It’s not every day, or every year, that Ramadan, Passover, and Easter occur in the same month. The Harvard Public Library, in partnership with local cultural inclusion organization Arm in Arm, took the opportunity to spread culinary diversity at this month’s meeting of the Cookbook Club by highlighting the three spiritual celebrations.
Fragrant aromas of onions, fried potato, and eggplant wafted throughout the third floor Volunteers Hall at the library on Thursday, April 11. Slow cookers filled with meatballs, platters with latkes, serving bowls with salads, and trays lined with cookies and pastries took up one side of the hall while tables set with spring linens welcomed new and returning club members to the feast.
Cookbook Club organizers and librarians Jill Hayes and Jennifer MacMillan began the club meeting by inviting everyone to make a plate and settle in for a delicious meal. Once appetites were satiated, members enjoyed three short videos highlighting the spiritual holidays celebrated by the meal. While enjoying such desserts as date balls and baklava, guests learned about the month-long fasting ritual of Ramadan, the meaning behind each element of the Passover Seder plate, and the period of Lent as practiced by Christians in observance of Easter.
The group is made up of 40 registered participants, with monthly meetings seeing an average of 25 attendees. Outside Volunteers Hall, cookbooks for the following month’s meeting are available for checkout. The club had a strong membership base pre-pandemic but was paused for almost three years due to COVID-19. Co-organizer Jill Hayes said she was approached by Arm in Arm member Sarah Saleh to restart the club with a focus on cultural diversity and culinary inclusion in 2023.
There were many delectable dishes available for attendees to sample, including crowd favorite Donyana salad, made with fennel bulb, apple, dill, and nuts and dried fruit from the Palestinian cookbook “Zaitoun” (available at the Harvard Public Library) prepared by Eileen Kronauer. Another popular dish was the vegetarian chopped liver from the New York Times Passover Cookbook, prepared with mushrooms in place of chicken by MacMillan.
This meeting was Harvard resident Vivian Zhu’s first, and she will be back for more. “This is so great, I want to get my husband to come too,” Zhu said. “You get to try so many kinds of food. … It’s not from my culture, so I don’t know how to cook those, but with the cookbook you actually see the dishes. This is very appealing to me.”
Eileen Kronauer is a long-standing member of the Cookbook Club and echoed Zhu’s sentiment about enjoying the variety of foods. “I also like visiting with people,” said Kronauer. “When we have a presenter about a different culture, I always find that fascinating.”
“The community that’s kind of being built here, it’s really great,” said Laura Yochum, Harvard resident and Cookbook Club member. She went on to say how it takes a certain amount of bravery not only to try and prepare unfamiliar cuisines, but to then test them with others.
Speaking of testing, the evening wrapped up with a discussion that included a few members sharing their experiences preparing something entirely new. Zhu lamented that she left her latkes out too long before frying, allowing liquid to build up, but she was reassured that her dish was delicious. Luisa O’Toole shared her pro tip in preparing the cucumber and apple salad she brought for the occasion, which was to parboil the red onion for 30 seconds to take away the biting taste of raw onion.
The meeting ended with members sharing their own traditions for Ramadan, Passover, and Easter. While the three holidays may signify very different beliefs, the experiences are remarkably similar, both physically and spiritually. All holidays highlighted in this month’s meeting include some form of fasting and then feasting. They all incorporate periods of reflection and introspection. And they all culminate in gatherings of family and friends to celebrate.
Next month’s meeting of the Cookbook Club celebrates Mexican dishes in honor of Cinco de Mayo. The meeting will be held May 20 at 6:30 p.m. in Volunteers Hall at the library. For more information or to sign up, visit www.harvardpubliclibrary.org/about/programs/cook book-club-taste-world-cultures.
A smorgasbord of foods representing Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions offers a chance to sample many different flavors at the Cookbook Club, Thursday, April 11, at the Harvard Public Library. From left: Sarah Saleh, Jill Hayes, Nadia Madden, and Eileen Kronauer. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
