Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The great mimick!

Seeing as I finally finished typing the professor's last chapter to his (unfinished but nearly finished) book, I have a lot of spare time on my hands here at work. I downloaded a new Twitter client (in case anyone is watching me, I'm "kvetchingeditor") and have been perusing recipes to try and tie together my meal plan for next week. I've also been look at a variety of stories and tid bits on the web, and I think it's appropriate that my RSS is feeding me lots of Pesach-centered stuff.

In particular is this fancy kvetch: "Is That Brownie Safe to Eat?" The author points out that at some point in the chain of Jewish history, chicken was parve and the rules around kitniyot were looked at as being some kind of crazy ballyhoo. This little spiel got me thinking, though. I'm one of those people who doesn't eat food that is trying to be other food -- thus, I don't eat sausage, I don't eat fake bacon, I don't eat veggie burgers (I eat black bean burgers, there's a difference) laden with grill marks with that smokey, familiar flavor, I just don't eat things that want to be things that aren't kosher or that are faux ______. It's just silly to me. So when I make matzo pizza or matzo lasagna or chicken coated in matzo meal (think: breadcrumbs!), am I a big fat hypocrite? I mean, I don't eat pizza regularly anymore since joining up with the WW, and I never make lasagna, and I rarely -- if ever -- cook chicken (or any meat) at home. So maybe that makes it okay? But isn't it also like avoiding the point? I wonder what people made back in the day. I wonder if it was just matzo, matzo, matzo.

On that note, here's an interesting factoid: In the middle ages, matzo were as much as an INCH THICK!