20 minute read
May 8 Summer at Home April
Food & Romance
how the consistency of the wine remains on the glass. A buttery Chardonnay will leave a slight film. A more acidic Sauvignon Blanc will fall back to the bottom. This looks good, but what it has to do with enjoying your wine has more to do with showmanship than the taste. Relish it. It’s part of your job as a wine connoisseur. Besides, it’s fun.
Sniffing the aroma.
Don’t drink yet. Now, look down at the glass of wine and take a sniff at the “nose” of the wine. No need to stick your nose into the glass. It’s not an inhaler. Just sniff gently. What does it smell like? Can you denote hints of cherries or oak? Enjoy the experience. Keep the suspense going.
Tasting the sample.
Ok. Now. Swill the wine around a few times in the glass, put it up to your mouth and take a sip. Slurp a little to help the wine mix with air. This will help change the taste, because freshly opened wine has not yet had time to breath with air and can feel very acidic in your mouth. That will change over time within the glass.
The opinion.
You have squeezed the cork, swirled the glass, held it up to the light, and now slurped. Everyone is looking at you for your opinion. It you like it, tell your server so. Give them The Head Nod to signal it is okay to serve the rest of the table. If you don’t like it, and it tastes awful, don’t be afraid to send it back. Bad bottles happen as do good ones. Here are some favorite wine opinions overheard from recent years.
A) “It’s Approachable.” I have no idea what this means and neither does anyone else. But makes you appear very smart. A smart aleck may respond with “Yes, but from which direction?” (per Groucho Marx).
B) “A Mellifluous Experience.” This should be made with a big smile on your face as if to say that you know something they do not. Use it to your advantage and have fun having them guess. They will want to try the wine now.
C) “I wouldn’t be embalmed in It.” This was overheard at a DC rooftop restaurant some years ago from a woman tasting a wine for an upcoming wedding. I have never forgotten it. Expect that the wine in question was highly acidic and/ or tasted like one would imagine formaldehyde. Don’t think they served that wine at that particular wedding.
Which brings up the final tip:
Don’t be afraid to send it back.
The wine may be bad, but you are afraid to admit that you don’t know good wine from bad wine. You do! You also know whether it tastes good to you or not. Here is what often happens. Months ago, some friends and my date were having fish at a top Virginia Beach restaurant. I was asked to pick a wine. Cheese featured in three first courses, and so I ordered a bottle of Muscadet, a crisp, tart French wine that pairs well with fish and cheese. Or so I thought. After going through all the motions from examining the bottle to The Head Nod and pour out, it was apparent by the end of dinner that no one had chosen a second glass. It was only after dinner on the way out that the guests all admitted they didn’t like the taste but didn’t want to say anything for fear of being thought unsophisticated. As a result, they suffered through a bad wine experience. If you don’t like it, send it back.
HAVE FUN.
Drinking wine is about enjoyment. It is a beverage to be sipped, and paired with other tastes, all for the experience of the diners. There is no reason to drink anything you don’t like, so don’t stand on ceremony. If you like the wine, make a note (or take a pic) of the label. Order it again. Share it with friends. Experiment with wines you don’t know. Above all have fun, enjoying the theatre and bravado that is wine tasting.
Bon appetite!
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Food & Romance
Tidewater’s seventh annual Great Big Challah Bake serves up lessons and fun
Women of all ages spent an evening in November at B’nai Israel Congregation celebrating the Jewish tradition of preparing for Shabbat and the spiritual joys of making challah.
A partnership between B’nai Israel and the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, it was just one of thousands of similar events taking place around the globe— part of The Shabbos Project.
All ingredients and recipes were
Stephanie Calliott with Amy Lefcoe. Darcy Bloch and Marcy Mostofsky.
provided and each participant left with two challahs ready to make and enjoy for Shabbat.
“A good time was had by all,” says Stephanie Adler Calliott. “Girls and women of all ages across the country got their hands doughy and shared stories of their challah memories. Kudos to UJFT and B’nai Israel for their partnership and many thanks to the B’nai women who hosted everyone.”
Alma Ben Chorin, Anne Adler Abraham, Dana Adler Rosen, Stephanie Adler Calliott, and Leora Drory.
Food & Romance
For people in the dating market, the years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit have been tough.
Many of the places where people usually socialize and meet partners, like entertainment venues, bars and restaurants, or even get-togethers with friends, were unavailable or limited during the pandemic. Figuring out where and how to meet up safely with a date posed logistical challenges, with many people turning to video calls as a substitute. And while online dating and apps have been common for years, usage and engagement skyrocketed on these platforms during the pandemic with few alternatives available.
Today, nearly two-thirds of people who are single and looking for a partner report that dating has become harder since the COVID-19 pandemic began. And while the share of adults looking for a relationship has not changed significantly in that time, nearly one-third of those who have stopped dating recently cite COVIDrelated concerns as a reason why. At a time when loneliness and isolation were high, romantic companionship became harder to come by.
COVID-related challenges in the dating scene have come in an era when more people are delaying or forgoing marriage. The percentage of people who have never been married rose steadily over the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. In 1950, 20% of women and 26.4% of men had never been married, and today those figures are 30.6% and 36.6%, respectively. Over time, increases in women’s educational attainment and labor force participation rates have made marriage less of an economic imperative, while liberalizing social attitudes have made other romantic and family arrangements more acceptable.
Marriage and long-term commitments remain a goal for many single adults, however. For these individuals, the difficulties in finding a partner extend beyond the disruptions to dating in COVID and the long-term changes in attitudes toward marriage. For people in many parts of the country, the pool of available mates is limited by demographic factors. For example, different states have wide variation in the share of adults who are single, defined here as neither married nor living with an unmarried partner. Utah has the lowest percentage of single adults in the U.S. at 25.2%, while Southern states like Mississippi (40.1%), Louisiana (39.1%), and Alabama (37.1%) have the highest. Some states are also imbalanced by gender. The Northeast and Southeast have a higher share of female residents, while states in the Upper Plains and Mountain West tend to skew more male. In states where the single population is low and gender is unevenly distributed, many singles will find a shallower dating pool.
People seeking the best locations to meet a romantic match should seek out high numbers of singles and a balance in gender. Singles may also want to look for a high concentration of food and entertainment businesses to meet others and go on dates and low divorce rates may signal good prospects for a successful relationship.
On these combined measures, California and New York offer many of the best big cities to fall in love. The two states together have seven of the top 10 cities for falling in love, with California being home to each of the top four.
The data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Census Bureau. To determine the best locations to move to if you want to fall in love, researchers at Porch calculated a composite score based on the percentage of adults that are single, the gender balance of single adults, the divorce rate, and the number of food and entertainment businesses per capita.
Here is a summary of the data for the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC metro area, which ranks 17th in the study among all large metros.
Composite score: 60.9
Percentage of adults that are single: 35.7% Male share of the adult single population: 44.6% Divorce rate: 11.1% Food and entertainment businesses per 10k: 26.4
For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:
Composite score: N/A
Percentage of adults that are single: 33.2%
Male share of the adult single population: 44.8%
Divorce rate: 11.1%
Food and entertainment businesses per 10k: 53.4
For more information, a detailed methodology, and complete results, find the original report on Porch’s website: https://porch.com/ advice/best-cities-to-fall-in-love/.
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Food & Romance
Jewish food predictions for 2023
Shannon Sarna (The Nosher)—2022 was a delicious year, with many people returning to restaurants, travel, and in-person holiday meals.
Jewish food continues to reinvent itself—bagels, pita, street food, and just Jewish home cooking—and its reach is expanding all around the world, from Vermont to Berlin. One question for 2023: Will the rest of the world catch up with Israel’s elevated street food trend (hello, gourmet shawarma)?
7 Jewish food trends to watch in 2023
This year, The Nosher associate editor, Rachel Myerson, scoured the internet, the news, social media, and the Israeli food scene to create her Jewish food forecast for 2023. She predicts that nostalgic dishes—be it speedy, deliciously salty salami and eggs or slow-cooked, hearty mafrum—will continue to comfort us through tough times. Plus, nutritious-delicious dates will finally get the recognition they deserve. All signs, says Myerson, point to a flavorful, nourishing year—take a look:
1. DIG INTO DATES
TikTok, the driving force behind many 2022—and, she predicts, 2023—food trends, is obsessed with dates. Videos showing users stuffing, coating, and sprinkling this antioxidant-rich, pocket-sized superfruit have millions of views. But stuffing dates isn’t new: Moroccan Jews are longtime masters of the art, proving this trend is not just for Gen Z.
In fact, dates have been staples of the global Jewish pantry since biblical times. When the bible describes Israel as the “land of milk and honey,” it’s referring to silan (date honey). This natural, vegan (bonus: another culinary trend set to continue into 2023) sweetener snuck into the collective consciousness last year when it made its Trader Joe’s debut. Mix it with raw tahini for a Middle Eastern take on PB&J, drizzle it onto ice cream, or pass over your classic applesand-Manischewitz haroset recipe for this treacly (arguably tastier) Iraqi version.
2. BUBBE KNOWS BEST
The Food Network predicts that nostalgic food will be a key trend for 2023. The Nosher has certainly noticed that the hardships of the last couple of years have led to an increased interest in classic Jewish dishes. While hoping and praying for a healthy, peaceful, abundant 2023, should times get tough, there’s no shortage of oldschool Jewish comfort foods to seek solace in. Be it a no-frills, deliciously salty dinner of salami and eggs; slow-cooked, hearty mafrum; or a quick, one-bowl Russian apple cake.
3. GET ON BOARD(S)
Another TikTok-driven trend set to continue in 2023 is cramming an entire meal— or course—onto a cutting board. It sounds simple, but results vary wildly. Consider hummus loaded with all sorts of colorful, crunchy toppings with a side of pita chips.
Food & Romance
And there’s no better way to break the Yom Kippur fast, Ashkenazi-style, than with a smoked fish board.
4. LEAN INTO THE TIN
Speaking of Jews and fish, we’re once again leading the pack with our deep-rooted love for tinned, preserved swimmers. The Nosher covered this trend back in 2021, exploring the Jewish history, ritual, and attraction of this pantry staple after delving into our collective obsession with canned tuna earlier. But TikTok (#tinned fish has over eight million views) and inflation have ensured that interest in this cheap, long-lasting ingredient remains strong.
Making tasty food in hard times with small budgets is not new to Jewish communities. Just stock up on gefilte fish now, before it goes viral.
5. STREET FOOD— BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Living next door to Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market, Myerson says she’s observed a street food renaissance, spearheaded by tattooed millennials (not your average shuk vendors). Like pop-up stalls selling shawarma made with high-quality lamb and carefully selected toppings (bitter tahini but not hummus, pico de gallo instead of chopped salad, no greasy fries). Or the rise of the schnitzel sandwich: fried to order and served inside a sweet challah roll with house sauces, such preserved lemon paste and matbucha, or amba aioli.
Now that tourists are flocking back to Israel’s restaurants and food markets, expect to see this upgraded street food appear at local Israeli restaurants in 2023.
6. TRENDING TAMARIND
Numerous food publications and industry leaders have predicted that tamarind will be a key ingredient in 2023. Myerson says she’s long been frustrated by the lack of appreciation for this sweet-sour flavor bomb.
The Jewish history of this tangy fruit is extensive: Jewish merchants in the seventh or eighth centuries are believed to have introduced tamarind to the Middle East via the Silk Road. So, while the rest of the world plays catch-up, dig into the archives of Jewish Syrian, Indian, Georgian, and Iraqi cuisine to understand the allure of tamarind.
7. I BELIEVE I CAN FRY
It’s safe to say that after #airfryerrecipes amassed nearly 2 billion views on TikTok in 2022, The Reign of the Air Fryer will continue into the new year. From schnitzel to latkes, this small-but-mighty kitchen tool is a great way to whip up some of favorite fried Jewish dishes—with much less oil and much less mess.
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Food & Romance
Ugly Hanukkah sweaters brought this Washington power couple together
Alix Wall
(JTA)—Years before they were a couple, Shelley Greenspan and Reuben SmithVaughan were just two Amazon employees wearing ugly Hanukkah sweaters to a company holiday party.
Both were working in Amazon’s Washington, D.C., office in 2017 when they each donned their sweaters Greenspan in a hot pink number with a sparkly blue and gold dreidel; Smith-Vaughan with a blue and neon green Star of David emblazoned across his chest—for the annual holiday party. As they remember it, they were the only two attendees in Hanukkah sweaters.
But while they shared their amusement with each other, any sparks remained confined to Greenspan’s sweater.
“It did give her the knowledge that I was Jewish,” Smith-Vaughan says, noting that his ethnicity is not obvious from his name.
“And not someone just Jewish, but proud enough about it to wear a sweater to a holiday party,” Greenspan adds.
Five years later, Greenspan helped to plan Hanukkah gatherings of her own, as the White House liaison to the Jewish community. And she and Smith-Vaughan are married. But the path to both roles was hardly straightforward.
The year after the Amazon Hanukkah party, Greenspan took a job with the State Department and lost touch with her sweater buddy. That lasted until April 2020, when, isolated at home at the start of the pandemic, the pair matched on the dating app Bumble.
For their first date, which happened over Zoom, Smith-Vaughan asked about her cocktail preference in advance, then dropped two small bottles of gin and tonic at her building’s lobby by bike. Back at home, he poured himself a bourbon, and they video-chatted over drinks.
There was an immediate connection, despite their very different Jewish upbringings.
Greenspan, 32, is originally from Miami Beach. She attended a Reform synagogue, a Conservative overnight camp and an Orthodox day school growing up before spending the year after high school in Israel, through Young Judaea’s gap year program. After graduating from the University of Florida, she entered the corporate world and then politics, working on both Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and “Jewish Women for Joe” in the Biden campaign.
Smith-Vaughan, 34, grew up on a coffee farm in Nicaragua, in a Jewish community so tiny “we were taken out of school when someone passed away to make a minyan,” or prayer quorum required for mourners, he recalls.
His bar mitzvah was held at the nearest functioning synagogue, 250 miles away in San Jose, Costa Rica. His father, Arturo Vaughan, serves as the Israeli honorary consulate in Managua, Nicaragua.
A graduate of American University, he is still at Amazon, now the director of Latin America public policy.
Their courtship followed the early-pandemic playbook, which SmithVaughan says, “speeded things up really aggressively.” On their second date, they played tennis outdoors. On their third, he cooked dinner at her apartment, but they remained far away from each other.
By the fourth date, at her apartment, they broached the conversation about whether to date exclusively—or, in the lingo of the moment, whether to “pod” together.
“No one knew how to date during COVID, there was this ‘let’s all figure it out together,’” Greenspan recalls. She adds, “There was never any ‘What are you doing tonight?’ because no one ever had any plans then.”
Road trips became a favorite way to spend time. It was after a jaunt to Bar Harbor, Maine, that Greenspan realized she didn’t want to see Smith-Vaughan go home. Meanwhile, he says he knew she was the one when he found out that she always carries a Washington Nationals baseball cap in her bag—he is a major fan.
“Shelley is the most caring, loving, kind, and elegant human being I’ve ever met,” Smith-Vaughan says. “She is kind to a fault, always wanting to help people.”
“Reuben is the most honorable person I know,” says Greenspan. “His presence feels like home to me. He’s so optimistic and joyous and positive, his energy is infectious.”
In November 2021, during a Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina, where Smith-Vaughan’s mother lives, he proposed on the tennis court.
While wedding planning can be all-consuming, Greenspan says she had a particularly “absurd” few months when it overlapped with her new job. The position requires someone knowledgeable about Jewish communal life and able to represent the disparate viewpoints held by American Jews to the White House, as well as represent the administration to American Jews.
“I’d be calling rental companies while going into briefings in the White House,” she says.
The couple were married Sept. 18 by Rabbi Aderet Drucker, executive director and community rabbi of the D.C.-based Den Collective, a nondenominational spiritual community organization, at the District’s Salamander Hotel.
Their wedding weekend began with a Shabbat dinner at Compass Coffee’s roastery, which is co-owned by a Jewish veteran, and honored the groom’s coffee-farm upbringing.
On Saturday, guests could attend a Nationals game—against the Miami Marlins, the bride’s hometown team. The group was allowed onto the field before the game.
Their custom kippot featured a print of the D.C. skyline in the lining, and the groom and men in the wedding party all wore White House cufflinks with Biden’s signature (available at the White House gift shop). Their custom ketubah features coffee beans, the D.C. skyline and barbed wire, to honor the bride’s Holocaust survivor grandparents.
The reception didn’t only feature toasts and dancing; the bride offered a d’var Torah, and when the groom joined her to thank everyone for coming, he surprised her by singing Eshet Chayil, A Woman of Valor, that some Jewish men sing to their wives on Shabbat.
“Reuben has a beautiful voice and doesn’t really sing in public very much,” Greenspan says. “I wasn’t expecting it and it was so meaningful to me, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
Then she adds, “He still sings it to me every Friday.”
The couple’s custom kippot featured a print of the D.C. skyline in the lining.
This story is part of JTA’s Mazels series, which profiles unique and noteworthy Jewish life events from births to b’nai mitzvah to weddings and everything in between.
