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In the time I spent in Israel, there were four edible substances I absolutely loved. They were *not* falafel, schwarma, mint soda, and petel.
They were: 1) Mekupelet; 2) Charms Super Blow Pops; 3) this red candy filled with white starch; 4) and, an apparently mezonos bread thing with onions on top.
Now, I can get my precious lollipops here in the States, and I can probably order “chocolate logs” from Oh Nuts! if I wanted, but I don’t know what the latter two are, hence I have no idea where to get them or whether I can make them myself. (If I make the starch candy myself, though, I might decide not to like it.)
Can anyone please help me figure out what the red starch candy and the bread with onions on it are called? Thanks!
Lechem Shum (Garlic Bread)
what is petel?
Petel is Ivrit for raspberry.
Every food item in every single Israeli supermarket is either marked “Bita’am Petel” or “Bita’am Shoko”.
Shoko is anything which has a vague resemblance to the color brown, and is a distant derivative of the word “chocolate”. It is a crime and insult to chocolate lovers and experts worldwide.
I think that they sell Mekupelet in most supermarkets. (Not sure if Oh Nuts! sells milchigs…?)
Is the red candy with white stuff in it that sour cherry flavor licoricey type stuff? If so, that they do sell in Oh Nuts! (my sis got it for yom tov).
Shoko spread is, unequivocally, the vilest of all shoko evils.
Unsuspecting mothers feed their innocent young a dirty brown brown paste smeared on bread. The generation grows to become familiar with it, then bear it, and ultimately – gasp – enjoy it. The horror! The horror!
I’ve never seen square rye bread in America either.
Anyway, maybe it’s the toaster company’s fault and not the bakery’s fault.
Number three is Chamtzutzim – a relative of sour belts.
I think that they may be called sour sticks.
Apparently, chocolate spread on bread is not unique to Israel. I know many Italians who have eaten nutella on Italian bread.
Israeli nutella is Kosher for Passover for ochlei kitniyot, and it has become a regular part of our Pesach routine. I enjoy it sandwiched between matzot or it goes really well when used to make sandwich cookies for Passover (I smear a teaspoon between 2 Oberlander’s chocolate lady fingers).
I also tried Elite Passover spread this year, but it tasted like chemicals and booze. Feh.
Passover cereals made with matzah meal aren’t the worst, to me. I ate Blanchard and Blanchard granola and Savion Crunchy O’s this year, both of which weren’t bad. I actually very much enjoy Oberlander’s passover desserts, especially the rainbow cake, as well as desserts made with almond flour and almond paste. Osem cakes aren’t bad. Some of the pesach foods are good, others terrible.
The non-kitniyot cereals, non-gebrokts cereals probably are made with tapioca starch, since that is acceptable across the board for Pesach.
Buying fake Pesach food is usually a bad idea because nobody wants to eat it after Pesach. I like to make real food so for breakfast I’d make baked sweet potatoes, bananas, walnuts, raisins and maple syrup.
I find that Oberlander desserts are as good as the year-round desserts. I also think that Pesach raspberry jelly rings are as good as the year round ones. I also had these Absolutely gluten free potato starch crackers (OU-P) that were really good this year.
I do think trying to eat natural for Pesach is also a great idea.
I actually did make a sweet potato kugel/pie/breakfast/dessert this year that was so good that I made it 2 shabbatot since (sweet potatoes, maple syrup, a little grated ginger, cinnamon, allspice, raisins, vanilla extract, eggs, toasted pecans, a little brown sugar, and baked. My mother likes marshamallows on top, as this reminds her of Thanksgiving).
On the topic of Israel, I was actually reasonably pleased with the quality of nosh from Israel this Pesach (bamba, bissli, etc.) But natural eating is a good idea for many reasons, not only on Pesach, but all year round, as well.
rebdoniel, I’m not trying to hurt you in any way shape or form. Either you’re sefardi or they changed the recipe of bamba because bamba is made from peanuts which is kitniyos.
Maybe they follow the shita of a rabbi by the name of Moshe Feinstein that peanuts aren’t kitniyot? (I am Sephardic, by the way, but my understanding of the minhag of kitniyot, as Reb Moshe understands in his teshuva, is that the ban only applies to foods which were around at the time when the minhag began in the 1300s. According to his definition, peanuts shouldn’t be banned for Ashkenazim, nor should corn or potatoes, since despite the fact that people make flour from these foods, they are New World foods that only entered Europe with the Columbian Exchange in the 1500s and onwards, far after the ban on kitniyot took effect for Ashkenazim).
I did hear of that shita but I believe the Minhag Haolam is that corn and peanuts are kitniyos. (If potatoes would be kitniyos, Ashkenazim wouldn’t really be able to eat anything!) If I remeber correctly, the Kosher L’Pesach symbol on bamba says that it’s kitniyos.
From what has been documented, until about 40 years ago, peanut oil was used on Pesach. I guess this was another chumra that acquired mass appeal in recent years. Being that I’m Sephardi, in any event, these restrictions are inapplicable towards my life and circumstances.
I believe the Chayei Adam wanted to declare potatoes kitniyos- I don’t remember exactly what the story was, but baruch Hashem that never happened!
rebdoniel, Bookworm: so someone else also likes that rainbow cake? I love that stuff and everyone thinks I’m meshuga. I could eat a whole container full.
Bookworm: so have you gotten your red candies yet? 🙂
Look inside the Chayei Adam. He says how people in his era wanted to ban potatoes as kitniyot. I’m curious as to what Ashkenazim did prior to the introduction of the potato.
Yes, potatoes were almost declared kitniyos. The reason they weren’t was that, practically speaking, at that time we wouldn’t have been able to survive for eight days on a Pesach diet that didn’t include potatoes. Now I’m sure we could, although it would be annoying (not that I’m advocating for this or anything!)
Those fruit slices (Rokeach used to make them), the raspberry jelly rings, and Oberlander rainbow cake are things I look forward to each Pesach. Oberlander’s sandwich cookies are also really delicious.
One other thing you may find an oddity: I make pignoli cookies for Passover, using Israeli passover almond paste/marzipan (if I can’t find it, I make my own using homemade almond paste from blanched Klein’s almonds), egg whites, sugar, Passover confectioner’s sugar, and pine nuts. Simple, naturally and inherently good for Pesach, and a taste of Sicily.
yeshivahguy: The Minhag HaPashut until the 1970s was that peanuts were not Kitniyos. There was a bit of a political battle and, to quote a major Yeshivish Posek, “The Kashrus organizations caved to the Machmirim.” There are still many who in theory would hold that peanuts aren’t Kitniyos, they just won’t eat them because they don’t have a Hashgacha. Thus, some Rabbonim are allowing Ashkenazim to but food with an OUKitniyos/Batatz L’ochlei Kitniyos if peanuts as the only problematic ingredient.
As an aside, R’ Moshe’s T’shuva is based on an incorrect historical assumption. R’ Moshe says explicitly that the reason that potatoes are Muttar and corn is Kitniyos is that corn is an old world grain while potatoes are a new world grain. This isn’t true. Corn wasn’t introduced until the very late 15th century, when they found it in American. There are several ways to explain the fact that corn is Kitniyos and still hold of R’ Moshe’s general rule that nothing new can be added to the Kitniyos G’zeiros. However, the fact is simple that no one in their right minds would think that corn isn’t Kitniyos.
A person could eat peanuts in the shell (which are raw), no? I wouldn’t think nuts in the shell need hashgacha.
Most peanuts are not totally raw. I think even in the shell they are at least toasted usually.
If y’all, come my way on pesach, here’s and invite for home made peanut butter, I buy in shell raw and roast them myself. I would serve corn on the cob, but here in EY, it a problem with bugs, and most corn is GMO bad stuff anyway.
writersoul, Bookworm and Rebdoniel, I am hereby joining the “Pesach Rainbow Cake Club”. I’ll be happy to bring coffee for all. Out of all the Pesach goodies, I have got to say that the rainbow cake is still the best ever.
Twisted,
I have an Ashkenaz friend who does the same as you (i.e./he eats corn on the cob, string beans, and peanuts on Pesach).
If I were Ashkenaz, I’d be matir neder and follow the shita of those who permit eating kitniyot, anyways, at least those foods which shouldn’t technically be considered kitniyot, like corn and peanuts.
I do the same as you, and purchase peanuts raw in the shell (the OU says, btw, that the only problem with peanuts roasted in the shell is that they’re treated with BHA, which is a derivative of kitniyot; R’ Y.E. Spektor writes explicitly that kitniyot derivatives, such as oils and corn syrup, are mutar for Ashkenazim). Homemade peanut butter is a lot cheaper than KFP almond butter or cashew butter, both of which cost $9 a jar, at least.
I eat peanuts on Pesach myself (or would if I had any inclination to eat peanuts). But corn has been Nahug for 500 years not to eat. It started for a reason; it wasn’t a mistake. It might be a later Minhag, but it is just as strong a Minhag, even if the reason is just a quirk of history.
And you can’t be Matir Neder to not eat Kitniyos. Real Minhagim don’t work like that.
Rav Elyashiv (see his haggadah, p. 12) says that if a Sefardi wants to change his minhag to stop eating kitniyos, than he has to be matir neder.
Also, quite a few rishonim refer to refraining from kitniyot as a minhag shtus (Rabbenu Yerucham), a minhag mahmat taut (Rabbenu Shmuel miFalaise), or an unnecessary chumra which need not be followed (Baal haTurim). And the Rambam, Rosh, and Rivash hold that it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to do away with this type of foolish custom.
Sam2, According to what you’re saying, what’s wrong with having peanut butter on Pesach? I don’t know where you live, but wherever I go shopping for Pesach items, I won’t find kosher l’pesach peanut butter (or any other peanut products).
“I have an Ashkenaz friend who does the same as you (i.e./he eats corn on the cob, string beans, and peanuts on Pesach).”
I don’t understand–even if you hold that corn and peanuts aren’t kitniyos, and even if you hold that you can eat kitniyos raw (like you can eat wheat etc. raw), how can he eat cooked string beans? Isn’t that the most fundamentally problematic way to consume kitniyos–that if one ate wheat etc. the exact same way he’d be chayav kares?
The Rema, IIRC, doesn’t even count string beans among kitniyot. This is the type of mishegoss that explains why I chose to go Sephardic .
yeshivaguy: There should be nothing inherently wrong with it. But you won’t find Kosher L’Pesach peanut butter with a Hashgacha so it’s a moot point. I would buy peanut butter with an OU Kitniyos for myself in a second.
Rebdoniel: We get it already. You think Ashkenazim are foolish backwards people who are Apikorsim because we deny Chazal like Tosfos did. Why don’t you choose to be Jewish first? Then you can become a Sephardi.
You “chose to go Sephardic”? Isn’t your father Syrian to begin with?
Upon being mekabel torah u’mitzvot, I had the option to choose whether I wanted to follow Ashkenaz or Sephardic practices. In practicality, I follow Sephardic practice, daven Nusach Edot haMizrach b’yechidut, and conduct services in nusach Ashkenaz, since it’s an Ashkenaz place that pays me.
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