Almost one year ago I wrote a blog about Making Matzos. It was really about making a movie about making matzos. For those of you who don't know what matzos are, they are the flat crackers that Jews eat during the eight days of Passover to honor the escape from Egypt across the desert when there wasn't yeast or time for bread to rise; so the Hebrews ate unleavened or flat bread during the Exodus.
Passover started at sunset on April 14th. I was driving home from a Dentist appointment and stopped at the Safeway on Crow Canyon Road and San Ramon Valley Blvd. Safeway had a big display of Streit's Matzos. I was hoping to find Moon Strips again. Moon Strips, as I wrote in my last blog on Streits (see link above), are an onion flavored matzo made with poppy seeds.
No Moon Strips there, but there were several boxes of Egg and Onion Matzo, so I took one. Moon Strips are being sold by the case on Amazon now. I plan to order a case after I finish this box of Egg and Onion Matzos.
The Egg and Onion Matzos have the onion flavor, but no poppy seeds. They are very thin, light, and crunchy. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes a good onion cracker.
As a $150 backer of the Matzo Movie on Kickstarter, I received "a limited edition box of Streit's Shmurah Matzo, signed by the owners of Streit's! Streit's Shmurah Matzo is made only one day each year, and is not available in stores. Get a taste of this of this very rare Streit's product!" Since I would have to tear off the signed wrapper, I do not plan to open or eat these special matzos.
Last year I found out that my Great Grandfather Lieb Nanes, who came to America from Poland in 1878, was a matzo maker. Aron Streit started Streit's Matzos in 1925, a few years after my Great Grandfather died; so there's no connection between my family and Streit's Matzos, but matzo making isn't the real subject of this film.
The film is about the Streit family's decision not to sell their factory building in Manhattan or move to a new, automated factory in New Jersey. This decision cost the Streit family a lot of money. They could have sold the property in Manhattan for many millions of dollars. It is prime real estate in what has become a trendy neighborhood.
The old factory is a relic of the last Century, but it is also a link to the immigrant community that came to America for a new life and found success and acceptance here. The family has ". . . resisted modernizing the facility, worried at the potential effects on their fiercely loyal workforce, made up of neighborhood residents and immigrants from around the world, many of whom have been working there for 30 years or more."
This is a movie with heart. It is a movie about the American Dream. This is the America that many people today see slipping away or gone. It's still here in the Streit's Matzo factory in New York City and in the Matzo Film. Click here to view the film's trailer.
Now that Passover and Easter are over, the left over specialty foods usually go on sale for half price. Last year I picked up some sparkling grape juice in champagne bottles left over from Passover. Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies can usually be found on the Close Out table too. So head over to your favorite supermarket and check out some of the left over holiday products.
