ANT KATZ

“I was in Paris during Chol Hamoed,” writes user Sara Chana, a senior exec at Microsoft. Sounds simple enough, but what do you eat? When I travel for short periods of time I tend to simply find a market, and usually keep fruit and bottles of water in my room.

“Easy, and usually enough after the dry interior of an aircraft and the pasty, usually dull tasting food that is served.”

But, writes Sara, “Pesach is tricky. I didn’t want to find myself eating some kind of GMO food that had artificially been encouraged to grow beyond it’s natural limitations by some corn DNA.”

RIGHT: The entrance to a Paris restaurant “Casher le Pessah”

 
Fortunately, however, Sara – a seasoned traveller – knew that Paris has an enormous Jewish neighbourhood and so “finding food was pretty simple,” she says.

“Cacher” & French accent sound haute cuisine!

“It was between the big days so there were stores that were open. I liked the French version of kosher, “cacher.” When you say it with a French accent it sounds brilliant. It makes potato flour sound very haute cuisine!

Contrary to what I’d heard about kippot and religious gear being banned, I saw a few men wearing their yarmulkes too. It certainly is easier keeping kosher there, than in Seattle.

There seemed to be far more choices, and of course, being able to walk into a store and buy anything you see is a luxury I’ve missed since relocating from the shtetl in Joburg.