A License for Deli
Thursday, August 9th, 2007A fan from Michigan sent me this photo the other day. It’s amazed me how many delicatessen themed vanity plates there are in this world. I’m sure there’s more than what I’m showing below, and I’d love to see them. Send them over or post them on Flickr.
Pastramigasms
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007Biting into a deli sandwich can be an intense, sensual experience. The rush of flavors to the mouth combined with salt to the bloodstream and fat to the stomach triggers a sensory overload. The pleasure is intense. Often, it’s orgasmic.
Meg Ryan’s famous ‘faking it’ over a Katz’s pastrami sandwich from “When Harry Met Sally”
George Costanza’s pavlovian sexual reaction to pastrami from “Seinfeld”
Friend Adam Caplan’s tumble into ecstacy from a Centre Street smoked meat.
Upload yours to You Tube and send me the links. I’ll put them on the site.
Shavuot Edition: 11 City/ 2nd Ave News-Off the Broiler-Blintzporn
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007Various tidbits to report for you hungry souls.
1. Eleven City Diner the sequel!
I spoke with Brad Rubin last week, the charismatic owner of Chicago’s Eleven City Diner, a retro deli/diner that is a hipster gem (read my take on it here). Brad is esctatic, because he has just confirmed Eleven City will open another location on Chicago’s famous Magnificent Mile. It’ll open sometime toward the end of the year, in a 400 seat space, which Rubin promises will be bigger and better and more vast than his south loop gem. But don’t despair deli lovers, Rubin also promises tongue, and says “Don’t think we’ll get modern on your ass!”
God bless the blessed meshugunneh.
1112 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago
Tel: (312) 212-1112
www.elevencitydiner.com
As well, the rebirth of the 2nd Ave Deli is becoming an encroaching reality. See the story on Eater here. My sources say it’ll be sometime in October, after the high holy days are passed. Can’t wait.
2. Blog on Blog Love: Off the Broiler
I returned from a conference in Utah last night to a flood of emails in my inbox from a Mr. Jason Perlow, packed with links, pics, and deli talk. Mr. Perlow is the founder of the foodie supersite eGullet, though now he has his own blog Off the Broiler. Perlow is a deli fan to the core, and has become a Save the Deli fan as well.
He posted a wonderful entry about this site on Off the Broiler, and then proceeded to follow the deli trail and head up to the Bronx to sample Liebman’s. Perlow’s description and photos from the Riverdale eatery are sensational. It makes me want to head back and dive into a tongue sandwich with a sweet cabbage roll on the side. There’s also a killer Flickr gallery to accompany. I highly suggest any deli and food lover check’s out Off the Broiler for some serious New York Eats.
www.offthebroiler.wordpress.com
3. … And God Said “Eat a Blintz”
Tonight begins the Jewish festival of Shavuot, the celebration of when the Jews received the Torah from you know who on Mt. Sinai. Baruch Hashem. For deli lovers, Shavuot is the time to feast on dairy products (put the corned beef down for a few days!), like cheesecake and my favorite, cheese blintzes. In honor of this, I’m going to include some blintz porn. Enjoy.
Ess Gezunt!
Words of Wisdom from Mr. T: Eat Your Pastrami Fool!
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Listen up kids. Don’t think eating deli is good for you? Take it from Mr. T.
Mr. T. and Norm Langer, at Langer’s Deli in LA.
Mr. T. just finished a two week eating tour of Los Angeles delis with his manager Barry Greenberg, inspired (I like to think), by the enthusiasm of Save the Deli’s Los Angeles posts and our LA Podcast. I spoke the Mr. T. in the midst of this tour, and he imparted some words of wisdom.
“I pity the fool who doesn’t think deli is healthy! That’s a bunch of junk. Every food is healthy if you bless it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! A lot of peole get so caught up in the health food, walk out and get hit by a truck!”
Mr. T. is a regular fan of Junior’s, and he considers Marvin Saul like a father. Mr. T’s deli diet generally consists of several glasses of orange juice, a couple of eggs, and some danish, plus a whopping hot pastrami sandwich wedged between four slices of whole wheat bread–two on top and two on the bottom. Deli purists will only eat rye, but Mr. T has bad memories of eating rye when growing up in the ghettos of Chicago
“which is why T. don’t eat rye”
…so we’ll let it slide.
Kids, listen to Mr. T! Eat your deli and grow up strong like him. Don’t do drugs, love your parents, and stay in school.
If anyone tells you deli is bad. Pity the fool!
*many thanks to Mr. T. and Barry Greenberg for their time and enthusiasm.
some Mr. T. gold:
Blessed Pesach: Schtick and Recipes for Eight Days of Bloating
Sunday, April 1st, 2007Toronto…home at last
Fifteen thousand kilometers (that’s approx ten thousand miles) of driving and deli have brought me from home to coast to coast to coast and back again. Dozens of delis, hours of interviews, countless hours of car and motel time and more goodwill than I could have asked for. It feels great to be back, great to not have to drive anywhere, great to just sit in one place for more than a day and see the same people, eat what I cook, and nosh at the local deli.
But alas, the annual dietary gauntlet begins Monday night, when the angel of constipation descends upon the houses of Israel with all manner of dry goods and mock breads to trick the mind. Some delis stay open with pesadic menus, though I challenge anyone to enjoy pastrami on egg matzo and come away with anything but grease smeared hands. Stay home, stick to mom’s chopped liver and keep the chametz out of your system. Do as I do and live on leftovers, steak, and salad for the next week.
As such, Savethedeli will be taking a pesach break, because while I have some terrific and delicious tidbits from my research in Florida, Atlanta, Charlotte and DC, I won’t dare tempt you with all those descriptions of highly un-kosher for pesach goods. To keep you happy, here are a few recipes that several of you contributed, as well as schtick from the interweb to break them up. Enjoy.
MAPLE-WALNUT ESPRESSO TORTE
from Lauren Malach, Toronto
Syrup
1 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Torte
2 cups walnuts (about 8 ounces) plus walnut halves for decoration
1/3 cup matzo meal
4 large eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
Whipped nondairy topping (optional)*
For syrup:
Bring all ingredients to boil in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until syrup thickens slightly and is reduced to 1 generous cup, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
For torte:
Preheat oven to 325∞F. Lightly oil inside of 8-inch springform pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Blend 2 cups walnuts and matzo meal in processor until nuts are finely ground. Using electric mixer, beat eggs, maple syrup, sugar, and salt in large bowl at high speed 5 minutes. Add espresso, lemon peel, and cardamom and beat until beginning to thicken, about 5 minutes longer. Gently fold in nut mixture in 4 additions. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake torte until brown on top and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer torte to rack. Spoon 4 tablespoons syrup over hot torte. Decorate top with walnut halves. Cool completely in pan on rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover remaining syrup and torte separately and let stand at room temperature.)
Cut around pan sides to loosen torte. Remove pan sides. Cut torte into wedges. Serve with remaining syrup and whipped topping, if desired.
Makes 8 servings.
Matzo Balls
by Caryn Hastings, Kansas City, MO
makes 8
2 TLB shortening
2 eggs slightly beaten
1/2 C Matzo Meal
1 tsp salt
2 TBLS soup stock
1/4 C walnuts, chopped fine
3/4 tsp ground ginger
Mix shortening and eggs together. Add matzo meal and salt which was
first mixed together.
When well blended, add soup stock.
Add ground ginger and walnuts.
Cover bowl and place in refrigerator for 20 min or so.
Bring salted water to a brisk boil, reduce heat and into slightly
bubbling watet, drop balls, formed from above mixture.
Cover pot and cook 30-40 min. When ready to serve, allow your soup
to simmer for about 5 minutes and add matzo balls to soup in bowl
before serving.
My mom sends in her best friend Ellen’s Passover Mandelbread recipe, all the way from India.
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. Potato starch
3/4 C. cake meal (scant)
2 Tbsp. matzoh meal
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
3/4 C. Sugar
3/4 C. Oil
3/4C. finely chopped almonds or walnuts
1/2 C. or more chocolate chips if desired
Method:
Sift together potato starch, cake meal, matzoh meal, salt & cinnamon. Beat eggs. Add sugar gradually and beat well. Add oil, beating well. Add sifted dry ingredients and blend well. Add nuts and chocolate chips.
Allow dough to rest for 20 minutes. Shape into rolls, placed on greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until done. Cool.
Slice and dry in low oven (275 - 300 degrees) for about 15 minutes. Leave on sheets to cool.
Suggestion: Double the recipe. Freezes well.
Chag Sameach!
Matzo Brie (aka Fried Matzo)…my own concoction
Take your matzos, I prefer the egg variety (for maximum intestinal destruction), and about 1 large egg per 2 matzos.
Beat eggs with a bissel of milk and a generous helping of cinnamon, plus a dash of maple syrup.
Recipes usually call for soaking the matzo in water before, but that generally produces a wet matzo. What I prefer is either a milk soak or soaking them in the egg for a while.
Heat some butter on medium in the skillet and toss that mazto meal in, mixing it around so it cooks, but do it real slow.
Serve with applesauce, maple syrup (Canadian style) and mountains of cinnamon/sugar.
Chag Sameyach!
A Deli Lover’s Valentine
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007Denver, Co
V-Day is almost upon us folks, and for those of you still looking for a gift, I point you to our NEW DESIGNS at the gift shop.
Click here to get a gift for your Pastrami Mommy.
And now, in the spirit of this Hallmark Day….An ode to my dearest love: Delicatessen
My darling Deli…
Does our love know no bounds?
Whether sweet on my lips like rugelach, or salty as tongue by the pound.
I pined for thee all through my years, at summer camp, and trips afar,
When you weren’t there I faced my fears,
And when you came, I cried “hurrah”.
When sick, your hearty matzo balls, battled demons deep within,
When joy struck, I felt such luck, with bagels, lox and cheese (creamed).
And now at night I lie awake, dreaming of your salty embrace,
Of peppercorns, and garlic breath,
and mustard stains upon my face.
Oh deli be my valentine, and hold me in your bubbe arms!
We’ll float through seas of golden shmaltz, on boats of kishe casings,
We’ll dance upon floors of matzo brie, to the toots of indigestion.
And lie down in fields of pickled grass, where I’ll pop the question:
Can I get this to go?
Haymish tastes of the Windy City
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007“We’re on a mission from God” - The Blues Brothers
It dawned on me while pumping gas the other night in painfully cold weather that a road trip starting at the beginning of February might not have been the best timed idea. Yet, aside from the sleet covered roads and the twelve times I brushed snow off my car yesterday, there’s a warmth to this town that I’ve seen in few cities.
I’ve come searching for the elusive Chicago deli. Elusive because in a city of big eaters (Belushi and Farley, Ditka and the rest), and loads of meat, sandwiches, and fatty foods, great Jewish delis are few and far between. This wasn’t always the case. My first day I was taken around the historic Jewish neighborhoods by Prof. Irving Cutler, author of two books on the history of Jewish Chicago. As we drove by the facades of once grand synagogues which now house Black baptist churches, he pointed to boarded up shops or liquor stores that were once Chicago’s great delis: Braverman’s, Ada’s, Carl’s, Zweig’s, Silverstein’s, etc… But time had not been kind, and what remained were only fading memories.
Such is the case in Chicago, where the deli still remains in a precarious state. Just last week Chaim’s Kosher Bakery & Deli closed down. Weeks before, Barnum & Bagel closed just down the street, after it was sold to a Greek owner who then never returned from Greece (he supposedly had debts that Zeus couldn’t even pay). Both sit empty…stark reminders that Chicago’s delis are in need of some serious salvation.
And yet, the Jewish food business is huge in this town. Sausages, hot dogs, salamis, meats, blintzes… you name it, there’s a factory that is making it, and selling it at delis all over the country, likely more than they do in this city.
(more…)
The First Nosh of Many…
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007Ann Arbor, Michigan - Day 3 of USA road trip
The First Nosh of Many…
Welcome to Save the Deli, a space dedicated to the preservation of the finest salted, cured, fatty Jewish treats to grace the world’s tongues.
photo by Christopher Farber
I write with an urgency in my first post, because we are living in desperate times. The Jewish delicatessen, that treasured temple of scuffed formica, sawdust floors, and nose ticking garlic aroma, is dying. Where once Jewish delis numbered in the thousands, today there are scarcely a hundred scattered around the Diaspora. Just look to New York, the once teeming capital of deli. Barely a dozen remain in Manhattan. A handful in Brooklyn. A mere pair in the Bronx.
From Paris to Montreal, Chicago to Antwerp, London to Miami…the deli is dying. Recent casualties have included Ben’s in Montreal, the 2nd Ave Deli in New York’s East Village, and soon Rascal House in Miami Beach. Restaurants which were anchors of stability in cities have been uprooted and expelled, paved over by the bulldozer of history. They have been felled by increased rent, slim margins, a health conscious (and slightly maniacal) eating culture, and assimilation. Delis now serve sushi and spring rolls, while items like rolled beef, braised ribs, and schmaltz herring have fled from menus.
At the current rate, the Jewish deli as an institution is facing the very real possibility of extinction. In ten, twenty, or fifty years, how many delis will your city have? Where do you think you’ll go for a pastrami sandwich, a bowl of matzo ball soup, and a few full sour kosher dills? Friday’s? Sizzler? Wal-Mart? Forget it.
And so, the arduous march begins…a grassroots campaign of love and preservation with the aim of saving the Jewish delicatessen from extinction.
This is a site for all deli lovers, whether those who are born Jewish or those who discovered their Semitic leanings the first time their tongue was blessed with the feeling of tangy mustard meeting a pile of glistening corned beef on soft rye. Here is a place where flunken fanatics can kibbitz with lox lunatics, where devoted fans of New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen can compare, contrast, and argue with followers of LA’s Langer’s, or Montreal’s Schwartz’s. It will be a community of like minded fressers, craving those flavors so sacred and salty, that the mere mention of the word knish tugs at the heartstrings.
Over the coming weeks, months, and years, this site will touch upon all aspects of Jewish delicatessens, delving into everything from listings of chopped liver temples to poems over pastrami. There will be essays on deli culture, a growing database of Jewish delis around the world, podcasts, video, photos, and even Save the Deli merchandise to buy (wholesale price…of course).
So stay tuned, tell a friend, and above all else…go eat some deli.
David Sax
