My family isn’t really close to the Jewish traditions. We don’t celebrate most of the holidays and the various Jewish customs aren’t really present in our lives. However there were always two holidays that are celebrated in a large and festive meals – Rosh HaShana and Passover Seder. For every such event my grandma prepares a very specific menu that includes chicken soup with Kneidlach (Matzah balls), Gefilte fish and Chrein, all hand made from scratch. In Passover the menu include also Charoset and rice with surprises.
If there is a dish in the world that I would never eat it is Gefilte fish… but Chrein is a different story. Every Seder I find myself drawn to this super hot and totally addictive spread and eat lots of it on top of a Matzah. You can’t compare store bough Chrein with the home made one, the taste is different but the main differentiation is the extreme and magical pungency of the home made version. The type of pungency that goes up to the forehead and down to the nose opening all your Chakras 🙂