In "What's Jewish Food?," I wasn't really complaining so much about bagels and lox as I was about "Ashkenazi-centrism" (seriously didn't make this word up). Food was just the lens through which I chose to discuss a particularly aspect of Jewish diversity.
Someone even told me to stop complaining and start writing a new Jewish cookbook. This particular someone doesn't know how often I cook and that this suggestion made my family laugh uproariously. Besides, someone's already covered that territory. Check out: "The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York" and "Jewish Cooking in America".
"New Recipes for Jewish Diversity Education" goes into greater detail on this topic. There is even a great section on "Teaching Jewish Diversity" which notes that "a key aspect of diversity education is exploding the idea of the 'normal' and replacing it with the realization – often a relieving one, especially to young people – that there is no 'normal,' but rather a wide range of distinctive experiences."
Forget young people. You don't want to know how much I've paying in therapy pills just to discuss the idea that there is no 'normal.'
