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By Hyphen Parent
Check back for part two of this series.
Is it especially hard to keep Kosher in Spokane? I heard finding Kosher meat isn’t easy around here.
Here in Spokane, you may walk past the teeny tiny strip of Kosher items available at some stores without even noticing. Those usually contain Kosher grape juice, matzah ball soup, small bags of Bamba (an Israeli peanut snack), matzah, jarred gefilte fish, candles, and very little else. Jews cannot live by gefilte fish alone.
There are some foods which are inherently Kosher and some which are never Kosher. For the vast majority of food, though, it needs to be certified Kosher which is indicated with a hesher — a small symbol to note which union certified it. Some options from major brands are certified Kosher, so that helps. Many options, however, are not.
Processed snack foods are the easiest certified Kosher foods to find. Foods like Oreos (Kosher certified since 1998), some Lays potato chips, and even Girl Scout cookies are certified Kosher (about which my Samoa-loving self is ecstatic). We were particularly amused to find a bacon cheddar cracker which is Kosher Dairy (it contains no actual bacon).
Just before Pesach (Passover), there are often individuals who take group orders and run to Seattle to stock up on matzah. There are two or three supermarkets that have started stocking matzah, but they often sell out. Anyone who doesn’t live on the South Hill may find they make the long drive to one store to get the giant pack of Kosher for Passover matzah in hopes that it will last them through the end of Pesach only to find it’s sold out. They then have to drive across town to the only other store which offers it. Trader Joe’s made things easier in recent years because they offer a small selection of Kosher meat and many of their other foods are certified Kosher.
Kosher meat is by far the most difficult thing to find in Spokane. With the arrival of Trader Joe’s came a very small selection of Kosher meat. There is a Kosher co-op through Chabad where one can order Kosher meat brought in from outside Spokane. Temple Beth Shalom’s Kosher Dinner is famous for its brisket and potato knishes, but those have to be shipped in from the East. They’re not available locally. In fact, after a fire at a knish factory in New York City in 2013, there was fear of a nation-wide shortage. One fire affected Jews all around the country. It’s a small Kosher world after all. Although, if your part of the Kosher world is far from New York City, Chicago, or St. Louis that makes keeping kosher more difficult. It helps that there are options, but those options are very few. Kosher meal planning is so much easier if you’re vegetarian. Can’t find Kosher meat without spending a fortune or spending far too much time on the South Hill? Skip the meat entirely and save your sanity.
Kosher for Passover items are incredibly difficult to find in the Spring. A very small number of stores will set aside Kosher for Passover grape juice, cake mix, macaroons, and matzah (much of which is NOT actually Kosher for Passover). While we may have lived on manna in the desert for 40 years, you try living on the few items available for eight days and let me know how it works out for you (spoiler alert: It can’t be done). Pesach means a lot of matzah (if you were lucky enough to get enough to last throughout Passover), eggs (which can be difficult because of Pesach’s proximity to Easter), and vegetables because there aren’t any other options here. Whenever possible, we have Kosher for Passover food shipped in from family in New Jersey.
There are no certified Kosher restaurants in or around Spokane.
Keeping Kosher always requires at least a little more work. In the New York/New Jersey area, we had Kosher butchers, Kosher markets, aisles of certified Kosher food at the standard grocery store (I’m not ashamed to admit that I like to stand in front of them and cry with joy when we go back to visit), separate certified meat and meat slicers for Kosher deli meat at the typical grocery stores, and many options for Kosher restaurants. Spokane is workable for those who keep Kosher, but it takes creativity and help.
Check out the SpokaneFAVS Kosher recipes Pinterest board for recipe ideas!
