May 28th, 2008
If one deli represents both the bright and dark sides of Toronto’s bittersweet deli story it is Shopsy’s. For years, Shopsy’s was the granddaddy of the Toronto corned beef scene, ruling over the corner of Spadina and Dundas (now home to King’s Noodle) for many decades. It was our equivalent of Canter’s or Katz’s or Ben’s, and people knew and respected it around the country. Great deli men like Yitz Penciner (aka Mr. Yitz), cut their teeth there, and it fed corned beef to millions of Torontonians, both Jews and non. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 23rd, 2008
I want to talk about pickles…
The question is, am I a half sour or a full sour? Well, to tell you the truth, in all the confusion, I kinda forgot. So you gotta ask yourself, “Do I feel hungry?”. Well do ya, punk?
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to meet a softspoken Brooklynite named Jon Orren, who, when my big fat mouth finally gave him a chance to speak, told me about his pickle company. You see, Jon was always a pickle lover, and he ate so many as a kid that his mom refused to buy him jar after jar of pickles. She said that if he wanted to eat pickles, Jon could get some cucumbers from the garden and soak them in the leftover brine. Needless to say that a passion was born, and though Jon spent years in some of New York’s most fabled kitchens as a chef, his love for pickles remained strong. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 21st, 2008
I got a little flurry of emails over the weekend from New York readers eagerly excited at the prospect of another 2nd Ave Deli… just a few blocks from the original East Village Location. The report came from the foodie website Eater, which passed along info from one of their loyal readers: Read the rest of this entry »
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May 15th, 2008
Yes, but is she kosher?
For the kosher deli eater, figuring out what to eat and where to eat is a feat in itself. For the kosher deli owner it’s a daily battle that eats up a significant chunk of their operating income. Considering delis mainly serve beef, chicken, and fish, what’s one to do with an Amikiri or Chupacabra? Can you make lox out of Mermaid? Read the rest of this entry »
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May 13th, 2008
Oh joy of joys!
Here in Toronto, sweet as the deli may be, it is unfortunately all rather far from where I live. Though deli began in the downtown Kensington Market area, which later became Chinatown, the last deli to leave the city core did so decades back. Downtown Toronto is largely deli deprived, save the New Yorker Deli, which I’ve been to a few times.
But in the areas where the Jewish core of Toronto once grew…Chinatown, College, the Annex…there ain’t a knish in sight. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 8th, 2008
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich 1718-1792
To whom we owe everything.
Ahh back to London again. When I was there last fall, one of the refrains I heard most commonly in the salt beef bars was how deli remained very much an enterprise sold by Jews to Jews. Unlike in New York, where it crossed over to the Irish, Italians, and other immigrants, or Montreal, where le smoked meat is a Quebecois dietary staple, the UK’s salt beef often remains scorned by the upper crusts.
But now, the proud deli men of London can raise their heads even higher, safe in the knowledge that the blue blooded establishment may be coming around after all. Just read the following Daily Mail article from food writer Tom Parker Bowles, an esteemed gastronome and son of Mrs. Prince Charles herself, Camilla Parker Bowles: Read the rest of this entry »
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May 7th, 2008
Jewish delis are one of the few restaurants where pretty much anything goes. You can make a mess, talk loud, jump between tables, and complain at the top of your voice, and it’s a safe bet that the owners have seen it all before. But Ariel Kraut’s cautionary tale, “Sonic Boom Ruins Deli Experience” published in the University of Wisconsin’s Daily Cardinal shows that even delis have a limit:
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April 30th, 2008
+ 
= knish press
I read something in the New York Times today (honestly other newspapers…why do you even try?) that blew my socks off. It was nestled in an article about new, unknown sandwiches, and it was simply a revelation.
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April 28th, 2008
Welcome back to Save the Deli. After a Passover hiatus (which I DID NOT BREAK), I am now back in the land of gluten, yeast, leavening, and flour. Delis which took the past week off, have now reopened, prepping for the takeout summer season, and the eventual buildup to the crazy fall. The birds are chirping, the sun is out (or at least was last week in Toronto), and the trees are blooming. There’s even rumors of a new deli opening up here, but you’ll hear more later.
I’ve got a great elegy on the Rascal House a friend sent, but first, I want to make a brief note about the website.
Some of you have rightly complained that your comments are not being posted as soon as you make them. Often, it takes many days, and you want to know why. Well, the answer is SPAM. For every one legitimate comment, there are probably 100 ads for porno, penis enlargement, fake watches, and various other crap. Welcome to the great information superhighway…now sit in traffic. Each day I have to go through the comments, one by one, and dig out the real stuff from the dreck. I usually find them all, though occasionally I miss your words, and I’m always always late in doing so. What can I say? Be patient…I’ll get it eventually.
Also, many of you send me multiple emails via the form on the page. You only need to send once…even if you don’t receive a confirmation notice. Don’t worry, I get them all.
Now, I present today’s poetry “AN ELEGY ON THE CLOSING OF WOLFIE COHEN’S RASCAL HOUSE”
by John Mariani
“For a cast of Rascal House regulars, the end will come Sunday night, when the hallowed deli in Sunny Isles Beach closes its doors for good. Gone will be the red vinyl booths, the fabled corned beef sandwiches and stuffed cabbage, the cartoonish devil smiling impishly above the tattered green awning. “–The Miami Herald, March 29, 2008.
Oy, say it isn’t so that Wolfie’s gone,
The deli on Miami Beach bar none!
And tell me now where will its faithful flock
Now go to get a tasty hot kreplach?
For fifty-four good years it reigned supreme,
With bagels piled with lox and sour cream.
A place you’d go for liver chopped so fine,
And sour kosher pickles leave you cryin’.
To cure a cold the chicken soup will do,
To cure your broken heart some borscht for you!
And regulars will say what’s not to love
About the verdant grass soup that’s called shav?
In memory of the noodle pudding kugel
Blow loud and long and slow the gilded bugle!
No more the storied latkes of potato,
No more the cabbage sauced with lush tomato.
I know no better kishka of stuffed derma
In all of this wide, now sad terra firma.
I’ll dream of all those golden brown knishes,
And suffer pangs of hunger for smoked fishes.
The smell alone of hearty carrot tzimmes
That mingles with chuck steak and gently simmers!
The cholent! Flanken! Whitefish! Fatty brisket!
So many many people sure will miss it.
No blintzes stuffed abundantly with cheese?
Oh, tell me where to find their match now, please.
I may grow schmaltzy praising this and that,
But that’s what true schmaltz is—it’s chicken fat.
So Wolfie Cohen’s Rascal House is shuttered,
And no one sliced pastrami as they cut it.
So here’s to fifty-four delicious years,
Ah, what I’d give for just a few more schmears.
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April 18th, 2008
Last year, I celebrated the start of Passover with a tiny bit of thought and a whole lot of shtick, including clips from the Family Guy. And as delis the world over shut down for the next week, entering a sort of forced fallow season (and the one time of year when deli owners get a holiday), I intended to do the same. Read the rest of this entry »
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