"safe treyf"

My step-father is Jewish, so I have a small bit of insight into the ways of The Tribe.  And I knew that going to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas wasn't just a myth.  (Then again, we never went to one because he genuinely loved Christmas himself.  Much more than I ever did, being the Grinch that I am.)

But here's a great article that gets into the history of Jews eating Chinese food on Jesus' Birthday:

"[Q]  Was there any reason, beyond proximity, that Jews wound up eating Chinese food, as opposed to some other immigrant cuisine?

[A]  In terms of kosher law, a Chinese restaurant is a lot safer than an Italian restaurant. In Italian food, there is mixing of meat and dairy. A Chinese restaurant doesn’t mix meat and dairy, because Chinese cooking is virtually dairy-free.

In Chinese-American cooking, if there is any pork (which is not a kosher food), it is usually concealed inside something, like a wonton. A lot of Jews back then — and even now — kept strict kosher inside the home but were more flexible with foods they ate at restaurants. Sociologist Gaye Tuchman wrote about this practice. She described (the plausible deniability of non-kosher ingredients) as safe treyf. (Treyf is the Yiddish word for non-kosher.) A lot of Jews considered the pork in Chinese food to be safe treyf, because they couldn’t see it. That made it easier to eat."

Of course, the history of Chinese food in America is a whole other story.