Kosher-Keeping,
Inexpensively
PHOTOS BY DANIEL LIPPITT
W
Right
Sango Stoneware's
"Le Cafe" line: 20-
piece set for $49,97
at Wells Freight &
Cargo.
You can buy sets of ceramic
dishes, from Muirfield China to
Sango Stoneware, starting
around $50. Goodman and his
wife, Gerry, have stocked their
store with items from ware-
house cleanouts and catalog end
periods — which means that
you can buy full sets or in_divid-
ual items, your choice.
Stainless flatware by Strata,
service for eight, costs $49.97,
or a 114-piece set by Gran
Royale costs $99.98. Of course,
if that's too many pieces of sil-
verware for you, Goodman guar-
antees that you can buy as
many as you want, individual-
ly priced.
Nowadays, many apart-
ments come with microwave
ovens, and we've all begun to
rely on that easy zapability
when it comes to warming up
leftovers. J.G. Durant's Arcui-
sine is a line of non-stick glass
bakeware that is microwave-
able and oven safe.
"Just starting out [with]
one cookie sheet will do ya,"
says Kitchen Glamor's Pietros-
ki. "If y-ou're into making cook-
ies, get two, so you have one
made up and ready to go in the
oven and one for when that
comes out,"
She also advises investing in
"a good hand-held mixer, with
power." Mtchen Glamor has one
by Kitchen Aid for $79.95, nine
speeds, or try Meijer for a much
cheaper version. The same goes
for "a good set of knives — a
chefs knife, a paring knife, a
serrated knife for bread or toma-
toes, and, if you're going to do
roasts, a nice slicing knife, plus
the steel, a rod you use to
straighten your knife edge and
that'll keep your knives in good
condition."
Leaving those
plastic plates
behind.
And don't forget to buy a cut-
ting board. Whether wood, plas-
tic or acrylic, Pietroski suggests
cleaning with "antibacterial
soap and scrub it in two direc-
tions," in case any bacteria
lingers. Kitchen Glamor does
sell one "that has an antibacte-
rial agent built into the board,
that will slow down bacterial
growth."
If you cook a lot, a food
processor is a big help. Kitchen
Aid offers one with two sizes of
bowls — 11-cup and a mini-
bowl that sits inside of it,
$189.99 at Kitchen Glamor. Or,
you can buy one by Hamilton
Beach for around $20 or $30 at
Meijer. And, don't forget a cof-
fee maker, which you can find
for $20 at Meijer, Kmart or Tar-
get.
Pietroski says it's important
to have "a good cookbook The
Kitchen Companion by Polly
Clingerman is good, not so
many recipes as cooking tips,"
she says.
Also, try Bed Bath &
Beyond and Lechter's
Housewares for quali-
ty kitchen items at a
low price, and Mar-
shall's for discontinued
or last season's items,
like ceramic serving
pieces, stemware and
pitchers.
The most.important
thing about stocking a
kitchen is to start ear-
ly and comparison
shop. Keep receipts
and return items that
you find cheaper else-
where. And don't feel
that you have to own
top-of-the-line dishes
and cookware in your
20s — you have years
to upgrade the kitchen
Target has an array of plastic
utensils in different colors, for
color-coding kitchens according
to meat, dairy and pareve, and
Meijer is a great place to find
red, blue and clear Pyrex bake-
ware in any size or shape.
Amazing Savings carries
name brand (like Mikasa) boxed
sets of dishes for as little as $40
for four place settings, Singal
says. "You don't even have to
buy the Mikasa — we carry
Stoneware, $39.99 for service for
four," he adds. The store stocks
close-out items, not second hand
or defective.
"I have a service for four in sil-
verware as low as $8.99, and I
think, right now, my most ex-
pensive set is $24.99 ... a Cam-
bridge, good name brand
stainless steel," Singal says.
His stores also carry crystal
serving pieces, costing between
$7.99 and $15.99.
"Probably the easiest way [to
start keeping kosher, affordably]
is to get the basics and not wor-
ry about the extra stuff," Singal
says. "A couple sets of pots — oc-
casionally we carry pot sets for
$69.99. We carry frying pans,
dutch ovens; stainless steel or
nylon serving utensils, all 89
cents a piece. It can be very in-
expensive."
And, try Kosher Notions at
(310) 836-0287. They sell
meat/dairy/pareve stickers to
differentiate between shelves;
red, blue and green serving
utensils, towels, trivets, rubber
gloves and spoon rests; and col-
or-coded bristle sponges that can
be used on Shabbat and holi-
days. ❑
— Lynne Meredith Cohn
PHOTO BY DAN IEL LIPPITT
Above:
Plastic spatulas,
slotted spoons,
kitchen tongs and a
wire whisk range
from $1.97 to $5,97
at Wells Freight &
Cargo.
hen I first entertained
the idea of keeping
kosher, I worried that I
didn't have the money
to spend on double everything
that a kitchen needs. But my rab-
bi scoffed at this concern. "Go to
Amazing Savings," he advised.
With two stores in metro De-
troit (one in Farmington Hills at
Orchard Lake Road and 14 Mile,
and one in Southfield at Green-
field and Lincoln), Amazing Sav-
ings has a presence in New York,
Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and
Florida, says Sandy Singal, gen-
eral manager here in Detroit.
Most are owned and operated by
Orthodox Jews.
The rabbi was right: You can
build a kosher kitchen, complete
with two sets of dishes, silver-
ware, pots, pans and bakeware,
for under $300. Just shop wise-
ly.
A set of glass dishes is a good
start and easy to kasher, in case
they are mistakenly made treif.
Wells Freight & Cargo carries a
line of unbreakable glassware by
J.G. Durant, the biggest glass
company in the world. They sell
Arcoroc Radius dinnerware at
about $85 for service for eight,
the Vercors pattern at about $95
for eight settings, and Cristelle
at around $80 for eight. Bed Bath
& Beyond also sells glass dish-
es inclividrmlly, you can buy eight
place settings of the line with a
grape design on the dishes for
around $30.
With a mezuzah on the door of
Wells Freight & Cargo, Goodman
acknowleges that he and his wife,
Gerry, stock some "Jewish"
items, such as fish plates (glass
plates in the shape of fish that
can be used for serving fish sep-
arately during a meat meal).
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J.G. Durant's "Vercors" glass dinnerware are heat and break resistant. A 16-piece
set sells for $31.97 at Wells Freight & Cargo.