I’m back and ready for a fight
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Hey everyone!
Happy New Year. Mexico was awesome. The surf was up. And tacos remain tasty.
Now I’m back in NYC and ready to rumble. Tomorrow night is debate night, and I’m taking on filmmaker Yura Dashevsky at Lolita Bar at 8pm.
The topic: Is Katz’s the best deli? Yura says yes. I say no.
Yura should know. He’s chronicled Katz’s for his upcoming documentary Katz’s That’s All.
But I’m no slouch either, having eaten at more delis than most men. So it should be a fun little food fight. And after, the whole crew is heading to Katz’s to taste for themselves.
The event is organized by Todd Seavey and moderated by Michael Evanchik.
Should be a lot of screaming Jews and pastrami jokes. Come on out.
Also, tomorrow AM, check out East Village Radio’s Hella Fabulous Show at 9am. I’ll be on and taking calls. If you happen to walk on 1st Ave at 1st, knock on the glass and wave to me.
One last interview and then I’m Surfin’
Friday, December 18th, 2009Hola Amigos
It’s been an amazing year, what with the book, the book tour, and all the great press.
But now it’s time for a break. I’m off to Mexico tomorrow for some sun, sand, surf, and fish tacos. See you in the New Year, and if you celebrate Christmas, may it be a merry one.
Wait…one final interview though. A great podcast with former Torontonian Mary Ambrose, who talked with me in my deluxe hotel room in San Francisco at the start of my tour. It’s on the New America Now program, and it’s a delight. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE MP3
And now…for the surfing.
Amazon’s #4 Best Food Lit Book of 2009, plus a view of Michigan’s Onion Roll Deli
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Thank you Amazon’s editors. You’ve blessed Save the Deli as the #4 best Food Lit Book of 2009. Gracias.
Check out the Amazon page to see how it stacks up against the rest.
Also, check out this great audio/photo essay from the Onion Roll deli in Royal Oak, Michigan. Owner Alex Yushkovsky seems like a great guy.
27302 Woodward Avenue
Royal Oak, MI 48067-0927
(248) 545-9804
A Blintz I’ll Mourn, plus a dirty podcast with Carolla
Monday, December 14th, 2009
photo courtesy Midtown Lunch
Oh what I’d do for a Channukah miracle. I just found out some tragic news from last week. The Diamond Dairy, a much beloved glatt kosher dairy restaurant in New York’s Diamond District, has closed. Most of you have probably never heard of or been to this ‘gem’. That’s because it’s found in the rear of a diamond exchange, perched above the stone traders on a glassed in balcony, a haven of gefilte fish and pea soup amidst the tummult of capitalism.
I only went once. Back in June, soon after I got engaged, I went with my fiancee’s best friend Rebecca to pick out a ring. We spend the better part of the morning haggling over stones and settings, our heads filled with karat sizes and clarity numbers…until we ran away to the Diamond Dairy to ponder our choices. I had no idea what I was doing, but everything came together over a trio of the finest cheese blintzes I’ve ever eaten. Most blintzes are fat and burst out their farmer’s cheese upon the first touch. The blintzes at Diamond Dairy were long and thin, like rolled crepes, and the ratio of cheese to crisp blintz was just sublime. I really regret not trying the homemade gefilte fish. It was supposedly amazing.
I normally don’t write about dairy places here. It’s a fleishig (meat based) space. But this is special and will be sorely missed. Alef ha Sholem Diamond Dairy.
Now, for something completely different, feel free to download my podcast interview on the Adam Carolla show. Just a warning. It’s got a lot of pretty crude language and is NSFW (not safe for work). Here’s another link.
Also, let’s not forget that Channukah is still on and Christmas is rapidly approaching. Click here or on the banner above to buy someone you love a copy (copies???) of Save the Deli.
Fresser’s Pastrami Truck hits LA’s streets
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Very cool news coming out of LA. A pastrami truck is hitting the streets of that pastrami and motor vehicle loving city! What a perfect shidduch. I’ve been waiting for a pastrami truck for ages. Thought it would happen in NYC, but LA got the scoop on this. Young deli fanatics: if you want a way into the business on the cheap, this is the future.
It’s called Fresser’s, and it looks pretty basic. The headline item is pastrami, the rest is made up of sandwiches and protein bowls with mashed potatoes. Not much info besides this. The menu’s below. The blog is here. You can follow on twitter here (more…)
Passing of a great deli man: Arnold Dworkin
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Sad news today. Arnold Dworkin, the gregarious deli man who headed up Kaufman’s Bakery and Deli in Skokie, Il, passed away yesterday.
Arnold had been ill for the past several years, and the deli was (and remians) in the hands of his daughter Bette and wife Judy.
He will be missed.
The funeral will be on Thursday, at 11:00 a.m. at Am Yisrael Congregation, 4 Happ Road, Northfield, IL.
For the shiva, please call 847-835-2081
Alef Ha Sholem Arnold. You brought joy and corned beef on rye into the lives of many.
As always, the best tribute to the man is through his deli. Please pass by for a visit.
Artie’s is changing hands
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
According to Crain’s New York Business, Artie’s delicatessen, on the Upper West Side, is changing ownership.
Says Crain’s:
Alicart Restaurant Group, which owned Artie’s, as well as six other restaurants, including four Carmine’s, sold the deli to Tuzia Feldman, who signed a 15-year lease at the deli’s current 2290 Broadway location.
It quotes Mr. Feldman as wanting to open three or four more Artie’s in New York. So there could be more deli on its way New Yorkers!
I’d welcome it. Artie’s is a pretty darn tasty place. Especially the baked goods and the brisket Reuben.
www.arties.com
2290 Broadway (at 83rd)
New York, NY 10024
The Montreal Food Chronicles: Jennifer 8 Lee tackles bagels and smoked meat
Friday, December 4th, 2009
A smoked meat sandwich at Boerum Hill deli Mile End. by Jennifer 8. Lee for the NYT
Inspired perhaps by Save the Deli (we’re friends), New York Times writer, and Fortune Cookie Chronicles author Jennifer 8 Lee is in Montreal and showing off its bagels and smoked meat against New York’s.
Are Montreal bagels really better than New York bagels?
City Room had been hearing about these legendary Montreal bagels from our readers. They were sweeter and less bloated. Since they were baked in a wood-burning oven, they had crisper crusts.
So we decided to pay a visit to Montreal’s bagel world to understand the rival to our native bagels. Montreal, which saw an influx of Jewish immigrants both before and after World War II, had become one of the main world centers of distinctive Jewish cuisine. Two Montreal bakeries stand out above all the others: Fairmount Bagel and St-Viateur’s Bagel, both in the Mile End neighborhood. (more…)
Some UK Love: The Independent and Silverbrow on Food
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Gotta love the UK. Not only is the salt beef, fried gefilte fish, hand sliced tongue, and chopped liver the tastiest, but there’s a core of solid deli lovers there. And though the book doesn’t have a UK publisher yet, there’s been a decent amount of press over there.
Today, Claire Prentice of The Independent examines the threat to the health of the deli, behind a corned beef sandwich at Katz’s.
Is this the end for the deli?
New York’s historic Jewish cafés are under threat from gentrification – and the health food movement.
By Claire Prentice
….The Jewish deli is as iconic a part of the New York landscape as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. But though in a handful of establishments you can still find enough knishes, kishkes and kreplach to keep the New York winter chill at bay, these culinary institutions are under threat. In 1931 there were 1,550 Jewish delis in New York City; today just two dozen remain. They are the victim of spiralling rents, the dispersal of Jewish communities, a decline in people keeping kosher and the rise of healthy eating. With a menu heavy on red meat, fat, salt and carbs, Jewish food is nothing if not artery-clogging. Gribenes – chicken skins fried in chicken fat – is a sumptuous mouth sensation, though less kind to the waistline.
“It’s hard work, the deli business. You have to be prepared to get your hands dirty,” says Katz’s co-owner Alan Dell. “A lot of people who ran mom-and-pop delis wanted their children to have a better life so they sent them to college and the family tradition died out.”
Once upon a time, you couldn’t walk a block in the Lower East Side without being hit by the meaty aroma wafting through the doors of one deli or another. “You had this concentration of Jewish workers who needed kosher food and these pickled and preserved foods were cheap, filling sustenance,” says David Sax, a lifelong deli lover and author of Save the Deli. Today there is only Katz’s left in what was once a thriving immigrant community. The delis, Jewish tailors and other immigrant businesses have been swept away by gentrification to make way for an influx of trendy bars and designer boutiques…. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
And now for something completely different. Well, kinda.
Anthony Silverbrow is a deli lover in London. He has a passion for pastrami, and he’s not been afraid to share it at his blog Silverbrow on Food. We spoke yesterday over Skype about the deli, its future, and the difference between North America’s deli future and the UK’s. HERE’S THE LINK TO THE PAGE
Hopefully this’ll generate enough interest in the UK to get distribution for the book there.
The Food Dudes check out Miller’s in San Francisco
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Check out one of my favorite delis in the country, Miller’s East Coast Deli in San Francisco, explored here by the Food Dudes SF.
