‏ Yiddish things in New Orleans ייִדיש אין ניו־אָרלינס ‏

Tonight I attended a  program at which The Michael White Quartet spoke about and played ragtime, blues, swing, and sacred songs from the New Orleans area.  Then they said, those are traditional pieces and here are some of our original compositions in which we include material from other folk traditions, and you may well imagine how I was thrilled to pieces that the first thing they played was a variation on the theme of Dire-gelt.

So the program ends at about ten and I am looking for a place for a late supper and I drop into the a little bar on the way back.  The charming and delightful bartender, like many people who work around here, is covered with tattoos and piercings with sideburns covering half his face.  I ask if they can make a salad without meat and he says he will go to the kitchen to check.

While we are waiting he comments that it is hard to find vegetarian food around here although there are more vegetables available to home cooks than there used to be. In fact, he and his girlfriend belong to a CSA, and they get a box of fresh organic vegetables every week (I would not have guessed this dude was a CSA member, but that just shows you how conventional and clueless I can be).  Sometimes, he adds, he gets vegetables, and he has no idea what to do with them.  So I say, oh, you have to have a look at my website, I have recipes for all kinds of vegetables, and here, I have a cooking show too, and I start playing Est Gezunterheyt on my phone for him.

He says the show is great and I explain that it is in Yiddish, but has English subtitles. 

You know what I would really love to know how to make, he says, gefilte fish!  My grandmother used to make it every Passover and it was delicious.

Well,  you could have knocked me over with a wet kipper.  If there was ever any dude with whom I did not expect to be having a conversation about his grandmother's gefilte fish, it was most assuredly he.

My vegetarian gefilte fish recipe is here

A Yiddish version is here.

Vegetarian Jambalaya here.

Snow in Yiddish ייִדישער שנײ

שנײ
shney
snow

עס גײט אַ שנײ
es geyt a shney
it is snowing

זאַװערוכע
zaverukhe
blizzard

טרײַבשנײ
traybshney
driving snow

האָגל
hogl
hail

גרײַפּלרעגן, אײַזרעגן
grayplregn, ayzregn
sleet

שנײעלע, שנײפֿליטער, שנײגרײַפּל, סנעזשקע, פּליאכע
shneyele, shneyfliter, shneygraypl, snezhke, plyakhe
snowflake

קױל שנײ, באַלעם שנײ, שנײבאַלעם, קױל, שנײבאַל, שנײפּילקע
koyl shney, balem shney, shneybalem, shneykoyl, shneybal, shneypilke
snowball

עס גײט מיר אָן װי דער פאַראַיאָריקער שנײ

Es geyt mir on vi der farayoriker shney
It concerns me as much as last year's snow

ער הערט די מגילה װי דעם רבֿ, דעם רבֿ װי די מגילה, און בײדע אין אײנעם װי דעם פאַראַיאָריקן שנײ
Er hert di megile vi dem rov, dem rov vi di megile un beyde in eynem vi dem farayorikn shney

He hears the megile like the rabbi, the rabbi like the megile, and both together like last year's snow

גײ זוך דעם פאַראַיאָריקן שנײ

gey zukh dem farayorikn shney
Go look for last year's snow

ייִדיש עשירות (ייִדישער מזל) איז װי אַ מאַצאָװער שנײ (װי שנײ אין ניסן, װי ערבֿ־פּסחדיקער שנײ). מען זעט עס נישט אָפֿט און עס דױערט נישט לאַנג

yidish ashires (yidisher mazl) iz vi a martsover shney (vi shney in nisn, vi erev-peysekhdiker shney). me zet es nisht oft un es doyert nisht lang.

Jewish wealth (or Jewish good fortune) is like snow in March (or in Nisan, or on the Eve of Passover) . You don't see it often and it doesn't last long.

האָב אַ גוטן שליטװעגס

hob a gutn shlitvegs

Goodbye and good riddance (literally: "Have a good sleigh-ride" If someone you know is going for an actual sleigh-ride, and you actually want to wish them a good trip, there is nothing you can say. Not in Yiddish, anyway).

דעם בלאָג־אײנס װאָלט איך נישט געקאנט אנבלאָגעװען אָן דעם עלעטראנישן נוסח פֿון נחום סטוטשקאָװס אוצר

dem bolg-eyns volt ikh nisht gekont onblogeven on dem elektronishn nusekh fun Stutchkoff's Oytser.
This post would not have been possible without the miraculous online searchable Oytser of Nahum Stutchkoff. Inestimable thanks to Raphael Finkel and Shimon Neuberg.

בלאָג־אײנס
blog-eyns
blog post

אנבלאָגעװען
onblogeven
to blog, to post on one's blog

Walnut sauce for Pasta

 

A stone in the Warsaaw Jewish cemetery shows squirrels eating nuts.  Image reproduced from A Tribe of Stones by Monika Krajewski

On Shanerabe (Hoshanah Rabah, The Great Hosanna) we traditionally eat the first walnuts of the year.  I might make spaghetti with string beans and walnut sauce.  The recipe appears in Yiddish here.  Sher's wonderful walnut sauce is here, and a vegan version is here.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with String Beans and Walnut Sauce

1/2 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1 pound string beans
3-7 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups walnuts
4 sprigs parsley, if you have some
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta and string beans in boiling, lavishly salted water.  the spaghetti and string beans will both be done at exactly the same moment.  There is some evidence of divine providence in the world.
Toast the walnuts in a medium oven for about fifteen minutes.
In a food processor, grind the garlic and toasted walnuts with parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  gradually add a few ladles of the pasta cooking water to the desired consistency.



In the original recipe, I called for Parmesan cheese, but in fact the sauce is absolutely delicious without it, and as it happens, the Italian kosher Parmigiano Reggiano on which I have become dependent all these years is not to be found anywhere, anywhere, anywhere and will not not be available until sometime in 2013!  "We're aging as fast as we can," the lady at the cheese counter assured me.

I have often said the same thing myself.

‏אַ גוט קװיטל ‏

a gut kvitl (greeting for shanerabe: a good receipt, a good conclusion)

השגחה-פּרטית

hashgokhe protis  divine providence