By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
Food. Glorious food. Delicious food. Gourmet food. Excessive food. Isn’t that what Hanukkah is all about (aside from all those miracles and stuff)?
Once again, for the fifth gut-breaking time, we assembled a small army to taste a bunch of different kinds of gourmet and out-of-the-ordinary kosher foods that you can give as gifts or set out for your own Hanukkah parties. And so much of it this year was simply magnifique!
Our food came courtesy of Albertson’s on Mercer Island, which is renowned for its kosher food section and deli counter; Metropolitan Market’s West Seattle store (marked here as MM); and Whole Foods Market’s South Lake Union location (marked as WFM). Taste on!
Dessert first
I don’t recommend serving Béquet’s caramels — we tried Celtic sea salt, chipotle, and soft ($2.99 or $4.99 with a ribbon, WFM) — if for no other reason than there won’t be any left by the time your guests arrive. I thought they were awesome, particularly the ones with Celtic sea salt, which were just a perfect mix of sweet and salty. The chipotle had just the right kick at the end, and as far as the soft went, Leyna said, “I love these, but I think I just gave myself Type 2 diabetes.”
What you could serve are Original Two-bite pumpkin tarts ($4.49, Albertson’s), which Lynn noted actually can be eaten in just two bites. Plus, she said, they’re delicious. “Very tasty,” Stacy agreed. Lauren couldn’t really taste the pumpkin, though, and I thought the crust-pumpkin-creamy topping ratio could have gone a little more in favor of the pumpkin. Leyna, however, was just fine with the amount of cream cheese on top.
If you want to get a bit more traditionally Jewish, Green’s Homestyle Chocolate Rugelach ($7.99, Albertson’s) got good ratings, though tasters would have been in favor of a bit more chocolate. Karen, with New York running through her blood, noted that these are “not from Zabar’s.” But you take what you can get.
Who doesn’t love sugar cookies? What about with an infusion of lime? Karen loved Dancing Deer Sugar Cane Lime Cookies ($6.49, WFM). “The fragrant lime goes well with the chewy cookie,” she said. David thought it was “a real treat — great with cheese!” Susan thought these cookies had “just the right amount of chewiness. Delish!” She suggested pairing it with the lavender soda (see the end of the article).
If you add butter, you’ll get something like the Biscottea Earl Grey Shortbread Biscuits ($4.99, WFM). “Mmmm,” I said. “Sweet, buttery, with just a hint of tea at the back end.” Karen loved them as well: “If you love Bergamot, this is for you. Buttery and light and dippable,” she said.
Want to play a cruel joke on some unsuspecting kid? Try serving him or her one of Yummy Earth’s Organic
Hot Chili Lollipops ($2, WFM). Interestingly enough, Stacy’s 12-year-old son
actually loved them. And Leyna said they were “both delicious and painful at the same time.”
Some people feel like they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. They’d probably be the perfect recipients of the Sunspire Milk Chocolate Earth Balls ($6.49, MM), little bite-sized chocolate balls wrapped in an earth-resembling foil that I thought had a nice flavor.
Jo’s chocolates make wonderful gifts, and they’re so tasty! “M’od ta’im,” said Rachel, using her Hebrew to express
her appreciation for the peppermint chocolates ($8.99, MM). Leyna said the “peppermint taste comes through just enough. Great!” while Susan thought they’d be an excellent chaser — but to what, I’m not sure. As for the English toffee ($8.99, MM), Leyna and I both thought they were pretty good, but they need to reduce their packaging. Each toffee is wrapped in cellophane, which is wrapped in corrugated plastic, which is placed in a box, which is wrapped in more plastic. Too much waste to get to the goodies!
If you’re entertaining with an Asian theme, check out Bubbie’s Ice Cream Bites ($7.99, MM). We tried a strawberry-dark chocolate ice cream wrapped in a rice flour skin, Japanese-style. “Like Jewish mochi balls!” said Leyna. She was a bit put off by the flavor, though.
“I liked the chocolate and strawberry together,” Lauren said. “More flavorful than the usual chocolate or vanilla mochi balls.” Personally, I love mochi and this to me was tops. The rice skin was nice and chewy and the ice cream was oh-so-creamy!
And Asian just ain’t Asian without a fortune cookie to finish the meal. Metropolitan Market’s got a container full for just $4.49, and as a bonus all of the cookies we picked up had at least two fortunes! I’ve got twice as much good luck coming, I’m just sure of it.
We also picked up Joyva sesame crunch candies ($3.99, Albertson’s). The rectangular treats took Leyna back to her childhood.
“My grandma used to keep these in a dish on her coffee table,” she said. “They’re kind of gross.”
Oh, cheese!
The Pacific Northwest is undergoing something of a cheese renaissance these days, as many of our readers’ palates can attest. Unfortunately, the methods of production (including some of the ingredients), distribution and packaging make some of these new stinky, runny cheeses particularly non-conducive to kosher consumers. Too bad, because we’re missing out.
We tried four different cheeses — all of them quite tame compared to what’s out there now. Three came from Les Petites Fermieres ($5.99-$10.99, Albertson’s): a cheddar, which we all agreed was nice but could have used a bit more bite, a Monterey jack, which Leyna found “pretty flavorful for a typically bland cheese,” and Rachel called “so good,” and a Camembert, which Lynn found delicious. Susan, who’s not normally a fan of soft cheeses, said it was good. We also had Danablu’s Danish blue cheese ($7.99, Albertson’s), which many of us liked, but I found it didn’t have quite the freshness or bite of some other blues.
Let’s go crackers!
Cheese just isn’t cheese if you don’t have anything to put it on. So we tried a lot of crackers — and a few breads as well. The Israeli entry, Shibolim Whole Wheat K’nockers crackers ($2.49, Albertson’s), tasted like cardboard. Particularly compared to crackers from Beecher’s ($4.99, WFM), the cheese folks down at the Pike Place Market, which Karen called “buttery and flaky, they taste freshly baked.” I found that they didn’t get in the way of what you’re putting on them. Susan thought they were the best crackers on the table.
Bremner sesame wafers got similar kudos. Karen thought they’d be “perfect under everything,” while Stacy celebrated their versatility. Susan called it the “archetypal understated cracker.” To give you a sense of the flavor, think oyster cracker, only bigger.
If you like crackers with a bite, La Panzanella Fieri chipotle crackers ($2.99, WFM) is not only great as a cracker, but it gives you a kick at the end. Leyna “liked it alone, liked it with stuff on it.” Karen called it outstanding while David said it was “just the best.”
For something completely different, a company called Two Moms in the Raw has a gluten-free garden herb sea cracker that neither looks nor tastes remotely like a Saltine, but dang if they weren’t good. “Mmm,” I said. “Very much like the sea. Rosemary, buttery almost.” Ilana found it earthy and herby, without any real need to put anything on top.
We tasted two breads: Culinary Circle Kalamata & Moroccan Olive Bread ($3.49, Albertson’s) and Wild Harvest Organic Multigrain ($3.69, Albertson’s). Lynn thought the olive bread might have been better toasted, but Stacy, ever the contrarian, countered “who doesn’t love fresh bread and cheese?” Stacy loved the multigrain bread as well, saying, simply, “Yummy!” David and I both concurred.
Lox, stock and two smoked barrels
We had something of a lox-off at our tasting event, pitting locals Gerard & Dominique’s smoked salmon (4 oz., $6.99, MM) against internationally renowned chef Charlie Trotter’s Darjeeling Tea & Ginger Cured lox (4 oz., $8.99, WFM). Stacy preferred the G&D to Trotter, calling her favorite moist and flavorful. I loved the mellow flavor of the Trotter lox. It tasted amazing (not that the G&D didn’t!), but the subtlety of the tea and the novelty of its infusion into something already so delicious just pushed it over the edge for me. Karen liked the “sweet, light cure and velvet texture.”
Dee, who knows her smoked fish, called the G&D “moist and not too smoky.”
We also tried a packaged whitefish ($8.38, MM) that was flavorful but too bony and just a bit too salty, according to several tasters.
For the fish bathed in cream portion of our tasting, we had Mirsa’s herring in cream sauce ($6.99, WFM) which I will state, right now and for the record, that unless you’re of a certain age who grew up eating this stuff after morning minyan or at the shvitz, regardless of brand, it is disgusting. Stacy and Karen begged to disagree. Stacy merely said “Delish!” while Karen somehow found the herring to be perfectly balanced. Between a rock and a hard place, perhaps. Blue Hill Bay’s salmon in cream sauce ($7.99, MM) got even less of a reception than the herring.
Get saucy!
Who would have thought that people could get so excited about mustard? But everyone who tried the Bone Sucking Mustard ($7.49, MM) loved it. “I want to put this on everything. Literally, everything,” said Leyna.
“Love it,” said Stacy, “especially good on a spicy cracker.” Susan thought it was the best mustard she’d ever tasted. Lauren, who doesn’t even like mustard, liked the sweetness of this spicy stuff. It certainly would go great in a gift basket.
We tried a number of Sabra hummuses ($4.99-$5.99, Albertson’s), from the plain to the spicy to the caramelized onion to roasted red pepper. Lauren liked the spicy stuff. “Just like the regular hummus, she said, “smooth and garlicky — but with heat!” Susan thought all the flavors were good, though Rachel found them a bit lacking.
Robert Rothschild makes a number of dips in beautiful hexagonal jars, any of which would make for nice gifts. We tried the Dirty Martini dip ($8.99, MM), which made the spice lovers in our midst rejoice. “Spicy, creamy goodness,” said Ilana. “But not nearly as tasty as a real martini.” Duly noted. Stacy thought it would be tasty with a martini. Blair loved the olives.
Sometimes it’s nice to have something besides crackers to dip into the sauces, like vegetables for instance. Rather than a boring ol’ crudité, we tried veggies in jars. In various brines. You know, like pickles. Peppadew whole sweet piquante peppers ($7.99, WFM) got roundly good reviews. I thought it would be great with a creamy cheese or one of the dips to dampen the delicious spiciness, though the sweet at the back end was a bit too vinegary for my taste. Karen thought it was “very festive — fill these with a dollop of goat cheese or mozzarella and serve with antipasto!”
Not faring as well were the Kvuzat Yavne eggplants in brine ($3.69, Albertson’s), cute little baby-sized eggplants in a purplish broth from Israel that Karen said were “peculiarly atextural and salty.” Another Israeli find, Osem canned pickles ($3.29, Albertson’s), had the feel and taste of having been canned and shipped across the world. Enough said.
And to wash it all down…
We got a number of drinks as well, some of which we didn’t actually taste — like the organic orange bitters ($4.99, MM) that we all agreed looked delicious but didn’t have the liquor to mix them into. Would certainly make for a great gift to your favorite drink-mixing friend, though.
We tried three Super Chill seltzers, raspberry, mandarin orange and lemon-lime (Albertson’s). The mandarin orange didn’t get much of a reception while I thought the raspberry was fine for a seltzer.
Gus Pomegranate soda (4-pack $5.99, MM), however, made an impression. “Generally fruity, but not specifically pomegranate tasting,” noted Leyna. She found it “enjoyable nonetheless.” I thought it was a bit sweet and syrupy, but when does soda not taste sweet and syrupy? Stacy thought it tasted rich while Jean thought it had no taste at all.
The other soda we tried, the Dry Soda Co.‘s lavender flavor (4-pack $4.99, MM) knocked my socks off. “So tasty, so effervescent,” I said.
“I’m not a soda drinker,” said Susan, “but I could make a habit of this.”
David, however, was unimpressed — except, perhaps, as a pick-me-up after going to the gym. “Great for underarms,” he said.
Once you finish a meal and want to sit back and relax, nothing soothes like coffee. Allegro coffee has an organic French roast ($11.99/lb., WFM) that’s kosher and fair trade. Stacy said she loves that it’s kosher. And that it’s good coffee.
So are you full?
Finally, when you’re out stocking up for your parties and gift baskets, remember to pick up a few cans or non-perishables for your local food bank or one of those packages at the supermarket checkout that feeds a set amount of people a number of meals. Where everything else we’ve tried for you will fill up your stomach, this will fill up your heart.
B’teavon!