I find that my love of baking powder and bacon makes me a really bad Jew. Also, my complete lack of being Jewish.
I do find seder cooking rather fascinating, in that I like the way modern Jewish cooks are determined to drag traditional Jewish cooking kicking and screaming into the realm of flavor. Mark Bittman's Epicurious.com seder menu looked very interesting and appetizing, while remaining both simple and traditional. Kosher and tasty don't have to be mutually exclusive.
On the subject of cooking for the people of the Tribe, once, while dating a Jewish girl and shopping for a Hanukah present for her, I happened across a traditional Jewish cookbook in a small boutique shop in the Village. The shop girl sidled over and sort of murmured under her breath that the food in that cookbook was rather bland. When I told her my girlfriend at the time liked bland food, she looked at me inquisitively and asked, "Why are you dating her, then?"
It would turn out to have been a very good question.
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