Last week many went out and bought quinoa in preparation for Passover. Some, however, want to know if this grain chews its cud or has a cloven hoof and are looking to their kashrut experts for answers. Two experts, three opinions. So they are waiting for the kosher inspectors to travel to remote mountains of Bolivia to get an answer. Or so says the New York Times in a front page article yesterday.
Why do people like this so much for the religious holiday? Could be it comes from Bolivia, which helped by being the only South American country to accept Jewish refugees in WWII. Exodus to Latin America. And on generous terms, there was no red tape with the Bolivians, who saved thousands back in the day.
However, Jesse Blonder, director of the Center for Kosher Culinary Arts in Brooklyn, has another idea: "When you're eating this stuff, you know, it tastes different from everything you've always had for Passover - different enough that you feel, you know, like, maybe you shouldn't be eating it. For some people, that makes it taste better."
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