(Warning: The following rant has not been brought to you by sustainable, artisan chocolate or fair-trade coffee. In fact, it’s been sitting around on ye old to-do list for coming on three weeks now. I guess we can call it a well-aged rant.) In short, can we please, please stop trying to find meaning in every bite of local, organic, feel-good morsel we eat? It […]
Sometimes, a chocolate bar is just a chocolate bar Continue Reading
*This is the third in the series on the Refusenik documentary. Read the first two posts here (Part 1: Defining Moments) and here (Part 2: The Rescuers and the Rescued). As I wrote in my first post on the Refusenik documentary screening, the evening gave me a chance to see the different levels of knowledge about the movement that existed among just this one small
Refusenik Doc Screening 3: We Weren’t All Refuseniks Continue Reading
*This is the second in a series. Missed my earlier posts? Catch up here: Refusenik Documentary Screening Part 1: Defining Moments I was talking recently about the Refusenik documentary and my Edmonton screening to a couple of people, both Canadian Jews here in Toronto. The Soviet-Jewry cause had been a monumental issue for Canadian and American Jews, and one of the women I spoke to
Refusenik Doc Screening 2: The Rescuers and the Rescued Continue Reading
*This is the first in a series. Read part 2 here: Refusenik Documentary Screening Part 2: The Rescuers and the Rescued A few weeks ago, I did a film screening in Edmonton for a small group of Soviet Jews, all family friends, who I’ve previously interviewed for my project. The film is Refusenik, a documentary on the international struggle to free Soviet Jews, starting in
Refusenik Doc Screening 1: Defining Moments Continue Reading
So circumcision. Or, circumcision and Russian Jews, specifically. I’ve been neglecting this blog lately (vacations, dead computers, more vacations…), and why not jump back in with something that’s sure to upset someone, somewhere. In a post titled “Taking On The Difficult Obligation of Brit Milah,” on The Forward‘s Sisterhood blog, Debra Nussbaum Cohen defends the practice, characterizing it as an obligation to our children to
Circumcision and the irrational moments of life Continue Reading
Sheryl Kirby, the blogger behind Save Your Fork… There’s Pie and Taste T.O., posted on this great article in the Vancouver Sun on the backlash to the food police, “Consumers Fed Up With Food Politics.” That special place in my heart where my inner Albertan resides, silently seething against well-meaning Ontario and its progressive socially-minded politics, well, let’s just say there was a little rejoicing
A story by Lisa Abend in Time this week, “Kitchen Gods,” chronicles the rise of the celebrity chef and the role of “the global hum of diligent foodies at their keyboards” in creating rock star chefs. Ok, so the chef as rock star isn’t anything new. I mean, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can probably rattle off a few names yourself. But
Professional kitchens get gentrified while foodies pretend to be ordinary folk Continue Reading
Back in my vegetarian days, I generally avoided faux meat products. Partly because I turned out to be one of those people who just can’t quite buy that it tastes like the real thing. That, and I couldn’t ever get over tofurky. Can we all just agree that it’s a disturbing “food”? The rows of tidy little Yves sausages and burgers and deli meats at
Don’t worry, we’ve got our best minds on it! Continue Reading