Ask [honorific] LJ

[magid]

1. Which (if any) hard liquors can be acquired kosher for Passover locally?
   [edit I called Marty's, and the have vodka, brandy, and "some other things" that are kosher for Passover. Many thanks to all who suggested them. Now I have an excuse to stop by the new kosher strip on Comm. Ave. in Newton, too :-)]
   
2. Recommend a good tire place in metro Boston?
   
3. Is the reason so many non-kosher-observing people assume certification involves some kind of blessing of the food because priests do that over the communion foods?
   
4. If you had to give up one or the other, would you keep onion or garlic?

Comments

[bitty.livejournal.com]

garlic.
no hesitation.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I am so in the minority on this one, apparently (or at least, in the minority of this self-selected subset of a convenience sample, which means the results are highly statistically significant *cough*); garlic is good and tasty and useful, but onions are essential. Huh.

[mayica.livejournal.com]

I completely agree: Garlic's great, but I'm not sure I know how to cook without onions. There are plenty of nights when i start making dinner (pasta, sauteed meat or stir fry or curry or almost any other stove-top dish) by chopping an onion and sauteeing it in olive oil while I check through the fridge to see exactly what else I'm going to add.

[magid.livejournal.com]

That's what I do, too. Though if I know I'm going to stir-fry, I try to figure out ingredients before I start cooking the first one.

[geekosaur]

Re liquor: it's fuzzy at best. It does look like unflavored Bacardi is KfP, but you might check with your rabbi; apparently opinions vary (but then, when don't they?)

Onion vs. garlic: garlic, no question.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the booze pointer; I'm contemplating making boozy (dried) fruit for Pesach (both this year and next, to plan ahead for something nice :-), and wine just doesn't seem like the right form of alcohol...

[mrn613.livejournal.com]

I would keep onion. Definitely the onion.

[magid.livejournal.com]

See, me too, but we seem to be in the minority (in this highly scientific *cough* poll :-). I use garlic a lot, but onions are essential in almost everything that isn't dessert!

[docorion.livejournal.com]

1. No clue
2. I use ABJ for almost everything nowadays. If all you need is tires, Costco is a good option, though; I buy my tires there (and will be happy to go with you so you can use my membership, if you decide to go that way).
3. Probably. I got curious one day, and went to one of the 'explaining judaism' sites (probably http://www.jewfaq.org) to get the skinny, so if I used to think that (and I don't think I did, but all things are possible), I no longer do.
4. I would definitely keep garlic, and reluctantly abandon onion. Do I have to abandon the whole onion family, or can I keep things like scallions? :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

2. Just tires; I have a slow leak in one of them, so I assume I'll need 2 new ones to keep them balanced. Thank you for the Costco offer; I may take you up on it (though that would mean me actually cahnging car tires, wouldn't it? Hrm.)

3. Thanks for the data point.

4. Alas, in my idea of how this works, all you get to keep is garlic; scallions are merely young onions, after all. You might be able to keep leeks, though.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

3. I've never assumed kosher meant blessed, but that's probably to do with how early on I broke out of my familial religious bubble.
I assume now that food that is eaten as part of a sacrificial rite would be blessed (therefore, communion emblems), but otherwise, no.

I'm postulating that some people don't understand how rabbi differs from priest and that may be part of the misunderstanding.

4. Nooo...I can't choose.
Gun to my head? Garlic. (Only because Tom doesn't like it.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

3. Interesting.
In any situation of food eating, there's a short (one-liner) blessing, giving thanks to the Creator of fruits of the tree, of the ground, of the vine, over bread, and so on. The only other blessing I can think of that's specifically over food and worded differently is over eating matzah at the seder ("...who gave us the commandment of eating matzah," approximately). It's the only food that there's a positive precept about eating at a particular time. However, none of this has to do with making the food be kosher or not, so it's all rather tangential to the original question.

I agree, lots of people just transfer knowledge of what priests do/are to what rabbis (and probably imams, if it comes to that) do/are, however incorrect that is. Default assumptions about how things work... (like the person who got that I'm not Xtian, but not that I didn't celebrate Xmas; so weird).

4. So, Tom'd choose onion, and you'd get to have some after all? :-)

[pinkfish.livejournal.com]

I recall a liquor store that had quite a selection of kosher wines. I can find my way there, but I am not quite sure how to describe where it is. I think it is in Watertown, on Washington street. You can actually see it from the pike as you drive by, just after you went past (outbound) the Watertown/Galen St. exit. It is on a street that runs parallel to the pike there, on the right-hand side.

I don't know if they carry hard liquor, but if they do, then they will have a selection of kosher for passover things.

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

That would be Marty's Liquors, on Washington St, in Newton.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me about Marty's. I should call them.

[queue.livejournal.com]

3. I don't know if I ever thought that, but possibly a reason to think that is simply that it has to be a rabbi that does it. Most people's interaction with other clergy is with the clergy doing mostly symbolic things like leading prayer, absolving sin, etc., so the thought that a clergy-type person could do something non-symbolic might not even enter the brain. My guess is that there's not necessarily a link to communion, other than that is yet another symbolic action that a clergy member performs.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Interesting. FYI, a person who certifies kashrut (mashgiach) doesn't have to be a rabbi, though many of them are.

[queue.livejournal.com]

So, either I had never heard that before, or I did and it didn't stick in my brain. I definitely was under the impression that certification had to be done by a rabbi.

[magid.livejournal.com]

The certifying organizations are generally run by rabbis, but the mashgichim on the ground, as it were, aren't always rabbis. And if it weren't such a political thing in the US, there might be fewer rabbis.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

If you look at it logically - anyone who has kosher kitchen is, in effect, the mashgiach for that kitchen. You need someone knowledgeable for backup, but being a rabbi oneself? Not necessary.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

4. Onions go; garlic stays. No contest.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm obviously in the wrong social group, says the one who had a breakfast of caramelized onions yesterday.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Even I don't just cook up a bunch of garlic and eat it straight. *shudder*

On the other hand, those of us giving up onions for garlic means more onion for you :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Would you eat a bunch of roasted garlic straight, though?

All your onions are belong to us!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

1. I don't know the Boston area, but I'd say you should look at potato vodka, brandy, slivovitz and possibly rum or tequila.

2. Sorry

3. It's religious, right? So there has to be a religious transformation via blessing.

4. Garlic. I'd miss it terribly, but I use onions far more often.

[magid.livejournal.com]

1. Thank you.

2. It's a slow leak in one tire, so it's necessary soon, but luckily not immediately.

3. Ha!

4. I'd miss garlic too, but onions are ubiquitous. So far there's only three of us onion-favorers, and we're all kosher home cooks. I'm not sure whether I should read anything into that.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

My first impulse is to say "garlic" also, but I think I buy your argument: that I would miss things-containing-onions as a class much more than things-flavored-with-garlic, even though the latter are more consciously noticeable. Garlic is beloved, but onions are a staple. It's an interesting dichotomy. There's probably an analogy to people in there somewhere. :-)

P.S. I bought Sabra for Pesach :-) Now I just have to decide whether I'm bringing it to our first seder or saving it to open at shul -- since last year I brought the rest of the opened bottle to shul the second night and there was some small consternation, although I was quietly allowed to serve it out anyway.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Makes you glad you don't have to give up any alliums, doesn't it?

Sabra's orange-flavored, yes? Where did you find it with Passover certification?
(I wasn't thinking of liquor for the seder at all, since I've never felt I needed more than was already in the four cups. Obviously, this is not a universal opinion :-)

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Sabra is CHOCOLATE-orange flavored, so maybe not what you want for fruit. :-) However, it is commonly available with Passover certification. And I got this one at Martignetti's on Solders Field Road (while doing the Purim party shopping), but last year I bought it at... Blanchard's? the big place at Packard's Corner in Brighton.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Chocolate-orange flavored, hm. That makes me think I should candy some peel, put it in Sabra, and next year dry them off and dip them in chocolate. And I could use the leftover citrus-flavored syrup for something or other now, maybe some kind of fruit crumble?