Miriam's Musings: Bon Appétit!

I’m obsessed with reading… a great book, an interesting magazine, my favorite newspapers, comics, emails, Facebook updates and tweets. When I was a kid I read cereal boxes, just to keep busy while enjoying breakfast. There were puzzles on the back, things to send away for or even a pop single to cut out and play on the record player (does anyone remember that? I once got an Archies song). Lately I’ve gotten into reading food labels because I’m also obsessed with eating well.
As a mother running a kosher home, I’m used to reading cans, bottles and cartons. When I shop, I need to check for kosher symbols and study ingredients to identify a product as dairy or pareve. When I host a guest with food allergies or any restricted diet, I have to search for offending ingredients. Besides that, there is also a warning list of other items that may possibly have contaminated the cooking environment! And I won’t even attempt to go into the new moralistic food labeling, eco friendly, humane, etc…
I was always what my son calls “meat conscious”, not all-out vegetarian, but about 90 percent. To this day I haven’t been able to give up certain Cuban dishes I grew up eating, so I make an exception for those. I make a request to my mom to cook those for me on special occasions. I have been spotted succumbing to particularly delicious barbeque aromas though I usually settle for a veggie burger and grilled vegetables.
Shabbat meals in our home usually consist of dairy dishes and fish. I joke that we eat fish on Friday like good Catholics. I have experimented with making a tasty pareve cholent using meaty mushrooms, soy or wheat gluten. But the best part of the cholent, in my view, is the potatoes. I’ve been tempted to try to trick a meat eating friend to see what they think, but I’m not sneaky enough. Some actually really like my cholent! The downside of a dairy shabbat is having to warn my guests to stay away from the meat Kiddush at shul, the upside is having real ice cream for dessert.
It used to be difficult to find decent vegetarian food on menus, now it’s much easier to go out to eat. A bit tougher is explaining my proclivity to carnivorous friends and family. Labeling myself vegetarian may make me sound like a “holier than thou” health nut, as if I only eat rice and beans and salad, but of course that’s ridiculous. Haagen Dazs and dark chocolate are my favorite treats. I tell myself I gain calcium from the first and antioxidants from the latter, but vegetarian, like kosher doesn’t necessarily imply healthy!
Despite my sweet tooth, I have long been cultivating the awareness to choose nutritious foods. Ever since our first child was born, I began scouring labels for preservatives, fluorescent colors and unnatural flavorings. When buying prepared foods, I eyeball ingredients for items I cannot pronounce which are usually the ones of which to be wary.
My oldest son and I joined a playgroup in Queens in the late 1980s with friends who decided to form our own mini food co-op. There was an alar scare at the time; a toxic ingredient found to be in apple juices our toddlers were drinking. Specialty food shops were rare then and even more expensive than now, due to lower demand. The only way we could afford organic apple juice was to buy in bulk from a supplier. We added on other healthy and organic products and felt good about our ingredients. We shared recipes and I began cooking delicious dishes from the Moosewood cookbook, my vegetarian bible.
Today we have many more options. Grocery stores carry more “whole foods” and healthier products and produce departments carry organic and locally grown fruit and veggies. We have our own seasonal outdoor greenmarket in Grant Park, and others beyond in Rockville Centre, Long Beach and Union Square. It’s great to be able to eat what was picked and trucked in that very morning from the east end of Long Island. Cherry tomatoes, corn and beets have never tasted so good!
Although my middle son insists that everything in creation is “natural” because if you go back far enough all ingredients do actually originate from nature, I’m not so sure.
So I’m not just worried about what we ingest. I’ve extended my vigilance to products like shampoo, soap and detergents. We’ve all been warned to immediately remove the plastic off dry cleaned clothes to air out the toxic chemicals. I mostly buy clothes that don’t need dry cleaning. We’ve switched to an “organic dry cleaner” (an oxymoron since they still use chemicals) and our suits no longer get that unmistakable odor. I’m trying to cut out paraben and other poisons from our grooming products.
Each person’s diet is based on a very personal choice or need. Individual’s tastes are unique and can change. I’ve seen that in my own home when I keep preparing a specific dish I know a family member loves, until suddenly I’m told to stop making it. It has lost favor and flavor for that person. I’m learning not to take offense, though it’s hard for this Jewish mother to deal with food rejection. It’s quite disheartening to lovingly prepare what I believe is a delicious nutritious meal and then see someone look disgusted, or quietly refrain from eating. I try to remember it may have nothing to do with my cooking!
When my kids were younger and complained about something I served, I told them our kitchen isn’t a diner and I’m not a short order cook (though as a typical mom, I have catered to their specific tastes often enough to have been the cause of this problem!) I often urge them to try one taste of something new, since they may find they suddenly like it. They groan at me but sometimes (rarely) it’s actually true!
I gave plenty of trouble to my own mom as a child and teen. I was an extremely picky eater, shunning meat and fruit. But I was allowed to eat what I did like from the meal and could enjoy dessert no matter what. As I matured, I expanded my food choices. I remember “discovering” tomatoes, mangos, avocados and yogurt during a summer in Israel when I was 18 and being amazed at how delicious they were. These foods had always been staples at home. I could have never dreamt of eating Israeli salad for breakfast in Brooklyn. Somehow everything seemed more delicious in Israel, and that opened the door for me to become a more adventurous eater.
We can only try our best with food as with everything else. Diets are difficult and rejecting bad choices is challenging. We have been charged with taking care of our bodies, by our doctors and rabbis. The great Rambam himself gave us specific advice about healthy eating habits, in the days when food was more natural, so imagine how careful we must be today. We should prepare our food as a labor of love, but no matter what we eat, let’s enjoy our food and partake together joyously; after all, eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Be’tayavon!

Miriam Bradman Abrahams is Cuban-born, Brooklyn-bred and lives in Woodmere. She organizes author events for Hadassah, reviews books for Jewish Book World and is very slowly writing her father’s immigrant memoirs. She is teaching yoga at Peaceful Presence Yoga Studio.