By 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the day after Yom Kippur, the corner of Essex and Canal Streets on New York’s Lower East Side was coming to life, as vendors on different corners set up makeshift tables. They proceeded to display the fruit, leaves, and branches that comprise the biblically mandated Four Species—myrtle, lulav or date ...

Whatever else is on your grocery list for Rosh Hashanah, it is almost certain that honey will be at the top of it. The obvious symbolism of a sweet food auguring a sweet new year makes it a natural choice, whether as a dip for apples slices or pieces of the holiday challah—if, indeed, honey ...

“Pass the salt” should be the simplest request in the world, one requiring no further elucidation. But in recent years, salt has become an accessory in the fickle world of fashionable food. What was a simple question has become complicated. Now the questions might be: “Which salt? What color? What size crystals? Sea salt or the mined kind? From where?”

Iddly. Vadai. Bhel Puri. Alu Chaat. Bhajia. Dosai. Uttapam. Not some ancient pagan chant that but, rather, opulently exotic dishes that taste totally, blissfully foreign to palates trained on the Ashkenazic flavor paradigm. Even Sephardim who are used to the bright and complex spicings of the Mediterranean region and Middle East may be ...

Whenever I need a housewarming gift, I go to my local farmer’s market for two dozen crackling, salt-encrusted, handmade pretzels. It is my riff on a medieval custom still observed by Russians, Eastern Europeans, some Middle Easterners, and the Jews whose ancestors lived among them: bread and salt comprise the proper gift for anyone in ...