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From: Judy <vegwriter@...>
Subject: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli
To: "arlen baden" <nyvegan@...>, "jewishrawfood" <JewishRawFood@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010, 10:01 PM

 

Jews are a tiny percentage of the population and raw vegans are an even tinier percentage.

My dream is that some inventive Jewish chef who is passionate about raw vegan cuisine will find ways to really replicate those Jewish comfort foods we've grown up with, things like bialys, bagels, cheese knishes, matzoh balls, kugel!  (I don't care about meat analogues, personally.)

See Arlen's forwarded history of Jewish food e-mail below if you don't mind reading about unhealthy meats!

Judy

On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 8:38 AM, arlen baden <nyvegan@hotmail. com> wrote:

I had mixed feelings about sending this carnivorous history but it seems that pastrami trumped pasta 

 

 

 
 

All  about Delicatessens        Carnegie  to Canter’s   My  first deli experience was during a vacation in the summer of 1955 when my family ate at Canter’s Delicatessen in the Fairfax area of  Los Angeles. I was 11 years old and the bustling deli—with its  harried, ancient waiters carrying platters of sandwiches piled high  with fragrant corned beef, pastrami and tongue, huge bowls of creamy  coleslaw and plates of pickles—introduced me to flavors and  characters I had not known in the small Arizona town where I  lived.   In  time, I learned that the food I discovered at Canter’s not only  connected me to my family’s roots in Eastern Europe, it offered the  same sense of identity and feeling of home to much of the American  Jewish community. That’s why delis and restaurants serving foods  from Germany (pastrami, tongue, corned beef and salami), Poland,  Lithuania and Hungary (borscht, smoked fish, blintzes, herring,  kasha varnishkes and gefilte fish) have proliferated in the United  States wherever there is a large Ashkenazic population. That Jewish  cuisine was such a draw for early immigrants is not surprising.That  it remains so for Jews today shows the continued connection to our  cultural and gastronomic heritage.   Canter’s  is a multigenerational family business—not atypical for Jewish  dining establishments. Opened by brothers Ben and Rubie Canter,  their first deli was built in 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey, but  closed five years later after the stoc k market crash. In 1931, the  family started anew in the predominantly Jewish Boyle Heights  section of Los Angeles, where two hot dogs cost five cents—one in a  bun and one in your hand. In 1953, Canter’s moved to its present  location, and to this day the kosher-style deli retains its Formica  booths and art deco décor. Everything is made on the premises, from  the breads and pastries to pickles, pastrami, corned beef, tongue,  chopped liver and matza balls.   Besides  the food, there is also the draw of a celebrity crowd. In the  1950’s, it was Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who came to Canter’s  for bagels and lox or a late night bowl of soup; today, it is Mel  Brooks, Henry Winkler, Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.     Canter’s  continues to offer the traditional kreplach, split pea and mushroom  barley soups, blintzes, knishes and stuffed cabbage, but it also  appeals to the neighborhood’s diversified clientele with Chef, Cobb  and Chinese chicken salads, pas tas and  quesadillas.   Many  of the most famous Jewish eateries serve what has become known as  kosher-style food—traditional Ashkenazic fare that is not prepared  in accordance with the laws of kashrut. For example, the  establishments may not use kosher meat or may not keep meat and  dairy products separate.   Even  New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen, the New World’s very first deli, is  only kosher-style. Today, Katz’s is much the same as it was when it  first opened its doors in 1888 across the street from its present  location on Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Here, you enter,  take a ticket (which serves as your order tab) and go directly to  the counter, where foot-long salamis are suspended overhead, to have  a taste of the pastrami or corned beef before making your selection.   The  renown of Katz’s and other New York Jewish delis is such that some  tourists insist on including a lunch stop at a deli-restaurant on  their itinerary.   There  are also many certified kosher restaurants in New York and other  large cities. Ben’s Kosher Deli and Restaurant (open on Shabbat) are  in nine locations. The first opened in the Garment District in 1972;  Ben’s is famous for its kishke and chicken in the pot.     Mendy’s  Kosher Delicatessen has only been around for 15 years, but has  established itself as the largest purveyor of kosher meals per day  in New York. Its popularity grew after it was featured on Seinfeld  several years ago. And following the trend in kosher restaurants,  sushi is now a popular item on the menu. With six locations (though  the one at Grand Central Station is dairy and one is in Brooklyn),  you do not have far to go to find one.   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 matza 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. Th ere 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.

---

Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more.

--
Judy Pokras
vegwriter@gmail. com
ジュディ

From: Judy <vegwriter@...>
Subject: Re: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli
To: JewishRawFood@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010, 10:40 PM

 

Thanks, Mark. Where does she post the recipes for bagels and such?  I don't find them on her site.

On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Mark Jackson <thesportsguru47@ yahoo.com> wrote:

 

She has, go to israelgoneraw. com  I get alot of ideas from her. Hametachen, bagels, I have lots of recipes on my group becomingyounger. --- On Sat, 7/24/10, Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> wrote: From: Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> Subject: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli To: "arlen baden" <nyvegan@hotmail. com>, "jewishrawfood" <JewishRawFood@ yahoogroups. com> Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010, 10:01 PM   Jews are a tiny percentage of the population and raw vegans are an even tinier percentage. My dream is that some inventive Jewish chef who is passionate about raw vegan cuisine will find ways to really replicate those Jewish comfort foods we've grown up with, things like bialys, bagels, cheese knishes, matzoh balls, kugel!  (I don't care about meat analogues, personally.) See Arlen's forwarded history of Jewish food e-mail below if you don't mind reading about unhealthy meats! Judy On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 8:38 AM, arlen baden <nyvegan@hotmail. com> wrote: I had mixed feelings about sending this carnivorous history but it seems that pastrami trumped pasta          All  about Delicatessens        Carnegie  to Canter’s   My  first deli experience was during a vacation in the summer of 1955 when my family ate at Canter’s Delicatessen in the Fairfax area of  Los Angeles. I was 11 years old and the bustling deli—with its  harried, ancient waiters carrying platters of sandwiches piled high  with fragrant corned beef, pastrami and tongue, huge bowls of creamy  coleslaw and plates of pickles—introduced me to flavors and  characters I had not known in the small Arizona town where I  lived.   In  time, I learned that the food I discovered at Canter’s not only  connected me to my family’s roots in Eastern Europe, it offered the  same sense of identity and feeling of home to much of the American  Jewish community. That’s why delis and restaurants serving foods  from Germany (pastrami, tongue, corned beef and salami), Poland,  Lithuania and Hungary (borscht, smoked fish, blintzes, herring,  kasha varnishkes and gefilte fish) have proliferated in the United  States wherever there is a large Ashkenazic population. That Jewish  cuisine was such a draw for early immigrants is not surprising.That  it remains so for Jews today shows the continued connection to our  cultural and gastronomic heritage.   Canter’s  is a multigenerational family business—not atypical for Jewish  dining establishments. Opened by brothers Ben and Rubie Canter,  their first deli was built in 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey, but  closed five years later after the stoc k market crash. In 1931, the  family started anew in the predominantly Jewish Boyle Heights  section of Los Angeles, where two hot dogs cost five cents—one in a  bun and one in your hand. In 1953, Canter’s moved to its present  location, and to this day the kosher-style deli retains its Formica  booths and art deco décor. Everything is made on the premises, from  the breads and pastries to pickles, pastrami, corned beef, tongue,  chopped liver and matza balls.   Besides  the food, there is also the draw of a celebrity crowd. In the  1950’s, it was Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who came to Canter’s  for bagels and lox or a late night bowl of soup; today, it is Mel  Brooks, Henry Winkler, Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.     Canter’s  continues to offer the traditional kreplach, split pea and mushroom  barley soups, blintzes, knishes and stuffed cabbage, but it also  appeals to the neighborhood’s diversified clientele with Chef, Cobb  and Chinese chicken salads, pas tas and  quesadillas.   Many  of the most famous Jewish eateries serve what has become known as  kosher-style food—traditional Ashkenazic fare that is not prepared  in accordance with the laws of kashrut. For example, the  establishments may not use kosher meat or may not keep meat and  dairy products separate.   Even  New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen, the New World’s very first deli, is  only kosher-style. Today, Katz’s is much the same as it was when it  first opened its doors in 1888 across the street from its present  location on Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Here, you enter,  take a ticket (which serves as your order tab) and go directly to  the counter, where foot-long salamis are suspended overhead, to have  a taste of the pastrami or corned beef before making your selection.   The  renown of Katz’s and other New York Jewish delis is such that some  tourists insist on including a lunch stop at a deli-restaurant on  their itinerary.   There  are also many certified kosher restaurants in New York and other  large cities. Ben’s Kosher Deli and Restaurant (open on Shabbat) are  in nine locations. The first opened in the Garment District in 1972;  Ben’s is famous for its kishke and chicken in the pot.     Mendy’s  Kosher Delicatessen has only been around for 15 years, but has  established itself as the largest purveyor of kosher meals per day  in New York. Its popularity grew after it was featured on Seinfeld  several years ago. And following the trend in kosher restaurants,  sushi is now a popular item on the menu. With six locations (though  the one at Grand Central Station is dairy and one is in Brooklyn),  you do not have far to go to find one.   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 matza 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. Th ere 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.  Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more. -- Judy Pokras vegwriter@gmail. com ジュディ

--
Judy Pokras
vegwriter@gmail. com
ジュディ

From: Judy <vegwriter@...>
Subject: Re: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli
To: JewishRawFood@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 8:11 AM

 

Mark, what's your site?

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Mark Jackson <thesportsguru47@ yahoo.com> wrote:

 

I have been posting her recipes on my site for a long time. She gives out one recipe a week, if you join her mailing list. I have two or three bagel recipes on my site at least one from her. --- On Sun, 7/25/10, Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> wrote: From: Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> Subject: Re: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli To: JewishRawFood@ yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010, 10:40 PM   Thanks, Mark. Where does she post the recipes for bagels and such?  I don't find them on her site. On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Mark Jackson <thesportsguru47@ yahoo.com> wrote:   She has, go to israelgoneraw. com  I get alot of ideas from her. Hametachen, bagels, I have lots of recipes on my group becomingyounger. --- On Sat, 7/24/10, Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> wrote: From: Judy <vegwriter@gmail. com> Subject: [JewishRawFood] Re: deli To: "arlen baden" <nyvegan@hotmail. com>, "jewishrawfood" <JewishRawFood@ yahoogroups. com> Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010, 10:01 PM   Jews are a tiny percentage of the population and raw vegans are an even tinier percentage. My dream is that some inventive Jewish chef who is passionate about raw vegan cuisine will find ways to really replicate those Jewish comfort foods we've grown up with, things like bialys, bagels, cheese knishes, matzoh balls, kugel!  (I don't care about meat analogues, personally.) See Arlen's forwarded history of Jewish food e-mail below if you don't mind reading about unhealthy meats! Judy On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 8:38 AM, arlen baden <nyvegan@hotmail. com> wrote: I had mixed feelings about sending this carnivorous history but it seems that pastrami trumped pasta          All  about Delicatessens        Carnegie  to Canter’s   My  first deli experience was during a vacation in the summer of 1955 when my family ate at Canter’s Delicatessen in the Fairfax area of  Los Angeles. I was 11 years old and the bustling deli—with its  harried, ancient waiters carrying platters of sandwiches piled high  with fragrant corned beef, pastrami and tongue, huge bowls of creamy  coleslaw and plates of pickles—introduced me to flavors and  characters I had not known in the small Arizona town where I  lived.   In  time, I learned that the food I discovered at Canter’s not only  connected me to my family’s roots in Eastern Europe, it offered the  same sense of identity and feeling of home to much of the American  Jewish community. That’s why delis and restaurants serving foods  from Germany (pastrami, tongue, corned beef and salami), Poland,  Lithuania and Hungary (borscht, smoked fish, blintzes, herring,  kasha varnishkes and gefilte fish) have proliferated in the United  States wherever there is a large Ashkenazic population. That Jewish  cuisine was such a draw for early immigrants is not surprising.That  it remains so for Jews today shows the continued connection to our  cultural and gastronomic heritage.   Canter’s  is a multigenerational family business—not atypical for Jewish  dining establishments. Opened by brothers Ben and Rubie Canter,  their first deli was built in 1924 in Jersey City, New Jersey, but  closed five years later after the stoc k market crash. In 1931, the  family started anew in the predominantly Jewish Boyle Heights  section of Los Angeles, where two hot dogs cost five cents—one in a  bun and one in your hand. In 1953, Canter’s moved to its present  location, and to this day the kosher-style deli retains its Formica  booths and art deco décor. Everything is made on the premises, from  the breads and pastries to pickles, pastrami, corned beef, tongue,  chopped liver and matza balls.   Besides  the food, there is also the draw of a celebrity crowd. In the  1950’s, it was Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley who came to Canter’s  for bagels and lox or a late night bowl of soup; today, it is Mel  Brooks, Henry Winkler, Nicolas Cage and John Travolta.     Canter’s  continues to offer the traditional kreplach, split pea and mushroom  barley soups, blintzes, knishes and stuffed cabbage, but it also  appeals to the neighborhood’s diversified clientele with Chef, Cobb  and Chinese chicken salads, pas tas and  quesadillas.   Many  of the most famous Jewish eateries serve what has become known as  kosher-style food—traditional Ashkenazic fare that is not prepared  in accordance with the laws of kashrut. For example, the  establishments may not use kosher meat or may not keep meat and  dairy products separate.   Even  New York’s Katz’s Delicatessen, the New World’s very first deli, is  only kosher-style. Today, Katz’s is much the same as it was when it  first opened its doors in 1888 across the street from its present  location on Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Here, you enter,  take a ticket (which serves as your order tab) and go directly to  the counter, where foot-long salamis are suspended overhead, to have  a taste of the pastrami or corned beef before making your selection.   The  renown of Katz’s and other New York Jewish delis is such that some  tourists insist on including a lunch stop at a deli-restaurant on  their itinerary.   There  are also many certified kosher restaurants in New York and other  large cities. Ben’s Kosher Deli and Restaurant (open on Shabbat) are  in nine locations. The first opened in the Garment District in 1972;  Ben’s is famous for its kishke and chicken in the pot.     Mendy’s  Kosher Delicatessen has only been around for 15 years, but has  established itself as the largest purveyor of kosher meals per day  in New York. Its popularity grew after it was featured on Seinfeld  several years ago. And following the trend in kosher restaurants,  sushi is now a popular item on the menu. With six locations (though  the one at Grand Central Station is dairy and one is in Brooklyn),  you do not have far to go to find one.   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 matza 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. Th ere 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.  Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. Learn more. -- Judy Pokras vegwriter@gmail. com ジュディ -- Judy Pokras vegwriter@gmail. com ジュディ

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Judy Pokras
vegwriter@gmail. com
ジュディ