20 sickened at kosher dinner.

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 19 2015, 6:17 pm

I had difficulty figuring out where to land this thread, recipes, kosher cooking or controversial subjects. Now I've eaten a few of these more exotic components to the menu, I really enjoyed calves hearts prepared by some Italian Jews I know, brains, not my cuppa but I knew they were kosher. But I'm still amazed that foie gras and veal are still kosher considering the cruelty involved in their production.

There are photos of the meal on VIN, and I have to say, none of it looks slightly appealing. It's all pretty much brown food stuffs.

From VINhttp://www.vosizneias.com/203867/2015/05/19/new-york-

several-reportedly-ill-after-halakhic-dinner-serving-kosher-locusts-veal-hearts-ox-tail-and-goat/New York -
It was billed as a unique dinner, highlighting infrequently eaten kosher foods, but what began as a juxtaposition between halacha and exotic cuisine turned into a major stomach ache for some diners.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene confirmed that they are looking into complaints regarding the self described Halakhic Dinner which took place on May 5th at Manhattan’s Congregation Shearith Israel, also known as the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue, and was led by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik.

“We’re currently investigating and working with the synagogue,” Christopher Miller, press secretary for the Department of Health, told VIN News.
Dani Klein, whose website YeahThatsKosher.com features kosher restaurant recommendations and travel tips for the Jewish community, was one of those who attended the dinner. While Klein did not get sick, his wife Arielle tested positive for campylobacter, a bacteria associated with raw or uncooked poultry, unpasteurized dairy products or contaminated water, poultry or produce.

Klein estimated that approximately 20 people contacted him complaining of gastrointestinal distress after the dinner.
Rabbi Soloveichik did not return several requests for comments from VIN News.

The menu for the evening, which contained sources from the Chumash and Gemara regarding the kashrus of each item, consisted of a mixed greens salad topped with an esrog dressing, crispy shallot topped veal intestines stuffed with veal heart, chicken gizzards, duck liver and kidneys, truffle oil drizzled, poached brains with garbanzo beans, white pickled garlic and lemon, Moroccan cigars stuffed with duck foie gras, goat tagine with dates, dried plums, cracked Syrian olives and fava beans, braised squab with poached fennel mousseline, roasted shallots, braised artichoke hearts and fresh truffles, bison sliders with glazed onions and Israeli cracked olive paste and slow cooked ox tail with green peas and sherry wine mousseline.
Dessert included both a dulce de leche cake in a chocolate caramel box as well as one what was undoubtedly the most exotic item of the night: Mexican chipotle chocolate covered locusts.

“The locust itself kind of tasted like gribenes and the texture was soft and wafery, not crunchy,” noted Klein. “It was very small, maybe a half or a third the width of my finger.”

About 225 people came to the dinner, which Klein found the to be an interesting and enlightening experience.

“Rabbi Soloveichik had a screen showcasing everything that we were learning, almost like a shiur, but in a fun, good way,” said Klein. “It got people interested and excited.
People were asking how we could eat certain things because they are not typically kosher and we learned about the Torah origins of each food, its relevance and how it is kosher.”

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 19 2015, 6:57 pm

There are plenty more appetizing ways to cook these exotics (except for the locusts). I admit to being an unapologetic foodie, but the preparation was seriously lacking. Etrog would make a lovely sorbet and I'll admit that I can down a fried cutlet of brain if under significant social pressure. The braised oxtails from the photos look like they hadn't been degreased, there are more exciting ways to prepare them. The veal intestines would probably be really nice stuffed with a super spicy tabbouleh. Quail eggs and truffles are something we have in abundance locally so I don't find them quite so exotic. In the days when I ate foie gras I would have it quickly grilled on some toast points. Did I mention it was all brown food? I loathe all brown food or all brown menus.

Frumdoc

Tue, May 19 2015, 7:32 pm

I would never eat brain or spinal cord of any animal because of the risk of CJD or other prion disorders. Can't cook those into safety.

I wouldn't eat veal or foi gras because of the cruelty, and I wouldn't eat locust because they look so gross. I also don't eat any fatty meat because it makes me gag, only lean beef (rarely) and chicken or fish. I guess I'm pretty fussy when it comes to eating animals, BH I enjoy a healthy vegetarian diet 6 days a week.

When I worked in SE Asia, locusts, worms and other insects were street food, sold in little white paper bags for a few cents, just like popcorn. It was gross enough seeing people eat them, but when the bags wiggled and I realised that the worms were alive, I almost lost the plot, as well as my lunch!

zaq

Tue, May 19 2015, 7:39 pm

vintagebknyc wrote:

I was actually thinking it sounded incredibly disgusting.

That's your cultural bias speaking. Why is heart or brain more disgusting than liver? Because you are used to liver. Liver is in its way more disgusting because it is the body's toxic waste dump. Not much passes through the blood-brain barrier, but virtually any toxic molecule the animal ate or inhaled ends up passing through its liver. Yum. Veal intestines? What do you think kishke is? Granted, most kishke today is made with a plastic casing--I THINK--but genuine properly cleaned animal-intestine sausage casings, which is what our great-grandmas used in the old country--looks and handles amazingly like polyethylene or polypropylene. Chicken gizzards are of course nothing more than pupiks, a time-honored ingredient in chicken soups and fricassees and considered quite the traditional delicacy.

The locusts I'm still scratching my head about. The Temanim have a masoret about certain locusts that are kosher, but I didn't think any other group accepted it. Certainly not Ashkenazim. I don't see how they justified serving that unless the crowd was all Sepharadi.

But assuming that the locusts are in fact kosher, why are they any more disgusting than eating a fish or a bird? Or a mammal? Only because you are used to eating fish and birds and mammals. IMHO eating mammals is in a way more disgusting because they are biologically closer to us and their flesh is more like ours. In fact, one of the "reasons" given for our horror of pork is that its flesh, more than any other animal's, resembles human flesh. Cannibalistic tribes in the South Pacific euphemistically call human flesh "long pig".

In any case, food poisoning can and does occur anywhere and hasn't much to do with the exotic menu. You can get it from lovely fresh green leafy veggies grown in contaminated soil. Remember the spinach recalls a few years back?

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 19 2015, 7:41 pm

My grandfather was a shochet so brains were on the menu long before we knew about prion diseases in the 50's. But I agree with you Frumdoc, I enjoy lean meat when I eat meat, but my diet isn't meat dependent either.

I got a call from my traveling shochet about 20 years ago, he was going to slaughter a veal calf that was humanely raised and wanted to know if I was interested in some. I had the time and made a drive out to the farm because I have this whole thing about honoring and looking into the eyes of the animal that is going to feed me. When I saw that calf and his mother I said no way. Even if he was raised freely and humanely with his mother I could not take her child.

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 19 2015, 8:10 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

What's inhumane about veal? it's our favorite yomtov meat so I'm curious waht's wrong with it.

With factory farmed veal a calf is immediately taken from it's mother and put in a crate. It is fed milk replacer rather than milk (which is more valuable) and gets no exercise or contact with the herd or it's mother for the 20 weeks it is allowed to live. The veal calves cannot walk to slaughter since their muscles are not permitted to develop and their bones are too soft to support them.

There are humane farmers who do raise high end market and rest. veal. Calves are kept with their mothers in a herd and feed naturally on their mother until they are weaned and slaughtered. Their meat is much tougher than that of factory farmed veal and not as white since they are not anemic.

vintagebknyc

Tue, May 19 2015, 9:13 pm

zaq wrote:

lol, I actually think liver is disgusting. (note: I'm a vegetarian, but I haven't always been one. but even when I ate meat I didn't eat organs, and don't even get me started on veal)

vintagebknyc

Tue, May 19 2015, 9:14 pm

MagentaYenta wrote:

it's hard for me to believe factory veal is even kosher.

mommyla

Tue, May 19 2015, 9:17 pm

zaq wrote:

But assuming that the locusts are in fact kosher, why are they any more disgusting than eating a fish or a bird? Or a mammal? Only because you are used to eating fish and birds and mammals. IMHO eating mammals is in a way more disgusting because they are biologically closer to us and their flesh is more like ours. In fact, one of the "reasons" given for our horror of pork is that its flesh, more than any other animal's, resembles human flesh. Cannibalistic tribes in the South Pacific euphemistically call human flesh "long pig".

Because when you eat the fish or bird or mammal it generally doesn't look like a fish or bird or mammal anymore. Those locusts look like someone picked them up in the backyard and dipped them in chocolate.

I will not eat a whole fish that still looks like a fish either. I think that's the crux of the grossness.