KosherFest Gives Ballabustas A lot to look forward to

     From snacks to appetizers to desserts, healthy, ready-made products lined the aisles of this year’s KosherFest food trade show. Exhibited were dozens of new culinary creations, many of which could make running a family just a bit easier.

     Keeping a household running smoothly is a full time job. Having prepared foods on hand can lighten that burden. Unfortunately very often those foods are made with preservatives, fillers, extra fats, extra salts, extra sugars, and unpronounceable ingredients; a myriad of unwanted additives. Luckily for the kosher consumer, ready-made is no longer synonymous with unhealthy. In the coming months, new products will be showing up on store shelves (in both kosher markets and regular grocery stores) that may become staples in kosher homes.

     Snack time can be the greatest challenge when trying to stay healthy. Things like chips, cookies and Bissli come in such convenient little packages that it can be difficult to resist grabbing them just to have handy. Over the last few years though, brands like Glenny’s and Sensible Portions have started offering healthier, individually packaged choices like soy crisps and Veggie Straws and Chips. Popcorn is also a very healthy option. Ike and Sam’s Kettlecorn was handing out samples of three of their six flavors. They were all crunchy and satisfying, a perfect savory snack. For a healthy sweet alternative, NuGo bars are now widely available at stores like Whole Foods, Fairway and many kosher markets. NuGo bars have all the appeal of a chocolate bar but half the sugar and about four times the protein. In 2011, look for Mother’s Cupboard fruit and cereal bars as they are currently seeking East Coast distribution.

     New breads, spreads and dips are making their way to the New York area bringing with them exciting alternatives for appetizers and lunches. Mountain Bread is a flat bread that comes in seven varieties (whole wheat, rye, oat, corn, rice, barley and organic whole wheat). Mountain Bread sheets can be used for wraps, tortillas or even lasagna noodles. Healthy Me brand bagels come in every flavor you’d expect to find behind a bagel counter, but unlike other bagels, Healthy Me is made with flax seed meal, making their product a good source of Omega 3's and protein. Try topping a Healthy Me with Spreads Instead for a new take on a bagel and cream cheese. Spreads Instead products are all natural dairy, cream-cheese based spreads that come in flavors like spinach- artichoke and white fish. Having products like these on hand can make for an easy, fast and nutritious breakfast or lunch. New dips are coming to the market which take the kosher table beyond chopped liver and hummus. Companies like Meditalia and Oxygen are introducing jarred tapenades, chutneys and spreads which would compliment store bought bread or home made challah.

     An easy main course is generally where most would resort to take-out. Having something handy that can go from package to plate quickly is a greater challenge than scrounging up a snack or lunch. This is where, in the past we might have turned to a package of frozen hot dogs, pizza or a box of pasta. Thanks to KosherFest, however, I will never consider these options again. Instead of hot dogs, try sausages. Brands like Jack’s Gourmet offer handcrafted links that offer all the convenience of a frank, but without the nitrates and additives and with a lot more variety. Jack’s produces six different flavors of sausages, all heat-and-serve. For a dairy main course, try fresh-frozen pastas like Fiorella or Gezunt Gourmet. Ravioli, tortellini and stuffed shells need only be heated and topped with the sauce of your choice. New parve proteins will be turning up in Whole Foods and kosher markets as well. Premier Veggie has a line of vegan and vegetarian tofu and “chicken” salads that will be available in sandwiches, snack packs and on their own. Manna Soy is currently available wholesale, but will be expanding into the retail market with textured soy proteins in a wide variety of flavors. Manna soy is exceptional among tofu products. The texture was remarkable and the flavor had me disbelieving that it had just come out of a shelf-stable package. Incredibly, each of these products had short ingredient lists consisting only of recognizable and pronounceable components.

     Dessert is the easiest thing to have on hand. Who doesn’t have a “sweets cabinet,” stocked with all sorts of goodies someone in the family just had to have on a recent trip to the grocery store? How many of those goodies contain mono-hydrogenated something or another? Try restocking the cookie cabinet with all natural treats like Levana’s spelt desserts or Orgran gluten free cookies. Both offer a diverse array of healthier sweets. For something a little closer to home-made, try Belgian Crepes topped with MimiCreme’s Healthy Top. Healthy Top is a gluten free, non GMO, free of hydrogenated fat, all natural parve whipping cream. Open the shelf-stable package, pour it in a bowl and after a few minutes with a hand beater, you have home made, parve whipped cream about which you can feel good.

     No matter the time of day, healthy choices abound. In the coming months, look for even more nutritious options as they hit the shelves of chain stores and kosher markets. Busy as we may be, we can now provide wholesome meals and snacks and save precious minutes better spent elsewhere. At the end of the day, everyone is healthy, happy and taken care of, and we’ve got more checked off our to-do lists.

My Most Favorite Food

     Walking down 72^nd Street one afternoon, my four year old son stopped suddenly. “I am SO hungry,” he declared dramatically, then, as if it were the most logical and natural course of action said, “Let’s go get a cupcake.”

     Most recently located on 45^th street, My Most Favorite Food (“MMFF”) has quickly become a staple of the Upper West Side, so much so that I had to follow his logic. We were hungry and it was right there and so easy… not to mention so tasty. Contrary to what a little kid might think, MMFF has much more than cupcakes to offer. Though even in the cupcake department, the diversity is exciting. Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes are available with a variety of different decorations and, depending on the day, they could be joined by lemon meringue, red velvet, or carrot cake counterparts. Other single-serving pastries include muffins, scones, meringues, brownies, and over a dozen kinds of cookies. If you don’t have a sap for a mommy, willing to buy sweets an hour before dinner time, the grab-and-go-counter has savory selections that vary day-to-day but consistently include salads and sandwiches.

     If you don’t have to eat and run, stay a while. You’ll be glad that you did. The restaurant is sleek and bright, flooded by cheerful sunlight from extensive windows at the fore and aft. The décor is clean, simple and effortlessly eco friendly. Marble tables eliminate the need for table cloths or paper table covers, greatly reducing laundry and waste. Much of what is not reusable is recyclable or compostable. MMFF’s new location is sustainably green, one of many major steps in the restaurant’s evolution.  MMFF has come a long way from its humble beginnings on Madison Avenue over thirty years ago.

     The Upper West Side location is very family friendly. Not just popular for its cupcakes, the menu now has a kid’s section with selections for each meal, and high chairs are available upon request. Scott Magram, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife, Dena, illustrates the difference between the two locations. “Midtown was very corporate. We saw people on their way to meetings or Broadway shows. Here, people are more relaxed; they’re here for the dining experience.”

     MMFF truly does provide that experience.  Starting with its naturally glowing ambience, a meal at MMFF is truly rich. I recently had the opportunity to sample some of their lunch offerings and was certainly impressed. They say you can tell a lot about a restaurant by their bread basket. MMFF’s bread basket says that they are diverse, creative and reliable. The basket has always contained classic, hearty whole wheat bread, slightly sweet pumpernickel, and a pleasant walnut raisin. Recently added to the basket are breadsticks, light and crisp. All of this is served with a pot of butter. I found the pumpernickel was the best choice for mopping up the leavings of a bowl of tomato bisque soup, because I was certainly not going to let a drop go to waste. Scott says MMFF aims to deliver the best of comfort foods, and the soup is the epitome thereof.  Warm, heavy, simple and delightful, this tomato bisque should come standard-issue with any brisk New York day.

     Next, I sampled a few selections that are new to the menu. Dena describes running a restaurant as an evolving process with new items constantly being introduced and developed. She and Scott work on the recipes together. Three veggie burgers have been in the works for three weeks and are finally ready for public consumption. First, I had the chickpea burger, which years of Israeli food conditioned me to expect to taste like falafel. I was surprised to find its flavor stood apart from its pita-bound counterpart, and it was perfectly complimented by ketchup and onions.  I then tried the portabella burger, lightly marinated, grilled and topped with cheddar cheese, frizzled onions and aioli. Hearty and juicy, this burger evoked some of the experience of eating a beef burger, while the bite of cheddar kept me firmly grounded in the dairy world. Finally, I tried the quinoa burger, topped with alfalfa sprouts and a garlicky yogurt sauce. This is the dish that I felt exemplified the MMFF.  Made from scratch with fresh ingredients, like everything in the restaurant, this innovative recipe was delightful and satisfying. A veggie-burger may be standard fare, but MMFF’s take on it is anything but mundane.

     For dessert, I tried another new menu item: what Dena calls, “A nouveau-chic devil dog.” The Whoopie Pie is two layers of chocolate with a marshmallow cream filling. Flaky, creamy and just delicious, this blows away anything I might have found in my lunch box as a child. The Whoopie Pie is surprisingly parve and joins the long list of desserts that may make you say, “Are you sure there’s no dairy in this?” Mention the chocolate-peanut butter tart to anyone who works there, and you’ll get the same answer, “Oh, that’s my favorite!” With so many choices, though, it’s hard to pick just one favorite. Available whole or by the slice, there is something for everyone. Have a look in the cake case, and you’ll surely find the perfect finale to any meal. If you are hosting and need a dish or dessert sure to impress, MMFF delivers all over the city.

   The Magrams aim to make MMFF a place that everyone can enjoy. Dena says she wants MMFF to “appeal to everyone – not just the kosher consumer. Everyone should have the opportunity to eat wonderful food.” While its unique menu gives it special appeal to the kosher consumer (how many dairy restaurants aren’t Italian or bagel places?), the excitement of their fresh, exceptional food attracts from across the spectrum. To accommodate a broad range, the menu will be expanding to include several vegan and gluten free items, as well as fish items like Tuna Bolognese for customers more accustomed to meat dishes. If you can’t find what you’re looking for on the menu, just ask. Selections change every day, and recipes are constantly in development, so many items are available upon request.

     Grab and go, sit and enjoy, sweet or savory, you’ll soon be calling this little piece of 72^nd street your most favorite, too.

QuickStop Kosher is a Deal on Wheels

     With its great shopping, West 34^th street brings to mind deals. Deals on clothes, cameras and sundry. QuickStop Kosher joins the fray with great deals on breakfast and lunch. On Fridays they bring the deal downtown to Hanover Square.

     At lunchtime, the line is thick in front of the brightly colored truck parked by B&H, but the line is anything but slow. Living up to its name, QuickStop Kosher serves up fresh Kosher lunches in mere minutes, getting busy midtown professionals back to work in no time. Ari Thaler, owner of QuickStop, says the truck offers something even fast food restaurants don’t, “You don’t have a lot of time for lunch, here you’re in and out in a couple of minutes.” It’s the speedy service that makes QuickStop unique and accomplishes Thaler’s goal in opening the business, “I wanted to fill a niche.” He certainly did – nowhere else in either area QuickStop serves can you get such fresh kosher food in a hurry.

     QuickStop serves freshly made falafel, sandwiches, omelets, bagels, pastries, salads, blintzes, sushi, waffles and a great cup of coffee – all from a space that would make a Manhattan apartment kitchen look luxurious. Thaler works magic from his mobile kitchen. The fresh food is delicious. QuickStop serves Moshe’s Falafel which is the best in the City, and they are the only place to get fresh, kosher Belgian waffles. The waffles are crisp, rich and just sweet enough that you can convince yourself you’re eating a meal, not dessert…unless you opt for the Waffle a Belgique, which is topped with ice cream, you’ll be hard pressed to convince anyone ice cream is lunch. Go ahead and splurge on the waffle, because after a hearty sandwich or salad, you’ll still have plenty left in the budget for dessert.

     QuickStop is a real asset to Midtown and Downtown. Its delicious menu keeps customers happy. Its fast service keeps them moving. Its great prices keeps them coming back.

QuickStop Kosher is located on 9^th Avenue between 33^rd and 34^th streets on Sunday through Thursday 8:30am-6pm. On Friday it can be found at 10 Hanover Street 8:30am-2:00pm.

212.674.6666

Breakfast, Sandwiches and Salads

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