Gourmet’s Column
Kugel is predominantly a Jewish dessert made of noodles and cream cheese. One of the nuclear medicine technologists that I work with got this yummy dessert for a potluck party at the department. A little research on the history of Kugel revealed that this noodle-pudding dates back to the beginning of the last millennium.
It was evolved over the centuries from being made of bread to noodles. Eggs,milk and cream cheese was added to the dish over the course of centuries. Jewish women from several countries have contributed to the flavor of the dish. The Germans replaced the bread and flour with noodles. Hungarians added sugar and sour cream, Polish women topped it with raisins and cinnamon. The Americans make it even now.
And for those adventurous people who want to try it out here is the recipe for this delicious dish. History certainly is delicious at times!
While on food, an interesting observation : Eating an egg salad sandwich with ketchup is apparantly an absolute no-no ! Chicken salad with ketchup is fine but not egg…never egg!
After pouring a liberal amount of ketchup on my egg salad sandwich, I was standing in the queue at the cafeteria. I responded to the cashier’s enquiring glance at my plate that it was an egg salad sandwich. Her response was a scream. Literally. “You CANT have egg salad and ketchup” . Overruling my mild protests that I LIKE ketchup she gave a shudder and said “Let me get you out of here soon”. I got out. Went straight to a colleague and asked him about it.
He said that was the first time he has heard of anybody having ketchup with an egg salad. “Boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets with ketchup..fine but never done egg salad” .
Well you live and learn!!
