We continue with the halachot (Jewish laws) of berachot (blessings). There is a famous halacha called mevarech al ha'ikar u'potter (exempts) et ha'tafel. Somebody makes a beracha many times on the plate; there could be several items. That is a little misleading. Some people say, “Many berachot.” Here there is a halacha that says you say a beracha on the ikar, on the most essential food that you're going to eat, to potter et ha'tafel, and it's potter, the secondary element. The simplest example would be if you eat rice with peas. Then you just make the beracha on the rice, and you don't have to say the beracha on the peas. The peas come to give taste to the rice. Or if you have lentils on the rice, then you wouldn't say Borei Pri Ha'adamah (Who creates the fruit of the earth) on the lentils. It's a mistake. Some people say that; that would be an error. It's potter et ha'tafel. That means that since it's coming to enhance the rice, it would be...
For example, if you have a piece of cake, coming back to Pat Haba'ah B'Kisnin (snack-type baked goods), and you like to eat it together with a little piece of pineapple, the ikar is the mezonot (grain-based food blessing). So you say Borei Minei Mezonot (Who creates various kinds of nourishment), and you don't say a beracha on the pineapple. The pineapple just comes to enhance the mezonot. When it's clear like this, you never say two berachot. I even want to mechadesh (offer a new insight) a little bit more. There was a time in my life when I used to love eating ka'ak (a type of biscuit) with coffee.
When I ate ka'ak with coffee, I would say two berachot because I wanted the ka'ak, and I wanted the coffee. I wanted both. It happened that most of the time they were together, but I wanted both, so I said two berachot. But there was a time when I had already had one or two coffees before breakfast, and I didn't want any more coffee. The coffee was just coming to make my ka'ak experience better. Imagine somebody takes the ka'ak and dips it in the coffee. Would you say a beracha on the coffee? For sure not, because you're just dipping it. It's like if you take something and put it in a dip. You're not going to say a beracha on the dip. It comes for that. So what difference does it make if I dip my ka'ak in the coffee, or put my ka'ak in my mouth and add a little bit of coffee, so that when I chew my ka'ak, it's easier and better? The coffee comes to enhance the ka'ak. In that case, you only say the berachot on the ka'ak. You don't say the berachot on the coffee. Coffee is a dip. It's the same thing as a dip. It's the same thing with cereal and milk. If you eat the cereal, you just say the berachot on the cereal; the milk is coming to enhance it. It's the same thing. What's the difference if you replace Cheerios with ka'ak? They both look round. They both look the same. Just one is big, one is small. It's the same thing. It's the same thing.
The she'ela (question) is: What happens if, in the middle of eating your cake with pineapple, you just want to eat a piece of pineapple? It depends. If your kavanah (intention) is that you want to try that piece of pineapple by itself, then you have to say... But if you have one piece of pineapple left at the end and there's no more cake, you're just eating it, not to throw it out. The pineapple came with the kavanah to enhance the cake, to make it better. Then, even if you eat the pineapple by itself, and you only said berachot or mezonot, you do not say on that pineapple.
Hacham Ovadia says a typical example with cereal and milk is when you have milk left over at the end. Many times there's some milk left over, and many people will say, “Now it's only a drink. You don't say Shehakol (Who created everything).” The purpose of your milk was only for the cereal. You said the mezonot or whatever the beracha was; if it was cornflakes, you said the beracha on that. That was the ikar. The milk came to accompany it, even if you drink the milk by itself. You do not say berachot or Shehakol, but if you want to drink the milk by itself because you enjoy drinking some milk, then you would say the berachot or Shehakol. So that depends. You could have two people doing the same thing. One would have to say two berachot, and one would have to say one beracha.