Jewlicious

Pass the Jew’s Ear, please?

20 years ago
31 Comments
by Laya Millman
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ear of the Jew
First we’re an invasive weed, now an edible fungus. Jews sure get a bum wrap in the plant world.

“Jew’s-ear (Auricularia auricula-judae) – widely distributed edible fungus shaped like a human ear and growing on decaying wood. ”

Fungus. Decaying wood. Great associations.

The good news is we’re low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol!

It is apparently a tasty fungus, and is popular in Japanese and in Chinese food.

Mmmm, mmm, Jewlicious!

Laya Millman
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31 Comments

  • I ate these in China. They are valued more for the texture and tend to absorb the flavors of the marinade. BTW, I thought jewfish was a kind of grouper. I am a goy and don’t keep kosher anyway, but why wouldn’t grouper be kosher?–they do have fins and scales.

  • Nope, their the same. More commonly called the tree ear, though. Though, one legend has it related to Judas’ ear. You know, the guy who betrayed that other guy for some money then hung himself on a tree, thereby giving antisemites bad ideas for 2000 years.

  • Rafael,

    I’m not so sure about that. I have cooked with both wood ear and tree ear mushrooms. They weren’t pink. And, they were much more crumpled, too.

  • Laya,
    if it makes you feel better, in Japan it’s called kikurage which means “wood ear” or “tree ear”. I’d never seen it before, though.

  • I guess that it’s better than the Jewfish. That one isn’t even kosher! Though ironically, the pigfish is.

  • Yea, but If he has the font Arial on his system he should be able to read it fine since your website supports unicode. The unicode characters are in the Arial font, so its most likelly that most people can view hebrew in unicode on this site.

    (please pardon my nerd reflexes.)

  • Man, reading your transliterated hebrew is hysterical! Ever hear of unicode? or should I say ????????

  • Im atah lo ochel basar, atah tzimchoni, nakhon? Afilu im ein l’kha klum neged achilat basar. Sekhel yashar.

    Ve’akhshav, ani tzarikh la’asot et ha’shiurei bayit matematikah sheli. Lama ani?

  • Ani lo tzimchoni. Ein li klum neged achilat bassar. Ani pashut lo ochel bassar.

  • Ottoh davar chabibi. Of, tarnegol hodu, chatul, mah sheh lo yihiyeh. Nima’s li im ha bassar. Ma la’asot? Salatim, falafel … artic limon veh milky. Nochal beseder, al tid’ag.

  • Ani medaber q’tzat (although well enough that my Hebrew teacher is bumping me from Hebrew 102 to Advanced Independent Study…dunno how that works…I guess the other guys just don’t try very hard…)

    But yes, I’m totally tzimchoni. So you’re right, it’ll totally be Zman Salat im Laya u’Michael. L’marbeh ha-mazal, salat yisraeli hu…hu…mamash taim.

  • Michael, you speak hebrew? You’re tzimchoni? we’re totally getting salads together when everyone else on the bus is gorging themselves on shwarma.

  • I’ve been really busy with school. And also went to Crown Heights. And also just got a big new nargilah. So my past few weeks have been spent either studying, out of town, sleeping or obscured in a dense haze of smoke. I guess, somehow, Jewlicious (and my own blog, for that matter) got lost in the shuffle.

    But I’m glad my absence was noticed. I feel all special now.

  • It will surprise no one that I have comments.

    First, I’m gettin’ a distinct Georgia O’Keefe vibe. (Muffti, you know what I’m sayin’, a-ight?

    Secondly, isn’t it interesting that Jew’s Ear is low in sodium, saturated fat and cholesterol. As opposed to whole Jews worldwide, who linger in the embrace of kugels, cholents and shakshukas gone wild. until their cholesterol, sodium and saturation of fat reach, um, Biblical proportions.

    Oh, why do I give all of my best stuff to comments sections?

  • Michael! Where have you been? Haven’t seen much of you since you hosted Muffti.

  • That’s right, Michael, you nailed it. That actually IS a reason for lots of vegetarians out there. (Myself in particular.)

  • Ugh. Why would anyone eat something that looks like that?!
    Wandering Jew weed is one thing, but Jew’s Ear?
    Whats next, Negroids Lip?

    (I’m sorry for crossing the PC line, just making a point.)