Corn Bread - A Celtic Or A Food?

For posterity, I note that as I type this I am sitting at 12:30am in the lobby of a hotel in Michigan next to a wreath with a X-mas tree in the corner listening to Jingle Bells. [Tonight I heard that Yoshke was a Jewish boy who tried to go into his Father's business. כן יאבדו כל אויביך השם]. Soon I will be flying back to a Jewish State [New York] and will no longer be subjected to this bitter fate:-).

I received an email asking what the bracha is on corn bread. Now I must admit that I have never eaten corn bread before and the only corn bread I was familiar with played for the Boston Celtics and his last name was Maxwell. Upon further research I discovered that it is also a food item.

I searched around and found that there is no easy pat answer to this question. The sefer Shaarei Bracha [עמוד תקפט] rules as follows: If it is made of corn flour only the bracha is she-hakol and borei nefashos. If it is mixed with wheat which is added for taste, it would be hamotzi and bentching.

Others give it a ha-odoma [see the sefer Pninei Halacha page 100 in the name of the Mishna Brura רח לג. If you are wondering why I don't quote the Mishna Brura directly, see the Mishna Brura there and you will understand why:-)].

PS - If the corn bread is eaten with a "Bird" and you add Dennis Johnson, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish then you make a ברוך דיין אמת because your team is going dowwwwwnnnn. Tonight in Detroit I wanted to catch a Pistons-Bulls game to see Isaiah go up against Jordan. What a SHOCKER!! They retired???!!!! Two black men, one named after a prophet, another after a middle eastern country bordering the Holy Land and in some respects holy itself, trying hard to show the world that they can SHOOT THE PILL [to take a line out of Dickie Vitale's lexicon]. Not so holy. OK - no more basketball references, at least until next time:-).

A hearty appetite,

Love,

Me