The Wandering Chew

Shabbat shalom ✨ My hands down favourite challah picture from this summer’s NOSH Week at !

On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, we’re sharing the story of survivor Liba Magarschak Augenfeld, and her recipe for Honey Cake flavored with orange zest and cloves, whose recipe was shared with us by her daughter Rivka Augenfeld.

Liba grew up in Vilna, now known as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. She was sixteen years old when the city was occupied by the Soviets in 1939. In 1941, after the city was seized by the N***s, Jews were forced into a ghetto. It was in the ghetto that Liba joined the United Partisan Organization, whose members eventually moved to the nearby forest in 1943 to continue their armed resistance against the N***s. It was here that Liba met her future husband, David.

After Vilna was liberated, Liba and David made their way to Austria, where their daughter Rivka was born in 1946. Two years later, in 1948, they immigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal.

In the summer of 2020, Rivka reached out to Kat for help reviving her mother’s recipes for a digital cookbook. Rivka preserved her mom’s recipes in a small blue recipe box, most of which were written in Yiddish. She recalls her mother cooking often and there always being room for one more at their family’s table.

This honey cake was one of Rivka’s favourite recipes that her mother would make, usually for Rosh Hashanah. Rivka sees all the food that Liba cooked, as something that allowed the family to find normality after their harrowing experiences during the Holocaust.

Helping Rivka taste her mother’s honey cake again, was an incredible honour that we hold close to our hearts. If you’d like to try Liba’s honey cake, you can find the recipe at the link in bio.

Montreal is extremely lucky to be in the path of totality for today’s eclipse and the only rational response is to bake black and white eclipse cookies! Happy eclipse and stay safe!! 🍪🌕🌒🌑

Poppy seed filled kokosh from Montreal’s iconic Cheskie Heimishe Bakery in the Mile End would be an excellent addition to your Purim celebrations! This is an underrated pastry that is often passed over in favor of their showstopping babka or incredible hamantaschen, yet with its nutty, jet black, poppy seed filling, it’s really worthy of its own moment to shine.

Kokosh has Hungarian Jewish roots and speaks to the origins of the family that runs Cheskie. You can also find it filled with chocolate, but we’re eating the traditional filling of poppyseeds because of the custom of eating these seeds during Purim. In the Ashkenazi community, due to the similarity of the Yiddish word for poppy seeds (mohn) and the name of Haman, poppy seeds emerged as a traditional Purim food.

If you’re picking up pastries at the bakery grab a slice of kokosh, we promise that you won’t be disappointed. Happy Purim!

🚨 Hamantaschen Cereal 🚨 This is your reminder to try out our hamantaschen cereal this Purim! Since we created this viral Purim treat in 2020, it can always be found as part of our celebrations! Recipe at the link in bio.

Family bagel run ❤️🥯 The best part is eating a fresh bagel right out of the bag, something which one of us takes very seriously!

Kat loves collecting cookbooks and these are two she was recently gifted by a dear friend’s parents. If you’re Jewish and grew up in Canada you’ll likely be familiar with Norene Gilletz, a cookbook author, food writer, and teacher who passed away in 2020.

She is often referred to as the queen of kosher cooking in Canada, and is most well known for the cookbook, Second Helpings, Please! published in 1968. Since it was first published, there have been 17 printings and over 200,000 copies sold.

She went on to write 12 cookbooks, many of which coached home cooks through using new appliances like the microwave and the food processor.

Kat can’t wait to read these cookbooks and to cook from them (yes yes!). We’d love to know what your favorite Norene Gilletz recipes are?

Our love for New Orleans runs deep. Years ago, we travelled to Nola and had the honour of meeting Mildred Covert, the matriarch of kosher Southern cuisine, who we’re thinking about today on Mardi Gras.

Born in New Orleans in 1927, she was a second generation New Orleanian, whose grandparents escaped pogroms in Poland to settle in the city. Her family was introduced to southern food from their African American housekeeper, Pearl Jones, who worked and cooked for the family for 45 years. In turn, they taught her about kosher food and recipes from Poland.

Mildred was a prolific writer, who along with Sylvia Gerson wrote, Kosher Cajun Cookbook, Kosher Creole Cookbook, and Kosher-Southern Style

She passed away in 2015 but her legacy lives on in kitchens around the world with her signature Jewish Southern cooking style.

First photo: Mildred with her cookbooks. Second photo: Mildred proudly posing with the needlepoints she made.

You and your whole family can show your love for the classic (with a hole) Montreal bagel by getting your own “I Love Montreal Bagels” t-shirt! Shop at the link in our bio.

After talking about them all week, Kat had to try the hole-less “bagel” for herself. Stay tuned for her review!!

🚨The legendary Mimi Sheraton weighed in on this whole bagel without a hole meshugas back in 1981! Surprise, surprise: she backs up our opinion that a bagel without a hole is certainly not a bagel. Sorry, not sorry. She says it all in the last line of the article, “A bagel without a hole? Might as well have a hole without a bagel.” 🥯 🤦🏼‍♀️🫠

We are sick and devastated over what has been happening in Israel and Gaza. We mourn the loss of innocent lives.

As mothers, we are especially grieving for the children who have been killed, their lives cut short, and for those who have lost their parents and families.

It is senseless. We hope and pray for peace.

Beautiful words by Rabbi

Breakfast at was excellent. A must if you’re in Brooklyn. Kat especially loved the palacsinta topped witb whipped pistachio halva, honey butter, soft cream, and dukkah! Also, don’t sleep on their caraway chocolate chip cookie.

This deserved a place on the grid - AMAZING dinner at with ❤️ The company, the food, and the drinks were wonderful.

Kat wrote about adapting her family’s pizza recipe after converting to Judaism, as a way to bridge both her Italian & Jewish identities for Tablet Magazine

Read the article and try the pizza out yourself!

🎉We’ve got another event for you New York friends!!!! 🎉 Join and or a sesame-inspired three-course intimate supper party and cooking demo at a private residence in Chelsea, New York, in partnership with where you’ll feast on a plant-based menu highlighting the versatility of sesame.
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Drinks and cocktails to be provided.
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Tickets include goodie bags with over $60 worth of products from partner brands such as and more
DM us for the link, TICKETS ARE LIMITED

🚨Event Announcement🚨 is going to be in New York on June 10th to host a NYC vs Montreal Bagel Showdown & Brunch with and .koenig!!!
You’ll get to try your hand at making both types of bagels then sit down to nosh on warm bagels and a bunch of fun spreads and toppings (and coffee & mimosas, duh)!! It’ll be the PERFECT start to the weekend!
Early birds can get tickets for $50 until May 24th!! Register at the link in bio!

Like Gabe, we’re very happy to be eating Montreal bagels again and showing off our love for them at the the same time! Order your own “I love Montreal bagel” shirt at the link in our bio 🥯❤️

One last matzah brei!! topped this one with Greek yogourt and apple, (local) honey & toasted walnut charoset that she keeps around the whole holiday to eat for breakfast.

It wouldn’t be Passover without matzah lasagna! Swipe for it in all its cheesy glory!

We can’t think of a better way to actually use up all your matzah meal this Passover than to make these ricotta herb gnocchi!! Make these and lemon pepper pappardelle (!!) with us and on Saturday!! When you register you’ll get a list of all the ingredients you need to cook along. Link to tickets in bio!

Follow Kat’s lead and top your matzah with Greek yogourt, spicy preserved lemon spread, a sunny side up egg, sumac & parsley. You won’t regret it!

Happy Passover from the whole Wandering Chew family!! ❤️

⚠️ The Last Chametz ⚠️ As is tradition, is enjoying the last chametz before Passover starts with a flaky croissant! What are you all eating as your last chametz before Passover starts?

We love classic coconut macaroons, but we couldn’t resist putting a twist on them!

We were inspired by the flavours of our beloved massafan cookies, with the rose water and cardamom taking the macaroons to a new beautifully fragrant place. If you want to give them a try, the link to the recipe is in our bio ❤️🌹