Chinese food in Jewish world, Kosher or not?
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E-mail CRI, May 15, 2013
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Food served in Sheyan, a Chinese food restaurant owned by an Israeli boss in Jerusalem, on Sunday, May 5, 2013. At another table, some Jewish customers are enjoying their meals. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com / Wang Qian] |
Restaurants featuring Chinese food in foreign countries have always been judged whether their dishes keep the original Chinese style or not, but in the Jewish state of Israel, restaurant owners have another thing to consider - Kosher or not.
Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of Jewish dietary law. The most commonly known rule is that typical Jews don't eat pork. Most seafood is also forbidden unless it has both fins and scales.
"You can't ask for everything," said Ma Peizhen, a co-owner of a Chinese restaurant in Tel Aviv, "you have to choose what kind of customers you want to keep."
Coming from Hong Kong, Ma has lived in Israel and operated restaurants here for over 30 years. Her current restaurant "Hayam Hasini" was opened 13 years ago near the Tel Aviv beach, featuring seafood.
Ma tries to keep the Chinese flavor as possible. All the chefs in her restaurant are from the Chinese mainland. "Chefs from here or Hong Kong just can't make the flavor right." She also brings ingredients like broad bean paste from China to keep the original flavor. But she admitted that Jewish people prefer the alleged Chinese food adapted to the local taste.
"Jews like food with strong flavors, and they prefer it sweeter." Only three restaurants in Tel Aviv are owned by Chinese. There are several Chinese food restaurants with Jewish owners, to Ma, their food is not Chinese food at all, but they are more acceptable by locals.
Ma said most Jewish people don't really know what Chinese food is. In their opinions, Chinese food is greasy and unhealthy. But with more Jewish people traveling or doing business in China, some come to her restaurant specially to order more original Chinese food.
Many Jewish businessmen bring their Chinese partners to the restaurant and recommend the food to their friends who also do business with Chinese people, but they never come here with their families. Maybe because it's not kosher, said Ma.
To save her business, Ma began to contact with travel agencies like she used to do in Haifa years ago. Currently group tourists take around 40 percent of her business, another 30 percent are Jews, and the rest are diplomats, companies and Koreans working in Tel Aviv. They also offer business lunch for people working around. Although Ma doesn't want to change the original Chinese style, they have to change the flavors a little bit according to different customers.
The chefs can tell where the customers come from only by the dishes they order, said Ma. Jewish people only order certain dishes, so as Koreans and so on. For Chinese tourists, she always asks from which provinces they come and tells the chefs to cook according to the flavors they prefer.
Sangpagk Lee, a Korean who has worked in Tel Aviv for three years, come to Ma's restaurant every two or three months. Lee said there's no Korean restaurant in Tel Aviv, so many Koreans choose Chinese restaurants and the food here makes them satisfied. "We do not care they change it or not. The food is tasty for us, that's why we come here."
In another Chinese restaurant in west Jerusalem, the story is totally different. Owned by a Jewish boss who can speak fluent mandarin Chinese, the kosher restaurant "Sheyan" is described on its website as "a captivating merge between Jerusalem's eclectic atmosphere and China's traditional cuisine".
"Sheyan" has four Chinese and one Israeli chefs. Besides, it employs two religious Jewish men to supervise the cooking to make sure it's kosher. Zhao Guanglong, a Chinese chef who has worked here for over four years, said in addition that all the materials must be kosher, the processes to cook them should also follow certain rules. For example, the raw materials are not allowed to be put on fire by common chefs. This process must be done by religious people unless the food is already half-cooked.
The restaurant has operated in Rehavia, an upscale Jerusalem neighborhood, for eight years. Most of the customers are religious Jewish immigrants from the United States who com regularly. According to Nadav Kramer, the manager of the restaurant, most of the dishes here have been changed to adapt to their customers' tastes, sweeter, less spicy.
"The ingredients are pretty much the same, but you can say (the flavors are) very different," said Kramer. The Israeli manager himself really like more original Chinese food, which he had tasted when the chefs made for themselves, but he thinks most of western people don't enjoy the original flavors.
Kramer's words were confirmed by a religious couple surnamed Klein who lives in another city in Israel and come to Sheyan every time they visit Jerusalem. Mr. Klein, who wore a high black hat on his head, said the food here is exactly his taste. Mrs. Klein also likes the food very much, saying it's not so heavy, and not very greasy. Another thing that attracts her is that the restaurant is clean. "Every glass, after they wash it, they put it up to the light and watch, to check if it's clean," said Mrs. Klein. "People in this area, Rehavia, are very meticulous, so they cater to the area and the food is delicious."
But for people who are not that religious and have tasted more original Chinese food, things are a little bit different. Elaine Pradley, who comes from England with her husband to visit their daughter in Jerusalem, celebrated her birthday in Sheyan. Pradley had been here before and likes the food very much, that's why she came for her birthday. The couple live in Liverpool, which has a very big and old Chinese community, with lots of Chinese restaurants offering more traditional Chinese food. By comparison, Elaine Pradley said she likes the flavor here, but prefers the traditional. The couple are planning to visit China in September for travelling and looking forward to tasting more original Chinese food.
Joel Parker, an American historian residing in Israel, said he joined a summer camp to China when he was 13 years old. He visited Beijing and Chengdu, and missed the Sichuan food very much. "Outside China you can't find it anywhere," said Parker. "It says Sichuan on the menu but it's not. It's different, never the same."
But there's good news for him. During the Spring Festival this year, the city of Chengdu held a "Sichuan food festival" for five days in Haifa. Chefs from Chengdu keep the original Sichuan food flavors while obeying the kosher rules. The festival turned to be a success and some Israeli chefs will go to Chengdu later this year to learn more about cooking Sichuan food. So maybe one day, Parker can re-experience "the best" flavor right inside Israel. "It's cool!" he said.
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