Elina and I met at the park slope food coop. We were in the
basement working our food services shift. She was stuffing bags filled with
Turkish figs, Spanish olives, and Indian spices and I was cutting, weighing and
wrapping cheeses from all over the world when I heard her accent. I knew right
away that she was Russian and when I found out that she was from Kazakhstan
I really wanted to talk to her about food. When I found out that she was
Russian, from Kazakhstan, and Jewish, well, I knew she’d be perfect for this
blog. Luckily for me, she agreed to let me come to her home and interview her
while she cooked a delicious Plov for her family and me. Our time together was
lovely and our interview turned into such a natural conversation that I forgot
to take pictures of the end result of the dinner.
Elina explained to me the nomadic nature of the Kazakh culture which resulted in dough and meat being the main ingredients in most of
the cuisine. Her mother was Jewish but her father was not. Her mother learned
to cook traditional Kazakh food from her husband’s mother, and soon became known
as the Jewish woman who cooked the best traditional Kazakh food. Plov is a very
common Central Asian dish, with variations throughout the region. While I
chopped the carrots and Elina did most everything else, we had a talk about
being Jewish in Kazakhstan.
During WWII many talented artists and intellectuals from
Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine re-settled in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
When the war ended they stayed in the city and modernized it, creating a
multicultural community. When Elina was growing up Jewish, she said she never
felt any tension or problems because the city was open-minded and multicultural.
Her mother, born in 1950, felt the same way and raised Elina as a Kazakh like
any other. Elina enjoyed living in Kazakhstan and had a great job and life
there, but when she was 21 she left to be with her mother and grandmother who
had moved to Israel because of the poor healthcare her grandmother was receiving
in Astana. She lived there for 8 years. In 2001 she was on a bus that was
partially exploded by a suicide bomber. She moved to New York City with her
daughter two weeks later.
Elina understands Jewish food and culture through an Israeli
lens, being that her upbringing was more Kazak than Jewish. It wasn’t until she
moved to Israel that she thought about things in Jewish terms. When I asked
what Jewish food was, she said it was Israeli food: Shwarma, hummus, falafel
and gefilte fish. (She thinks Israeli
cheesecake is the best in the world.)
When I asked her how important Judaism is in her family now,
she said it’s very important. She feels Jewish identified here and she wants her
children to know the history of the Jewish people and to enroll them in a
program for Jewish kids in Manhattan. She keeps the holidays at home and
references what looks like a great cookbook, Adventures in Jewish Cooking,
by Jeffrey Nathan. It includes modern takes on traditional holiday recipes. She
highly recommended some of the recipes that she made for the previous Passover.
Our conversation went from Judaism to jobs, to travel and to
the sometimes contentious relationships between mothers and daughters. The Plov
sustained us throughout it all. It was a delicious meal and a wonderful
conversation.
This blog project has already given me a lot of pleasure, but getting
to meet and talk with Elina has been a highlight so far.
Thanks, Elina!
