Tablet Magazine

A Place at the Table

Remembering those killed on Oct. 7 by preserving and sharing their favorite recipes

I met Michal Gabay in the dimly lit lounge in the lower level of Gabriel Kreuther restaurant in midtown Manhattan. I slowly descended the stairs, feeling on edge about meeting the mother of Shani Gabay, a 25-year-old woman who was murdered in Israel on Oct. 7. As I walked toward the couch where she was seated, I was greeted by a beautiful woman beaming with both pride and pain. Michal Gabay came to New York with her remaining two children, Aviel and Nitzan, to take part in a Sept. 23 dinner hosted by Asif, a nonprofit organization and culinary center in Tel Aviv dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israel’s diverse food culture. “Asif is a deep-content and research-oriented organization that has a very meaningful and ambitious goal: to promote Israeli culture,” said Chico Menashe, who took on the role of executive director just weeks before Oct. 7, 2023. “But it’s extremely difficult to do that during a war.” Asif, which means “harvest” in Hebrew, is a joint venture of the New York City-based Jewish Food Society and Tel Aviv’s Startup Nation Central. The organization’s physical space is a magnificent cultural center in Tel Aviv, including an all-day cafe and curated food shop. While Asif’s mission hasn’t changed since Oct. 7, the way it operates has. It went from celebrating Israeli food culture and organizing cooking classes and events for visitors (including tourists) before Oct. 7, to pivoting most of its initiatives to serve a heartbroken and grieving population in Israel. “We really were privileged to have an opportunity to immediately connect to the community’s needs, and address them in meaningful and very powerful ways,” said Menashe. One of the new projects Asif pivoted toward was A Place at the Table, a new program that aims to commemorate those who were murdered on Oct. 7 and in the war by sharing their stories and preserving their favorite recipes. I learned that, like many other Nova festival attendees, Shani Gabay was beautiful, vivacious, and adventurous. She loved going to music festivals, and always had her hair and makeup done by her little sister Nitzan beforehand. Shani was working at the Nova festival, and once her shift ended at 5 a.m. on Oct. 7, she began to party with her friends—celebrating one of their birthdays. ...

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This Week’s Recipe

Sesame-Crusted Waffles with Tahini and Maple

Both sides of this waffle are encrusted with black and golden sesame seeds, and cornstarch is added to the batter to ensure maximum crispness. Want more sesame? You’ve come to the right book. In Open Sesame, Rachel Belle gives us 45 sweet and savory recipes for tahini and all things sesame.

Explore all our recipes here.

Encyclopedia

challah

[khˈɑ-lə] noun

Everyone’s favorite part of the Shabbat meal. When done right, this fluffy braided bread is just a little bit sweet and perfect for soaking ...

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Joan Knows Best

Everyone says their mom is the best cook, but when your mom is Joan Nathan, cooking looks a little bit different. Join Joan Nathan and her son, David Henry Gerson, for a video series covering Joan’s favorite Shabbat dinner recipes with a seasonal twist.

Joan Nathan is Tablet Magazine’s food columnist and the author of 10 cookbooks including King Solomon’s Table: a Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.

Perfect Pita

Joan Knows Best: The best way to make the ancient bread in your modern kitchen—thanks to a tip from chef Michael Solomonov

Shake Up Brunch With Shakshuka

Joan Knows Best: The best way to make this popular tomato-and-egg dish—with some help from Israeli chef Erez Komarovsky

The Pleasure of Pletzel

Joan Knows Best: The best way to make this Eastern European flatbread—with some advice from food writer and radio host Arthur Schwartz

100 Foods and Beyond

Check out Tablet’s book The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List, and learn the stories behind iconic Jewish dishes. Argue with your friends about what we left out. And if you get hungry, we’ve included 60 recipes, too. And then there’s more...

Play the Jewish Foods Memory Game with your kids. Match up doubles of chicken soup, or borscht, or kreplach, and work up their appetite in the process.

Or try the 500-piece 100 Foods circular puzzle, and set the perfect table filled with your favorite Jewish foods.

Or check out this sticker book, featuring the tastiest items from 100 Most Jewish Foods. Put your favorite stickers on your laptop, your notebook, or your refrigerator.

You can buy all the merchandise, plus The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, edited by the hosts of Tablet’s Unorthodox podcast, by clicking here.

Encyclopedia

appetizing

[ˈæp·ɪˌtɑɪ·zɪŋ] adjective

Appetizing stores are the fish-and-dairy answer to the Jewish delicatessen. Instead of pastrami sandwiches stacked high, you come here for t...

A Plant-Based Quandary

Muslims, Jews, and Catholics wrestle with the religious implications of fake meat

PLNT Burger is a restaurant that offers plant-based alternatives to all-American favorites like burgers and shakes—all 100% kosher and halal. The first restaurant opened in Silver Spring, Maryland, 2019, and has expanded to 14 locations spanning from northern Virginia to Boston. The overarching philosophy, said co-founder Seth Goldman, is an effort to make food accessible to the widest possible cross section of people, regardless of their dietary choices—whether religious, medical, or ethical in nature. Despite some quibbles and caveats, for people of many faiths, plant-based meat and dairy substitutes complement their practices around food and diet by driving intentionality, to change the world by making what his wife and co-founder, Julie Farkas, calls “little changes, every day.” Veganism and vegetarianism are increasingly accepted by the American mainstream, whether it’s out of concern for the environment and animals, or for their own health, and people of various faith traditions with dietary restrictions are embracing the trend. While plant-based meat substitutes mean Jews, Muslims, and even some Christians might now enjoy a guilt-free cheeseburger or slice of (mushroom) bacon, there are those who see such alternatives as potentially problematic workarounds. Other religions have their sanctioned alternatives to off-limit substances—coffee substitutes for Latter-day Saints, capybara instead of fish on Fridays for Catholics in Latin America—but plant-based meat can present something of a different challenge for many religious traditions: What if it’s too close to the real thing? When Goldman and Farkas sat down with me at one of their New York City restaurants over a chocolate oat milkshake, they told me about the “very Jewish ethos” behind their vegan restaurant, where ethically sourced menu options bring vegans, eco-warriors, and rabbis together. And PLNT Burger definitely feels inclusive. Goldman and Farkas are greeted warmly by the staff when they arrive at the restaurant, but it’s almost possible to miss because the staff greets everyone warmly. Cheerful young men behind the counter coach me through the byzantine customization options as I place my order on the touch-screen menu (the ability to individualize is part of the founders’ philosophy of being all things to all people). I’m there at the tail end of the lunch rush, but their energy and enthusiasm don’t seem to have flagged. “We get people from all over,” I hear a server remark over the multilingual conversational din. “Yeah, no meat!” he responds to another customer inquiry. “Tastes just like the real thing!” ...

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A lot of Jewish food’s appeal, I have found, has more to do with fond memories of growing up than the food itself. Your early sensations are the ones that stay with you. You similarly always remember your first kiss. Technically speaking it probably wasn’t your best kiss, but it is the one that gave you the taste.

How do you hummus?

With the original recipe dating all the back to the 13th century, hummus has become quite possibly the most popular middle eastern dish of our time.

It’s been called a peacemaker, and has been the subject of lots of controversy. Whether it’s your entire meal, or a dip for your vegetables, there are so many opinions, and stories to share about our delectible dish.

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