L'shanah Tovah, San Diego, From Ralphs La Jolla

For most of my life I lived in Los Angeles and New York, two cities where being Jewish meant that during the high holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) schools were closed or attendance was negligible, nobody asked if the "chai" pendant around your neck was your dog (it's a Hebrew letter meaning "life"), and nobody expected a deli to carry cinnamon raisin or jalapeno cheese bagels. In other words, being Jewish was not an anomaly but pretty mainstream. As a Jewish American who has lived in San Diego for 20 years, I still miss that feeling of belonging, of taking for granted that the people around me understand my Yinglish slang, are familiar with the food I grew up with, and would never ever schedule important events on the holiest of Jewish holidays.

But, this is San Diego and even with a population of almost 90,000 Jews in the county, our cultural impact on the region has remained, well, limited. And, that includes, food. Einstein Bagels, which took over the marvelous Baltimore Bagels years ago, decided to eschew the most important step in bagel making: boiling the dough before baking, which gives it a shiny coat and a firm crust with a chewy interior. So, now they sell a round baked roll with a hole in it. It's certainly not a bagel. And, while I'm on a rant, is there a local deli that sells hand-sliced smoked salmon or Nova? Can you find a good Jewish corn rye? And, for those Jews who keep kosher, is there anywhere to shop for kosher food?

To that last question, the answer is now yes. Happily, I can say that our deficits made San Diego, or more specifically La Jolla, the first choice for Ralphs supermarket when it came to establishing a full-on kosher department. There may be more demand in L.A., but there are also more options for kosher Angelinos. So, two months ago, Ralphs remodeled its La Jolla store and vastly expanded its kosher section, calling it "The Kosher Experience." Zack Plotzker, the kosher department manager, told me that in San Diego there are an estimated 1,000 kosher-eating families, and that doesn't include vacationers searching for kosher food to eat. Even with the high expectations for the department, it's already exceeding sales projections.


And, amazingly, people are even driving down here from L.A. to shop. I met a mother and daughter yesterday from the Pico-Robertson section of L.A., who were at the deli counter for just that reason, and noodging Plotzker about having Ralphs establish a kosher department in their neighborhood.

The Kosher Experience sits where the produce used to be and what you'll find is a large deli counter, extended refrigerated and frozen sections, breads and sweets, and several aisles of packaged goods along with wines and spirits.

There's even a small display with Jewish-themed books, holiday tchotchkes, and gift items.


The deli counter is striking for its set up. The store sells various cheeses, salads, deli meats, and takeaway items. Nothing unusual there, but being kosher means keeping dairy and meat products separate and not mixing utensils. So, if you look closely toward the rear of the deli section, you'll notice a plexiglass wall dividing the handling and tools for dairy and meat products. Knives and other utensils and tools are marked with different colored labels to avoid a mix-up--dairy is blue, pareve (foods that are neither dairy nor meat, like produce) is green and meat is red. Plotzker said that, other than on Shabbat when it's closed, the deli counter always has on-site kosher supervision to make sure all the rules are obeyed, and includes oversight by two organizations, Vaad of San Diego and the Rabbinical Council of California.

The deli also prepares a variety of sandwiches, including hamburgers and hot dogs, egg salad, and sliced meats such as corned beef, turkey, and pastrami (both lean and naval, which is fattier and better for hot sandwiches, since the fat keeps the pastrami moist). There is a selection of kosher rotisserie chicken and even containers of house-prepared buffalo chicken wings, perfect for tailgating parties. And, there are all sorts of salads--macaroni, guacamole, and carrot, among them.

What you can't see behind the scenes is that a kosher butcher cuts meats Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The meats, sold in a refrigerated case next to the deli counter, includes beef, lamb, and chicken (Empire brand, of course). There's also fresh fish and even kosher sushi, made fresh two hours a day by Yellow Bamboo.

You'll also get a selection of three soups, made by Tabatchnick. While I tend to prefer homemade soups, if you have to eat prepared soups, Tabatchnick has long been a favorite of mine (try the mushroom barley).

The wine and spirits selection is pretty good, making it much more convenient to find kosher wines to serve at holiday dinners. You can even find kosher tequila and brandies here.


Much of the daily stuff of the pantry can be found in a kosher version here--beans and potato chips, candy and cereal, even microwave popcorn and Turkish coffee. Of course, you'll see several varieties of matzo, soup mixes, Dr. Brown's soda (including my dad's favorite cel-ray flavor and my cream soda), Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup, and Nathan's mustard.


The refrigerated sections are filled with childhood--and adult--favorites and necessary condiments. There are Batampke and Bubbies pickles, pickled tomatoes, and sauerkraut, herring, smoked salmon, horseradish, and cream cheese.


Nearby, the freezer holds perhaps a dozen varieties of Tabatchnik soups and frozen meals, including mac and cheese and chili. And, that's just one brand. You can stock up on all sorts of prepared meals, ice cream, and snacks.

The bakery sells brand-name and house-made goods like baguettes, sourdough bread, ciabatta, green-and-black olive bread, dinner rolls, and some of the largest, most delicious rugelach I've ever eaten.


According to Plotzker, the bakery sells 150 challahs on Fridays for Shabbat. Surprisingly, this time of year, they also have fresh hamentachen, a pastry traditionally made for spring holiday of Purim. There are a rainbow of cupcakes and large sheet cakes. And, combining two or three specialty needs, Ralphs sells kosher gluten-free and sugar-free pastries.

With the high holidays approaching (Rosh Hashanah begins at sunset Sept. 18 and Yom Kippur/Kol Nidre on Sept. 27), even non-kosher Jews like me will be looking for special items for family meals. Plotzker says that they'll be selling traditional round challahs, honey cakes, whole briskets, and even tongue, as well as yahrzeit candles.

Oh, and if over the next couple of weeks someone wishes you "L 'shanah Tovah, just say thank you and wish them the same. They're wishing you a sweet and good year.

L 'shanah Tovah!


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Aaron's Eatzz: Keeping Kosher in Kearny Mesa

I’m often nostalgic for Los Angeles and New York. LA, specifically Encino, is where I was raised, and while mocking the Valley and LA is a favorite pastime of people in San Diego and beyond, it was a magical place to grow up, particularly for a Jewish kid. New York, where I lived for several years after college, is more of a spiritual home. Its uber-urban, multi-ethnic streets are where I’ve always felt most comfortable, most myself. It’s where much of my extended family lived or passed through following passage from Eastern Europe. Going to the Lower East Side always is a moving adventure in retracing both my grandfathers’ steps early in the 20^th century.

Of course, all this nostalgia is completely intertwined with food—the bagels, lox and cream cheese, hot pastrami sandwiches, kreplach (think Jewish won-tons), kugel (sweet noodle pudding), corn rye and egg creams (a milk, chocolate syrup and selzer concoction) of my childhood. Every cholesterol-laden, high-calorie bite. And, it’s what I miss in San Diego. Sure, go ahead and remind me we have D.Z. Akins and Elijah’s and Milton’s. Sorry, I enjoy them, but they’re just not the same as the old Encino Deli (now known as Froman's), Mort's in Tarzana, Art’s in Studio City, or the Carnegie Deli or Katz’s in New York. And, certainly not my beloved Zabar’s (a deli market on steroids).

So, you can imagine how startled I was to discover Aaron’s on Convoy at Balboa several years ago. No, it’s not strictly a deli; it’s a little (tiny, really) glatt kosher* market with a deli section in a little strip mall that also houses a checking cashing store, dentist’s office and bait and tackle shop. But, I live in a neighborhood where if I’m really, really lucky, the local Albertson’s will have a rickety card table set up for Passover with a few boxes of matzo, and not always kosher for Passover. That makes Aaron’s a huge find.

Tomorrow evening (Monday) marks the beginning of Passover (or Pesach), which commemorates the travail of Ancient Egyptian Jews, who having been slaves of Pharaoh, fled and wandered for 40 years in the desert, led by Moses. On the first and second evenings of Passover, a Seder is held. This large meal is structured around the reading of the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Exodus and orchestrates how the meal is conducted, rather like stage directions. Those who strictly observe Passover for its eight days require special foods that are kosher for the holiday (even using separate dishes and utensils). No leavened bread can be eaten, hence the flat cracker-like matzo, made of just flour and water, which can be ground into a meal and used for baking. Matzo symbolizes the haste in which the Jews fled that left no time to let bread rise and bake. And, it's not just bread or other leavened foodstuff (referred to as "chametz") that's forbidden. All foods must be "kosher for Passover" and packaging is always marked either kosher or not kosher for Passover. In cities like New York and LA, with large Jewish populations, kosher-for-Passover foods are pretty easy to find, even in the chain supermarkets. However, it can be a challenge here, especially outside of La Jolla. I don't keep kosher, but I do try to keep with the spirit of Passover by eating matzo and other traditional foods.

When I walked into Aaron's on Friday before lunch, owner Aaron Hutman, a long-time grocery man originally from Montreal, was uttering a frazzled mantra, “I love Pesach; I love Pesach” as he cheerfully kibitzed (chatted) with and rang up orders for customers from around San Diego County coming in to pick up Passover provisions. Hutman has owned the market for eight years and in the past, he has been able to find nearby storefronts to set up as temporary Pesach staging quarters to sell kosher-for-Passover necessities like matzo, matzo meal, wine, potato starch, gefilte fish (small ovals of deboned, ground fish, eaten chilled with horseradish) and macaroons. This year, however, he couldn’t locate a spot so the market is swept up in a Passover frenzy. My Friday visit, pre-Passover and, more immediately, pre-Shabbat (Sabbath), was probably not the best time to try to speak with him, but he was good natured about answering questions, all the while, stocking food from an unending stream of boxes he had picked up in LA before dawn that morning.

I was wowed by the solid chocolate Seder plate, something I had never seen before. Traditional seder plates have a spot for each of the symbolic items featured in the telling of the Passover story while reading the Haggadah (maror, or bitter herbs in the form of horseradish; charosets, made of chopped apples and walnuts, cinnamon and sweet wine; a roasted lamb shank; a hard-boiled egg; parsley and salt water to dip it in). So, a chocolate seder plate? It's got to be Manishewitz's answer to chocolate Easter bunnies!

Hutman has brought in a variety of baked goods from Eilat Bakery in Santa Monica and all are kosher for Passover, including almond chocolate and chocolate chip macaroons and even mandel bread, a biscotti-like cookie. In the freezer section, I was surprised to find kosher-for-Passover pizza. You, too? Well, it turns out the crust is made with matzo meal.

Along with the Pesadic foods, Aaron’s has a wide variety of kosher meat and dairy products he carries year round, as well as products from Israel, including a range of wines from Efrat Winery (Merlot, Petite Syrah, Muscat, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz), vibrantly colored bottles of fruit nectars and cans of stuffed cabbage leaves, eggplant and peppers and Syrian cracked olives.

I got a kick out of the beers—He'Brew, the Chosen Beer, comes in two varieties, Genesis Ale and Messiah Bold.

Up at the front of the store is where, to me, the real treasures are—pastrami and corned beef, and containers filled with old-fashioned delicacies like chopped liver, cole slaw and egg salad. Jacob Dashevsky, a student at San Diego State, has been helping out Hutman in the rush and was busy slicing pastrami and wrapping up orders. Hutman may need Jacob’s help after Passover since he tells me that Aaron’s will be doing more catering and setting up a larger take-out section, with both kosher and non-kosher foodstuff.

These days, there’s no extended family around for a Passover seder, but my parents and I will be celebrating the holiday together Monday night and thinking of relatives around the country who will be doing the same. I always associate the holiday with my now late grandparents, Tillie and Abe Gould, who loved to host Seders for the entire family. Poppa’s job was to mark up the Haggadah with everyone’s names to establish reading parts. After all, Passover is nothing if not participatory theater. And, of course, he hid the Afikoman for us eight grandkids to find. The Afikoman is the middle matzo from a stack of three special ones placed on the Seder table. As a game to keep the children interested, the Seder leader sneaks it out at the beginning of the meal to hide it somewhere in the house, wrapping it in a special embroidered Afikoman cover or a dinner napkin. I think the winner got a dollar back then. Nana cooked for weeks in anticipation of at least a dozen guests and usually more. Chicken soup with matzo balls (dumplings made with matzo meal), homemade horseradish, roasted chicken or brisket, potato kugel (a potato pudding), charosets and flourless cakes served with strawberries. She was a fabulous cook and baker and fortunately, when I was in my 20s I hounded her to make me a cookbook of her recipes, which she did. Here is one, for matzo meal popovers, which I doubt you’ll find anywhere else. People never believe these are made without yeast, but they are. They are the Madeleines of my life.

Nana Tillie’s Passover Popovers

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.

Bring to a boil: 2 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 stick of butter. Take off the heat and add 2 cups of matzo meal. Let cool.

Beat in 6 extra large eggs, one at a time. Cool in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Spoon onto greased cookie sheets or into muffin tins.

Bake at 450 degrees for 13 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30 minutes. They should sound hollow inside when you tap the bottom. Makes about 15. Don’t double the recipe!

Aaron’s is located at 4488 Convoy St.

* Glatt means smooth in Yiddish. If the lungs of a kosher animal slaughtered in a kosher way are found to be smooth, then the animal's meat is considered to be "glatt kosher," a higher standard than kosher. However, it's come to refer to a store's reliable kosher supervision.

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