6

SUNDAY

The secret may be out by now, but we Jews like a little Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Day. It’s a tradition as ingrained as singing “Hava Nagila” at a wedding, lighting a menorah, or complaining about our neurotic mothers. Author Don Siegel writes about the Jew–Chinese food connection in his book From Lokshen to Lo Mein. (For the goyim out there, lokshen means “noodles.”) Kosher Chinese-food recipes are interspersed with essays about the American Jewish experience. “Chinese history dates back for about 5,000 years and Jewish culture dates back for about 6,000 years. The question is, how could the Jews survive for the first thousand years without Chinese food?” writes Siegel. He’ll talk about his book and whip up a six-course meal—including spicy Szechuan eggplant, string beans with garlic sauce, and almond cookies—as part of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington’s 36th Annual Book Festival. Chow down at 6 p.m. at the JCC of Greater Washington, 6125 Montrose Road, Rockville. $30. (301) 881-0100. (RB)