Oy, a tax on Bagels?

It seems as if cash strapped New York has found odd ways to raise money.

The New York Department of Taxation and Finance considers sliced bagels -- even sans cream cheese or any other topping -- as prepared food.

Prepared food, like deli sandwiches, is subject to an 8.875-percent tax.

But a whole bagel, unsliced, is not considered prepared, and is therefore unaffected by the tax.

Confusing things further, even if a bagel is served unsliced, food vendors are still supposed to whack a tax on it if the customer eats it in the store.

On The Daily Show, this past Thursday night, Jon Stewart and guest New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, both Jewish, joked about the tax. "Anti-Semitism!" cries (a joking) Jon Stewart. "They can't even get a bagel upstate," says (a not joking) Bloomberg. The mayor pledges to fight the tax for the remainder of his term.

 

Briss- really spelled Bris - Brit milah (Hebrew: בְּרִית מִילָה [b'rīt mī'lā], Ashkenazi pronunciation, bris milôh, "covenant of circumcision"; Yiddish pronunciation, bris) is a Jewish religious circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day old male infants by a mohel. The brit milah is followed by a celebratory meal (seudat mitzvah).

http://www.hulu.com/embed/kfnb80lkImIg2d1KZk-Wtw

Capers - The salted and pickled caper bud (also called caper and gabbar for Turkish Cypriots) is often used as a seasoning or garnish. Capers are a common ingredient in Mediterranean cuisine, especially Cypriot, Italian and Maltese. The mature fruit of the caper shrub is also prepared similarly, and marketed as caper berries.

The buds, when ready to pick, are a dark olive green and about the size of a fresh kernel of corn. They are picked, then pickled in salt, or a salt and vinegar solution, or drained. Intense flavor is developed, as mustard oil (glucocapparin) is released from each caper bud. This enzymatic reaction also leads to the formation of rutin often seen as crystallized white spots on the surfaces of individual caper buds.

Capers are a distinctive ingredient in Italian cuisine, especially in Sicilian and southern Italian cooking. They are commonly used in salads, pasta salads, pizzas, meat dishes and pasta sauces. Examples of uses in Italian cuisine are chicken piccata and salsa puttanesca.

Capers are also known for being one of the ingredients of tartar sauce. They are also often served with cold smoked salmon or cured salmon dishes (especially lox and cream cheese). Capers are also sometimes substituted for olives to garnish a martini.