Pesach Oddities Noticed

Seen on Janglo, the local listserv which has answers on anything from selling new furniture, finding where to buy this and that to...

"ADVICE: where you can get kitniyot free mayonnaise answers

i was asked to post answers so here they are...
cheaperkol on kanfei nesharim
shefa shuk in the rav shefa mall in romema
shaarei ezra on rechov bar ilan
assorted makolets in bayit vegan
and someone said emek refaim but did not say what store so i am
assuming super hamoshava."

I am so grateful to this person, who clearly has too much time on their hand, like many jangloites for solving this important problem.

Actually, the kitniyot issue - this is related to the age old question of Passover? Where are your parents from and their families and did they eat legumes and rice on Passover? If you were lucky, your parents weren't from Eastern Europe (everyone's were of course, at least that I knew) and we all didn't eat kitniyot on Passover, meaning no rice, no beans, no humous, and in later more stringent years, no peanut, soy or corn oil, let alone anything that had any suspect ingredient realated to the list. Funny thing, kitniyot do not qualify as hametz/leavened foods, merely as kitniyot and moreover, while you shouldn't prepare them for someone who doesn't eat them, if you cook rice for yourself if it's your tradition, you do not 'treyf' up your pots and can still prepare non-rice and bean dishes for others who don't eat rice and beans and such.

Still, shopping here is an adventure in avoiding kitniyot or allowing them in small ways - soy oil, margarine with soy oil, or prepared mustard (made from the mustard seed which is considered kitnioyot), or milkys (choco pudding with whipped cream) which have something probably a questionable starch used as thickening. At a certain point, you feel like throwing up your hands - I called my friend Karyn frequently, checking in on various things. Karyn made sure that I had made haircut appointments for everyone well in advance of the last week (pre-sefirah rush), had washed my car before the final rush, and had advised me about the best oven cleaner (St Moritz but I couldn't find it), and that soy oil was considered ok, when I called in confusion from the grocery store.

"ADVICE: Kosher for Pesach Fish Food
My local pet store has some Kosher for Pesach fish food called Blood
Worms. But the ingredient list includes yeast and starch, which is of
unknown origin.

Rabbi Blumenkranz's book says it is OK to give the fish matzo meal for
a week.

Does anyone have any experience with feeding the fish matzo meal, or
does anyone know what kind of starches are in this food?

Thanks for your help. Gerti"

This defies comprehension, right? Can you imagine the digestive systmem of some poor, unsuspecting goldfish during his autopsy after Passover? Poor guy, died of acute piscatory failure, or better put, constipation or explosion due to complications thereof. I realize, that you're not supposed to have anything in your house that could be considered edible from a hametz perspective, and that includes the dried up pretzel bits and such in the car or inside the sofa, but have you ever really wanted to eat fishfood? Have you ever sprinkled fish food into the tank and thought about how you want to just take a nip of it - just to see. I mean, dog food I could see - as I fed Harry dog (the Shelanski doggy) his milk bone biscuit, I thought, hey, what's this like (not really but I could picture this more than fish food), and let's not forget the famous Honeymooner's episode of Norton and Ralph trying to market dog food, which Ralph finds delicious - and even feeds it unsuspectingly to the head bus guy (I can't remember why this happens, do fill me in if you remember), but at least dog food is a meat product with cereal and is food like and probably would keep you going if you needed to depend on it. Enough said.

Tonight, seder with Jess/Daniel and the girls, Sarah and Michael and their 3 and a friend of Benjy's, Miriam and Peretz (Daniel's sis and bro-in-law) and their 3, friends of theirs (3?), our niece, Helaina and 2 friends and I think that's it. Food will be extensive and will pay respect to all family traditions. We've made pickled veggies, roasted sweets and whites, and quinoa salad for tomorrow's lunch at Miriam's house (barbecue, I'm told). It's wierd not to be hosting and running around but certainly more relaxing than years of the past where we made 2 and thought nothing of it. We won't be drinking slivovitz though - haven't found any. Shocking, really, but bought a new bottle of Arak.

Thinking of all of you and wishing a wonderful Pesach - lots of crumbs and lots of fun.