food

11 Questions: Beyond the Synagogue by Rachel B. Gross
Rachel B. Gross’s engrossing new book looks “beyond the synagogue” to find religious practice in museums, restaurants, and children’s books. Through years of wide-ranging travel, conversations, and reading, Rachel has written a book that has so much to tell us not just about Jewish experiences and identities in the US but about what nostalgia is…

Et Tu, Almonds? On Guilt and Eating
Meanwhile I forgive you, my beloved almonds, for not being harmless; I am not harmless either.

BYOB Beads ‘n Booze
Tables For Two Five Wounds 874 Oskars Street, tel: 212-567-4001 Five Wounds is a new “multipurpose room” under 1 1/2 Avenue, in newly-dubbed DucManIs. The neighborhood, full of darkened storefronts and limb-lacking statuary, is an “underperforming Latvian Catholic shithole,” said Janis Ozols, the 14-year-old freshman at nearby St. Roland’s who handed out our “meal slips”…

Reality-Based Eating
We live in an imperfect world, so why not find a way to enjoy it? In the current “Food” issue of Lapham’s Quarterly, KtB regular (and, now, father!) Scott Korb has a provocative essay, combining his experience as a recovered self-righteous vegan with the syllabus of the food-writing course he teaches. He glues these together with…

Buddha’s Hand (or, A Citron Variety from Whole Foods)
The oldest member of the citrus family reaches out, though it hails from far-away India and parts of China. Sensitive to frost, heat, drought, but no burden to the tree. Juiceless, seedless beneath its sunny rind, waggles its stasis of funny feeling fingers. It says Zest my skin for powerful flavor. File my fingerprints. Go…

Killing the Crab-Buddha on MasterChef
To some extent, the goal of all reality TV competitions is to make their contestants uncomfortable. The stress is sometimes physical (how many cockroaches can you eat?) and sometimes mental (there’s a camera in every room of your house!). But what happens when the conflict is spiritual? Last week on MasterChef, host Gordon Ramsay announced…

The Benedictine Rule of Cheese Ecology
What does the microbial biology of cheese have to do with Benedictine spirituality? Mother Noella Marcellino—nun, cheesemaker, and microbiologist—of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT, didn’t find her particular vocation until she dropped out of two colleges and left the convent laundry room. Last Sunday, she shared her story with a group of…

Take and Eat
R cialis online without prescription eligious dieting has been with us for a while. Christians aren’t just fighting off such worldly temptations as adultery and homicide; Big Macs and ice cream also tempt believers with their false promises. Trying to maintain one’s morals while living in a culture that tries to lead you astray in…

Meat: It’s What’s for Lunch
Dear Ross, It is not for me to judge another’s Lenten sacrifice; giving up cappuccinos or pedicures might really be a hardship for someone else. However, I was a little concerned about your admittedly “not-quite-Francis-of-Assisi”esque quitting of “meat for lunch” during Lent. Ross, do you eat meat for lunch every day otherwise? Really? It’s lunchtime…

Give Us Food. Give Us Sex.
Hunger and Kamasutra are lonely. These are the sections where KtB has published pieces on the way that food & drink, and sex & love, have made believers and heretics of us all. Here is where you can read Bible Porn and Buddherotica, get recipes for Suraj’s Daal and ciacolatto. In the stuff we place…