By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Food, glorious food. We eat it. We take pleasure from it. We love to serve it to others. And with such a food-focused holiday as Hanukkah a hop, skip and a jump away, we at JTNews decided to take it upon ourselves, as we do every year, to peruse our local supermarkets to find the best kosher and delicious foods that you can have at the ready for guests, parties, or to simply give as gifts.
We roamed the aisles of four grocers: QFC, Albertson’s (on Mercer Island, with its expanded kosher section), Whole Foods Market and PCC, all of whom graciously donated the treats to help expand our culinary horizons (and our waistlines).
We’ll start with the savories:
We wanted to have something of a focus on cheese, partly because it’s so darn good but also because of the connection dairy has to the holiday — it’s the salty food that resulted in the death of the general that had been oppressing the Jews of the era. So we went cheese crazy! We tried three soft cheeses — a Les Petites Vermieres brie, and a Camellia and Bucheret, both goat cheeses from Redwood Hill Farm. The brie, our army of in-office tasters said, was good, but the star of the soft cheeses was the Camellia, which was very similar to a Camembert. All three came from Whole Foods Market.
“Velvety,” reports Karen. “Melts in your mouth.”
I thought it to be delicious, with a nice, bitter end from the rind and the perfect softness of a ripe cheese. Lynn agreed.
The Bucheret, a petit bucheron goat cheese, is quite a delicacy, which Karen called “delicious [and] pungent.” Patti found it “very rich and memorable, [with] great flavor,” while David lauded the “sharp and distinctive” flavor. I thought it retained the lightness of a goat cheese without being overpowering.
We also picked up a Russian-style farmer cheese from Belfiore, available at Whole Foods, which had a nice lightness to it and would go great with some of the dips mentioned below.
The hard cheeses included a basic Tillamook cheddar (the only kosher one we could find at QFC), which David said was smooth and creamy. From Albertson’s came three cheeses from Wisconsin’s Sugar River Cheese Co. One was a white cheddar with roasted garlic and onion, of which Leyna thought “the onion flavor is a little weird,” and another was a Prairie Jack with green peppercorns, which Ilana said was a “good cheese, but could be more peppery.” I agreed, noting that the Jack overpowers the spices. Finally, both Lynn and David liked the Prairie Jack with parsley and chive. Smooth and creamy was the consensus on that. The yogurt and herb sliced cheese from Haolam was tasty, I thought, but the herbs added an unwelcome bitterness.
No party is complete without dips and spreads. Three, made by Olivia’s (labeled in both Hebrew and English) and available at Albertson’s, brought three different reviews.
The sun-dried tomato spread is “yummy and would go nicely paired with the olive spread and farmer’s cheese,” reported Susan. Ilana thought it, simply, to be tasty.
The spicy pepper and garlic spread was just that: very spicy, but the garlic added a nice flavor, Karen said. The olive spread was smoother and a bit more bitter than your standard tapenade, but flavorful just the same. Karen added that she’d love to give these lovely jars as gifts.
On the dip front, we had plenty. From the Oregon-based Toby’s tofu Lemon Dill and Roasted Garlic and Red Pepper spreads (from PCC) to the Sabra hummus and baba ghanoush (from Albertson’s), with some delicious olives in the middle, you would do a party good with any of these.
“Snappy flavor,” reports David on the Toby’s garlic spread. Leyna said it was “pretty good for tofu.” I agreed, though it did taste a bit too tofu-like (and I like tofu!). The Lemon Dill, however, fared much better.
“Nice texture, great flavor,” said Karen. “Yummy!”
Ilana echoed those sentiments. “Would be great for a sandwich,” she added.
Words could not describe the unanimous appreciation for the hummus; the baba ghanoush, (that Middle Eastern eggplant mainstay), however, was a bit more controversial. “Excellent, a bit of texture and smoky,” wrote Karen. Susan, however, found it not smoky enough. I agreed with Susan, and also found it to have too much mayonnaise. On the eggplant front, though, we also had a Spanish eggplant salad from the Albertson’s deli counter — kosher, of course — which was quite tasty and sweet.
“Wonderful,” said Susan.
“Delicious!” said Ilana.
“Yum!” said Lynn.
The olives, large, green, meaty Peruvian fruits by Delallo and found at PCC, were similarly well received.
“Whoa! Now that’s an olive!” said Louise. Patti liked the nice flavor and texture, which I found to be quite mellow, though a bit on the salty side.
And we can’t have a holiday without something smoked, can we? We had three smoked salmon options. First, a Somalux package of lox from QFC, which unfortunately was probably not quite as good as so many other options that abound in this region, but Karen still found it to be “mild, very sweet-salty, yummy.” Whole Foods carries Spence and Company’s Smoked Salmon Petit Fours, a package of adorable little slices of cream cheese and smoked salmon wrapped in even more smoked salmon. “Fun and tasty,” said David, while Karen said it was “perfect for a quick cocktail party.” Finally, the PCC smoked salmon with cracked pepper was a hit as well. The kippered salmon was “flaky with a nice peppery finish,” wrote Karen, while Patti found it to be “really moist and the pepper was a great contrast to the flavor of the fish.”
All of these went well, by the way, on Mariner’s Sweet Pepper and Basil crackers from PCC.
In keeping with the Hanukkah spirit, if you’re not making your own latkes, consider picking up Dr. Praeger’s Sweet Potato pancakes from PCC. They’re not much to look at, but Susan called them “Excellent!” while Karen liked that they were “really smooth and crunchy at once — delicious.”
“Flavorful and spicy!” said Melissa. “I like!”
With all of this salty food, we needed some thirst quenchers. For great gifts, Kedem has sparkling ciders and grape juices in champagne bottles at QFC. For the ball game or something less formal, PCC had Blue Sky sodas in flavors that go beyond the run of the mill. Louise liked how the Black Cherry Soda had a “nice flavor without being too sweet or overbearingly cherry-ish.” The White Tea soda with pomegranate tickled Susan’s tastebuds, and she’s not even a soda fan.
“Delicious,” she wrote. “It even smells good.”
The Green Tea soda with imperial lime had a “very subtle flavor,” according to Louise.
I found it to be subtle as well, but tasty and not too sweet. “You can taste the tea in the aftertaste,” I noted.
“Just slightly tea-ish,” noted Leyna.
A special note should be made here about the Jones Soda Hanukkah pack, available through jonessoda.com. Our friendly neighborhood soda pop company has put together a $12.99 package of four sodas: Jelly Doughnut, Chocolate Coin, Applesauce, and, yes, Latke. Consensus was that these sodas should be given as a gift, preferably to someone who’s not likely to drink them.
Then there’s the wall of tea: The flavors and types of tea today abound, and even with kosher designation you can’t go wrong. We found teas at Albertson’s, Whole Foods and PCC which ranged from the Guayaki energy teas to Numi organic Honeybush. From two pomegranate flavors from Yogi and Allegro to three under the classic Wissotzky label: Mango & Passionfruit, Lemon and Raspberry.
So now, onto dessert!
We went a bit chocolate crazy this year, ranging from sampling Seattle Chocolates’ Black Forest bar (“Wow, that’s good,” wrote Leyna) to Seeds of Change’s organic Dominican chocolate bar from Whole Foods. With hints of amaretto, this was a big favorite (and also got kudos for its beautiful packaging).
“Has a fruity, sweet taste,” wrote resident chocoholic Louise.
“A lot of different tastes — like a good wine, only chocolate,” wrote Leyna.
Patti said, “Wow! The mix of flavors and depth of dark chocolate essence is fabulous.”
From PCC came Oregon’s Dagoba, with a spicy Mexican-style dark Xocolatl with chilies.
“Great chocolate,” I noted. “Bitter with nice spice at the end.”
Whole Foods sells Jo’s peanut brittle and mint bark in exclusive, lovely tins that would make a great gift. Plus, they’re tasty. Leyna’s first experience with the mint bark surprised her when it didn’t taste like a tree.
“Not nearly as bark-like as I might have imagined,” she wrote. “Pretty good.”
Moving onto baked goods, we had beautifully packaged, pumpkin-immersed Immaculate Baking Pumpkin Gingerlies from PCC, which I found a bit softer than I expected, but very tasty.
“I love these!” exclaimed Susan.
“Delicious pumpkin-y flavor — true to its name,” wrote Karen.
Paskesz’s chocolate-coated fingers, incredibly sweet wafers with a chocolate coating, available from QFC, reminded Leyna of “the exact taste of being in third grade.” And she’s right — they’d make a great snack for the kids.
David said “you can’t eat only one.” But with the chocolate options that abounded, the coating fell flat on these.
Two options from the local Cougar Mountain Baking Company — Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk and Lemon Snickerdoodle — never failed to please, and come packaged great as a gift.
“Always good,” noted Leyna.
Finally, to end on a more traditional note, Whole Foods had Chewy’s Cinnamon-Walnut Rugelach, which go well with one of the many teas.
“Really tasty, nice flavor with the cinnamon, and not too sweet,” I noted.
“Two are just right,” added David.
And finally, to soak up the oil from your latkes, we went Middle Eastern with this longtime favorite, Joyva Halvah from QFC. You can’t go wrong with that sesame treat.
“Just like Grandma served,” David said.