Culinary East meets West

The main news item this past week was the 70th anniversary of the dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.  There were memorials, apologies, and all signs of soul searching.  Were we right to do this?  Was it worth the life of another million soldiers?  Where do we go from here?  How do we stop Iran from building an atom bomb?

There are no simple solutions for any of these questions.  Instead of dealing with these questions I will tell you my life stories of food!  The stories of cooking and eating in my life are one example of how East meets West on this earth.  These are stories of people coming together and celebrating their differences.
We all need nutrition and anyone can read about the agricultural revolution .  How humans discovered cooking and found that cooked foods are easier to digest.  Different cooking traditions evolved around the world depending on climate and local culture.
I grew up in Israel with the traditions of the Jews of Mashad!  The basic food is rice with many variations served with a number of colorful flavorful sauces.  Every Friday night each family has Nochodav!  A soup with a variety of meat such as soup bones, chicken, meat balls and beef.  The base of the soup is white bean and crushed chick peas. These vegetables were added gradually: onion, cabbage, kohlrabi, and greens: parsley, cilantro and dill.  Every young girl had to be taught how to wash all these greens and chop them for the soup before she could be eligible for marriage.  The current flavorful sauce that is spreading around the world is a similar sauce called chorme sabzi: green stew.

Chorme sabzi served with rice and saffron rice:

Moving to California we have been celebrating holidays with my longtime friend who grew up with Ashkenazi cooking.  For the Passover Seder we had these “must haves:” Gefilte fish, kneidalach soup.  Many people were surprised to hear that I never had any of these foods growing up.  Watching my friend cook I learned all these minute details.  For the unmatched gefilte fish you show up at the fish market at 6 am and pick the best white fish or pike.  The merchant grinds it for you and sends you home with all the bones.  There are various traditions for spicing the ground fish, more onions, sometimes sugar. sometime fresh greens.  Children grow up loving this dish.  Even my own sons enjoy it when it comes in a jar.  For me, the fried fish steaks that my mother used to make still taste best.  The fish cakes are served with horse radish, another European dish.  Grind the fresh horseradish and add ground beats.  This is divine!

Gefilte fish with horseradish:

Kneidalach soup is served in any Deli along with cold cuts: roast beef, pastrami, turkey.  Rye bread is from the west.  The East offers pita bread, humus, eggplant salad. 

Matza ball soup: 

I took a three day trip to Paris with my mother and sister.  We each came from another direction and our taxi driver took us to the district offering all culinary traditions.  It was very appropriate for the occasion.  European style desserts downstairs.  Baklava and gas upstairs, served on round metal table tops from Morocco.

Gas: Candy from Iran:

Flat fried dough, dessert from Iran:

These stories of east and west food traditions make me believe that humans can get together and cooperate on any level.