Kosher (self) catering made easy Photo: BNJC[Missing Credit]
The BNJC kosher mini mart even sells challah which arrives once a week from Just Baked in Borehamwood. My husband was highly amused it’s the same challah as we often tear into on Shabbat at home.
Not that this Friday was anything like our usual. The main difference being that all I had to do this weekend was to reheat and decant food from pot to plate. The fridge in our two-bedroom (and bathroom) apartment contained a full Shabbat meal as part of the package offered by the centre to observant holiday makers.
Challah and grape juice sat on the counter and (Israeli) wine was chilling in the fridge together with a selection of soft drinks. There was even cereal, bread and jam on hand for our breakfast.
The Friday night menu consisted of chicken soup with lokshen; a selection of salatim — from hummus and tahina to baba ghanoush and the delicious roasted root vegetable salad coated in a sticky sweet glaze.
Main courses were grilled lamb chops, roast chicken and a slow cooked brisket plus rice and roast potatoes and more perfectly roasted Mediterranean vegetables. Parev brownies and ice cream were almost more than we could manage. Almost.
We did have plenty leftover and had we wanted to reheat for next day’s lunch, there was a hotplate ready to go plus a water boiler on a timer for hot drinks. The lift to our flat switched to Shabbat mode on Friday evening and we were welcome to attend the service at the building’s beautiful on-site shul, which is affiliated to the United Synagogue.
After our tour with the lovely Jasmin, who was enthusiastically wishing everyone Shabbat Shalom, all I needed to do was relax on the terrace of our fourth- floor penthouse apartment and admire a distant view of the sea over the rooftops while sipping some of that kosher wine.
Room with a view - the penthouse apartment's terrace is gorgeous sunspot Photo: Victoria Prever[Missing Credit]
Before I could do that, my daughter and I rushed down to the sea (less than a five-minute walk) along a wide avenue lined with gorgeous houses. At the sea front runners and cyclists zipped up and down the path and a few bathers splashed in the sea.
We admired the waves from Rockwater, a cool-looking beachfront bar and restaurant with a beachside deck perfect for sundowners. My son had already gone to investigate the BNJC’s in-house gym, equipped with all the latest machines and available to guests for a daily fee. In the same area a mikvah is under construction and a smaller one already built for toiveling (koshering) kitchen utensils.
Brighton has been a favourite with Jewish holiday makers for hundreds of years. A permanent community has existed in the south coast city since 1766, and by the close of the 18th century there were six or seven Jewish boarding houses. Fifty years later that number had risen to 13. Fast forward to 1945 there were 45 kosher hotels plying their trade there.
However, our holiday habits changed and by 1970 there remained a solitary hotel, which, by the next decade, was gone.
With the seaside town only about an hour from central London and an easy train ride from Jewish communities in Hertfordshire, the mystery is why we fell out of love with vacationing there. Perhaps the rise of air travel and cheap flights to sunnier climes took the rosy glow off the English coast? That and the weather.
Not that it was an issue for us — the sun was shining for our weekend and we found plenty to get excited about. Not only is there purpose-built accommodation and kosher catering here, but (rain or shine) Brighton is never boring. The weekend we stayed coincided with Pride, which was being celebrated all over town. We watched the floats travelling up the promenade and (Kitty and I) danced in the streets along with hordes of visitors. Joyful as we were, it was a relief to eventually escape the madding crowds there to quieter Hove and the sanctuary of our own space.
Novellino on sea Photo: BNJC[Missing Credit]
Further down the coast is Hove Lagoon, worth checking out and booking ahead if you or any of your party enjoy water activities. Not quite as scenic as its name implies, the coast-side lake offers taster courses of paddle boarding, wake boarding, water ski-ing and windsurfing. Next door is a children’s playground that a few years ago my teenagers would have been all over.
Now they’re more interested in the shops — plenty of their favourites in the city’s Churchill Square shopping centre plus more boutique-y independents dotted around the narrow streets of the Lanes and, north of North Street, the equally attractive but perhaps more quirky North Laines which are a firm favourite of students.
After dark, night, following dinner in a local restaurant, we strolled around Hove’s Palmeira Square, a short bus ride from the apartment. The trees in the small park are each wrapped in a yellow ribbon and every day at 6.30pm local Jewish groups meet to remember the 1200 murdered on October 7 and to keep memories of the hostages alive.
[Missing Credit]
On Sunday the restaurant (meaty) serves brunch. We hoovered up — Israeli breakfast (for the grown-ups), maple syrup slathered pancakes and scrambled eggs on toast – alongside locals who now have a gorgeous, KLBD supervised restaurant to shmooze at.
If we hadn’t been so full we would have jumped at the chance of the afternoon barbecue cooked up by restaurant manager George Afentakis. Afentakis, who has 45 years catering experience in Greece and Brighton, was cooking up huge platters of meat, served with crispy chips and oregano and olive oil smothered sourdough and a Greek salad made with vegan feta. Like a Greek balabusta, he quizzed me as to why I had not cleared my breakfast plate – was everything all right? It was delicious, I’d just reached my fressing limit. We did take some of our Friday night food home, which I hope will make him happy.
Full English - kosher-style Photo: BNJC[Missing Credit]
In the tree-lined courtyard where the barbecue was being served extended families were celebrating birthdays at long tables — either visiting for the day or the weekend. The weekenders were staying in one of the centre’s town houses, which hold up to 20. You can book two so a group of up to 40 can stay together. Other houses and apartments on the site (which has security at the entrance gates and parking below the building) are owned and by independent owners.
Like Aziz’s frozen chicken Brighton’s kosher scene has come a long way.
Holiday house: from £500/night in the summer (£600 over the weekend),
Two bed apartment: from £195 per night in the summer
Penthouses from £245 (summer weekday)
More information here.
