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    Home » Ye Olde King's Head - Nowhere Near Kosher

    April 2006 Uncategorized

    Ye Olde King's Head - Nowhere Near Kosher

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, los angeles, ca
    Normally around some certain holidays, I seize the opportunity to teach myself about culture, religion, and history via associated food traditions for that holiday. For example, last year, I taught myself about Jewish cultural traditions as they related to Passover. I made matzo ball soup, matzo brei, coconut macaroons, even haroset, which I didn’t even know about until I made it.

    And what did I learn through my little culinary lessons about the Jewish culture? That if I were forced to eat hard, dry, bland crackers for eight days straight, I’d be a cranky, constipated neurotic little you-know-what, too. ;)

    I don’t know why matzo has such a bad reputation. I love matzo – broken into little pieces and eaten with haroset like chips and salsa. (Hope that sacrilege doens’t offend anyone.)

    But Passover this year has long since come and gone, and just about the only thing I did was...nothing. I can’t even pretend because I didn’t do a single thing except note that the Matzo Man would probably make a great oven mitt. Or a hot pad.

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, ca
    the king of santa monica

    All is not lost in my culinary lessons in Judaism, though. Sure, I probably won’t bake a kugel until September (and I’m not even sure if kugels go with Rosh Hashanah, but I love the word “kugel”), but I can still practice my lessons in kosher-ness for Passover by learning what not to eat at Ye Olde King’s Head, a British pub in Santa Monica. Isn’t that what Passover is all about? What you can’t eat? Exactly, and there ain’t nuthin’ kosher about fish and chips. Or is there?!?! I guess we’ll find out by looking at what British things we ate and drank, and why it’s not kosher for Passover.

    There are two commandments from the Torah regarding Passover. One of the commandments is that Jews avoid "chametz,” or any form of leavened bread. Instead, during the eight days of Passover, Jewish people eat matzo, which is what their ancestors ate during their hurried escape through the desert from Egypt. But chametz isn’t just any form of yeast-risen Wonder white bread; chametz also includes anything made from the five major grains - wheat, rye, barley, oats and spelt - that has not been completely cooked within 18 minutes after coming into contact with moisture. That pretty much puts Jews on a mini-Atkins diet.

    We didn’t eat fish and chips at Ye Olde King’s Head, but fish are battered and fried, and the batter on the fish, because it’s made from wheat flour, would considered “chametz.” And if it’s a beer batter, well yeast and barley might make a rabbi’s head spin.

    Kosher/Not-kosher Conclusion: Fish and chips are not-kosher! for Passover. (Now, if this were Hannukah, it would be a completely different story. Fish and chips would be more than okay, since they are deep-fried, and Hannukah is all about frying foods in oil.)

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, ca - pastie/pasty
    pasty - not for a stripper

    While we didn’t have the quintessential British fish and chips, I did try a Cornish pasty for the first time. Pasty, which rhymes with “nasty,” is not that tassled, sometimes bejeweled sticker that some “dancers” use to accessorize themselves. A pasty is, like many other cultural cuisines’ version of filled dumplings, a Hot Pocket, born out of tin miners’ need to easily carry their lunch with them into the mines of Cornwall. The miners, whose hands would be covered with dirt from the mines, could hold the pasty at one end, eat it without touching the rest of it, then just throw away the sullied little corner of the pasty that they had been holding. Ye Olde King’s Head’s pasty is a perfect bulbous dome of flaky, but somewhat dry, lard-based pastry filled with simple ground beef and vegetables. It was mostly flavored with the natural juices from the meat, with no complicated spices or herbs.

    Kosher/Not-kosher Conclusion: Pasties are not-kosher! for Passover because the pastry crust is chametz.

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, ca - HP brand brown sauce
    british brown sauce is better than A-1

    The pasty was a little bland for my taste, so I did a little fit of flavor embellishment with HP sauce. In fact, I doused just about everything we ordered with the brown sauce, which tastes like a fruitier, tangier version of A-1 steak sauce. Unfortunately, I have no idea what HP’s brown sauce is made of, so I can’t determine it’s kosher-ness. My guess would be that HP’s brown sauce is kosher! for Passover.

    Ye Olde King's Head's menu had a few items on their Pub Snacks menu that looked like they had been pulled off the menu at Ambala Dhaba or India’s Oven. Now with all the vegetarian dishes in Indian cuisine, an Indian Jew or Jewish Indian, could eat reasonably well during Passover. You just can’t touch the naan, so in that case, what would be the point? I tried Ye Olde King’s Head’s lamb samosas which neither looked nor tasted like a samosa from any Indian restaurant I’ve ever eaten. The samosas didn't taste bad, they were just different, and comparatively milder in both flavor and heat. Rather than the usual triangle or cone shape, the samosas were folded into flat rectangles. The accompanying raita didn’t have cilantro or mint, but some other herb or spice that I couldn’t identify. I ate the samosas with HP sauce.

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, ca - lamb samosa
    turnover, not a samosa

    Kosher/Not-kosher Conclusion: Samosas are not-kosher! for Passover because the samosa pastry is chametz. Raita is likely kosher! for Passover, though I would verify that with an expert before dipping any of your meat-free foods in it.

    The last thing we ordered was a Scotch egg, which doesn’t sound very substantial as one egg. However, a single Scotch egg is hard boiled egg that is enveloped in a thick layer of sausage, breaded, and deep-fried. It is very substantial, and is the perfect segue into the second commandment of Passover.

    ye olde king's head, santa monica, ca - scotch egg
    scotch egg doesn't work for seder

    The second commandment from the Torah regarding Passover is that the head of the household tells the story of Passover on the first two nights of the holiday. This is called Seder, and is a sort of religious service that takes place around the dinner table around which friends and family have gathered. The centerpiece of the Seder table is the Seder plate, which has several food items on it that represent various parts of the Passover story. These items are used as props and visual aids during the storytelling. One of the items on the Seder plate is a roasted egg to symbolize the festival sacrifice.

    Kosher/Not-kosher Conclusion: Scotch eggs are not-kosher! for Passover. Unfortunately, the Scotch egg at Ye Olde King’s Head, while technically related to the roasted egg on the Seder plate, would not work for Passover because breading is chametz. In fact, a Scotch egg wouldn’t work for any Jewish holiday because the sausage is made from pork. Dang, may as well have gone all-out not-kosher! and melted mozzarella cheese all over that Scotch egg.

    It’s too bad because along with Jamie Oliver, the Scotch egg is one of the tastiest things to ever come out of Britain. The pasty had been good but somewhat bland, the samosa had been good but not very samosa-like, but the Scotch egg was awesome. Especially dunked in HP sauce.

    Screw Jew. Give me a Scotch egg.

    Ye Olde King's Head
    116 Santa Monica Boulevard (@ 2nd Street)
    Santa Monica, CA 90401
    310.451.1402
    310.393.6869
    www.yeoldekingshead.com

    ** a year ago today, i made my first pass(over) at matzo ball soup **

    tags :: food : and drink : british : english: restaurants : bars: reviews : los angeles

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    Comments

    1. peachiee says

      May 14, 2006 at 1:55 pm

      Wow- hard boild egg fried with sausage?? Not boring at all! I've always avoided this restaurant because I heard British food is terrible. I'll have to think twice now.

      Reply
    2. jackt says

      May 14, 2006 at 3:58 pm

      Wow that Scotch Egg looks pretty good. I have to go try it sometime now. I love breaded deep fried stuff, although my arteries may have a different opinion. King's Head fish n chips are pretty respectable too- I had it a few months back.

      Reply
    3. ahnvtzvlicat says

      May 14, 2006 at 4:33 pm

      The fruitiness you taste in HP sauce is tamarind pulp - very British India, HP sauce is. Anyway, I think it might be kosher but the label should say anyway.

      Lovely photos! I love a good Scotch egg.

      Reply
    4. sarah says

      May 14, 2006 at 6:06 pm

      peach: when you come back out to la la land, we'll start at king's head, get drunk on english beer, eat a scotch egg, then go out. hopefully there'll be some breaks somewhere :) actually, a scotch egg sounds good for after clubbing (along with some chili chz fries), too, huh???

      jackt: i will have to go back for the fish and chips, then! i don't know why i didn't order it, because fish/chips is one of my ATF foods ever. eh-var.

      ahnvtzvlicat: hi! thanks for the info. i think i need to go somewhere and buy a bottle of brown sauce for my refrigerator :)

      Reply
    5. Anonymous says

      May 14, 2006 at 8:50 pm

      You can also try making the scotch eggs at home - I remember seeing a recipe for it in an issue of Bon Appetit magazine a few years ago.

      Reply
    6. Catherine says

      May 14, 2006 at 9:05 pm

      i'm going to echo the same sentiment here and state the unanimously obvious thus far - that scotch egg looks yuuuumilicious! it's sunday, my favorite cheat day of the week, i just might have to make the drive to the westside and indulge in one (or two).

      Reply
    7. sarah says

      May 14, 2006 at 9:12 pm

      anonymous: that is funny that you mention bon appetit because the only reason i knew about scotch eggs was from that issue of bon appetit! i can't remember the exact month, but it was their annual travel feature - which they did on scotland. i saw the scotch egg in there and remember thinking to myself "some day, i am going to eat one of those gems!" now i must try making them, and i can't imagine that it'd be all that difficult. however, i want to use spicy italian sausage. can you imagine?!??!

      cat: lol! sunday is my cheat-eat day, too! actually, both saturday and sunday are, but i tend to over-do it on sunday because it's right before monday, when i eat granola and salads for the next five days. LOL!

      Reply
    8. Maure says

      May 14, 2006 at 10:23 pm

      another insightful and illuminating
      post rabbi sarah. why scotch eggs
      and the writings of leviticus have never been connected before is beyond me.

      years ago i had the choice of a scotch egg or head cheese on my flight from zurich to nyc.
      it was a solomonic decision.

      Reply
    9. Catherine says

      May 14, 2006 at 11:40 pm

      LOL! nice. if i had TWO CHEAT DAYS i'd be TWICE as chunky. you see, i only have half the genetics of a powerful asian metabolism which leaves me with half the freedom to eat what i really, really want (and don't get me started on my metabolism + alcohol). so, i try to be pretty health concious - or at least convince myself of it - monday thru saturday. ;)

      Reply
    10. Anonymous says

      May 15, 2006 at 5:02 am

      BROWN SAUCE RULES!!!

      Reply
    11. Hilary says

      May 15, 2006 at 4:42 pm

      Looks like I'm in the minority here, but that Scotch egg just doesn't do it for me. At all. Ick.

      Reply
    12. onetomato says

      May 15, 2006 at 7:26 pm

      i've always heard that british food is kind of yucky. now, i think i concur. no offense.

      Reply
    13. sarah says

      May 15, 2006 at 7:53 pm

      LOL!

      hilary and onetomato: the scotch egg is likely one of those things that a person will either LOVELOVELOVE or HATE. i mean, you REALLY gotta love artery-clogging, horrible-for-your-health foods to appreciate a cholesterol egg-gem hidden inside a thick layer of fatty sausage, all of which is deep-fried.

      and as far as British food - well, most of the stuff i've seen so far is heavy (i mean, has anyone seen the Two Fat Ladies?!?!) and somewhat bland, except for all the indian food.

      maure: what a choice. i would have asked for the soup and salad. er, i mean bloody mary.

      cat: the asian metabolism is a myth. a myth, i tell ya!

      anonymous: i agree. i don't usually like ketchup, and i abhor A-1, but brown sauce wasn't too bad at all!

      Reply

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