I must share this with my "friends" -- I'm reading a book by Elizabeth
Ehrlich, titled "Miriam's Kitchen" (1997, Viking Press).  It is about an
American Jewish woman, raised in a not-very-religious home, who marries a
Jewish man.  Her husband's mother (her MIL) is Miriam, who keeps a kosher
kitchen, and cooks with love.  One Friday morning, Elizabeth is up early and
over at her mother-in-law's house to learn how to make liver and noodles --
a cooking lesson.  She had to forego a shower and coffee in order to get
there on time.  Her MIL offers her something to eat for breakfast.  She writes:

My temples throb with the memory of coffee, stomach growls.

"Oh no," I say.  "Just fine."  I know she cannot stand to wait another second.

"Then we can start with the leybern."  Leybern -- livers.  Lukshn mit
leybern: chicken livers with noodles.  I am here to learn this, and next
Friday, something else.  For my husband, and for our children.

It is far too early to think of liver, the thought makes me gag.  Then I
remember my first taste of this dish.  Just home from the hospital with
Miriam's first grandchild, I found her in my kitchen, warming her pot on my
stove and insisting I come to the table.

"You must get your strength back," she said.

LEAVE ME ALONE, I had thought, as the steamy, superstitious fragrance of
Jewish Poland wafted into the bedroom and behind my eyelids.  I wanted to
sleep, more than I ever wanted anything.

"You have to," said my husband, ignoring my scowl.  "My mother cooked."
Clumsy and depressed, I sat down on the chair.  Then I lifted the fork,
sauce dripping from the noodles.

The richness, the oil, the iron, the cholesterol, the onion, the salt
overtook my body like an intravenous drug.  Miriam beamed.  "It's good," she
stated.  The baby cried out, and my milk came in.  There has never been a
dish like this one.


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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html