Next to the rigging is a carved Indonesian hanger from which I hung my hamsa scarves. At the entrance I placed a small display of two cookbooks by Pam Reiss, a friend I met on Twitter and who also bought one of my aprons. Pam’s two books, Soup – A Kosher Collection and Passover- A Kosher Collection, are beautifully designed and published. People wanted to buy them straight off, and I had to keep explaining that they were for display and hand out marketing material instead. But do check them out!

Pam with her books and wearing my Flower Power Kosher apron.

But back to the Jewish Food Festival. It was fun, had an enthusiastic volunteer staff and there were so many awesome visitors to my booth. Jewish network TV was there too and I hope they show the film soon.

Share Me!

]]> http://news.rotemdesignstudio.com/wordpress/2010/06/06/photos-from-the-jewish-food-festival/feed/ 0 http://news.rotemdesignstudio.com/wordpress/2010/05/15/1196/ http://news.rotemdesignstudio.com/wordpress/2010/05/15/1196/#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 10:10:43 +0000 jrotem http://news.rotemdesignstudio.com/wordpress/?p=1196 Oh boy oh boy!  I’ll be vending — and most probably eating — at the Santa Clarita Jewish Food Festival on Sunday (May 16)!  This event promises to be both fun and filling:

Bubbie’s Pickles. Humus. Gourmet challah. Tabouli. Deli sandwiches. Kugel. Knishes.  Falafel. Desserts like B&W cookies, Cream Puffs, Red Velvets, Lemon Bars & Free See’s samples. OH YEEAAH!  (And that’s just for starters!)

PLUS – Music,  Kids’ area with bounce house. Free photo booth where you can be as silly as you want. And vendors selling jewelry, crafts,  Judaica, spa gifts and of course, my own Rotem Gear goodness!

I’ll be selling my always cool tees, apron gift sets, brand new limited edition artisan hamsa scarves and tie-tops.  Also new this year: edgy Hebrew “angel” tees for the little ones and they’re really cute! Sorry, no photos yet but they are similar to this, exception those for babies, long sleeved.

>> BRING A NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEM FOR THE SCV FOOD PANTRY and you’ll receive 1 free admission with 1 paid adult. ($5 otherwise, kids under 12 free.)

I’m so looking forward to it and hope to see some friends stop by. Be sure and say hi — don’t worry about the pickle breath.

Below is a handy-dandy flyer and here’s link to a Google map, but first, a glimpse at last year’s event — this year’s will be twice the size! (video by DiningGuy,.com.)

1st Annual Jewish Food Festival – 2009 from DiningGuy.com on Vimeo.

The Christmas Meerkat, on the other hand, is closer to home, and was my questionably creative way to dealing with single-holiday-sockdom. There it was, a lone sock, green and sparkly silver snowflaked and red all over, alas, but with no mate. What to do?

Christmas Meerkat graces my stoop in his holiday finery, attracting much admiration, so much, in fact, that the next day neighbors added a giant tree ornament.  And then tonight, the Christmas Meerkat brought me a gift!

Ghiradelli chocolates, some other yummies and a lovely snowflake mug — yay!

Maybe I should call him the MyrrhKat.

It’s time for a good old holiday give-away! I’m giving away 3 “Got Latkes” t-shirts to 3 lucky and deserving souls. (Well, everyone’s deserving but some are luckier than others.)

The shirts are soft vintage navy from Southern California-based Article1 and you can opt to have yours wrapped up all swell like these babies to the left.

So what do you have to do? If you are not yet on the Rotem Gear mailing list, sign up here.  Don’t worry about spam — my newsletters are not all that frequent! And of course I’ll never share your address or coordinates with anyone.

Then, come one back here and add a your own limerick about anything vaguely related to Chanuka in the comments. It’s meant to be fun so have fun and everyon is welcome to join in!  Deadline is December 3! (Sizes are S-M-L-XL and some kids’ sizes are available too.)

I’ll start off the limericks:

There once was a gal with a grater
Compelled to grate ev-er-y ‘tater
She’d grate and she’d shred
“She’s not right in the head!”
Said the folks who would try to dissuade her.

There once was a curious maidel
Who kept trying to spin a knaidel
Alas, it would flop
With an audible “plop!”
Until someone suggested a dreidel.

Now it’s your turn!

“Para para”(Lit, “cow, cow”) means “one by one” or “one at a time.” I was suddenly inspired to make this mooving design after chatting with Cheri, my gal pal from my many years in Israel.  I never understood the connection between cows and “one a a time.” Cows are not particularly good at waiting in queue, and to human Israelis the concept is practically foreign. So once I asked Cheri if she knew why. “Oh sure,” she said, with the confidence of one who sees the obvious even if I couldn’t. “It’s cow, cow.”  That’s as illuminated as it got.

But anyway, that expression has always amused me and so here we go. Udderly silly and a bit weird.

Never one to leave odd enough alone, I also decided to shoot for one more (ha!) The Hebrew word for cannon is “totach” (with a gutteral “ch”), but in current Israeli slang it also means a hot, attractive alpha male kinda guy. A retro-y cannon makes it fun and if you know a totach, or even a fan of old artillery (and doesn’t everyone?) it’s the perfect gift.

The reason is Tu B’Av, the 15th Day of the month of Av in the Hebrew lunar calendar, which this year is coming up on August 5. Tu B’Av was a post-biblical day of joy and matchmaking during the second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). It has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in Israel as a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love.

In its ancient form, the holiday drew the young unmarried girls to the vineyards outside the city of Jerusalem, dressed in white clothing, where they would dance. Unmarried young men would go to find a nice girl for their brides. Yes, that’s right — it was the original JDate.

In recent decades Tu B’Av has been revived as an unofficial holiday, especially in Israel, where festivals of singing and dancing are held at night. As with Valentines Day in Western countries, the entertainment, gift and beauty industries do a good business on this date.

Tu B’Av is also considered an auspicious day to get married. I’ll let you in on a little secret. It didn’t work for me, but oh well, the idea was nice .