The Jew & The Carrot's Two Posts on Thursday Nearly Had Me Drooling

The Jew & The Carrot had not one but two outrageously awesome posts on Thursday.

The first was a recipe for vegan challah with two sets of instructions: "one from a Chabad rebbetzin, and one for those of you who might like something slightly more step-by-step." The former includes such helpful prep tips as "Give tzedakah" and "Add love and prayers." An alternate version of the post was cross-posted to Jewcy's Pickled blog; it lacks the "rebbetzin's instructions" but includes a lot more photos. Check out the recipe section of JewishVeg.com for more vegan challah recipes (note: some do include honey).

The second started off great by talking about Manhattan's patch of kosher vegetarian Indian restaurants. Then it revealed the big news: Natalie Portman is going to be in a movie called Kosher Vegetarian! At first, I thought this would be a film in which Natalie plays a Jewish vegetarian (which she is in real life, of course). I did some further research, though. The actor playing the male lead, Irrfhan Khan, says he will "be playing this strictly vegetarian Gujarati man." Khan's character falls in love with a Jewish woman (presumably not vegetarian), played by Natalie. The title seems to be a commentary on the culture clash of a vegetarian Indian and a kosher Jew.

Kosher Vegetarian will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss just how well Judaism and vegetarianism do go together, as evidenced by the first three chief rabbis of Israel, authors Isaac Bashevis Singer and Jonathan Safran Foer, Natalie and fellow actor Alicia Silverstone, and myriad punk rockers.