Of meat and other eats

Keeping Kosher in Vladivostok is not quite the same thing as keeping kosher in, say, Brooklyn.

Most things can be made from scratch, and the from-scratch products – flour, sugar, oil, eggs – are, for the most part kosher. But meat has always been an issue. It has to be brought in from a big city. Moscow would be the most logical choice, but the cost is exorbitant to ship it by plane. The train takes a few weeks to get here, so even though we could theoretically send frozen meat in the winter, we are a bit nervous to do that. We could send it by refrigerated train, but they are also not cheap.

When we first moved to Vladivostok, we brought along 70 pounds of meat. The chicken for Shabbos, the meat was saved for holidays, and, just as we ran out, they did a slaughtering of kosher chicken in Siberia. We ordered something like 600 kg, which my computer tells me is 1,322.77 lbs. 600 kg is a lot of meat, and, even though we used a lot of chicken for our overnight camp last summer, it lasted, and lasted, and lasted.

Eventually, though, our Siberian chicken ran low. But then we were in New York, and again we shlepped 50 pounds of meat with us. But G-d takes care us, and before we ran out, we met a fellow here who sends a refrigerated container to Moscow every week or so. He is Jewish, and whenever his container is empty, he will send along some meat for us.

So now we have a freezer full of meat, ready for the eating whenever we choose. I have a beef in the fridge, pickling, as I write this. It should turn into corned beef in another two weeks. I will let you know.

The best part of having this meat is that we can now sell it to community members who are interested in eating kosher. In America, it is relatively easy to keep kosher. So many products have a kosher sign, and dairy and meat products are sold in supermarkets also. It is so much harder here, and there are some people who are really interested in kosher, but they have to be REALLY committed to keep kosher in Vladivostok.

Daniel is on his way over now, to pick up a load of kosher meat. Since we received our meat shipment, he has begun to eat only kosher meat, which he tells us, tastes even better than the non-kosher stuff.

Next we need to begin importing mayonnaise and chocolate chips.