We're right in the middle of Passover, which I both love and hate. I always like these holidays that involve lots of food and a big, family meal. Pesach is that type of Holiday. It's like Jewish Thanksgiving, and I guess in a sense we're also supposed to be thankful we're not slaves anymore. Just like the big family meal at Thanksgiving, we have a couple of Seders during Passover. These are huge family meals, where you use a book called a Haggadah to follow a whole procession of prayers and traditions for the holiday. The main difference with Thanksgiving is that for like 8 days I can't eat anything. That's the part I hate. Not "can't eat anything" as in Ramdan-style-literally-can't-eat, there's just a lot of restrictions. And since I actually keep the rules when it comes to what you can and can't eat on Passover, I figure that during Passover I should also keep the rules about what I can and can't eat normally.
I'm pretty limited this week, and Germany is not a good place for Passover. German food isn't very inspiring to begin with. You generally have some sort of meat (typically pork) cooked and topped with a sauce, then either spätzle or some sort of potato on the side. Which means I've been eating a lot of potatoes this week. And I have to avoid all the bread that Germans love so much. I'm also avoiding pork for the week, which cuts out about 2/3 of the dishes in any restaurant, leaving me with very limited options. Asia was actually always easier. People always assume because of all the rice that it would be impossible. But really the rice is just a side, and it's much easier to find dishes that are not made from non-kosher animals. Korea was probably the best. Lots of Korean BBQ, which is really just beef and vegetables wrapped in lettuce, and soju, which is made from sweet potato, not grain. It was perfect. I should spend every Passover in Korea.
Now before you say it, I know I could be cooking. Generally speaking, I don't do that. I'm not a big fan of cooking. But Passover is really the one week out of the year that I will normally cook. Just not this year because I actually only have two nights of Passover at home, then I'm heading out of town for the long Easter weekend. So cooking isn't really a great option this year. And I'm in such a small place that I can't even get matzah to make matzah pizza! What's passover without a matzah pizza!?
Luckily I did get matzah balls this year. Until this week I knew zero Jews in Germany. There's not so many, but bigger cities do have populations. Berlin's got about 12,000 and even has kosher restaurants. I know Munich has a Jewish shop where you can get Jewy things, but I'm not sure how many Jews live there. But my friend Yasmin introduced me to an Israeli friend of hers who's married to a German and living in Munich. They invited me over for their Seder on the first night, and it was really nice. And, of equal importance, included matzah ball soup.
Going into it I actually didn't really know what to expect. I had been messaging back and forth with my host, and she was telling me that her husband isn't Jewish and that they've never had a seder in Germany before. All this got me thinking that it might just be a little dinner party with them, not a proper Seder. My family isn't all that traditional when it comes to Seders, but we do go through the motions and read through the main parts of the Haggadah, so I was hoping to at least do that bit. In the end, that's exactly what it was like. Lemor's Seder was really similar to what we would have done in my own house, and her husband and kids were great, so I really enjoyed myself. Obviously I wish I could have been at home for my parents' Seder, but this was a great alternative. And her older son, who's 5, goes to a Jewish school and knows all the songs for Passover. He probably sang with more gusto than anyone at my family Seders does, with the exception of my grandpa who always loved Dayenu and made us all sing the entire thing every year.
Luckily for me there have been a lot of good music releases in the last couple of weeks, which help distract from my constant hunger and desire to gorge myself on pizza. SOHN finally put out his debut album, Tremors, last week. I wrote about him last December in my blog about things I was looking forward to this year. Back then, he and Banks were my most anticipated artists of the year, so I was pretty excited about this release, and it did not let me down. From the first note it's a great album. I love the way he opens up with Tempest. Sadly Germany is crazy about distribution rights and sometimes it's very difficult/impossible for me to find songs on SoundCloud or YouTube to share. Luckily I really like this album and a lot of the tracks on it, so I have a lot of options. Another one of which, Fool, I could find.
Even songs I'd heard as singles before just sounded better in the context of the album. My favorite song, Bloodlines, is still just as awesome. I would share it here, but I shared it in the earlier blog about him, so just click that link above and you can go listen to it. But it's not the only one. In fact, even more worth mentioning in this context is The Wheel since I liked it before, but like it even more now.
SOHN is actually based in Vienna, so hopefully I'll get to see him here in Europe at some point. He actually played in Berlin last Sunday night, and I was in Berlin last Sunday, but it would have been miserable for me to stay up there for the show then have to drive the 4 hours back afterwards, only to arrive at like 3am and be at work at 8. Luckily I have tickets to see him in LA in May with my sister (May 27, to be exact, if anyone wants to join us. My last night in town, and Ethiopian food will be consumed beforehand!). But considering how close he is, hopefully I'll get to see him again soon.
In the meantime, I am still very much anticipating Banks's debut album. And I have now replaced my anticipation for SOHN with anticipation for Sylvan Esso. At least they have a release date for their album. Banks is still keeping us all in the dark. She really needs to work on that. And in the meantime, SOHN has a ton of really great remixes and other production work he's doing, so there's always that, too. Go to SoundCloud for lots more.
I'm pretty limited this week, and Germany is not a good place for Passover. German food isn't very inspiring to begin with. You generally have some sort of meat (typically pork) cooked and topped with a sauce, then either spätzle or some sort of potato on the side. Which means I've been eating a lot of potatoes this week. And I have to avoid all the bread that Germans love so much. I'm also avoiding pork for the week, which cuts out about 2/3 of the dishes in any restaurant, leaving me with very limited options. Asia was actually always easier. People always assume because of all the rice that it would be impossible. But really the rice is just a side, and it's much easier to find dishes that are not made from non-kosher animals. Korea was probably the best. Lots of Korean BBQ, which is really just beef and vegetables wrapped in lettuce, and soju, which is made from sweet potato, not grain. It was perfect. I should spend every Passover in Korea.
Now before you say it, I know I could be cooking. Generally speaking, I don't do that. I'm not a big fan of cooking. But Passover is really the one week out of the year that I will normally cook. Just not this year because I actually only have two nights of Passover at home, then I'm heading out of town for the long Easter weekend. So cooking isn't really a great option this year. And I'm in such a small place that I can't even get matzah to make matzah pizza! What's passover without a matzah pizza!?
Luckily I did get matzah balls this year. Until this week I knew zero Jews in Germany. There's not so many, but bigger cities do have populations. Berlin's got about 12,000 and even has kosher restaurants. I know Munich has a Jewish shop where you can get Jewy things, but I'm not sure how many Jews live there. But my friend Yasmin introduced me to an Israeli friend of hers who's married to a German and living in Munich. They invited me over for their Seder on the first night, and it was really nice. And, of equal importance, included matzah ball soup.
Going into it I actually didn't really know what to expect. I had been messaging back and forth with my host, and she was telling me that her husband isn't Jewish and that they've never had a seder in Germany before. All this got me thinking that it might just be a little dinner party with them, not a proper Seder. My family isn't all that traditional when it comes to Seders, but we do go through the motions and read through the main parts of the Haggadah, so I was hoping to at least do that bit. In the end, that's exactly what it was like. Lemor's Seder was really similar to what we would have done in my own house, and her husband and kids were great, so I really enjoyed myself. Obviously I wish I could have been at home for my parents' Seder, but this was a great alternative. And her older son, who's 5, goes to a Jewish school and knows all the songs for Passover. He probably sang with more gusto than anyone at my family Seders does, with the exception of my grandpa who always loved Dayenu and made us all sing the entire thing every year.
Luckily for me there have been a lot of good music releases in the last couple of weeks, which help distract from my constant hunger and desire to gorge myself on pizza. SOHN finally put out his debut album, Tremors, last week. I wrote about him last December in my blog about things I was looking forward to this year. Back then, he and Banks were my most anticipated artists of the year, so I was pretty excited about this release, and it did not let me down. From the first note it's a great album. I love the way he opens up with Tempest. Sadly Germany is crazy about distribution rights and sometimes it's very difficult/impossible for me to find songs on SoundCloud or YouTube to share. Luckily I really like this album and a lot of the tracks on it, so I have a lot of options. Another one of which, Fool, I could find.
Even songs I'd heard as singles before just sounded better in the context of the album. My favorite song, Bloodlines, is still just as awesome. I would share it here, but I shared it in the earlier blog about him, so just click that link above and you can go listen to it. But it's not the only one. In fact, even more worth mentioning in this context is The Wheel since I liked it before, but like it even more now.
SOHN is actually based in Vienna, so hopefully I'll get to see him here in Europe at some point. He actually played in Berlin last Sunday night, and I was in Berlin last Sunday, but it would have been miserable for me to stay up there for the show then have to drive the 4 hours back afterwards, only to arrive at like 3am and be at work at 8. Luckily I have tickets to see him in LA in May with my sister (May 27, to be exact, if anyone wants to join us. My last night in town, and Ethiopian food will be consumed beforehand!). But considering how close he is, hopefully I'll get to see him again soon.
In the meantime, I am still very much anticipating Banks's debut album. And I have now replaced my anticipation for SOHN with anticipation for Sylvan Esso. At least they have a release date for their album. Banks is still keeping us all in the dark. She really needs to work on that. And in the meantime, SOHN has a ton of really great remixes and other production work he's doing, so there's always that, too. Go to SoundCloud for lots more.
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