Boater wrote:

John

Sure, just go by any Chinese restaurant on Dec.25th and you will find
all the restaurant full of Jews. It is a tradition that goes back
almost 6000 yrs.

http://dragon.soc.qc.cuny.edu/Staff/...20Chinese.html


If you are seeing Jews in "any Chinese restaurant," they certainly are
not observant Jews. Observant Jews eat in Kosher restaurants, and while
there any Kosher Chinese restaurants, very few of them are.

I guess it all depends upon your definition of Observant Jews doesn't it.

The Jewish love affair with Chinese food

According to a venerable borsht-circuit gag, the Jewish civilization
began in 3,000 B.C., and the Chinese civilization began in 2,000 B.C.,
which proves that Jews can exist without eating Chinese food. The
historical accuracy may be flawed, but the joke does underscore the
curious passion that American Jews have developed for the Chinese cuisine.

That passion, of course, is shared by much of the Occidental world. The
distinctive savoriness and varied textures of Chinese food, its sensual
appeal, and the unique cooking techniques employed in Chinese kitchens
to accentuate flavors and aromas have excited the Western palate and
made Chinese cooking universally popular. But nowhere is the infatuation
with the Chinese cuisine more intense than in the American Jewish community.

Chinese restaurateurs recognize this phenomenon, and their
establishments have proliferated in the U.S. wherever there is a sizable
Jewish population. The Chinese restaurant has become a durable fixture
in most Jewish neighborhoods, almost as commonplace as a kosher butcher
shop. The Jewish enchantment with Chinese food has also surfaced in
Israel, where Chinese restaurants now compete against falafel stands,
European-style delicatessens, and other outlets of traditional Jewish
cooking.

Actually, there is no single standard Jewish cuisine. Historically, Jews
have borrowed the foods of the people among whom they dwell, modified in
each case by the requirements of kashrut, the religious dietary laws. As
a result, there are various styles of "Jewish cooking": Eastern- and
Central-European Ashkenazi types such as Russian-Jewish,
Hungarian-Jewish and Romanian-Jewish, plus the Mediterranean or
Sephardi-Jewish style of cooking.

Chinese cooking features ingredients and techniques that are alien to
each of these. For example, the quick-searing and stir-frying cooking
methods perfected by the Chinese create new dimensions of taste wholly
dissimilar to the potted and stewed meats and vegetables with which most
Jews are familiar. The subtle but profound nuances of flavor and aroma
emphasized in Chinese food, the exotic vegetables and condiments, and
the preoccupation with the textural effects and color of food are
virtually unknown in the Jewish kitchen.

And yet the Jew finds that the lure of the exotic is eased by the touch
of the familiar in the Chinese cuisine. Most significant, the Chinese
rarely combine dairy and meat products, a practice prohibited by
religious Jewish dietary laws. Omnipresent pots of tea invariably grace
the tables of both the Chinese and the Jews. The two cuisines favor such
common dishes as chicken broth with rice or noodles, and--with the
exception of the Szechuan and Hunanese styles--both have a preference
for mild seasonings.

Kreplach, a triangular or square dumpling containing chopped meat and
usually served in soup, which is a popular Eastern-European Jewish
delicacy, is a first cousin to wontons, a Cantonese miniature dumpling
used in soup or is deep-fried and eaten as a snack. The taste of stuffed
cabbage, another Eastern-European Jewish favorite, resembles the array
of sweet and sour dishes prepared by the Chinese. In addition, the
noodles or luckshen, which figure prominently in Jewish food, have a
counterpart in Chinese lo mein.

Going beyond considerations of the table, those seeking explanations for
the Jewish passion for Chinese food might find special meanings in
certain cultural values shared by both peoples: the strong family
structure, the respect for learning, the powerful work ethic.

There are even intriguing historical links between the Chinese and the
Jews. The first Jews, probably merchants from Persia, visited and
settled in China around the year 1,000. Their descendants, Oriental in
appearance and bearing Chinese names, continued to practice the Jewish
religion. In the 13th Century, Marco Polo found several influential Jews
at the court of Kubla Khan.

Four centuries later, a Jewish mandarin rebuilt a synagogue in the city
of Kaifeng, which had been originally constructed hundreds of years
earlier. Built like two adjacent Buddhist temples, the synagogue fell
into disuse as the community disappeared during the 18th and 19th
Centuries. An exquisite model of the Kaifeng synagogue now stands in
Beit Hafutzot, the Museum of the Diaspora in Tel Aviv.

Although such bits of historical and sociological evidence demonstrate
that there is a cultural affinity between the Chinese and Jewish
peoples, it is highly unlikely that any of these factors have had a
profound culinary impact. The Jewish love for Chinese food is
essentially an American phenomenon. It has probably been fostered by the
ease with which the intricacies of the Chinese cuisine can be adapted to
religious Jewish dietary rules.