Hi friends,

Settling back into a soup routine as the Portland rain drizzles in. I’m concepting fall menus, pulling inspiration from recent travels and end of summer produce finds. While the seasonal flash of peaches dwindles down, I’m eyeing my neighborhood fall fruits finally turning a full blush–asian pears, apples, and persimmons. PNW favorites, and a chance to cross-pollinate my own cultural flavors with some local fare.

Having been to Mexico City and back twice this year, I am undoubtedly enamored with the variety and depth of cuisine. Introduced to local staples like mamey, a sweet potato like tropical fruit, and huitlacoche, a fungal corn “smut”, I’m beyond excited for the cross-cultural collabs to come, and techniques to inform my own Jewish-led, culinary practice. (Not to say that my tortillas would ever come close to the perfection I found in CDMX, but a gal can still tortilla press.) 

But newly equipped with a molcajete (seasoning vids to come!), an overwhelm of travel inspiration, and resources like the Portland Fruit Tree project, I’m connecting with foodie friends and creating dishes I hope you to can pull dinner inspiration from.

Read on for quite possibly one of the most interesting menu finds in the Jewish-Mexican cuisine space to date. 

and, always–

Stay hungry,Hawnuh Lee | Founder, Closed Loop Cooking

Corn-menorah, cornorah. // @curlingback

The dish >>

• Be back, making fruit skin tepache.

• Would be attending Queering Climate Week in NYC if I could.

• What is huitlacoche?

• Rewilding and wild, wild horses. 

• Wish I had thought of these end of summer personal tomato tarts.

• Revealing fungal networks and the magic of mycelium.

• Brilliant London bookstore serves up dishes before you buy the cookbook.

• I know there’s a matzo ball soup and vegan pozole combo in here somewhere…

Spanish, Yiddish, what’s the dish?

by Hawnuh Lee

A favorite travel highlight was the Jewish walking tour of Mexico City. A chance to explore Judaic roots in a city so steeped in history, one is literally walking atop ruins at any moment. Finding the beautifully blended moments of culture throughout the heart of CDMX highlighted the resiliency of Jewish-Mexican tradition and just how vital that preservation truly is.

Film photos by the ever-talented Van Sanders.

Inside the second ever synagogue in Mexico City was my favorite travel artifact–a bilingual menu featuring a Spanish / Yiddish dinner from the 1950’s. Reading and understanding this menu was a moment of reflection, finding small parts of myself across the world in an entirely new context. I’m excited to share the menu translation this week and can assure y’all, there will be an inspired (vegan) dinner in the near future.

Note: There will inevitably be things lost in translation, feedback always welcome!

The menu of Synagogue Justo Sierra

On the table there was always:

Evaporated bread + challah (jales), in slicesPickles, chopped liverSauerkraut + herring 

Appetizers:

Fruit cocktail or gefilte fish (literally translated to ground fish balls)

Soups:

Matzo ball soup with egg noodles and meat dumplingsVegetable soup with pearl barely 

Main dishes:

Meat stew (cholent) with potatoesBoiled cabbage with carrot + dried fruitStuffed intestine or chicken with potatoes, beet soup (borscht) + cooked grains

Desserts:

Prune, apricot, apple + raisin compote and cake

Sodas: 

Peñafiel mineral water, Mission Orange, and Mundet cider

Drinks:

Founder brandy and Martell cognac 

A menu telling of the times. Illuminating to see dishes informing cultural counterparts and evolving over time. My favorite moments in history are the ones where we can share what’s for dinner.

Where has this garlic plate been all my life?

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