by Rabbi Dennis Tobin
973-762-0877
Email: RabbiDennisTobin@aol.com
It is worth noting the shuttering of two kosher New York landmarks:
2nd Avenue Deli, a 50-year-old institution in the East Village whose
neon sign was taken down last January; and the dairy restaurant
Ratner's, open from 1905 to 2002, which proudly served cheese blintzes
to Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Robert Kennedy. Mobsters Bugsy
Siegel and Meyer Lansky held court in the back, and Ratner's served as
the watering hole for celebrities such as Al Jolson, Walter Matthau
and Groucho Marx.
What drew in the mostly lunch crowd to its Delancey Street location were the mouthwatering onion rolls, vegetarian chopped liver and
vegetable cutlets. Ratner's traditional soups and blintzes (as well
as deep-dish pizza) live on in the supermarket freezer case.
There is history in the kosher-style New York triumvirate of the
Carnegie Delicatessen & Restaurant, Stage Deli and Lindy's, all on
Seventh Avenue. At Carnegie, which opened in 1937, there are
super-size sandwiches that draw such a crowd you can wait on line for
an hour to get a seat. Their cheesecake, now in stores across the
United States, is legend (but so are Lindy's and Junior's in
Brooklyn).
At Lindy's, which opened in 1921, you can reminisce about Damon Runyon
writing Guys and Dolls in his private booth; at Stage Deli (also
opened in 1937)
you can see where The Beatles sat the night they first performed on
The Ed Sullivan Show. And, of course, Walter Winchell wrote his
columns while sitting in each of these delis.
To get to Junior's you have to cross the bridge to Brooklyn to the
store that was founded by Harry Rosen and is today being tended by the
family's third generation.
Some of the oldest establishments in downtown Chicago,San Francisco
and Detroit closed their doors when the Jewish population moved to the
suburbs. But even as some places closed retiring waiters and
waitresses who worked for 30, 40 or 50 years, new ones open.
In California, the most recent is D..Z. Akin's Delicatessen, which
serves kosher-style fare to San Diego's burgeoning Jewish community.
Opened in 1985, this deli and restaurant with Formica booths and a
noisy, busy atmosphere has great chopped liver.
Another relative newcomer is Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, which opened in the mid-1980's; their breads and meats are
renowned not just in the Midwest but throughout the United States.
For a college town, the kosher-style Zingerman's run by Ari Weinzweig
and Paul Saginaw stands out as the place for local University of
Michigan students to get their pastrami fix.
Then there are the other two guys Jay Brown and Mark Jay Katzenberg
who started out with a small deli in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1981, and
fittingly name their eatery TooJay's Original Gourmet Deli. Today
this versatile restaurant has grown and is dispensing delicious
kosher-style comfort food (deli, brisket, pot roast, liver and onions
and matzo ball soup) in 23 outlets throughout the state.
One cannot speak of Jewish gastronomy without mentioning the products
that were, and still are, a part of the lure and lore. There would be
no egg cream without Herman Fox's U-bet Chocolate Flavor Syrup. When
Louis Auster created the egg cream at his candy shop in Brooklyn in
1890, the name was his witty way of describing the richness of his
drink, which has neither eggs nor cream, at a time when few could
afford the luxury of either. So popular was this cocktail of
chocolate syrup, seltzer and milk in the 1920's that syrup wars broke
out among competing brands that wanted to be associated with the sweet
drink.
Then there is Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda. Originally called Celery
Tonic, it is made with celery seeds, sugar and seltzer. It was
developed in 1869 by a physician and used to treat immigrant
children's stomach upsets (the word tonic was dropped when the
government objected to the medicinal implications). An acquired
taste, some people swear it helps digest fat-laden salami sandwiches.
We owe the existence of Gold's horseradish to Tillie Gold, who in 1930
saved the grinder her cousin was using to grind horseradish root after
he got hauled off to jail during an altercation. Tillie and her
husband took up the enterprise of mixing the root with vinegar (the
beets were added later) now a staple alongside gefilte fish.
Whether it is a new dill, half sour or full sour, a deli meal wouldn't
be complete without the pickle. The notion of pickling for
preservation began around 4000 B.C.E. but it wasn't until 2030 B.C.E.
that the practice of pickling cucumbers came about. Julius Caesar
and Napoleon both fed pickles to their armies because it was believed
to provide physical and spiritual strength. It is also related that
Cleopatra ate a great amount of pickles to preserve her beauty.
At one time, the Lower East Side had the largest concentration of
pickle stores in the United States. But now, commercial companies
such as Heinz and Vlasic have learned how to speed up the pickling
process though no self-respecting deli will serve them. Barrel-cured
pickles can still be found on the streets of the Lower East Side at
Guss' Pickles (800-620-GUSS; www.gusspickle.com) or from The Pickle
Guys (888-4- PICKLE; www.nycpickleguys.com).
Finally, let's not forget the sweet sold off the block: halvah. Its
origins may be Middle Eastern, but thanks to Joyva, owner Nathan
Radutzky's recipe, it became a best seller in the United States.
The dishes and environment in today's deli-restaurant still satisfy
the cravings for Jewish ethnic cuisine. Once a sanctuary for lonely
immigrants, these establishments remain a destination where families
can take their children to enjoy good food and the comfort of
community.
Rabbi Dennis Tobin
973-762-0877
Email: RabbiDennisTobin@aol.com
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