A sweet New Year: where to find the best food in London for your High Holiday celebrations

The pomegranate, said to have 613 seeds, correlates to the 613 commandments (mitzvot) in the Torah. The name mitzvot has two meanings: commandments and good deeds. The eating of a pomegranate is not just a wish for abundance, but also an intention-setting ritual, to fill the year ahead with acts of service.

Independent grocers Nourished Communities in East London sell Turkish pomegranates, Palestinian dates and a variety of local honey, too.

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Bagels

While bagels are a just-about-anytime food (baring Passover) they are especially welcomed as part of the break fast meal on Yom Kippur, often served as part of an ‘appetising’ meal, as it’s referred to in the US, meaning dairy & fish but not meat. The mere thought of an appetising platter fills me with a sense of relief and joy, especially after a fast and serious occasion. This will include a range of foods including a variety of smoked and cured fish like lox and herring, egg & onion salad, cream cheese (schmear) and pickles.

Whilst London has become a city of bagels (rejoice!) some of my favourites include Papo’s in Dalston, It’s Bagels in Primrose Hill, Notting Hill & Soho, and Panzer’s in St John’s Wood, that also offer bespoke smoked salmon slicing, too. Beigel Bake on Brick Lane Rinkoffs in Whitechapel bagels are old school London institutions with Rinkoffs also offering iced beigles, for a sweet take. And Banook Bagels is keeping Londoners in the South East happy with their New York-meets-Montreal style versions.

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A Shared Meal

One of the most memorable parts of these two holidays, for me, is the ability to share time and a good meal with loved ones. While there are of course some dishes or ingredients that are more likely than others to make it to the table, this will also largely depend on family and cultural traditions, including access to particular foods on ingredients. Some of the classic dishes in an Ashkenazi household (Eastern European), like the one I grew up in, might include matzoh ball soup, lokshen (noodle) kugel, tzimmes (carrot stew) and brisket. For Sephardic Jews, Moroccan fish stew, bulgar wheat and pomegranate molasses chicken might be more familiar.

For those looking to take the festivities out, or order them in, there are numerous ways to do so, rather than juggling a million pots and pans in a galley kitchen.

Honey & Co. are hosting a Rosh Hashanah supper club on Monday, 22 September, alongside gift baskets, catering, and packaging, including their much-adored pomegranate chicken. The catering menu at Oren Delicatesen on Broadway Market offers a range of Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Mizrahi dishes with ordering cut offs extending until Friday 19 September. And for those seeking out a kosher kitchen, you won’t find more abundance than in Deli 98 in South Tottenham, with shelves, counters and coolers stocked full of items to take away for later or to eat in. And, as far as kugels are concerned, Reich’s Catering in Golders Green have just about ever single one under the sun.

Good wishes alongside plans of action to insure a sweeter and abundant world feels as imperative as it does universal. L’shana tova!