food

This isn’t your mom’s Pesach

Cedarhurst store stocks shelves with more than matzo, potatoes, eggs

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This is not your grandmother’s Pesach. It’s also not your mother’s or even ours as we remember it not too long ago.

The basics are still there — matzo, potatoes and eggs — but there’s much more and greater variety, in almost unimaginable permutations and combinations.

Gourmet Glatt, the Cedarhurst kosher mega supermarket, kicks into Pesach gear running like a well-oiled machine, shelves, freezer cases, meat and fish department stocked and ready.

During a visit by The Jewish Star this week, shoppers were loading their carts to spillover level with Pesach necessities and some of the newest concoctions breaking the bounds of Pesach logic — bagels, hot dog and burger buns, noodles, gnocchi, waffles, pancakes, pizza, baked ziti, granola, granola bars, panko crumbs, crackers. But look carefully, these are generally not mezonot (the blessing said on grain-based non-bread products) but shahakol (requiring a basic food blessing), and aside from being safe for those who don’t eat gebrokts (matzo combined with liquid) it’s a seasonal haven for anyone with a gluten free diet. Most products are made with potato starch with no grain-based ingredients, although some are made with matzo meal (ground up matzo).

“People who complain there’s not enough food variety on Pesach just haven’t been checking out the shelves,” said Gourmet Glatt Purchasing Manager Howie Klagsbrun.

Yoeli Steinberg, vice president and manager, walked with the Star through some of the store’s Pesach-product laden aisles, pointing out seven different varieties of ketchup, a wide selection of mayonnaise, and kid-friendly varieties of schnitzel. He stressed the Gourmet Glatt goal of an “easy shopping experience, stress-free and complete.”

As last year, ready checked and washed vegetables and herbs, ready made marror, and fully set up Seder plates will be available.

Pesach preparations began at Chanukah with the goal of locking in good prices early on.

“It’s no joke,” said the meat department manager, Rabbi Berel Wolowik, as he sat hunched over his computer in the main office overlooking the front of the store. “I just lowered prices today!” Keeping meat prices low is a multi-pronged effort, he explained.

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