Yom Kippur, Chinese Food and Whole Foods

It was Yom Kippur and Scott woke up late to shorten his 24-hour fast. If I were Jewish, I would have lucked out since you don’t have to fast when you’re sick, and I’ve had a cold for the last few days. But in keeping with the tradition of resting on Yom Kippur, I took a nice cat nap and woke up only when the sun peeked through the curtains directly into my eye.

We went to Temple Beth El in the evening for break fast – my third time there in 10 days and fourth for Scott. By now I can say Shanah Tovah as good as the best of them. We joined the synagogue just in time for the High Holidays – just one more membership to add to the Charlotte City Club, the Carolina Raptor Center, Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. If there were ever a full immersion program for Charlotte, this would be it. I didn’t even tell you that Scott is now known as the Facebook Guy who organizes the Texas Exes and the Big 12 groups in town.

At temple we sat through the last 15 minutes of a 3-hour service before breaking for bagels and cream cheese. I don’t know how people do it, sitting through such a long service, especially the ensemble up front that had to read the Torah, sing and sermon. Maybe that’s why at intervals the congregants had to stand up for a song or prayer, then sit down again – it’s their way of letting people stretch every fifteen minutes. I didn’t quite earn my pumpernickel bagel since I didn’t fast, and didn’t sit through the service, but no one had to know.

After temple, we contemplated where to go for dinner. Naturally, we went for Chinese because everyone knows that Chinese food and Jewish holidays go hand in hand. We decided on a popular restaurant which we feared would be too Americanized, but I wanted to give it a shot anyway.

To my delight, the dish I ordered was thoroughly Chinese – so much so that Scott wouldn’t touch it. It was braised vegetables wrapped in tofu skin atop a bed of spinach. I was in vegetarian heaven. Scott said his mu shu pork wasn’t bad either.

The staff was a collection of Chinese people who’ve lived in Vietnam, Japan and Hong Kong. Scott likes it when I speak Chinese so I thanked each server alternately in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. The lady who lived in Japan, but who is Taiwanese, gave us an enthusiastic recommendation for a Japanese restaurant which is actually run by a Japanese proprietor. All the others she dismissed as being run by the Chinese or Korean or worse, some fusion place that serves up everything that sounds Asian on the menu. I’m definitely adding her recommendation to the top of my list of places to try.

The Chinese restaurant is across from the new Whole Foods – the first in Charlotte. So we decided to go check it out. Despite worrying about it taking business away from Earth Fare – a regional chain of health food markets that we like – I must admit that shopping at Whole Foods was very pleasant. The employees were solicitous and one fetched us a shopping cart when we asked where to find one. We saw bulk bins of salt that we never knew existed – like the jet black salt – and ears of dried mushrooms that I normally only see in Chinatown.

At the meat section we checked out the offerings from Profitt Farm, which used to be at our farmer’s market but has since left because they now supply Whole Foods. There’s a picture of the Profitt family – whom we met when we visited the farm last year and I even blogged about them. The Profitts were one of many local producers that they proudly display, which we thought was an impressive effort to support the local economy.

Further down, there is an attractive tasting area for wine and local microbrews, and a mezzanine where one can taste 1oz pours of wine from an automated machine. At the bakery, we found Duke’s Bread, which we know and love from our farmer’s market. Then there was the house-made gelato which we couldn’t pass up, even though Scott was holding his belly for eating too much just 30 minutes ago. We left with a delicious cup of orange and pineapple and basil sorbet, plus a half dozen items that we didn’t know we needed. We even met a nice older couple who Scott already wants to invite over for dinner.

We may have just found our newest hangout.