A:
"Kosher" is a dietary regimen practiced by observant Jews. There are a number of restrictions in a kosher diet, but here, we're concerned with the one that disallows milk and meat products to be consumed together.
"Kosher" creamer, in general, means non-dairy, i.e., without milk. However, most non-dairy creamers aren't strictly kosher, since they contain sodium caseinate, which is derived from milk, making it a dairy ingredient.
In addition, some non-dairy creamers (that display a "D") have been processed in or on equipment that has produced dairy products. According to Ashkenazi Jewish practice, if a pareve product (both non-meat and non-dairy), or if food with milk in it, is heated up in a utensil in which dairy was previously cooked, this food can't be eaten together with meat. (Milchig is dairy; fleishig is meat.)
Now, as for why you don't see kosher creamers at restaurants in Las Vegas, we couldn't say for sure, though we can "speckellate," as our Jewish grandmother used to say.
For one, Las Vegas restaurants don't think much about the kosher crowd, whereas those in the east do, particularly New York and Florida, given the much greater number of Jews there. (New York has the second largest Jewish population in the world, second only to Israel.) For another, observant Jews can go to specifically kosher restaurants and markets in Las Vegas to get kosher creamers and food that has been prepared according to the kosher seal of approval.
We asked our faithful LVA Correspondent "xy," who keeps kosher, for his thoughts on this answer. He told us, "Part of the lack of having kosher creamers at non-kosher restaurants has to do with the Jewish community, as time goes on, knowing less and less about observant Judaism in particular. Since more Jewish people are going away from tradition, it doesn't surprise me that more places aren't carrying kosher creamer."
No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.
