Pink! shares her mother’s kugel on TikTok
Pink said that it felt important to share a Jewish recipe at this moment in time, making a political statement in her own way.
On Wednesday evening, Pink made her mother’s kugel live on TikTok.
For those of you not in the know, Pink, born Alicia Beth Moore, is Jewish, and her mother’s maiden name is Kugel. So the recipe that she posted on TikTok earlier this week is called Judith Kugel’s Kugel. Honestly, could you even make that up? Pink told her viewers that she loves being named after a yummy, carb-y noodle dish.
Judith was, of course, watching the TikTok live, and the singer kept sharing shout-outs to her mum — and also apologised that the recipe she was using was not actually her mom’s, because it included cottage cheese, an ingredient Judith never uses. “She’s very offended,” Pink shared. The recipe did, for all intents and purposes, look very legit.
As she solicited questions from the audience, Pink said, “Mum, do you want to ask me anything, like why didn’t I call you back earlier?” explaining that it was because she was driving.
While she didn’t explicitly call out Kanye West (though she famously tweeted out criticism against the rapper all the way back in 2009) or any recent antisemitic events in the news, she did explicitly and proudly display her Jewish identity, wearing a necklace with her name, Alicia, written in Hebrew, and sharing the platter she was going to serve her kugel on which featured the classic Jewish holiday summary: “They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat.”
Pink also said that it felt important to share a Jewish recipe at this moment in time. It’s clear that the singer, who took on Neo-Nazis in her recent video for the song Irrelevant, was making a political statement in her own way.
As new followers kept joining the live, which was ultimately attended by over 20,000 people, Pink kept sharing the fact that she was making noodle kugel, a Jewish dish, even at one point using the Yiddish term lokshen kugel.
On multiple occasions she extolled the virtues of another Jewish delicacy, challah, which she often makes with her mum — and with her two children, Willow and Jameson, who love braiding the traditional Jewish bread. They go for a six-strand braid — which is pretty impressive — though Willow is currently refusing to crack eggs or touch anything slimy while cooking. When someone asked her if she makes French toast, she responded with, “Challah French toast is so good.”
@pinkofficialNGNDA♬ original sound – P!NK
Pink said she loves making challah on Chanukah, even though her mother told her it wasn’t really a traditional food for the holiday. She also said that all her “non-Jewy friends” love it when she makes challah.
According to the singer, on Chanukah, she and her kids love to read Lemony Snicket’s The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming, loudly enacting the book in her kitchen because she “believe[s] in the power of noise”.
Her ideal Jewish meal, she told viewers, would include fluffy matzah ball soup made from scratch (it’s “so damn good!,” she exclaimed), fried latkes, kugel and fresh warm challah. Sounds dreamy.
She seemed intimately familiar with kugel and all its traditional toppings — from crushed up corn flakes to graham crackers to her mom’s choice of apricot jam. She herself likes to top the dish off with cinnamon sugar. She also urged viewers to wait 15 minutes before partaking in the dish to avoid burning the roofs of their mouths, and it definitely sounded like she was talking from experience.
Pink also shared some sweet parenting lessons. She said that after she and her son Jameson both got COVID back in 2020, “Nothing matters to me except trying to find joy in darkness and cuddling, laughing, and all I want is to see my kids be OK.”
She no longer lets that voice in her head dictate what she does and stop her from being present with her kids — and stop her from dancing when she feels self-conscious. That’s also the inspiration behind her latest song, I’m Never Gonna Not Dance Again, which features vocals from both her children.
As her kugel baked in the oven, Pink gave another shout-out to her mum: “I love you very much, Mum. I’m gonna call you in a minute.” She also encouraged her viewers to go share themselves and their stories and nostalgia with others. “Let’s all share each other,” she said, “so that we can stop being afraid of each other.”
“I really just enjoy sharing my culture,” she said.
At a fraught time for Jews, Pink dished us a sweet celebration of Jewish pride this week.
Kveller
comments