For my dear friend Jeff Mandel, a successful and compassionate internist (did I mention that he is handsome and single, ladies?), nothing evokes a stronger childhood memory of family, comfort, ritual, and tradition (including the search for the afikomen—the hidden matzo) than a bowl of matzo ball soup at the yearly Passover meal. The first time I sampled his classic version was at his house, at my first Passover, when his boisterous sister’s outburst, “My, Jeff, your
