The King of Kibbitz strikes again: another Freddie Roman deli joke
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Apologies for not posting, but it was a long weekend here in Canada, and I’m in the crunch to finish the book by year’s end. So today I have just a little tidbit for you from our friend Freddie Roman, Dean of the Friar’s Club, and a Borscht Belt legend.
A Texan walks into Barney Greengrass and tells the waiter, “I was on an airplane and the person next to me told me that I had to come here and order bagels and lox. So I’ll have some of them.”
Five minutes later the waiter comes back with a bagel, some cream cheese, and a platter of Nova. The Texan takes one look and says, “Ok. So tell me, which is the lox and which is the bagel?”
Ba Da Ching!
I’ll be here all week.
Los Angeles Magazine: Patric Kuh on LA’s best delis
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
My good friend Sara Wilson over at Los Angeles Magazine just yesterday sent me a gorgeous article on that city’s great delicatessens, written by Patric Kuh. As I’ve written before HERE and HERE, LA is an astounding locale for deli eating, in many respects second to none. Known legends, like Langer’s, Canter’s, or Nate n’ Al are the types of places deli aficionados dream of. But as Kuh’s article points out, there are others that are just as good, but less known, like Brent’s, Art’s, or Factor’s.
The article, wonderfully titled “What’s Not to Like”, is a simple layout of praise and full page portraits of massive sandwiches, pickles, and egg creams. It does omit a few key delicatessens, such as Junior’s, but also presents a few I haven’t even heard of, like Marv’s and Billy’s. Still, no list can ever be complete, and upon opening this file, deli fans on either coast can start salivating.
Photographs by JAMES WOJCIK.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PATRIC KUH’S ARTICLE ON LA DELIS FROM LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE
“L.A.’s delis are more than purveyors of towering pastrami sandwiches, house-brined pickles, and foaming egg creams.
They are social temples where all are welcome to nosh”
“Cutting lox from the center of the fi llet—that’s nothing. For one person, the pickles should all be sour. For another, the brisket must
be lean. For a third, it’s imperative that the bagel chips arrive before the soup. “When you bring the sandwich, only bring half of it,” says a lady at Junior’s in Westwood. When you bring the sandwich, only bring half of it is not a Zen riddle. It’s a request that anyone in a deli can understand. The other half is brought wrapped in tinfoil so that it doesn’t lose its warmth.”
Here’s Kuh’s listing of the top 10, for those of you obsessed with ranking:
1. Brent’s
2. Langer’s
3. Nate n’ Al
4. Art’s
5. Pico Kosher
6. Marv’s
7. Canter’s
8. Factor’s
9. Billy’s
10. Label’s Table
What I’d give for a plane ticket to LA and an endless hunger for two weeks!
A Little Feast Before the Fast
Friday, September 21st, 2007As night encroaches so too does Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish religious days in the annual standing, sitting, reading, and singing that is religion. It is a soul cleansing day of atonement and forgiveness, when one is forgived of past sins and transgressions. In short, we get a clean slate, and we do this by depriving ourselves of that which we love most: food. So tomorrow, from sundown tonight until sundown manana, the Jewish delicatessens of the world will serve not a slice of rye or a crumb of meat. Egg creams will go unmade and matzo balls will rest idly by in refridgerators.
It’s been a great year for me here at Save the Deli. This site was just a concept last Yom Kippur, and now it is a growing community of deli lovers. I thank you all and hope that you can forgive any transgressions I’ve had over the past year, whether they were misspellings or misinformation, or perhaps unflattering words about a favorite deli of yours.
Here’s Jerry Lewis singing Kol Nidre. Search as I might for the Neil Diamond version from the 1980’s Jazz Singer, I couldn’t find it.
Easy fast. Here’s a pic to get your stomach through the day.
Kosher follow-up from SF
Friday, August 24th, 2007Vis a vis what I posted on yesterday:
Check out this story from San Francisco
Kosher consumers in the South Bay uttering the old ad line “Where’s the beef?” will have a new answer at the end of the month: Nowhere.
Restaurateur Israel Rind announced that as of Sept. 1 his three-month-old Sunnyvale eatery Izzy’s Brooklyn Deli will forego its kosher certification and be known as “Izzy’s Brooklyn Café.”
“It’s a shame. The community will lose,” said Rind, whose Palo Alto restaurant, Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels, will still be supervised by the Vaad HaKashrus.
“I wanted to keep [the Sunnyvale restaurant] supervised, but to keep it closed on Shabbat was impossible from a business perspective.”
*Also, I want to make note of a correction, pointed out to be by Prof. Ted Merwin. Katz’s was never actually kosher, and the kosher and non-kosher delis grew up side by side, and not as an evolution. That said, the kosher deli is an endangered species, while the non-kosher rules the roost.
Pastrami King Update: Barrie bound
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Update on my post about the soon to open Pastrami King deli, which I wrote about here.
I had an excellent lunch at Coleman’s Deli in Toronto the other day (wayyy too long since I’ve been there), with the Pastrami King himself, Mr. Marty Marks. He has confirmed that the King will open up in Barrie, Ontario, a city about an hour north of Toronto. There will be no Toronto location at this time.
Here’s a few tidbits I gleaned from Mr. Marks on the new place:
-it will be just off the 400 highway, west of the Dunlop St. exit
-there will be special cooler bags available for sale to regulars heading up to cottage country, and they’ll get a discount on all takeout orders
-he’s going to be smoking the pastramis out back!
-expect homemade blintzes and coleslaw, among other treats
So get the sunglasses on and prep yourself for a few weekends by the lake this summer with a cooler full of meat. Nothing says wet, hot, Canadian summer like a sandwich from the King.
Can’t wait!
Calling out for Pesach Recipees
Saturday, March 24th, 2007
Pesach is almost upon us (Passover to my Americanized bretheren), and the week filled with dry goods and constipation is as tempting as ever. So to ease the collective suffering (for weren’t WE slaves in the land of Egypt) I’m calling upon the savethedeli.com faithful to help me out.
Send in your favorite passover recipees, be they matzo brie and macaroons or brisket and borscht. I’ll post them on the site so we can all revel in the singing of chad gad yah and other classics. Original, creative, and whacky are all appreciated as are traditional offerings.
Ess Gezunt,
David
LA Deli Story 2…the Podcast
Monday, March 19th, 2007Miami Beach, Fla
This is much delayed, thanks to my lack of technical knowledge about RSS and other such crap, but have a listen, it’s worth it. What you’ll find are stories about several great LA delis which rounded out my trip, and left me wondering whether LA could be the best deli town in the country.
Click here to subscribe to the podcast and listen to the latest from LA
All the factors are there (even at Factor’s):
-a strong family run tradition over 2 or 3 generations
-haymish feels and looks though still fresh and not tired
-deli happy crowds, happy to be nourished on old time classics (though with Hollywood demands…no milk…scoop out my bagel…can you do it without the onions dear?)
-most importantly it tastes great.
Below are some photos of the places you heard about in the podcast with addresses and food porn to match. (more…)
Genetically Wired for Deli?
Saturday, March 10th, 2007Phoenix, AZ
The 2nd half of the LA story, via Podcast, is ready to go and will be downloadable in a few days. Just arrived here in Phoenix from Vegas, which had some interesting things…so look for that update sometime this week.
Just a quick note before I pass out though. The stomach is currently churning and grumbling from the Middle Eastern meal I just had. Nothing new here, to me hummus is a little Hamas bomber in the stomach. Even though I consume tons of the stuff on a regular basis it never fails to plant a bomb in the gut. The past two times I’ve been to Israel, I spent the better half of the trip in the sheroutim.
Yet, despite the daily onslaught of chopped liver, fatty/salted briskets, marinated fish, creamy kugels, spicy mustards, and smoked meats my stomach has remained in tip top shape. I can only attribute this to my Ashkenazi genes, which welcome to my stomach deli food with open double helixes, as has been done for millenia in my bloodline. This is probably the same reason why my Israeli friends can’t really stomach deli, and why there isn’t a single deli in Israel. I’m sure there’s some scientist genetically engineering stomachs to handle both foods, but for now I’ll take the shmaltz over the chickpeas.
DS
Save the Deli Podcast
Friday, March 2nd, 2007Welcome to the information superhighway! Multimedia! CD-Rom
Which basically means I finally figured out how to do a podcast.
The iTunes people take a few days to put it on their store, and the RSS feeds and all that bs, but you can listen to it now and maybe even see the pictures.
Bless,
DS
A goodbye kiss to Chicago:Manny’s, the Bagel, and a blessed Meshugunneh at 11th City Diner.
Sunday, February 11th, 2007St. Louis, Mo.
The endless channels of Jesus talk, music, and news on both radio and TV must mean that I am now firmly in the American heartland, moving further away from the core of deli country and into the land that mayo and white bread dominates. That and the biscuits with sausage gravy they had at the breakfast buffet.
Leaving Chicago proved tougher than I imagined, as each day I spent in the city just left me wanting more. I went in hearing and thinking that it was a land bereft of deli, but what I found were people in the delicatessen business making some of the best products I’ve had thus far.
They were dedicated and steadfast, forward thinking and a bit nuts, but not at all united or cohesive. Chicago’s delis are spread far apart, and their owners rarely, if ever talk. Rumors and backstabbing persist, as though the deli owners in the city feel they are in direct competition with each other. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Chicago’s delis are too few in number and too great in need to fight it out. They are competing with the thousands of other restaurants in town, but not each other. I just hope a sense of camaraderie can develop, and Chicago’s Jewish delicatessens can once again be part of a community, and not just remnants of a food scene.
But enough about the philosophy, let’s talk deli. (more…)
