Food traditions

Back in September, when Rosh Hashanah fell on a 90 + degree day and I was preparing Matzoh Ball soup, Brisket, Roast roots and the like. I began to contemplate our food traditions. Clearly, what many consider the traditions of Rosh Hashanah here in the North East of the US are based on the Jewish immigrants of the 19th Century who were escaping the persecution, pogroms in the Slavic Eastern European States. By late September in Northern Europe it was probably starting to get quite cold, and what was available were roots: Beets, carrots, turnips.

Whereas if you were a Jew from the Middle East your food and Holiday traditions probably erred toward, Humus, eggplant, falafel and the like featuring a lot of pomegranate, dates and figs. In fact at one point a few years ago I was given a Syrian Jewish cookbook and asked to find a menu for Rosh Hashanah within it. All suggestions were declined as non traditional. Thanksgiving I tend to be rather ambivalent as I had no family food tradition involved with it. Some friends traditions I was not familiar with: Mashed sweet potato with marshmallow or in an orange with marshmallow. I did not entirely understand adding sweet to sweet. Our Thanksgiving is based on Num’s family traditions of which there are a few, and we use his Grandmothers recipes. Dinner rolls, cornbread dressing which makes me think of a rich polenta; green beans, mashed potatoes. I have been to a few different Thanksgivings and the menu’s are all quite similar with perhaps differences in seasoning and cooking. Rather like the British and Christmas. I always want to add Succotash as it is So American and may be one of the foods that we still eat based on Native American food.

I am taken back to the first time I took Num to the Isle of Wight to visit my parents. I am sure you know I had been telling Num how my mother was a much better cook than I, and what he might expect. Mum always cooked all my favorite foods when I went home , as I am sure most mothers do. I want to say that I ate and loved everything my mother made, although that was not necessarily so. Simon always wanted Steak and Kidney pudding, whereas I wanted a traditional roast, Lamb or Chicken being my favorites, and then all the vegetables that went a long with them. When Num and I went out that afternoon, mum was roasting a chicken. All afternoon I was thinking and looking forward to this roast chicken, and even beyond to the soup she would make for lunch out of the carcass the next day. Roast chicken, herb stuffing, bread sauce, greens, roast potatoes and parsnip, mashed carrot and swede, gravy. Arriving home, I could smell the meal, but there was something else. As we sat down to eat, Mum had made garlic roast potatoes for a change, instead of regular roast. I felt my bottom lip stick out and start to quiver as if I was 8 years old. Mum looked at my face and explained she and dad liked them for a change! Me too, but I can make those any time and what I had dreamed of was my mums roast potatoes... This Christmas I had set my mind on making more of a mum Christmas. Truthfully, Simon does a better job. Roast turkey, I bypassed the herb stuffing for Num’s corn dressing. Bread sauce, Greens, Roast squash, mashed potatoes - the american potatoes do not roast as well as some of the older breeds from England like a King Edward. I even got a small Christmas Pudding from Myers of Keswick, along with their Cumberland sausage meat to stuff the rear cavity with. We bought out the flamng Christmas pudding along with Brandy butter, for Johnson our nephew, to show him how we Brits celebrated Christmas.

Now it’s time for Soups made from the Ham bone. Minestrone; Black bean just in time for the bitter cold. Turkey and vegetable pot pie, Turkey soup. I have just put the Black eyed peas in to soak. Num will cook them tonight and bake corn bread. A new tradition for me. I have assumed this tradition came to America with the slaves. Black eyed peas are so old they are in the Bible and mentioned for good luck. I imagine that our ancestors the Hunter Gatherers carried the food/seed with them as they left Africa along with our DNA... Our oldest food tradition?! Happy New Year!