salt dips

until i came to new york i had never seen those little knickknacks people fill with salt and put on the table . i actually thought that frum people were very creative in using little knickknacks to put salt in so people can dip their bread in during hamotzi. last week my naivete ended. i went to fish's eddy near union square and saw these little knickknacks for sale in a bin marked salt dips. apparently, dating back to the early 1800's , there used to be a custom of dipping ones bread in to salt , thus necessitating the creation of knickknacks otherwise known as salt dips.

the metamorphosis of friendship

friends are a very important part of my life . i am very fortunate to have a good group of friends. i am very thankful . it is important to have strong friendships throughout one's life, and when one is single it is ultra crucial.
it is so interesting to note the metamorphosis of friendships. sometimes i find that its so important to branch out and make new friends. not because i dont like current friends, but because variety is so important.
i find it cool to have a diverse group of friends to cultivate diverse interests.
for a while i mostly had introverted friends. they are still great. they know how to be true friends ( not saying that extroverted people make bad friends). now i have gained a group of extroverted friends. i dont think that my introverted friends resent this. i hope not. its just that i enjoy the company of both types.
i think that ive changed alot over time and thus so has my circle of friends. i would like to think that my social circle has expanded over the years and not just metamorphosed.

union square green market

one of my favorite pastimes is shopping at the farmer's market in union square.the produce during the summer and fall months are superb. so fresh.... so delicious.
i bought peaches there just yesterday. the fuzz on the peaches still feel fuzzy. and they tasted so sweet. the kirby cucumbers still feel prickly.
i bought kohlrabi there as well. kohlrabi is a vegetable that looks like a light green turnip that is in the broccoli family. it can be eaten steamed or raw. one of the farmers recommended grating the kohlrabi and putting it in cole slaw or grating it and adding grated apple and lemon juice . i tried the second option with the grated apple and lemon juice and added a little splenda. i also grated an onion and added it to the mix. it was quite tasty.
part of the fun of going to the farmer's market is being able to ask the farmers how to prepare unusual veggies and to learn how to pick out the best vegetables.
there is something about buying something that a farmer said he picked "just this morning" or "yesterday".
one interesting vendor at the union square green market is shushan farms which grows hydrophobic tomatos. they tast amazing and make me think of purim at the same time!!!
i would say that i feel like im communing with nature when i go to the farmer's market, but it would sound ridiculous. its in the middle of the concrete jungle of union square.
it is neat to meet the farmers who grow the produce. they are all so nice. i like supporting local farms. and the prices arent half bad either. if you go around 5pm they have specials.
i like the fact that the green market produce is so fresh. i also love the recipes they provide.
i bought garlic at the green market. it cooked so easily . it was sooo fresh. id never seen garlic so fresh.
forget the ecology propaganda. go to the green market for the experience. you wont regret it.

who is a jew?

the age old question , who is a jew? well, i would like to add another one of my own. who is a frummie? well, as in the frumster religion categories, its all subjective.
i grew up outside of new york where anyone who was shomer shabbat and kept kosher was called frum . and to be frum where i grew up it was alot harder than those who are frum in the new york area. there were alot less frum people where i grew up. and guess what , the yeshivish people had to mix with the modern orthodox people because the community was that small.
truth is, new york has alot of outside influences that a smaller city does not have. hence all of the ny shtick, chumras of the months etc. people seem to feel they have to get involved in these because they think it helps them stay frum.
even though people in the new york area are more outwardly frum than i was growing up, i probably led a much more sheltered life. there were no madison avenue billboards with un-tzinius photos where i grew up. there werent any billboards period. no one took public transportation where i grew up and there was no "street life".
i think that the people here go overboard with leaning to the right because they are afraid . i believe everyone should be whatever degree of frumkeit they prefer. and no i dont believe that we all have to be cut from the same cookie cutter mold.
i think that alot of the yeshiva rebels and orthoprax people in the new york area probably would not be frum if they lived out of town, but there would be alot less fanfare made of it.
some who are orthodox, dont want to say that they are frum because they feel it has certain connotations that they dont like.
to me, the original definition of frum from my childhood still holds true.

prime real estate

for all of you gossip mongers out there... the famed sheitle store down the street from that yeshiva has now closed. i think that the yeshiva owes the sheitle store's owner money.
again, i doubt that the yeshiva will be buying the vacant store. i think that they would rather torment another store owner instead. come to think of it that particular spot always seems to be going in and out of business... which really makes one think.....?

busy signal

its so interesting how so many people are just "so very busy" to the point that they barely have time to date. granted as time goes by everyone gains more personal and professional responsibilities and we do get busier. but how busy are we really?
often a guy will call me for a date and suddenly ill realise that he really is so booked that perhaps he could pencil me in for a week from tuesday.
women arent immune to giving the busy signal either. many women will make a date with a man and tell him they only have an hour and then they have something "important " to attend to . this way they dont have to "waste" too much time being out with someone they might not like. on the off chance they like the guy , they lose. the guy figures the lady is not too interested since she only has an "hour " to devote to dating.
sometimes guys dont want to commit to a date because maybe something or someone better will turn up for the evening they are devoting to their prospective date. apparently they too are sure that the date will be a disaster, so they want to make sure that they only engage in one when they wont be missing out on anything else.
im not a pollyanna by any stretch of the imagination, but i do know that if one would like to meet "the one" , one has to make time to potentially meet "the one" instead of solely giving the busy signal.

curly girl

my grandmother loved shirley temple movies. though my mom and aunt have pin straight hair, my dad, my siblings and i all have curly hair. and lucky me, mine is probably the curliest .
i grew up with curly hair in a world full of straight - haired people. i didnt even know what to do with my hair until i was twenty-seven .
stereotypically jews seem to have curly hair, but all i can say is not where i grew up. my best friend in seventh grade had curly hair and that was about it (except for my family) until i emigrated to new york the mecca of "ethnic" (read curly) hair.
growing up , few celebrities seemed to have curly hair. in fact , when a tv character wanted to seem more polished, they always seemed to have straightened their unruly curly tresses.
now there is frizz ease and numerous frizz-control products which i continually rotate.
i remember several years ago there was a movie called the princess diaries that was boycotted by a curly hair website because they put down curly hair. i thought that the movie was cute, so i thought the boycott a bit extreme. i did however understand their sentiment.
i have come to embrace my curls , especially now that i know alot of other curly tops who are happy with their tresses. im sure i can attribute a few pounds to my thick ringlets. so i can assume that im really a few pounds thinner than the scale intimates. i save money on my electric bill by not using a blow dryer.
ive also noticed that older woman with curly hair tend to have healthier looking hair than older women with straight hair. curly haired women never damaged their locks with curling irons and seldom blow dried .
lets hear it for curly haired people!!!