Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style

latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-roshhashana16-2009sep16,0,3562104.story latimes.com Rosh Hashana, Tunisian style Exotic, delicious -- and yes, kosher. The Sephardic community has its own way of celebrating the Jewish new year. In L.A., an expat is spreading the word about the spicy cuisine. By Mary MacVean September 16, 2009 Alain Cohen holds out a gorgeous spiral-shaped loaf of challah, the color of cherry wood. On the top of the bread is a graceful open hand made of dough. Cohen and his baker, Yuri Amsellen, have been experimenting again. From the crowded kitchen of Cohen's Pico Boulevard takeout shop, Got Kosher? Provisions, comes the hypnotic smell of yeast. In the weeks before the Jewish new year, the store has baked loaves in the shape of Jacob's ladder, and others in a circle with a well in the center, meant to hold honey for dipping. They've added dried fruits, apples and raisins. For Rosh Hashana, which begins Friday at sunset, challah is essential. The braided oval bread that Jews break and share after lighting candles each Sabbath gets reworked once a year into a spiral to call to mind the cycle of life. A loaf topped with an open hand, however, is uncommon. But in this, as in other food customs, Tunisian Jews have their own way. "It's something from Djerba, to mark a period of reflection before Yom Kippur, a time when Jews are asking for and receiving judgment from God," says Cohen, whose mother's family comes from that island, located off the coast of Tunisia, where a small community of Jews traces its heritage back more than 2,500 years. Cohen, who with a partner made the short documentary film "The Jews of Djerba," today is the chef-owner of Got Kosher? Provisions, in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, and is working to spread the word about Tunisian food. "Kosher food can be great," but in the United States, it too often is not, he says. "It should be something you don't have to apologize about." Sephardic Jews, those from the Mediterranean region including North Africa and Spain, were blessed with the region's bounty of ingredients; Ashkenazi Jews, who come from Eastern Europe and make up the majority of Jews in this country, had a smaller palette from which to work. There's a joke that's told of a Jew who invites a non-Jewish friend to a Passover meal. Afterward, the guest remarks that the food wasn't too good. "It's not supposed to be," the Jew says. That joke "never would have been told in a Sephardic community," says Clifford Wright, a Santa Monica cookbook author, teacher and expert on Mediterranean food. In Tunisia, "the food is so exotic and interesting and spicy hot," Wright says. For this Rosh Hashana, a couple of dozen people will join Cohen and his partner in life and in business, Evelyn Baran, at their table. Like for a Passover Seder, many Tunisian holiday tables will hold about a dozen symbolic foods over which prayers are said. Figs, apples and honey are there for prayers for a sweet year. Dates are included so "that we elevate ourselves like palm trees and that our sins disappear forever," Cohen says. Sesame seeds suggest a proliferation of virtues. A fish symbolizes fertility. Most powerful to Cohen are spinach leaves, thinly sliced pumpkin and garlic cloves, which are fried in an egg batter and dipped in honey or a sugar syrup. The garlic and pumpkin are to ward off enemies, the spinach a symbol of renewal. "Just an amazing taste. It's amazing. For me, it's like Proust's memories," says Cohen, 53. "It is those tastes I am looking forward to." He also recalls that Jews would pierce a quince with cloves, to make a pomander they'd keep for the nine days from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur. Jews fast on Yom Kippur, and the smell of the pomander worked to ward off feelings of hunger, he says. In his childhood home in Paris, he says, neighborhood women would come to cook with his mother, who would send the men off to Rosh Hashana services. The feast would include fava beans with cumin; grilled lamb's liver stew; a frittata with ground chicken and lemon juice; a selection of salads; and t'fina pkaila, a stew of spinach, beef, sausage and beans, served over couscous. Not a week goes by without couscous, with meat or fish, beans and vegetables. "Every Tunisian family, every Friday night of their life, eats it. There is no escape. There is no need for escape. Everyone is happy to eat it," Cohen says. "Some people have milk when they're growing up. We had couscous," says Amsellen, the baker at Got Kosher? His family moved from Morocco to Lyon, France, where he was raised and went to cooking school. In Paris, where Cohen's father had a kosher restaurant, now run by his brother, called Les Ailes (the Wings). It was next door to the Folies Bergère cabaret, and Cohen says that as a child he was told there was a hole in a restaurant wall through which he could see the showgirls next door. He jokes that he looked for that hole for 20 years but never found it. He started busing tables at age 9, and later became a waiter, bartender, chef and manager. Twenty-eight years ago, he came to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute. "I came here to escape the food business, Tunisia and the French. I put a continent and an ocean between myself and my family," he says. And, of course, he eventually found himself back in the food business -- at first, he says, out of necessity; later, it became a joy. Got Kosher? began as a wholesale business, with the store opening in July 2008. It stocks items that Tunisian Americans will recognize, such as fish roe called boutargue (similar to Italian bottarga) and the "Tunisian sandwich," which holds tuna, egg, potato, olives, peppers and other ingredients. The shop's harissa is made on premises , and, with advice from Cohen's father's butcher in Paris, Cohen has developed a line of sausages that includes kosher merguez and andouille. And word has been spreading fast about their pretzel challah, which is a sellout most weeks. Cohen and Amsellen worked furiously for 2 1/2 months to develop the bread and began selling several versions in January, plain and with chocolate chunks, sesame seeds or green olives, among others. The dough is eggless and lighter than traditional challah. "I spent hours and hours and hours tasting challah. In the end, I couldn't even feel it anymore," Amsellen says. For Rosh Hashana, there will be spiral-shaped pretzel challah in several varieties, as well as traditional sweetened dough challah -- one with apple, raisins and honey and one with only raisins. The bakers plan to top them all with open hands. But the point is to share the bread with others. His father's restaurant, Cohen says, was a second home to Tunisian immigrants and gave him a sense of community that he couldn't find in this country until he began cooking Passover Seders for upward of 50 people -- mostly Jews who also felt rootless in Los Angeles. "It was so wonderful that every year it became bigger," Cohen says, with guests from France, Colombia, Mexico and northern Africa all telling the stories of their heritage, their families. Still, it wasn't enough. "The rest of the year I was missing Tunisian food. If you grow up with it, this food really marks you," he says. "I realized that my father, despite my resistance, gave me a beautiful gift -- cooking and tradition. You try to escape your destiny, but it always catches up with you." mary.macvean@latimes.com Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

only answer to drug problem

From the Washington Post and distributed on neighborhood list serve - It's Time to Legalize Drugs By Peter Moskos and Stanford "Neill" Franklin Monday, August 17, 2009 Undercover Baltimore police officer Dante Arthur was doing what he does well, arresting drug dealers, when he approached a group in January. What he didn't know was that one of suspects knew from a previous arrest that Arthur was police. Arthur was shot twice in the face. In the gunfight that ensued, Arthur's partner returned fire and shot one of the suspects, three of whom were later arrested. In many ways, Dante Arthur was lucky. He lived. Nationwide, a police officer dies on duty nearly every other day. Too often a flag-draped casket is followed by miles of flashing red and blue lights. Even more officers are shot and wounded, too many fighting the war on drugs. The prohibition on drugs leads to unregulated, and often violent, public drug dealing. Perhaps counterintuitively, better police training and bigger guns are not the answer. When it makes sense to deal drugs in public, a neighborhood becomes home to drug violence. For a low-level drug dealer, working the street means more money and fewer economic risks. If police come, and they will, some young kid will be left holding the bag while the dealer walks around the block. But if the dealer sells inside, one raid, by either police or robbers, can put him out of business for good. Only those virtually immune from arrests (much less imprisonment) -- college students, the wealthy and those who never buy or sell from strangers -- can deal indoors. Six years ago one of us wrote a column on this page, "Victims of the War on Drugs." It discussed violence, poor community relations, overly aggressive policing and riots. It failed to mention one important harm: the drug war's clear and present danger toward men and women in blue. Drug users generally aren't violent. Most simply want to be left alone to enjoy their high. It's the corner slinger who terrifies neighbors and invites rivals to attack. Public drug dealing creates an environment where disputes about money or respect are settled with guns. In high-crime areas, police spend much of their time answering drug-related calls for service, clearing dealers off corners, responding to shootings and homicides, and making lots of drug-related arrests. One of us (Franklin) was the commanding officer at the police academy when Arthur (and well as Moskos) graduated. We all learned similar lessons. Police officers are taught about the evils of the drug trade and given the knowledge and tools to inflict as much damage as possible upon the people who constitute the drug community. Policymakers tell us to fight this unwinnable war. Only after years of witnessing the ineffectiveness of drug policies -- and the disproportionate impact the drug war has on young black men -- have we and other police officers begun to question the system. Cities and states license beer and tobacco sellers to control where, when and to whom drugs are sold. Ending Prohibition saved lives because it took gangsters out of the game. Regulated alcohol doesn't work perfectly, but it works well enough. Prescription drugs are regulated, and while there is a huge problem with abuse, at least a system of distribution involving doctors and pharmacists works without violence and high-volume incarceration. Regulating drugs would work similarly: not a cure-all, but a vast improvement on the status quo. Legalization would not create a drug free-for-all. In fact, regulation reins in the mess we already have. If prohibition decreased drug use and drug arrests acted as a deterrent, America would not lead the world in illegal drug use and incarceration for drug crimes. Drug manufacturing and distribution is too dangerous to remain in the hands of unregulated criminals. Drug distribution needs to be the combined responsibility of doctors, the government, and a legal and regulated free market. This simple step would quickly eliminate the greatest threat of violence: street-corner drug dealing. We simply urge the federal government to retreat. Let cities and states (and, while we're at it, other countries) decide their own drug policies. Many would continue prohibition, but some would try something new. California and its medical marijuana dispensaries provide a good working example, warts and all, that legalized drug distribution does not cause the sky to fall. Having fought the war on drugs, we know that ending the drug war is the right thing to do -- for all of us, especially taxpayers. While the financial benefits of drug legalization are not our main concern, they are substantial. In a July referendum, Oakland, Calif., voted to tax drug sales by a 4-to-1 margin. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimates that ending the drug war would save $44 billion annually, with taxes bringing in an additional $33 billion. Without the drug war, America's most decimated neighborhoods would have a chance to recover. Working people could sit on stoops, misguided youths wouldn't look up to criminals as role models, our overflowing prisons could hold real criminals, and -- most important to us -- more police officers wouldn't have to die. Peter Moskos is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the author of "Cop in the Hood." Neill Franklin is a 32-year law enforcement veteran. Both served as Baltimore City police officers and are members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

fast cars - can they be eco?

A few ideas........

5 Eco-Cars Faster than the Porsche 911

by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 10.15.08

Why the Porsche 911?
There's nothing inherently special about being faster than the Porsche 911 which can get from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5-5.0 seconds (I'm talking about the regular 911s, not the $194k GT2). It's not like you actually need that kind of acceleration in regular driving... But, it does strike the imagination of gearheads everywhere and create a halo effect. If that can help make eco-cars more desirable, why not?

Lets check out 5 green cars which are actually faster off the line than the Porsche 911.

TZero by AC Propulsion

The TZero is an all-electric sports car made by AC Propulsion. Launched in 1997 with the goal of bringing it to production, three hand-made prototypes were built. They originally used lead-acid batteries and could do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, but in 2003 a new prototype with lithium-ion batteries was made and it could accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. Unfortunately, it was also in 2003 that plans for commercial production were dropped.

Roadster by Tesla Motors

The Tesla Roadster is also all-electric. Compared to the TZero above, you could say that it is part of the new generation of electric cars. More refined and higher-technology, it even made the Forbes list of most coveted cars. Using a lithium-ion battery pack, a 248 hp (185 kW) electric motor designed to spin at 14,000 RPM and a new 1-speed transmission, the Tesla Roadster can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds. Sadly, the financial crisis is affecting Tesla Motors and it just announced a change of CEO, a delay for its next model, and some layoffs.

Ultimate Aero EV by Shelby SuperCars

Shelby SuperCars makes the kind of cars that have over a 1,000 hp and can reach 250 mph. Not what you'd immediately associate with "low emissions" and "powered by clean energy", but the times they are a-changin'. Shelby's next hyper-fast car will be an electric vehicle, the Ultimate Aero EV. It's supposed to use a 500 hp electric motor, though 1000 hp twin-motor version, possibly with 4WD, is also on the drawing board. Unfortunately, we don't know yet the acceleration numbers for the electric version, but the regular Ultimate Aero accelerates from 0 to 60 in 2.78 seconds. We trust that the EV will be in the same ballpark, if it isn't faster.

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Tango Electric Car

The Tango is another all-electric vehicle, and while it isn't exactly the most practical car on the road, it can't be faulted for lack of originality... Or lack of acceleration. Its twin electric motors can make it accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds, and it can do the quarter mile in 12 seconds. You can see a video of the Tango here. Hey, if it's good enough for George Clooney...

Wrightspeed X1

According to Wrightspeed: "The X1 prototype is a concept car, and a test platform. It is not a production car, and never will be. It's a proof-of-concept vehicle that will lead to a production car in the future." It uses a modified Ariel Atom chassis, but the drivetrain is all electric. So what you see above isn't likely to end up in the showroom, but many parts of it, including the drivetrain, have a chance to make it. What's so special about the Wrightspeed X1? How about an acceleration from 0 to 60 of 3.07 seconds (in 117 feet)?

Honorable Mention: Karma by Fisker

With an acceleration from 0 to 60 mph of 5.8 seconds, the soon-to-be made in Finland Fisker Karma is not technically not faster than a Porsche 911, but it is a halo car that helps change the public's perception of greener cars. The Karma is a plug-in hybrid vehicle (similar to the GM Volt) with an all-electric range of 50 miles. Over that distance, a gasoline generator kicks in.