Vol. 14 No. 1

Winter 2006-2007

Copyright © 2007 Union for Traditional Judaism

(Click here for PDF printable version of Kosher Nexus)

From the Editor

Well golly, whoda thunk it? The KN enters its fourteenth year! As we do so, we hasten to assure you that although we may not move as fast as we did all those many years ago, we are much more methodical now, so we still cover the entire world of kashrut news and info for you on a steady basis. Before we used to go to food shows for two or three days just because we could. Now we go for all three days because it takes us that long to cover it all! But, fear not! Your intrepid KN crew is up to the task. Welcome to year 14. As always, we appreciate the trust you place in us.

GRAK

No, that is not a disease. Nor is it the sound you make when you have a frog in your throat that you can’t clear. Nope. GRAK means generally recognized as kosher, and it refers to items that need no hashgacha.

We are thankful to Rabbi E. Eidlitz in California at the Kosher Information Bureau for sharing his list with all of us.

Aluminum foil

Foil pans

Unflavored apple sauce

Baking powder

Baking soda

Unseasoned basmati rice

Dried beans

Domestic, unflavored beers

Brown sugar (not the Rolling Stones song)

Cane Juice

Carob powder

Cinnamon sugar

Cocoa

Unflavored coffee, decaf and regular

Frozen corn

Fresh corn

Corn grits (for mamaliga)

Corn meal

Corn starch

Corn syrup (e.g., Karo)

Plain flour without enzymes

Guar gum

Canned fruits with no added ingredients other than water, salt, sugar, corn sweetener, citric acid, and ascorbic acid

Honey (pure only)

Apple juice (pure only)

Cranberry juice (pure only)

Grapefruit juice, orange juice and pineapple juice (pure only)

Lemon juice

Canadian or Vermont maple syrup

Molasses

Canadian or USA milk

Unflavored miso

Nori

Oats

Canned okra

Rice (plain only)

Salt

Seltzer (unflavored only)

Semolina

Soybeans

Pure spices

Sugar

Tapioca

Tea (unflavored only)

Wheat germ (with no added ingredients)

Regular yeast

Rice pasta

Rye

Rock candy (unflavored only)

Raw nuts

Mouthwash

Hey, not too shabby a list, eh?? This should make your shopping easier, especially when you are in a less than heavily Jewish area.

KOSHERFEST 2006

As always, the annual Kosherfest was held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. We spent the better part of two days there, sniffing, tasting, reading, and plotzing. At the end of it all, we were pooped! But, we do it all gladly for you! As always, we present our report as He says, she says.

MOST WORTHLESS PRODUCT

MIZMOR KOSHER WATER takes our prize for being the most redundant and useless product at the show. We can’t imagine why any company would set its sights so low. Mizmor water lists no source on their bottle, so you know that it is filtered tap water. OK, so is Dasani, and people buy that one. This one comes with a pithy quote from Tanach on the bottle. The label on the water proudly states “Kosher Water” in large letters. Well, it may be kosher water and guaranteed to contain no impurities at all, but it sure tastes blah. We are talking not very good water at all. We found that the best way to drink the stuff was to add a packet of flavoring to the water. The water was not bad, mind you, just blah. Their publicity says “Introducing kosher water, Celebrate every day!” Please, we beg you—take back the introduction!

See for yourself at www.mizmor.us

OK, not totally worthless—they do say that they donate 10% of their profits to needy children. But couldn’t they come up with a better product to sell for charity?

SOME BETTER DRINKS

Did you know that there’s a kosher wine produced on Long Island? No, I’m not talking about Kesser (which advertises as coming from “the western end of Long Island”). This is the real deal. REDFERN CELLARS is a relatively small winery, producing 600 cases of wine—cabernet, syrah, chardonnay, and merlot—per year. And it’s pretty darn good. Contact David Kaplan, Senior Winemaker, at 917-902-3601 or go to www.redferncellar.com.

Then there’s arak. Arak, for the uninitiated, is the Israeli version of ouzo—anise liqueur. It’s an acquired taste, that’s all I can say about it. But now comes ZACHLAWI Fig Arak. The company calls it “a radically traditional Arak made from 100% fruit spirits.” Huh? They must have been sampling a little too much of their own product. At any rate, this stuff is good. Potent, but good. You can taste both the arak and the fig, and the flavors are strangely complementary. The bottle is way cool also. So’s their website: www.zachlawi.com; Middle Eastern music and all (not much info on the site yet, though). It’s distributed by Allied Importers/Eber, Long Island City, NY; telephone 718-472-1155.

CONDIMENTS, SAUCES, AND SIDE DISHES

We always love it when Chef Adam is at the food show. He is the owner of MIKEE—makers of some really fine sauces. While we were saying hello to Adam and his father (the Mikee of Mikee), he gave us a taste of some vegetarian stir fry he had made. We loved it. Then again, we always love what Adam cooks. We also got to try his newest sauce: Wasabi Teriyaki Sauce. Taam gan eden! It had a perfect back door—just the right amount of heat packed into a tasty teriyaki sauce. Mikee sauces are Kof-K pareve. Look for this one in your local kosher emporium.

WORLD HARBORS makes a lot of really fine cooking sauces. Our butcher carries a bunch of their sauces, but not all of them. At the show, we got to see and taste flavors we had not seen before. Like what, you ask? How about: Chimichurri, Jerk Sauce (we thought it was made by our little brother…), Cheriyaki, Mandarin Sesame Ginger cooking sauce, and Sweet and Tangy Cranberry cooking sauce. Certification is Kof-K.

Aside from its cute name, LETTUCE IN LOVE has a good idea: all-natural salad dressings (needing refrigeration) that come in 4-ounce cups(four cups to a package) rather than those large containers that sit in your fridge forever. They use all fresh ingredients—no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Currently there are four flavors—Thousand Island, Skinny Italian, Sweet Balsamic, and Ranch; all are OU-pareve except for the Ranch, which is OU-dairy. And oh yes, they taste good too! Find them at www.lettuceinlove.com or call 888-LTC-NLUV.

ALL SORTS OF PROTEIN PRODUCTS

A&B FAMOUS: You know them—the frozen gefilte fish roll company. The company’s motto is “The way Grandma made it.” Of course, for a company that also makes Salmon Salami, Salmon Hot Dogs, and Salmon Pastrami, that could be really stretching it. Our grandmother was certainly no slouch in the kitchen dept, but she never, ever made salmon salami. And if she had, believe me, none of the six of us kids would have eaten it!! But, OK, so be it—they make salmon salami. Some one must like it or they wouldn’t make it. Yeah, someone like me! Their gefilte fish, however, is a KN Five Fork winner! We love the fact that they make sugar-free fish and carb-free fish. Most of their fishes come in fully sweet, less sugar, and sugar-free. What more can you ask for? A&B Famous is located at 209 McLean Blvd, Paterson, NJ 07504. Try the salmon pastrami with some fig arak…

WILLI FOOD is a huge company dedicated to distributing kosher food. They now have a line of incredible pasta products made in Turkey and certified by Kosher Badatz, Chug Hatam Sofer of Bnei Braq. The DONNA ROZZA brand is FDA-approved and kosher-approved. Try their pasta products for yourself and be amazed at the taste. WILLI also sells pineapple pieces in light syrup, slices in light syrup, tropical fruit cocktail, pitted cherries, hearts of palm, whole baby corn, mushroom stems and pieces, chocolate spread, juices and oils. This is a company on the move. Watch for their label in your local kosher store.

And now for something completely different, how about—kosher beef jerky?KOSHER HEAVEN was started by five college buddies who “saw a market need” for the product. It’s currently available only online—www.kosherheaven.com—but they hope to be in stores soon, and as of press time had received orders from 11 stores. Made in Atlanta, the jerky—based on a South African biltong recipe—is under the supervision of the Atlanta Kashruth Commission. Oh yeah, how does it taste? Well…I’d like to say this is something we’ve all been waiting for, but I don’t think I’ve been missing anything by not having beef jerky until now. Maybe it would taste better with a little fig arak…

SNACKS, DESSERTS, ETC.

In the category of “why didn’t anyone else think of this” is Latke Chips by the attractively named THOU SHALL SNACK (a commandment I can live with!). These low-fat baked yummies have no trans fats and no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. Certified by the OU, the original flavor is pareve and the Sour Cream & Onion is dairy (that real sour cream, of course). Call 888-63-SNACK or go to www.thoushallsnack.com.

Pareve soy “ice cream” —not too tempting, is it? Guess again! TEMPTATION vegan soy frozen dessert is so good you’ll almost think it’s the real thing. It comes in eight flavors—in addition to the usual vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, you can enjoy mint chocolate chip, cookie dough, coffee, peach cobbler, and—green tea, which is a lot better than it sounds. Certification is by the Chicago Rabbinical Council. Chicago Soydairy is at 620-629-9667; www.welovesoy.com.

Finally…Winner of both the Best New Snack Food and Best in Show awards is NAJLA’S gone nuts! spiced nuts. This is a delectable mix of spiced macadamias, pecans, walnuts, and almonds. It’s not too spicy, not too sweet—just right. It’s the kind of snack you can’t stop eating, once you start. (They’d probably be even better with fig arak.) Najla also makes a line of slice-and-bake cookie dough that is to die for. All products are under the OU; the cookies are dairy. Contact Najla at 502-412-4420 or go to www.najlas.com.

L’chaim!

Note

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Watch for our Passover issue coming soon!