Keeping Passover for a week doesn't sound too bad, but we forget how much food there is that we can't eat. No bread, nothing that rises, no corn syrup, no rice, no milk and meat together (and the list goes on). Yesterday, I broke Passover with a piece of Hawaiian pizza and it tasted like heaven. So, as I write this and continue to think about pizza, here is a list of things I missed most while keeping Passover this year.
1. Cereal.
I missed cereal at the dining hall, I missed it at home and I craved it for breakfast. Yeah, there's Passover cereal, but it tastes like a cardboard box.
2. Toast.
My favorite breakfast is toast and I missed it so much. There is nothing better than waking up on a weekend and eating toast and coffee in bed.
3. Granola bars.
Granola bars are a quick and easy snack. I always take one to class with me, or have one with breakfast and avoiding them for a week was so difficult.
4. Cookies/cake.
Cookies, my absolute favorite food, are not kosher for Passover, which makes me sad. Avoiding the cookies sitting on the counter all week was harder than studying for finals.
5. Pasta.
Not eating pasta, ramen, chicken noodle soup and macaroni and cheese is hard in general, but especially hard as a college student.
6. Sandwiches.
My go-to lunch food and my favorite dining hall takeout option was off limits last week. I missed my hoagies, sandwiches, wraps and everything in between.
7. Anything breaded or fried.
This means no fried chicken, mozzarella sticks, chicken nuggets, french fries and more.
8. Pancakes.
It's not even the fact that I eat pancakes all of the time, because I don't, but I do love them. Just knowing that if I wanted pancakes, waffles or french toast, I couldn't have it; that was the difficult part.
9. Pizza.
Now that all of a sudden pizza at the dining hall is really good, not eating it was a little more difficult than it was last year. Hawaiian pizza, my favorite, breaks all of the rules too because it not only has dough that rises, but it has pork, milk and meat together.
10. Seafood.
Shellfish is a beautiful thing, but it's a beautiful non-kosher thing.
11. Grilled cheese.
Grilled cheese is my go-to college dinner when I don't feel like cooking. When they have it at the dining hall with tomato soup, it's a must. Even as I am typing this I am craving a good grilled cheese.
All in all, keeping Passover isn't too bad, but I definitely do miss some of my favorite foods. Matzah is good for a couple days, until you realize that it is all you eat. And eating matzah pizza for every meal gets old. At least we can still have coffee, because I don't know where I'd be without that for a week.
Until next year, Passover.