matzoh ball

Often these items are seasonal, and you might see them discounted further after a holiday (matzoh ball mix is practically free right after Passover, and candy canes are a steal on Dec.

There's also a matzoh ball soup to delight all palates.

I know some people think Jewish food is rye bread and matzoh ball soup.

A handful of those same employees keep a standing date with Irv, who turned 90 this year, at Congregation Beth Israel's Annual Sisterhood Bazaar, where they meet over bowls of matzoh ball soup and talk about the old days at the Olde-Tyme Deli.

I cherish the fact that, although I grew up feeling very different, those differences have made me who I am: a polyglot who can whip up a batch of tamales or matzoh ball soup and taste the memories of my own immigration story.

When I converted to Judaism, I of course had to learn to prepare traditional Jewish dishes: gefilte fish, matzoh ball soup, kugel, cholent, etc.

We celebrated Passover each spring more as a cultural rite (waiting impatiently for the matzoh ball soup as Grandpa davenned the Hagadah), wore suits and ties on the High Holy Days in the fall ("out of respect," my mother said, and, boy, was it a scandal in the apartment house when my friend Mitchell was seen heading for the playground on Yom Kippur in dungarees), and the boys suffered through endless early evenings in Cheder, paying dues toward that one Saturday morning when the bar mitzvah boy would be called to read from the Haftorah (when the congregation would be outnumbered by friends and relatives whose synagogue experiences were usually limited to such occasions).

Ceremonial foods and a full course meal with vegetarian matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish, vegetarian main course, tzimmes, salad and dessert will be included.

Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South by Marcie Cohen Ferris The University of North Carolina Press October 2005, $34.95, ISBN 0-807-82978-1

The April 4 show will be dedicated to creating the best Matzoh Ball Soup as Stewart teaches the basics for preparing chicken soup and unveils the secrets for the lightest Matzoh Balls.

It includes hearty, emotionally nourishing foods such as gefilte fish, chopped herring, chopped liver, potato latkes, and matzoh ball soup--the peasant foods of the shtetls, the bucolic villages that had been their homes.