by Dr. David Fialkoff, Editor / Publisher

The Jews lived in Hartford, Connecticut's North End until after the Second World War when they began moving to newly built tract houses in suburban West Hartford. Most Jews in West Hartford live in a neighborhood nicknamed the "Reservation" because the majority of streets there have Native American names: Iroquois, Mohegan, Mohawk, Arapahoe... Peyote Road kept losing its street sign until extreme measures were taken to render it theft-proof.

But not all Jews went west from Hartford. Some went north, into the adjacent municipality of Bloomfield, which was, like West Hartford, mostly cow fields at the time. Hartford's Jewish hospital, Mount Sinai, moved to Blue Hills Avenue in Bloomfield. Also, on Blue Hills Avenue is, or was, Famous Manny's Delicatessen, a real Jewish deli.

Dad, who, when I was born, was the proprietor of two taverns, said, "People come back for your bullshit," by which he meant your banter. "Manny" Manikowsi was famous for his repartee at least as much as he was for his roast beef on rye.

I was eight when Manny playfully asked my brother, who was ten, if he wanted mayonnaise on the roast beef sandwich he had just ordered. "No," my brother spat back, with obvious disgust, "Mustard!" At this both Manny and my father laughingly beamed their approval.

At 17 I gave up roast beef entirely and became a health food fanatic, and have been so for the last half century. I enrolled in naturopathic medical school at 22. At 26, in 1983 I was licensed by the State of Connecticut to practice natural medicine, way ahead of the curve.

In the speech Robert Kennedy just gave suspending his presidential campaign, he spoke about how the pharmaceutical-medical-insurance-food cartel has ruined America's health. The statistics are chilling, growing much worse in recent decades; rates of chronic disease, psychological disease, childhood disease, obesity, prescription drugs are all sky-rocketing

The cigarette companies bought all of the food companies. Since then, all of the scientists who added chemicals to make cigarettes more addictive, have been hard at work making food more addictive. Fructose, the food industry's sweetener of choice, eliminates the satiety mechanism so that the bear doesn't stop eating berries, packing on fat for his winter hibernation.

I've been waiting a long time to hear some unabashed mainstream criticism of the pharmaceutical-medical-insurance-food cartel. Say what you will about Bobby Kennedy (as a lawyer he's been very good for the environment, especially in cleaning the Hudson River), he calls it like he sees it regarding America's health crisis.

Given my long-term health food fanaticism, when I was invited to someone's house for breakfast last week, I was reluctant to accept. But my publisher's heart was touched when I learned that a prominent member of the community, and a potential source of many articles about authentic San Miguel, would be in attendance. When, on expressing my reluctance, the host assured me that the eggs would not be fried in bacon fat, I was persuaded.

I'm glad I did. The man from one of San Miguel's first families was friendly and forthcoming, eager to be published. I met with him again, and his staff, earlier this week.

As I expected, the food was just so-so. Granted, I did not partake of the bacon or sausage. But the eggs and the beans were, how can I put this... monotonous. They would have been improved a great deal by the addition of onion and/or mushrooms, garlic, bell pepper, goat cheese, olives, basil, tomato... Then, the eggs I eat are hormone-free and free-range. The chickens having a chance to eat a few bugs, my eggs taste different than those produced by the food industry.

The ultra-processed food that has taken over the American diet, has taste due to hundreds of chemicals, many of which are illegal in Europe. The flavor of unprocessed food is largely due to dozens and dozens of naturally occurring salts. Metal has flavor. Lick a penny. Copper has a taste, as do iron, boron, chromium, molybdenum, zinc... If your tomato has no flavor, that's probably because it has no mineral salts in it, because it was grown on soil that has few minerals in it. Robert Kennedy insists (along with the team at our Vía Orgánica, with whom he has a strong connection), that soil depletion is at the root of America's healthcare crisis.

Casey Means, MD
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Local flavor is what we need most of all. Building community, strengthening the local economy, Lokkal insists that the answers to most of society's ills are local.

Next time I go to breakfast somewhere, I'm going to take along a slice of onion. Gentiles may prefer mayonnaise, but we Jews like mustard.

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Dr. David Fialkoff presents Lokkal, our local social network, the community online and off, Atención robustly reborn for the digital age. If you can, please do contribute content, or your hard-earned cash, to support Lokkal, SMA's Voice. Use the orange, Paypal donate button below. Thank you.

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