Instructions: Nirmala Prasand. Lisa Rosenblum. Both kosher customers.

Once the province of very observant Jews, kosher food is drawing consumers from a wider pool that includes Indians, Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons, Muslims, vegetarians and the lactose-intolerant.

To Prasand, of Fremont, kosher food tastes better. And she trusts the quality.

To Rosenblum, of San Jose, kosher is a way of life. And shes finding much more to like lately.

As the Jewish High Holy Days approach, with Rosh Hashana starting at sundown Friday, U.S. consumers have access to more kosher products than ever. At least 60,000 come in packages, from Oreos to the kosher soups Lipton introduced this summer. The market has grown 12 percent each year over the past decade, to $5.75 billion in 2001.
With its strict rules about preparation, kosher food is often more clearly labeled, which makes it easier for people with dietary or health concerns, as well as those whose religions have similar restrictions, to know what they are getting. Kosher, from the Hebrew kasher, means pure. Basic kosher rules include no mixing milk and meat products, and no pork or shellfish. In addition, animals are fed organically grown food and slaughtered in a humane way. Specially trained rabbis supervise food production.

These days, supermarkets no longer tuck kosher products into a small novelty section. With national brands such as Nabisco and Heinz offering kosher products, there are simply too many products bearing the circle K, circle U or one of 100 other symbols indicating that they follow Jewish dietary laws. Many South Bay Safeways and Albertsons stock hefty freezer cases - often in the enviable end-case position - full of kosher poultry items. Trader Joes carries fresh kosher boneless chicken breasts, ground turkey and cut-up chickens.

In 24 years of Silicon Valley catering, Wendy Kleckner of Continental Caterers in Menlo Park says she has never seen so much interest in kosher food.

Kosher used to be maybe 25 percent of our business. Now its easily up to 60 percent many months, Kleckner said.

One big change has come from business clients, where the trend is to be inclusive. We used to have a small number of large Jewish organizations that ordered kosher, Kleckner said. Now, Ill get calls from Raychem and Oracle, and they need the whole event kosher. They dont want one or two people eating something different.
Given the Bay Areas ethnic diversity and food-obsessiveness, kosher menus here stretch to include vegetarian options and dishes from sushi to satay. We have three Indian cooks on our staff now, Kleckner said. We cant find kosher pappadams or naan, so we bake our own. Kleckner also has noticed that more Jews are keeping kosher to some degree, regardless of their level of religious observance.

The kosher boom extends nationwide, said Joan Nathan, author of Jewish Cooking in America and six other cookbooks, and host of a PBS television series. It has to do with an increase in the number of vegetarians, and people who dont want pork products in their food. Also people looking for higher quality, and safety. After reading `Fast Food Nation, who wants to take chances?
However, Nathan added, Most people who buy kosher products dont even realize it.
Look at Yoplait yogurt. Its kosher. Even Instant Indias Jodhpur Lentils carry a kosher certificate.

In San Jose, Lisa Rosenblum has kept kosher since marrying 20 years ago. She buys Empire chickens (see sidebar) at Trader Joes but says the best one-stop shopping shes found is at Mollie Stones in Palo Alto. Compared with just a few years ago, Rosenblum can now get practically every food she wants. The one thing Id like to see now is a kosher chicken-apple sausage, she said.

At her sons bar mitzvah reception, Rosenblum wowed guests with barbecued kosher bison. She got the meat from www.kosherbison.com, whose sales pitch exemplifies the attraction of many kosher products: Bison is naturally low in fat, calories and cholesterol and higher in protein than beef, veal or lamb.

Its even lower in fat and cholesterol than skinless chicken breast! All of the bison products we sell are guaranteed without antibiotics or artificial hormones and are 100% glatt kosher, certified by the Orthodox Union.

(The Orthodox Union gives the circle U certificate, not to be confused with the circle UL given by the Underwriters Laboratories to home products. The U is now the best-recognized trademark among the symbols for kosher that range from a circle K to a flowery menorah. Kosher foods marked pareve or parve contain neither milk nor meat.)

But not everything is coming up kosher. Last week, Willow Glen Kosher on Lincoln Avenue closed, having lost its lease after 40 years. Owner Menachem Klein will maintain an online kosher foods and catering company, with lower prices because he no longer has to pay rent on a store, he says. (Call Earlier this year, the Sunnyvale company called California Kosher Catering tried and failed with a deli in downtown Palo Alto. Owner Ben Mahpour says hes looking for a smaller space. and bagel behemoth Noahs dropped its kosher certification at the three South Bay stores that still had it.

Yet more people, and more younger people interested in food, are buying kosher products. Some of them are Muslims, whose halal dietary requirements are very similar.

At Rose International Market in Mountain View, signs are in English and Farsi, and the meats are halal. Meat cutter Ibrahim Almamori says his Jewish customers like halal meats, which are clean, and slaughtered in much the same way as kosher. The important differences are the butcher must be a Muslim man, facing Mecca, and reciting Muslim prayers.

In June, Gov. Gray Davis signed the states halal food bill, making it a crime to advertise non-halal products as halal. The law closely parallels kosher law.

Both have come a long way.

Kosher food - the stereotypical chicken fat and chopped liver - used to be thought of as killing food, said Kleckner. But with so many more choices now, sometimes even Kleckner is surprised. She was eating a whole-grain Lundberg rice cake while talking on the phone. Oh look, she said, its kosher.

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