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Oye and from Sherman Oaks? Just give me some high quality Jewish rye bread......."Corn" bread to be exact.

Toasted with some butter.....olive oil is OK too.

Are you now in a Jewish rye breadless area? I can probably dig up a recipe for you - an authentic Jewish round rye bread with the cornmeal on the bottom.

I've never done the olive oil variation, but butter or schmaltz is wonderful.

If you're familiar with Sherman Oaks/Encino/North Hollywood, you'll be saddened to know that Brown's Victory Bakery has gone out of business. Their onion pockets will be sorely missed!

Oh, more Jewish dishes:

Cholent - a delectable stewy thing that cooks in the oven for about 27 hours - from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. Full of meat, carrots, potatoes, barley and onions - and everything comes out the same color! Very tasty with rye bread.

Tzimmes - a sweet casserole dish made with carrots and sometimes prunes. Not one of my favorites (I'm more of a Litvak than Galitzianer - I like my foods savory and not sweet).

Kugel - a pudding. Usually made with potatoes or noodles. The noodle kugels tend to be sweet (made with egg noodles, eggs, sugar, cottage cheese and raisins), although you can make one that's savory and spicy. Potato kugels are made with ground potatoes, onions, eggs and schmaltz. I don't do potatoes anymore, but I make a killer kugel with cauliflower (you really can't tell the difference).

Latkes - oh yummy, yummy latkes (pancakes)! A traditional food for Hanukkah, they're usually made out of potatoes (you can use potato kugel mixture for them), but one of my favorite variations are soup green latkes - made out of the vegetables used to flavor chicken soup. Zucchini latkes are also very good. Potato latkes are usually served with sour cream and applesauce.

Gedempte Fleischen - this is a stewed meat dish with lots and lots of paprika. Sort of a goulash, actually.

Matzoh Brei - fried matzoh. Crumbled pieces of matzoh soaked in water to soften, then mixed with beaten egg, a little grated onion, a bit of salt and a lot of black pepper. Then spread out in a frying pan like a huge pancake and cooked on both sides. Very good with sour cream.

Summer Salad - Take a boiled potato, some green onions, radishes and other summer vegetables, then mix with cottage cheese and sour cream. Very refreshing meal on a hot summer's evening.

Maven