Month: July 2018
Blueberry Pie: Remembering Gideon’s, the Last Kosher Bakery in Washington Heights
July 30, 2018
When I first moved to Washington Heights some years back, I was entranced at the idea of living in a real live Jewish neighborhood. There was something faintly mythical about it all—nostalgic, even, for some Disney-fied ancestral past, so unlike the suburban California of my childhood. The wholesome-looking families out on their Shabbos walks. The […]
Introducing Panadería Brooklyn: Mexican Black-and-White Cookies
July 23, 2018
“Dozens of kosher restaurants, bakeries and cafes with Yiddish and Hebrew signs lined Brooklyn Avenue . . . The aroma of burritos and challah bread mingled outside greengrocers and bathhouses, union halls and movie houses. Mariachi and klezmer tunes drifted from apartment windows. Socialists and Zionists argued on street corners in Yiddish and Spanish.”—Reed Johnson, […]
Pimm’s Cel-Ray Spritz: Pimm’s Goes to the Deli
July 16, 2018
When I was living in England, I fell in love with the Pimm’s Cup. You haven’t lived until you’ve drunk one of these refreshing drinks—made from the quintessentially English gin-based liqueur with herbs and citrus, lemon soda (which the Brits inexplicably and confusingly refer to as “lemonade”) or ginger ale, and copious amounts of cut […]
Rizz b’Spanegh: Syrian Rice with Spinach and Sumac
July 9, 2018
This Syrian rice dish features spinach and one of my favorite underutilized spices: sumac. This tart, lemony spice, ground from the bright red berries of a tall Middle Eastern shrub, is perhaps best known as a common addition to the beloved spice blend za’atar. Which I kind of can’t believe I haven’t featured on the […]
Goodbye Ben’s Best, One of NYC’s Last Classic Kosher Delis
July 5, 2018
So earlier in the week, when I covered the sad closing of Glaser’s Bake Shop, I promised you I’d be back with an ode to yet another New York institution that shut its doors over the weekend. And that is Ben’s Best, a classic kosher deli that has been a Rego Park, Queens, staple for […]
Goodbye Glaser’s Bake Shop—Plus Glaser’s Brownie Recipe
July 3, 2018
This past weekend was a sad one for NYC foodies. Not one but two old-school establishments shut their doors, after 116 years and 73 years, respectively: Glaser’s Bake Shop on the Upper East Side, and Ben’s Best deli in Rego Park, Queens. Both iconic eateries, both remnants of rapidly dwindling varieties of food establishments in […]
Kurdish Radish and Carrot Salad—and the Little-Known story of an Old-School Female Torah Scholar
July 2, 2018
Today I have a light, refreshing Kurdish radish and carrot salad for you—along with the fascinating story of a 17th-century female Torah scholar in Kurdistan.