May 18, 2013

Reduce Hot/Cold Food Containers For School Lunches

September 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment
reduce

A very good friend of mine keeps raving about these amazing PBA-free containers that keep food incredibly hot for your children’s lunches.  They are the Reduce line of products and the Reduce 10-Ounce Stainless Steel Vacuum Food Jar can be found here on Amazon for only $9.99.  I bought 2 already and can’t wait till they arrive.  What a nice way to serve a healthy hot lunch to your children in school.  I’m making mine dairy because I’m pretty sure the main food that’s going in there will be piping hot macaroni & cheese (with real melted cheese not the powdered type).

Here are more great features of these Reduce products:

  • Keeps food/soup warm for up to 6 hours
  • Holds 10-ounce
  • Made from BPA-free material
  • Made of recyclable materials

What is your child’s favorite lunch?  Won’t these Reduce hot or cold food containers be a treat for them as well!

Filed Under: Back-to-school, Children, Toddler & Baby, Foods & Eating Out Tagged With: ,

Meat Me Kosher Restaurant Review

August 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
meatme2

A few weeks back I was invited to dine at the new Meat Me French Kosher restaurant located on Amsterdam Ave between 95 & 96th street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  We enjoyed our time there tremendously – between the ambiance that indeed had a French bistro look and feel:  quiet and intimate yet lively in color and style, the three course meal that was expertly prepared by the owner/Master Chef,  and the warmth and friendliness of the owner/ husband and wife team, Yardena & Shlomo Gor.

We started with the Meat Me Sampler for two consisting of mini Peking duck, Moroccan cigars, mini beef Teriyaki Skewers, mini Merguez and Chicken Tex-Mex served with three Sauces.  Each mouthwatering and delicious.  We then had the Delmonico steaks which is the chef’s specialty which was prepared to let the natural flavors that are inherent to any quality cut of meat that has been carefully curated by a chef with the depth of experience Chef Shlomo has.   Needless to say we enjoyed our steaks, our mixed drinks prepared by the full bar found in the restaurant and our hot molten chocolate cake dessert.

The nicest part of our meal, however, was our informal interview with the owners.  It turns out that French Chef Shlomo Gor, owner of Meat Me which he opened exactly a year ago in August of 2011, is the previous owner of the Bistro Grill in Greatneck and the 5 Towns, restaurants we enjoyed when we lived on that end of New York City.  Then we discovered that Chef Shlomo Gor was also the chef for the famous BoxTree, probably the fanciest of Kosher restaurants in history famous for its ’gold room’ made from real Tiffany gold that was turned Kosher for a few months about 8 years ago by a frum businessman (who also turned a nice profit on the place as well after selling it for more than twice what he bought it for). We remember The BoxTree as well since it was the place where my husband and I went to celebrate our engagement on Tu B’Av, 9 years ago.

Chef Shlomo Gor is an obvious choice for a restaurant of The BoxTree’s caliber and a classy french restaurant like Meat Me, being a family restaurateur trained in Lousane, Switzerland and having owned restaurants in Eilat and Luxemberg as well.  He claims his specialty is giving non-Kosher flavors to Kosher such as his Coq au Vin where he uses smoked Turkey and a good French wine in place of bacon.  His sefardi Tagine is famous for its powerful medley of sweet and spicy apricots, orange juice and ginger.

Not everyone appreciates a beautiful table and good food on that table, but if you do, Meat Me with Swiss trained French Chef Shlomo Gor, is a good choice for you.

 

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

My Most Favorite Food Restaurant Turns Kosher For Passover

March 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment
successcake

My Most Favorite Food Restaurant – Open Chol Ha Moed Passover 2012 & Year Round

My Most Favorite Food is a wonderful restaurant that boasts a rich & flavorful history in the city of Manhattan.  In its present Upper West Side of Manhattan location, it caters to the large Jewish & kosher-keeping community who live and thrive there.  Their menu offers a full range of delicious healthy foods for gluten-free & gluten-lovers alike.  They offer a wide assortment of seasonal salads, grilled/baked fresh fish and the traditional home-made pasta dishes found in most dairy restaurants.  They also have a mouth-watering menu of fresh home-baked desserts, available to eat or take-out.

The owners of My Most Favorite Food found me through this website and invited to come and eat in the restaurant to write a review.  That was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up since, first, I was familiar with the older, My Most Favorite Dessert Company and was curious to see why the name & location change and second because, well, who doesn’t need a night out in the city with the hubby (on the house!).  So, while my review may subconsciously be skewed by the fact that I got a night out on the house, I can definitely say that after my meal, I would go there again as a paying patron, in a heart-beat.

The restaurant is gorgeous and fitting to the upper west side location with its combination of red brick warmth and full length cool city windows.  The serving staff were attentive, knowledgeable and provided us with a relaxing and pampered experience.  And the food was superb.   I am on the Dukan Diet which means I am wheat, gluten & pasta free.  So the grilled Salmon and Greek Salad were my choices.  My husband, on the other hand, can keep skinny while still eating an entire plate full of baked ziti at 10:00pm (which was when we finally got the kids to bed & drove out to the city).  My salmon was wild (which is much healthier than farm-fed), fresh and perfect.  My husband’s pasta was just as delicious and fresh.  For purposes of this review, I made sure to taste my husband’s My Most Favorite Cheesecake and regretfully, it was so good I couldn’t stop with one bite!  Had it not been so close to Passover, I would have brought home half the take-out bakery goods for Shabbat.  And the other half as guilt offerings for my kids for leaving them with a babysitter for the evening.  They have these adorable little mini-cupcakes & cookies beautifully decorated for the kids.  They were just too pretty to leave in the store!

However, I think what’s most notable about this wonderful restaurant is the lengths they go to to satisfy their customers.  Some of you may know that when I’m not running The Kosher Shopaholic, I do business coaching for a living.  So I am accustomed to noticing a star when I see one.  Not many business owners would expend the amount of effort, time and money to turn an entire (pasta, pastry, cake) restaurant and off-site commissary Kosher for Passover. But My Most Favorite Food, catering to the needs of the surrounding Kosher community does.  You can live anywhere in the US and still order from their wide assortment of “I-can’t-believe-its-Kosher-for-Passover” selections as they ship throughout the country.  Of course, if you live closer by, you can call in an order for delivery or better yet, take the whole family out to eat there for Chol Ha Moed.   And after the seders moms, you deserve a break! 

Click here to see their full Kosher-for-passover menu.  And if you do go visit them, make sure to tell them I sent you!

BTW – the dessert in this picture is their success cake: layers of almond meringue with French vanilla crème, garnished with toasted almonds.  Available for passover and year round!

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Groceries & Home Goods, Jewish Business, Passover, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Kosher Food & Wine Experience, 2012 – Sold Out to over 1,000 Consumers

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
kfwe-lamb

Welcome to the 6th Annual Kosher Food and Wine Experience, well vicariously, at least!

Kosher wines & culinary treats from all over the world were showcased at the KFWE2012.  It boasts the most comprehensive tasting of Kosher wines in north America with more than 200 wines from 40 wine producers as well as an extensive selection of kosher liquors.

Sponsored by Royal Wine Corp, the KFWE 2012 was sold out with close to 1,000 paying consumers who got to sample from the vast portfolio of Royal Wine Corp wines, featuring as well the best selection of Kosher food, liquors and wines in the world.

At the afternoon tasting, open only to trade professionals and press (me!) I was able to taste some of the newest wine & liquor products on the market like Morad Winery Danue Passion Fruit wine made from Passion Fruits (not grapes), rendering them a ‘shehakol’ wine was one of my favorites.  Tart and fruity it tasted like an exotic vodka mixed drink.  Its definitely going to grace my Purim table and make it into some of my upcoming Purim Mishloach Manot packages as well.  Speaking of Vodka, Distillery no 9 introduced its brand new Kosher for Passover and all year round Vodka today at the show as well. They kindly mixed it with some grapefruit juice for my late morning breakfast treat!   That’s me holding both the vodka & my drink at 12 noon today!

After all the alcohol, I found my way to Pomegranate.  Actually, they found me since their waiters were walking around with their delicious offerings.  I took pictures of as many trays as I could manage while still eating and drinking.  Pomegranate showed off their creative and award winning chefs with their home-made Corned Beef (I could use some more right now, please), signature dip bar and butcher block.  Some of the exclusive delights they were passing around featured some of the tastiest dishes I’ve ever had: Prosciutto, Tongue Polonaise, Wasabi Coconut Lamb Quenelles.  All from a grocery store!  One that is setting a new standard in the kosher market.  And lets not forget the marketing standard they set with their brilliant Yalili music video as well! Remember that?  I’m a fan of everything Pomegranate and will be giving myself a break this Passover when I order their Corned Beef, Tongue Polonaise and Wasabi Coconut Lamb Quenelles instead of attempting to cook anything nearly as good myself!  Hey, Ari, maybe you’ll send a few pound of these my way for the shout-out  :  )

There was a vast array of other culinary options that I was unable to sample since I came to the afternoon event (who could I possibly find to put 4 toddlers to bed for me so I could stay on…?).  But here are some of the delights the lucky 1,000 consumers and additional press & trade folks got to sample.  A selection of homemade Sushi from AviGlatt.com, Short Rib Sliders from Bistro 1310 of Borough Park, Barbecue Oxtail from etc. steakhouse of Teaneck, New Jersey (they are the one’s who won the KosherFest Cook-off a few months back), Jack’s Gourmet Mexican Style Chorizo sausages, JoBurg Dried Beef (Biltong) Carving Station, Le Marais Smoke Duck Breast,  Meat Me’s Peking Duck, Silverleaf Caterers Tiramisu Cake-Up, Sushein of Lower Manhattan’s Crispy Cake with kani & fresh tuna, The Reserve of Lakewood’s Seared Prime Beef.  Drooling yet?

Back to the wines.  Royal Wine Corp announced the first two wines from their newest kosher winery in the Pacific Northwest: Oregon Pinot Noir and a Washington Meritage.  Bartenura celebrated New York’s Big Blue superbowl win with a, you got it,  Big Blue Bottle of Bartenura Sparkling Moscato, all of course, featured at the KFWE.  And the nicest news, for sustainability enthusiasts and our environment is that Royal Wine Corp has gone “Green” with their newest solar power system on the roof of their New Jersey headquarters.   What’s not to like about this company!?

See you all next year at KFWE2013 – I’ve already booked my babysitter!

Check out my Facebook Page to see my live coverage of the event and in case you missed it, make sure you read my review of this past years’ KosherFest, 2011 as well.

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Jewish Business, Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Free Ben & Jerry’s Americone Dream Ice Cream on Valentine’s Day

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Here’s a really nice freebie for Valentine’s Day, that famous American holiday where people give cards, flowers, chocolate (and now ice cream) to the ones they love.  You can get a free Ben & Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream ice cream this Tuesday, Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2012.   Just go to your local Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop between 5pm – 8pm and you’ll get this ice cream freebie - no coupon necessary.

AmeriCone Dream is vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl.  Find a Ben & Jerry’s store near you here.

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Freebies Tagged With: , ,

The Kosher Scoop Cooking Magazine {& 25% off Artscroll Coupon & Contests}

January 15, 2012 By 1 Comment
kosherscoop

Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired has gone digital!  Our beloved Shabbos reading gourmet kosher cooking magazine has finally launched its online version cutely named, The Kosher Scoop.  Now, you can find your favorite Kosher Inspired recipes and food articles all online and read them during the rest of the week too!

Along with an exciting line up of recipes from leading Kosher foodie celebrities like Estee Kafra and Norene Gilletz, they have some great contests and coupons to offer.  When you sign up to subscribe to the Kosher Scoop online Magazine for free, you will also receive a coupon code for 25% off from Artscroll.  As well, go ahead and like & share their Facebook page to be entered to win $100 in products from The Peppermill and win one Estee Kafra’s cookbooks.

 

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Reviews Tagged With: ,

Jewpon: $3 off Monsey Barbecue & Save On Challah Pans

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment
royalchallah

There are some really good deals on Jewpon this week.   First, if you live in Monsey (or plan on visiting) you can save $3 on a plate, laffa or pita at Monsey Barbecue.  Monsey Barbecue happens to be one of my favorite place to eat chicken out in Monsey.  They have the freshest grilled chicken around and give very generous portions. I’m grabbing this deal and you should too!

Jewpon is also offering these really cool silicone Challah pans that were all the rave at KosherFest this past fall.  The pans are shaped the way you want your challah to come out (sort of like a bunt cake pan) so you don’t have to worry about doing any fancy braiding of your challah yourself.  You just plop it into the pan and voila – you have gorgeous shaped challahs.  Ingenious.  Its a ‘why didn’t anyone think of this before’ type of thing!

I do not yet own this pan because I have the regular old fashioned oval challah pans, enjoy braiding the challahs myself and love the way my challahs come out .  However, this pan is very tempting.  It is clearly a huge time saver (not to mention fun to use).  I think it also makes a GREAT Gift for the Kallah (new bride) or hostess in your life.

Get your Silicone Royal Challah Pan from Jewpon here!

Don’t forget to buy your $3 off Monsey Barbecue Deal here as well!

My Shalom Bayis Challah

 

 

 

Filed Under: Daily Deals, Foods & Eating Out, Groceries & Home Goods, Kosher Coupons Tagged With: , ,

Save 10% On All Kosher Sparkling Wines & Champagnes

December 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
sparklinewine

Save 10% On All Kosher Sparkling Wines & Champagnes

With so many reasons to pop open a bottle of champagne, Kosherwine.com decided to put ALL of theirs on sale for you with no minimum purchase! Use coupon code 70438E4 for 10% off anything from their Sparkling Page.

KosherWine.com has the largest selection of Kosher wines, champagnes, liquors and grape juices online.  They also have a nice variety of gift baskets and packages to choose from.

Save 10% on Kosher Sparking Wines right now. Sale ends on Sunday, January 1, 2012.

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Groceries & Home Goods, Kosher Coupons Tagged With: ,

The Best Kosher Recipes: Online and in Print

November 30, 2011 By 4 Comments
challah

Where To Find The Best Kosher Recipes

The Kosher food industry has experienced an explosion over the last decade.  There are not only a multitude of new Kosher ingredients that we can use in our Kosher culinary creations today, but also thousands of Kosher recipe resources at our fingertips.   Many of which are FREE!

The explosion in Kosher food products and ingredients has been complimented by the creation of hundreds of new Kosher cooking websites, cookbooks and even magazines.  I’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular Kosher cooking resources.  These Kosher recipe resources will come in handy for any of your preparations for all Jewish occasions: Shabbat, Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot and more.

KOSHER COOKBOOKS

There are a plethora of Kosher cookbooks in print today.  Here are some of the most popular ones, any of which are sure to provide you with excellent Kosher recipes.

Classics like Levana’s Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone by Levana Kirshenbaum,  Kosher by Design series by Susie Fishbein, Spice and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook, The Balabuste’s Choice Kosher Cookbook,  Jeff Nathan’s Family Suppers,  The  Book of Jewish Foodby Claudia Roden, Healthy Helpings by Norene Gilletz, and of course, Gil Mark’s Encyclopedia of Jewish Food and Gatherings.

The groundbreaking Kosher Revolutionby Geila Hocherman, Simply Southern: With a Dash of Kosher Soul by Margolin Hebrew Academy, Hip Kosher by Ronnie Fein,  The Kosher Baker by Paula Shoyer, Hannah Kaminsky’s Vegan Desserts , The At Home Gourmet by Sarah Lasry and Adventures in Jewish Cooking by Jeffrey Nathan.

The Quick & Kosher: Meals in Minutes series by Jamie Geller, Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes by Laura Frankel, Persian Food from the Non-persian Bride by Reyna Simnegar, Soup: A Kosher Collection by Pamela Reiss, Kosher Elegance by Efrat Libfroind, The Complete Asian Kosher Cookbook by Shifra Devorah Witt, Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France by Joan Nathan.

And let us not forget the enlightening Challah books: A Taste of Challahby Tamar Ansh and The Secret of Challahby Shira Wiener.

Just click on any of these links to see these cookbooks in more detail and, of course, to buy one or two or three…  They make great Hostess gifts as well!

ONLINE

The last few years have also brought us many new online Kosher cooking websites as well, especially of the ethnic and whole foods variety.  Here’s a listing of some of the most popular of these websites devoted to providing the Jewish consumer with the best of gourmet and everyday Kosher recipes.

All the recipes found on any of these websites are FREE!

LevanaCooks, Gourmania, CulinaryKosher, DinnerinVenice, The Kosher Scene, Koshereye, JoyofKosher, CookKosher, Kosherfood.About.com, GourmetKosherCooking, The Gluten Free Maven, KosherStreet, KosherInspired, KosherPersianFood, The Jewish Hostess, Israelikitchen, The Kosher Channel, The Jew and the Carrot, The Shiksa.

These websites are all beautiful, interactive and full of a wide variety of amazing free Kosher recipes.

KOSHER COOKING MAGAZINES

Following the new trend set by Rachel Ray, there are a number of new Kosher gourmet food magazines in print today:  Kosher Inspired, Bits&Bites, Betayavon, and JoyofKosher which can all be purchased at your local Jewish bookstore or market.

KOSHER COOKBOOK APPs

While cookbook apps are becoming more and more popular as the app market experiences its rapid growth, Gloria Kobrin and Appsolute Media are the first to bring us our very own Kosher Cookbook App for iPad/iPhone, called Kosher Cookbook.  There is also a Kosher cookbook app after my own Hungarian heart, Going Paprikash by Ofir Vardi available as well.

I hope this list will help enhance your Jewish Holidays, your Yom Tov meals, and your homes. 

 

 

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Groceries & Home Goods, Jewish Holidays, Most Popular, Recipes, Resources, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

KosherFest 2011: The Largest Kosher Food Industry Trade Show, Part 1

November 8, 2011 By 8 Comments
candyplanet

KosherFest 2011: The Largest Kosher Food Industry Trade Show, Part 1

I just returned home from a whirlwind day of meeting with some of the top Kosher brands, chefs and personalities in the Kosher Food & Products Industry.  I was at KosherFest 2011, the 26th annual show, which is taking place now on November 8-9, 2011 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ.

Kosherfest is the largest industry tradeshow showcasing kosher food, kosher food equipment, beverages, spirits and liquors.  I want to share with you, my Kosher Shop-a-holic readers some of the amazing Kosher personalities and brands that are being showcased in the show.  Who knew there were so many talented Kosher chefs, cookbooks and brands out there!

I arrived in time for the panel discussion: New Demands of an Ever-Changing Kosher – newest trends in kosher cuisine, cooking, cookbooks, ingredients, restaurants & more and got to greet in person, many for the first time, amazing Kosher personalities like Norene Gilletz of Gourmania, Chef Jeff Nathan , Gil Marks of Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,  Kim Amzallag & Estee Kafra of Kosher Inspired,  Jamie Geller of JoyofKosher, Leah Shapira of CookKosher, Levana Kirshenbaum of LevanaCooks, Susie Fishbein of KosherbyDesign, Alessandra Rosati of DinnerinVenice, Esti Berkowitz of PrimeTimeParenting, , Paula Shoyer of The Kosher Baker, Gloria Kobrin of KosherCookbook.  I also saw Chaim Schmidt of The Kosher Scene, Lois & Roberta of TheKosherEye, Mara from KosheronaBudget  Sarah Lasry from KosherStreet, Farrah Fiddler of MetroImma and Savvima.  Let me know if you were there and I somehow missed your name in this list!

We had a great discussion on how ethnic foods are being introduced to the traditional Jewish palette and how all of the free recipes available on the Internet today are complimented by the amazing Kosher cookbooks, magazines and brands available to the Kosher consumer.  Kosher consumers are living in lucky times.  When else could one taste authentic Jamaican flavored sausages than with products like Jack’s Gourmet?  And how do the chefs, authors and manufacturers know that its even authentic if they’ve never tasted the non-Kosher versions?  They have spies… non-Kosher friends who taste test and judge for them!

Some of the awesome Kosher brands that I got to meet up with today were Manischewtiz, a traditionally Ashkenazi- style food company who is now owned and run by Moroccan Sephardic Jews.  They have brought jarred Moroccan Fish balls to the Shabbat table, which I can’t wait to serve to my kids this coming Shabbos, and are rolling out the first ever HOT Kosher food vending machines to schools, hospitals and airports in the NY area.  Exciting news! Have you entered their annual cooking competition yet for your chance to win $25,000 in Kitchen appliances?

There was also Streits Matzos who are the only original Matzoh Factory still manufacturing in the lower East Side of Manhattan since 1925.  They’re branding their products to be of particular interest to the younger generation through a very creative partnership with MomaDoni, the awesome children’s songwriter and performer.

I was treated to some amazing coffee with non-dairy vanilla creamer by MimiCCreme who also makes a healthy and delicious parve whip cream.  Products that I feel great using because they’re made from healthy nut extracts instead of chemicals. I got more of my caffeine fix from RealBeanz who has introduced to us some amazing bottled iced coffee that competes in flavor and quality with Starbucks Frapuccinos.  They also happen to have a Chalav Yisrael line for all of the Kosher consumers who have been requesting this level of Kashrus.  Natural&Kosher cheeses,  TheGelatoShoppe who has dairy & non-dairy Italian Gelato and Joburg Kosher were some of the other highlights of my day.  There were many more that I hope to cover in more detail in future posts here on The Kosher Shop-a-holic.  So make sure to subscribe here for free email updates and check back often to keep up with and learn more about your favorite Kosher brands.

Tomorrow, Day 2, I hope to visit the top 100 new Kosher products like the award winning Sparkling Ayala’s Herbal Water and I can’t wait to watch the First-Ever LIVE Culinary Competition at Kosherfest.  If you want to be a part of KosherFest 2011 with me, I’ll be sure to share pictures and updates through-out the day on my Facebook page so check back often.

Here are some fascinating KosherFood Statistics published by LUBICOM Marketing, Mintel:

12,250,000 =Number of Kosher Consumers in the US

$12,500,000,000 = Dollar Value of the Market

10,650 = Number of Kosher producing companies and plants

3,000= Number of products Certified in 2010

10% =  Average Annual Growth (Jan 2010)

1,300,000 = Number of Year Round Kosher Jewish Consumers

Here are some pictures of the brands and personalities I encountered today:

 

 

Filed Under: Foods & Eating Out, Groceries & Home Goods, Reviews Tagged With: ,
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