I Own A Deli, I Am Jew
Thursday, December 9th, 2010Wow, Wow, Wow.
Joan Nathan looks to the Shtetl in NYTimes
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010Happy almost Thanksgiving American friends. Here’s our friend Joan Nathan in the New York Times today, sending us off to the turkey in haymish style:
Photo credit: Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
To Revive Jewish Dishes, Some Cooks Look to the Shtetl
GROWING up in Montreal, Noah Bernamoff had an issue with his mother’s kasha varnishkes.
“My mom’s had so much kasha with a noodle here and there,” he said. “I wanted to reverse the process to make it taste better.”
Two decades later, in his Brooklyn delicatessen, Mile End, he is reinventing this Eastern European comfort dish in what he thinks might be the tradition of his ancestors.
Clearly, his Lithuanian great-grandmother never purchased bow tie noodles at the supermarket, so in his commissary kitchen he pinches dough into butterfly shapes by hand. They will later be tossed with buckwheat groats, caramelized onions and mushrooms cooked in duck fat, with a confit of chicken gizzards gently stewed in duck fat.
For several decades now, many American Jews with a passion for food and a desire for broader horizons tended to explore Sephardic cooking, with its lush Mediterranean accents. Recently, though, cooks have been pouring their energy into old Ashkenazic dishes that had traveled so far they had lost much of their flavor.
Mr. Bernamoff is one such cook, who wants to preserve the past, but not necessarily the recent past. For some cooks, the search for authenticity begins with ingredients that taste as they might have in Eastern Europe. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY
Enjoy the next few days. I’m going to be off in the Bahamas for a wedding. Oh yeah.
Also, the CBS story is now going to be the weekend after this one. Keep crossing those fingers.
Happy Thanksgiving
Two Books To Buy: Joan Nathan and Sue Fishkoff deliver the goods
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010I’m quite good at tooting my own horn, and pushing sales of my own book on this site, but today I want to spread the love around to two great books I’ve read lately.
Joan Nathan is the preeminent Jewish cook and cookbook writer in America, and has held this title for most of the past three decades. Her cookbooks are always a fascinating mix of history and recipe, and so enjoyable to read through. In “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France”, Joan tackles what could be the most delicious nation for Jewish culinary arts, spanning both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic kitchens, to come up with gorgeous chopped liver, Mediterranean challahs, and dense chocolate almond tarts from 400 year old recipes. I’ve cooked from this book and it’s an absolute delight. The Jewish world has so much to offer us in the kitchen, and the North American variation is just one chapter of this.
In Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority, journalist Sue Fishkoff tackles the most complicated, controversial, and economically significant element of Jewish food: kosher. If you ever wanted to know anything about the business and practice of kosher food, wine, and certification, this thing is less a bible and more of a Talmud, delving into every corner of the industry, from banquet hall kashering, to rabbis traveling around China, certifying ingredients that go into our processed foods. Truly fascinating, whether you are kosher, or not.
Holidays are coming folks…pick these up.
Mixed Bag Day
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
So much random stuff piling up. I’m just going to toss it out there and clear my inbox.
Our buddy Brad Rubin, at Eleven City Diner in Chicago needs our help. The deli has been nominated a finalist for Chicago Convention and Tourism Board’s BEST Smell fo Chicago contest. This should be tough, because between its hot dog vendors, steakhouses, bakeries, and people Chicago is a good smelling town. Vote here for Eleven City.
Out in LA, the food truck scene just got more interesting with Takosher, a kosher taco truck. Not deli, but nice to know there’s a chazzerei free carne asada out there somewhere.
In the town of Brevard, NC, a veteran of the Philadelphia deli scene named Art Margraf wants you all to know that he has been selling staples like corned beef, pastrami, and liverwurst at his “Brevard Delicatessen” since 2001. If you’re ever in Brevard, check it out.
112 Commerce Street
Brevard NC 28712
(828)877-3663
Hartford, CT: I just heard about Reuben’s, a relatively new deli (since January), in a state that could certainly use more of them. I have to love this place, because their website has that great Milton Berle quote “Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies.” Head over and tell Brian Hersh you want to save the Jews with a sandwich on rye bread.
Our man in Detroit, Sy Ginsberg, proudly told me about a great new opening in Cincinnati, a city that really needed a great Jewish deli. It’s called Rascals Deli, and it’s in the suburb of Blue Ash, OH. Sy gives owners Gary Zakem and Morris Zucker (they should have called it Zee’s or ZZ Schtop’s) his seal of approval, which is the highest standard you can imagine.
Back here in Toronto, a former slicer of Zane Caplansky’s, Skinny Joe Surblys, has opened in his old space at the Monarch Tavern, serving up corned beef, smoked meat, and burgers, with excellent hand cut fries, and the trademark Monarch sports, classic rock, and comfortable seats. I kinda missed that place.
A Reuben By Any Other Name
Monday, September 20th, 2010The great Jewish debate, via the Reuben debate:
Jewcy: When Shiksa Met Deli
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Nothing much to say about this great story on Jewcy, except it is pretty perfect for all us deli lovers of all stripes:
When Shiksa Met Jewish Meat
Exploring The Current State of the Jewish Deli
by Ellie Ratcliff, June 21, 2010
My mom tells me she once went through a corned beef phase of her life. At thirteen, after trying a corned beef sandwich for the first time, it was all she would order at restaurants. She’d eat the sandwich for days at a time. A little corned beef with her breakfast eggs, left over beef for dinner. Just imagine: a Chinese pre-teen rubbing elbows with your bubby at the local deli. The Chinese and Jews seem to have an unspoken bond, probably due to the Jewish tradition of Chinese food for Christmas dinner.
When I was thirteen, I was obsessed with lox shmear on poppy seed bagels. I’d dream about latkes and Dr. Brown’s cream soda, crave matzo ball soup for my sore throat. It’s possible my love for Jewish food is in my non-Jewish blood, but I think it’s the result of growing up in Berkeley, CA. As a kid, many of my friends were Jewish. And what did being Jewish mean to me, besides bar mitzvahs and saying words like “schmuck”? It meant getting to eat all these delicious things I couldn’t get anywhere but my friend’s kitchen and the neighborhood deli. Cholent, Matzah Brei, Pastrami. Forget the Old Testament, I learned about Judaism through eating. (more…)
Monday’s Random Smorgasbord
Monday, June 14th, 2010It’s Monday, and a week since I’ve gotten back from honeymoon, so let’s clean out my inbox with stuff that’s piled up, and I haven’t posted yet.
First, to the news. The New York Daily News reports on Brooklyn’s Mill Basin Kosher Deli (my favorite post-surf spot), where owner Mark Schachner is going head to head with the fast food chains. Reports Jake Pearson:
Mill Basin Kosher Deli owner Mark Schachner is waging a one-man war against fast food chain restaurants - determined to debunk the myth they’re better bargains than his traditional kosher deli.
“Meat to meat and french fry to french fry, we’re 100% cheaper,” said Schachner, 57, who sent out secret shoppers to order from fast food joints to measure the weight of fries, burgers, hot dogs and the meat in sandwiches….
Just as Schachner predicted, the deli’s hot dogs, fries, turkey and burgers are cheaper by the pound than what’s sold at fast food joints like Subway, Nathan’s and McDonald’s - even if as individual items they’re more expensive.
His covert buyers compared the $8.95 Mill Basin Deli burger, packed with .57 pounds of kosher beef, to a $4.29 Whopper from Burger King, which weighs only .18 pounds - a price-per-pound saving of $8.13…. “I sell a hot dog for $2.99 and Nathan’s sells it for $2.99 so it’s the same price, but Nathan’s is a 2-ounce dog and mine is 4 ounces. It’s not a fair comparison.”
So now you have an economic reason, as well as taste and tradition, to skip the chains and stick to the delis.
Next, in the sports section, Manny’s is celebrating the recent Stanley Cup win of the Chicago Blackhawks with an edible recreation of Lord Stanley’s trophy made from knishes, kishke, rye, and corned beef. As the great Joe Bowen would say, “Holy Mackinaw!”.
And finally, a series of videos I’ve been meaning to post for some time. (more…)
Torontovore’s Smoked Meat Taste Test
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Some deli lovers are simply obsessed with rankings. Like the people who buy magazines with the title “100 places to visit” or “30 must-do pushups”, there’s just something about competition and listing that gets the pros fired up.
And so it is with smoked meat in Toronto, which has been enjoying a renaissance over the past few years. First came Caplansky’s, then Stockyards, and Goldins…and let us pray for even more.
But which is best? That’s the question. (more…)
Siegelman waxes poetic on deli’s decline in Forward
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010Stanley Siegelman, bard of all verse Jewish in the Forward’s Siegelmania column, weighs in on the death of the deli this weeks poem. Pretty cool:
Decline of the Jewish Deli
We face a cause that’s almost lost,
A gastronomic holocaust!
The deli, home of gourmandise,
Is tottering, upon its knees!
This sanctum of the epicure
No longer is a place secure!
Pastrami lovers everywhere
Are in the throes of deep despair.
They raise their voice in angst and fear
That deli-stores might disappear.
In delis, waiters lie in wait,
Prepared to argue and debate.
’Tis there, midst grease, do the obese
Fall prey to hardened arteries.
No outside activists intrude
In serving Jewish comfort-food.
As chicken soup the patron slurps,
And punctuates the deed with burps,
He contemplates a future dim:
If delis croak, who’ll care for him?
Who’ll serve him kishke, chicken neck,
And all that other kosher dreck?
Some day there could be hell to pay
If he can’t quaff Doc Brown’s Cel-Ray!
Those pickles let the man devour
Before the scene turns truly sour!
Bicarb-of-soda is routine,
A standby of the whole cuisine!
Where do the cognoscenti sup
When delis die, go belly up?
While asking questions such as these,
Let’s eat — and hold the mustard, please!
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ON THE FORWARD’S SITE
NYPL: Mogen Dovid Delicatessen Journals
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Here’s a special shabbat treat for you all:
When I was researching the book, I often came across references to various delicatessen trade magazines from the early 20th century in New York. Despite my efforts to find them at various libraries, I never succeeded, and moved my research efforts elsewhere (mostly eating deli). Thankfully, others aren’t so easily deterred.
Rebecca Federman writes last week on the blog of the New York Public Library about the Mogen Dovid Delicatessen Journals.
I was introduced to these periodicals by Roberta Saltzman, the librarian in the Dorot Jewish Division, who has cultivated a world-class collection of Jewish cookery materials. Among the fascinating items in her collection is the Mogen Dovid Delicatessen Magazine, published in New York from 1930 until 1939.
Firmly union (”Live and Let Live” and “In Union there is Strength” are prominently featured on each issue), and printed in both English and Yiddish, Mogen Dovid covers the world of New York delicatessen culture and features articles related to racketeering, Brooklyn elections, trade overhead and union matters.
One of the most interesting parts of each issue is their Fair Price List which lists “at which the following food should be sold in all delicatessen stores.” The March, 1931 issue, for example, proposes that roast chicken (depending on its size) should cost between $1.50 and $2.50; the Temptation Sandwich (tongue, sliced tomato, and India relish) should cost 30 cents; cream cheese and olive sandwich, 20 cents, and a sardine sandwich, 15 cents.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF HER ENTRY
How cool is this? If any of you have ephemera like this, and want to donate it to the New York Public Library, get in touch with Ms. Federman. If you want, we’re both going to be speaking tomorrow on a panel about Edible Archaeology at Foodprint NYC, along with “Appetite City” author William Grimes, and “Gastropolis” author Annie Hauck-Lawson.
Studio-X (180 Varick St., Suite 1610, New York, NY 10014)
My panel is from 3:30-5pm, but there’s stuff happening from 1pm onward.
oh, and it’s Free!
