Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. Follow him on Instagram @foodaism and Twitter @foodaism or email eshman@forward.com.
Rob EshmanSenior Columnist
By Rob Eshman
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Food When life gives you etrogs, make etrog liqueur
When my wife first came home with an etrog, I was enchanted and aghast. This was before we were married, when we were just beginning to celebrate the cycle of Jewish holidays together. I knew that to observe the holiday of Sukkot, Jews traditionally constructed makeshifts huts, and performed a ritual waving tree fronds while…
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News Recall or not, Gavin Newsom needs to atone—and so do his critics
It’s a coincidence that the election to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom falls one day before the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday of atonement. But it may also be fortuitous. After a contest that has been alternately brutal and silly but always expensive, polls show that Newsom is likely to retain his seat. After…
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Food A fresh fig salad for any fall meal
When the High Holidays roll around, so do fresh figs. This salad, which takes about five minutes to make, balances the fruit’s peak soft sweetness with the slightly bitter crunch of walnuts and a burst of fresh mint. I sometimes add pomegranate seeds, which only improves things. Our friend Julie Drucker served this salad to…
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Food East Coast v. West Coast Bagels, so which are better?
In the scheme of things —Afghanistan, global warming, the Delta variant— the “Great Bagel Off” may not ask the most urgent question, and yet 2,500 people signed up to hear the answer. That’s right: 2,500. Not to actually eat bagels. Just to watch other people eat them, and decide: Which coast does have the best…
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Food Better-than-honey cake Italian honey cookies
I’m not ashamed to admit that outside our kosher home, I don’t just eat kosher food. But admitting I don’t really like popular Jewish foods— that’s kind of embarrassing. Here’s my short list of the foods of my People that I’d be fine living without: pickled herring, chopped liver, matzo brei, sweet kugel and honey…
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Food Creamless yet creamy celery soup, a no-waste recipe
There was a sign posted at the Los Angeles branch of D.C. Kitchen, a non-profit that employed at-risk adults to turn donated food into nutritious meals. It read: “People and food should not be wasted.” Words to live by, right? Celery is one of those vegetables we tend to waste, or at least overlook. But…
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Food Chickpea gnocchi with market vegetables: Italy, meet the Middle East
Chickpea gnocchetti — gnocchetti di ceci— little knuckles of garbanzo beans and flour— combine two of my favorite things: the Middle East and Italy. This recipe is inspired by one I found in an old issue of La Cucina Italianathat I fished out of a neighbor’s recycling. (Who throws away La Cucina Italiana?) I’ve made…
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News Remembering Ruth Pearl, mother of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, and ‘strength incarnate’
Ruth Pearl, who died July 20 at the age of 85, fought a thousand battles in her lifetime. She didn’t look like a warrior— barely five feet tall, rail thin with cropped brown hair and a soft voice that quavered, especially as she fought respiratory problems in later life. But when I first met her,…
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