TheBanyanTree: What I did on my birthday

[JENA NORTON]

I’m okay with everything but the fish cake and bitter melon, because I haven’t had that combo before. I was fortunate in my early years to be exposed to foods quite alien to the South by Ashkenazi neighbors from NY and later by Sephardic friends in Atlanta. And there are some traditional Southern foods I never took to, like (shudder) chittlins AKA chitterlings. I just don’t do innards! 

I hope I can find a good Chinese bakery here for moon cakes, lotus cakes, and winter melon cakes like one I loved in SF. Lots of ethnic food here in St. Louis area I’m looking forward to trying! There’s a Ugandan restaurant nearby that has my curiosity piqued!

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 20, 2018, at 12:47 PM, tobie at shpilchas.net wrote:
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> Hello to all of you,
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>    Jena said that Menudo (Mexican tripe soup with hominy) would not be her choice of comfort foods.  Menudo is definitely one of mine.  And it ain’t exactly from my Ashkenazi eastern european Lithuanian Litvak cultural heritage.  But I’ve got other comfort foods that, Jena, I’m sure you’d not approve of.  How about sweet and sour beet borscht with sour cream?  Knishes shaped into an S.  Noodles and cottage cheese.  Also, I have to say that bitter melon with fish cake in black bean sauce hits the spot.  Go figure. How about strawberry or raspberry or mango or cherry parvice?  Parvice is a kosher/pareve ice cream made without dairy so it can go with either a meat or dairy meal. EXCELLENT! Like eating a cloud.  (and no where do you find matzoball soup). Yes I like it.  So why isn’t it on the list? Because I make it all the time so it offers little extra comfort.
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>    I also remember a desperate summer between high school and my first year of college when, forlorn over the high school orchestra conductor’s 22 year old son (who was on a musical grant in Amsterdam) I watched the mail box for a letter, oh, about thirty times a day and ate my sorrows in the following reprehensible and shameful mixture:  
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>    I decided to make meringue cookies.  Good. Just whip up those egg whites and add the sugar, then …….. hmmmm.  It looked good before adding anything. So I ate it.  Six egg yolks and a cup and a half of sugar.  Raw.  Yum.  Do not EVER EVER say such foolishness as, "Oh to be 18 again!"   My mother, at 98, says, "Oh, to be 90 again!"  
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>    Perspective people. Perspective.
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> Tobie
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> "Kafka is in his grave, but still collecting royalties."    THS   2017
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> Tobie Helene Shapiro
> tobie at shpilchas.net
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