jewish household, and what they ate in 1919. The Strawbery Banke restoration is "a living museum in which over 350 years of Portsmouth homes, stores, churches and history have been preserved." The foodways of the inhabitants have been researched by analysis of seeds and soil from the area and by interviews with children and grandchildren of the original inhabitants.

In particular, the article follows the actress portraying one Jewish resident:

"For Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins on Friday evening, she excitedly pinched rolled-out strips of pasta dough into bowtie noodles to use with leftover kasha stuffing from her roast chicken, and made traditional honey and poppy seed cakes."

Also don't miss "Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style" in the L.A.Times. In the context of a Tunisian-Jewish bakery owned by Alain Cohen, it describes foods for the holiday in this Sephardic community. Cohen grew up in Paris in a family of Jewish-Tunisian origin. He recalled his mother's holiday meal:

The feast would include fava beans with cumin; grilled lamb's liver stew; a frittata with ground chicken and lemon juice; a selection of salads; and t'fina pkaila, a stew of spinach, beef, sausage and beans, served over couscous.

In L.A., besides challah, sometimes baked with the good-luck open hand symbol, Cohen's Rosh Hashanah table includes a number of symbolic foods:

Figs, apples and honey are there for prayers for a sweet year. Dates are included so "that we elevate ourselves like palm trees and that our sins disappear forever," Cohen says. Sesame seeds suggest a proliferation of virtues. A fish symbolizes fertility.

Most powerful to Cohen are spinach leaves, thinly sliced pumpkin and garlic cloves, which are fried in an egg batter and dipped in honey or a sugar syrup. The garlic and pumpkin are to ward off enemies, the spinach a symbol of renewal.