Rosh Hashanah A Global Menu

 There will always be Rosh Hashanah in the world. Yet where you celebrate  may be different Depending upon the country, various ingredients are used to bring in the new year.It could be ripe pomegranates or exotic spices. A global feast awaits with various colors and flavors.

Exotic dishes abound in both the Sephardic and Mizrahi branches of Judaism. Sephardic are the Mediterra nean Jews of Morocco, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The Morrocans feature the savory red snapper stew cooked  in  a sauce of garlic, turmeric, saffron and bell peppers. The fish head is also included to symbolize the head and not the tail. They use the Mediterranean staple preserved lemons along with cilantro as well. Another dish that's both sweet and savory is tanzia, a caramelized fruit and onion topping served over rice or couscous.Moroccans use such dried fruit as aprocits, prunes, dates and raisins, simmered with date syrup or honey and spiced with cinnamon and ginger. The dinner ends with melt away cinnamon cookies.fluffy honey drenched cookies made with cinnamon and almond flour. Syrian Jews celebrate with kibbit yatkeen , pumpkin patties and rice stuffed Swiss chard.

Italian Jews have a different spin on Rosh Hashanah. Their main meal is chicken with fruit. Autumn fruits such as plums, grapes and apples make up the sauce. There is also zucca sfranta in forno baked mashed squash. Onion, basil and parsley give it a distinct flavor. There are also sfratti, honey walnut stick cookies that when cut resemble Fig Newtons.Greek and Turkish Jews have keftes de prasa or leek patties, Cinnamon, and black pepper along with nutmeg spice them up.They also make and bake pastelicos, ground lamb filled pastries similar to kreplach. Calabaza or a public pastry finishes the meal.Iraqi and Temeni Jews also have spiced foods Iraquis make apple jam to be served with squash. There's also a sour soup with meat dumplings. Swiss chard is layered with rice and beef as a main course. The Yemeni make a beef and white bean soup made with the traditional Yemeni spice blend hawaj., black, pepper, coriander and cumin.There are sweet quinces and dates with sesame seed to eat too.

Rosh Hashanah is an international holiday. ALl over the world it's greeted with savory and sweet dishes. It's the perfect way to greet the New Year.

A Military Holiday

Our service people deal with everything , from mortars to snipers. Imagine spending a Thanksgiving with the threat of attack looming over every bite. Yet that's what our almost every branch of our military has gone through for centuries. The upcoming holiday is no different.

Thanksgiving on duty was the main article in yesterday's New York Times Food section. C.J. Chivers, a Times investigative reporter and Pulitzer prize winner , wrote about how our armed services celebrate. There are also stories from former and current military members, some funny , most poignant and unsettling. As per Mr. Chivers, who writes regularly on the Afghan Conflict, the US has spent nineteen years fighting the war on terrorism with a few million American service members celebrating away from home and family. Earlier in the year, The Times contacted veterans about their experiences and asked for pictures too. Thanksgivings were varied, depending on the base. Troops at midsized bases found that the military or their peers put out traditional spreads.Full turkey dinners were saved at one base thanks with the help of the U.S.N.S.  GySgt. Fred W. Stockham's merchant mariners. Ethan Frisch , an aid worker for Aga Khan Foundation who worked on rural infrastructure in Afghanistan bought two scrawny turkeys and butchered them himself. He flavored them with local wild cumin and coriander seeds.

The problem with a holiday  - any holiday in a war zone - is that the wars don't stop. (although there was the famed Christmas Truce of 1914 where British  and French troops had a temporary truce with the German army). Turkey and phone calls can only go so far. They're basically band aids plastered over an always bleeding wound.Many enlisted know this. One, Sgt Michelle Estabrook Kuranishi did her best to cobble together a holiday meal with a fellow Marine. They managed to put together a traditional dinner, thanks to scrounging through  enough care packages to acquire pumpkin filling for pies and enough stuffing to feed their group. Finally she could briefly forget the recently tragic past where the two peers she had trained were killed in Ramadi in central Iraq.  This holiday meal included her partner, Master Sgt. Brett Angus who was tall ,lanky and enjoyed a good prank, esp
ecially when it came to Sgt. Estabrook Kuranishi. The happiness, if it could be called that was short lived. The next day Master. Sgt, Angus was killed when he investigated their bomb detecting robot that had been blown up. Now Thanksgiving has a resonance  for her, one shared with those who have survived their tours of duty. The fact that she is still alive fourteen years later has made her grateful for the life that was spared.

War is hell.  A holiday spent in a war zone even more so. We can't make it better for our military where they're stationed. We sure as hell can make it better for them when they return.