Pincus the Kosher-eating Penguin

And I thought we were odd with the cat who will only eat cholov yisroel milk products..

A penguin that has grown to symbolise the friendship between Jews and Germans is to be adopted by the Board of Guardians of British Jews.

Pincus the Penguin, who lives in Berlin Zoo is a popular visit for many Germans both Jewish and not who have been mesmerised by Pincus' Jewish-like eating habits.

Unlike other Penguins who are fed unkosher fish and seafood, Pincus will only eat kosher fish.

Since coming to Berlin Zoo in 1999, Pincus has been a popular draw for the crowds who watch in fascination as the penguin rejects the non-kosher fish and scrambles towards the kosher delights.

"Pincus came to us from Warsaw Zoo as part of the 1999 European Zoo Exchange and when we first started to feed him prawns and swordfish, he didn't take any interest," said Berlin Zoo director Otto Ziller. "Someone at Warsaw mentioned Pincus was special and was always picky with his food, so we had some salmon and gave it to him which he enjoyed."

Over time, it become apparent the Pincus was no ordinary penguin. "One day a Jewish couple from Florida came to the zoo and were eating a smoked salmon bagel and Pincus was hovering around them while the other penguins were in another part of the penguin area. One of the staff noticed this and after some tests, we discovered that Pincus was drawn towards the smoked salmon."

Since finding a love for Jewish food, Pincus has a diet consisting of such delights as gefilta fish (chopped and mixed fish with carrot and made into golf ball sized portions), smoked salmon and schmaltz herring.

"The Board is delighted to be associated with Pincus and the Zoo which has started to make the Jewish diet and kosher food better known in Germany," said Board president Harry Greenberg. "We have decided that as a symbol of unity, the Board wishes to be associated with Pincus and we will be featuring his name and image across the Board from our letterheads through to the annual New Year appeal."

More information on the Board can be found at: www.theboard.org.uk
email: info@theboard.org.uk

Field report - Lacis, Berkeley, CA

Against my better judgement, I went into Lacis on Adeline Ave in
Berkeley, CA yesterday. I say against my better judgement because I
knew that they have an amazing collection of temptations in all manner
of textiles, although they specialize in costume and lace, including a
wonderful museum which has great examples of knitted lace. I hadn't visited the shop since getting wedding gear there nearly 10 years ago, and I was very pleased by the changes that had been made to the store.

I want to recommend their book selection to anyone who is looking for
hard-to-find titles, including out-of-prints. Now that the incredibly
knowledgable - but at times formidable - founder has gone to her
reward, the shop is much user-friendlier. The manager, Erin, is a gem
and very helpful. I also found many type of new knitting gadgets, including thimble-thingees for keeping multiple colors of yarn straight, at fair prices. They also have a beautiful selection of house-brand bone knitting needles, if you've ever wanted to try that.

I did a fair amount of damage, esp. in the millinery department. If you have a big head and are looking for hat forms, straw hats to be shaped, this is your place. but
It is definitely worth a vist. http:/www.lacis.com/ Lacis - 2982 Adeline, Berkeley. 510-843-7290.

It should be a kapporah...

Lovely to be back in the SF Bay area - my native home. There is something about the smell of the place that usually makes me feel a sense of immediate calm when I hit the ground. However, that precludes skunks. And skunks we have. Fortunately, I was able to head the dog off at the pass before she went out and confronted the stinky beast (reminds me that "skunk" is "stinkdyr" - "dyr" being "animal" - in Norwegian) and I had to give her yet another bath in a mixture of Dawn, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. But the smell is, shall we say, pungent.

This is just the capper to a day that had me tripping over a non-attatched downspout hose - it won't rain enough to need one for at least three months - trying to take out garbage for my friends who are now up in the Sierras. Then the door locked behind me. I distinctly remembered unlocking and testing the door. But my distinct memory was no help to me standing outside looking in at the dog.

Fortunately, I remembered that their neighbors down the street had an extra key. I even remembered their names. But this was little help as said neighbors were themselves in Yellowstone and housesitting friend Kary had no idea where the extra keys were. But he was decent enough to get me a phone book and a phone and within a half hour Mr. Suh was opening up the back door and facing the wrath of Genevieve the Fierce.It should only be a kapporah.

On the positive side, I found no fewer than three excellent straw hat forms, at Lacis and as the abrupt German owner had gone to her ultimate reward, I didn't have to contend with her. The hats are big enough even to fit my monster cranium and easily decorated. It's a bit late for this season, but at least I won't have to sweat through another summer with only one decent hat. I keep thinking that I should have gotten a white one and a green one... Genug for one day, though.

And the Other's Gold

Entrance to "Rotten Grade School",
originally uploaded by Ablevaybel

It was so much fun to have one of my oldest friends visit Sunday with her husband and three of their four well-behaved children. I've known Bets since kindergarten, when we were both subjected to the vagaries of Mrs. "She would have been fine if you hadn't taught her to read" Balsley's arcane educational theories, such as reading the same book over and over again in a monotone every day for a week. It was over 35 years ago that we both walked up the steps of Rockton Grade School to afternoon kindergarten, learned about jimmies and the reindeer dance and the multiple rules of monkey bars, slide and the not-so-cryptically named "boys chase girls". I can distinctly remember sitting on the teeter-totter in the school yard, behind the cyclone fencing, kicking at stones in my scuffed tan Red Goose shoes, waiting for my grandfather to show up in his Rambler and wondering how I was going to stand eight more years of school without going out of my mind.

Old friends are not only like gold, as the old Scout song says, but they are good mirrors. Someone who has known you from your earliest days, through all of your attempts to figure out who you are and where in the world you're going, has known all of your family for good and bad - that is person really is a treasure. One of my grandfather's few articulated regrets of living to be 100 was that no one was alive who knew him back in the day, no one who remembered his parents, let alone his extended family. The mutual sharing of memories is powerful stuff.

Couple those memories with a keen eye and a good sense of humor and you couldn't ask for a better mirror than Betsy. But she isn't just a reflection of the past, but also someone who definitely lives in the here and now. Caring for a large family, busy (and wonderful) husband and good-sized home are a more than full-time job, yet Bets manages to keep up on domestic politics, all manner of blogs and information, current trends and opinions and is almost never too busy to take the time to share what she has learned with me. Clearly, she's not just a mirror, but a transmitter.

As I mentioned, she is also fortunate to have a great husband, Fred. Betsy knew a good thing when she saw him. I am lucky as well as he was also a classmate of ours, having come from Michigan to our high school, so we have all known each other for a good chunk of time. It is also fortunate that my own dear husband likes him well. Somehow there are far too few couples where we truly get along with both partners equally well. But Betsy and Fred fit the bill.

Their sons were remarkably patient with us, even their highly interactive five year old Will. The older two, Jon and Alex, were very attentive to our conversations, often participating, when they weren't trying to figure out an "old school" mattel (R) electronic baseball game. They were also quite patient with the food which featured several kinds of smoked fish, beet and feta salad, challah and other delicacies are probably not the daily fare of most teenagers. The challah got full points, as did the old standby, 6 Minute Chocolate Cake. I served it without the glaze, as I find it sweet enough, though Will thought it could have been sweeter.

Parve 6 Minute Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar - brown is ok
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup strong coffee or water (if you must)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

***Chocolate Glaze***

1/2 pound parve semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and sugar into an ungreased 8-inch square cake pan. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, cold water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter. It will leave lighter colored-swirls in the batter, which is as it should be.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, test with a knife or toothpick (should come out clean) and set aside to cool.

Glaze: melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Stir the hot water and the vanilla into the melted chocolate until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake. Refrigerate the glazed cake for at least 30 minutes before serving. Can also be served with sifted confectioners sugar.

Cheaper Kosher? Trader Joes in SLP? Roseville?

Ah, Trader Joe's. Does anybody have a bead on when the much-awaited Trader Joe's will open here in Minnesota? I read back in the late winter that they are opening at Excelsior in early 2006, but since then nada. Then I read in that newspaper of record "The Skyway News" that they are looking to open in suburbs like Roseville. Does anyone have some solid skinny on this?

Seriously, one of the few things that keeps living in Minnesota from being truly optimal is the lack of a Trader Joe's. So sue me, I was born in California and it's my freakin' birth right, ok? No, jesting aside,a Trader Joe's is one of the few things I really miss here. We get to Chicago/California/Points East often enough that we seldom run out of our favorite coffee, spices, etc., but boy would it be nice to get competitively priced kosher meat on a regular basis. I've been so envious when I go back to the Bay Area and find Aaron's beef at about HALF of what we pay here - and we're barely 200 miles from the processor! Go figure! And if you want to learn more about Trader Joe's kosher products for the midwest, see here. Now if we could just get that cholov yisroel Israeli feta that they have on the West Coast, we'd be styling.

Make Mine Brine

Since it's hot again, I find myself thinking of ways to seriously cut down time in the kitchen. One of the cooler ways to deal with meat is brining. This way the salt and marinade do some of the cooking work for you. I'll put up three recipes here - a Cuban inspired one for chicken, a Nordic one for salmon and my prize-winner for beef.

Chicken Café Cubano

1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 cups water
4 sliced limes
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seeds, toasted if preferred
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
3/4 cup Café Bustelo, hot
4 boneless skinless kosher chicken breasts or thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Combine the ingredients for brining, except coffee and cilantro, in a saucepan, heat until sugar and salt dissolve pour into a large glass or enamel bowl, stir in hot coffee and chopped cilantro, refrigerate until cool. Add chicken pieces and use a small plate or weight to keep it submerged 2-3 hours.
Heat grill to high. Remove chicken from brine, blot nearly dry with paper towels, and brush with oil on both sides. Grill 4-8 minutes, moving halfway if you want grill marks. Turn over and grill 4-6 minutes more
Great with Corn Salsa

Lightly Brined Salmon

This is an amazingly easy recipe - similar to making gravlax. It just takes time, not a great deal of skill. If you'd like to follow an old tradition from Northern Sweden, you can wipe the clean salmon pieces or filets with vodka or brännvin.

2 lbs Salmon - either pieces from the tail or mid-section or whole small salmon
4 tblsp salt
4 tblsp sugar

Filet the salmon or the pieces and divide in half. Spread the salt/sugar mixture between the filets or pieces and place in a ziplock bag in a glass pan with a weight. Let stand in the refrigerator. Small pieces will require about 24 hrs - larger pieces up to 48 hrs. After that time pour off any liquid which has been produced. You can keep the fish in the fridge up to one week and up to two months in the freezer. The salmon is excellent in salads or sandwiches. Typically served with potato salad.

Brined Steak - Gravad Filé

This is a variant of a brining recipe that I won a prize for many years ago in a national competition. Choose any cut you like - a skirt steak works well - like the French ongelet or any of the kosher "sirloins" Don't make this with a tough cut, unless you are going to slow cook it afterwards. You can vary the size of the meat as long as you keep the brining liquid enough to cover the meat by at least an inch.

1 lb. kosher beef - cut according to your choice

2 cups corn or olive oil
1 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp lemon-pepper mix
2 tsp ground black or pink pepper
1 tbsp dried tarragon
3 tbsp fresh chopped garlic
2 tbsp sugar or honey

Brine the meat in ziplock bag or in a shallow glass pan with a weight. Turn after 24 hrs - should marinate for at least 48 hours, and you can keep it in the brining liquid, turning daily, for up to 72 hrs. The meat will become quite "cooked" from the brining, and is sometimes eaten sliced very thin right out of the brine. Other ideas are to quickly grill the larger pieces or flash-fry smaller slices.


Remember All brining might have some risk involved, particularly if your utensils are not scrupulously clean and if you aren't careful to keep the brining very well chilled in the refrigerator. Brining is one of the oldest methods of preserving meat that we know of, and has been eaten healthily for years. If you are worried, be very certain to cook the brined meat thoroughly.

The Lad in the Dad

My father turned 67 this past weekend, which merited a visit from my ever-loving husband and myself. Father chose to do something really novel on this birthday - he decided that he wanted to spend it with his mother. I was surprised and delighted. He's become much closer to his mother in the past year, her 91st, KAH, might I add. My dear mother - who is not his current wife - made a traditional cake (the recipe to which I will not post) and it was a lovely simcha.

So here was the big question - what to get Dear Old Dad for his birthday. This is a stumper. Can't just give him a card or a gift certificate or a tree in Israel. Nope, has to show thought and have a certain value. My brother is somehow exempt, btw. He gets by with a card. But not so for number-one daughter. The cake was a no-brainer. No one makes them better than my mother - yes, I would leg-wrestle you to prove that point if tznius didn't matter and it does. But what else to get my dad? The problem is that he buys whatever takes his fancy pretty much whenever he likes, after suitable research. I get the terrier gene from him, I declare.

While never a spendthrift - this is the man who says he will ride first class when it gets there a half and hour before the rest of the plane - he has, shall we say, significantly greater resources than we do, with the exception of sitzfleisch - which doesn't package so well. I enjoy getting things for him when I have the money. It's kind of the gift-giving equivalent of finishing the Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. In 15 minutes. In ink. With a three-year old next to you. Oh, and the gift should be a surprise. Did I add that? This is also the lad in the dad thing.

We came up with three fairly good gifts: a book on "Weird Wisconsin" (bags "Weird Florida" for his next big day); a laser pointer for his many family visual presentations (usually involving cars or buildings - a constant for well over 40 years now; and a pair of hand-knit socks.

Now it was this last item I wasn't sure about. Granted, the socks are very nice: fine color, good construction - I could never have resolved the toes this well without major major instruction - super merino wool and blocked to what I thought should fit him. But SOCKS? Squishy packages don't usually cut it with the lad at heart. Add to this that he lives a good deal of his life in Florida and might never wear the darn things. And that he tends to throw everything in the washer and dryer. Oy.

But was I wrong. Way wrong. The socks were the major hit. He was really delighted, tried them on right away and seemed genuinely delighted to have something that his daughter had made (at least mostly) by her own hands. He was so pleased that it gave me a twinge that I hadn't thought of knitting something for him earlier, as I've been knitting off and on for over 20 years. Not that I'm any great shakes - but I can manage simple projects like scarves and socks.

So one lesson here - you can't always take the lad out of the dad, but, fortunately, the dad often trumps the lad when it comes down to something important. In retrospect, I'm sorry that I hadn't knitted him socks before - I hadn't realized before that something that small would mean that much to him. I've learned that lesson too ...