This made me sooo hungry - last time I wanted pickles before 10 in the morning I was pregnant!!!!! I grew up in a town where there were two Jewish delis. I remember one had guys working behind the counter who were fast, curt and you needed to know what you wanted! Very Jewish over the counter mannerisms - it’s a jewish thing I believe - similar in Israel when ordering sabich (sp?) anyway it smelled great in there and they gave you a bowl of pickles if you sat down at the table. Didn’t allow Swiss on your corned beef - no way. I think they might have thrown you out in your ear if you tried to order that.
My favorite deli was the Takey cup on the boardwalk on Beach 29th St where the Jews went to resident hotels in the summer. I started going when I was 2 years old and went until I was 7!
The takey cup was an egg roll crispy cup filled with chow mein: gooey and messy. And yes the Jews in Rockaway loved it!!!
I stayed in studio with my grandparents! It was all they could afford.
I’d go shopping with my grandmother everyday for the freshest ingredients!
All of the “hotel” residents were Jews who had escaped from Eastern Europe or whose parents had escaped. No one EVER talked about Europe or their families who had “disappeared!”
They tied to live their lives by finding joy in the present.
Every Saturday night a deli would cater masses of deli food! Every type of deli food imaginable!
And people would dress up in crazy costumes for fun. I was young and never sensed the underlaying despair that had never left the people.
I am, as you might know, an elderly Jew, and therefore the notion of a milkshake being guzzeled at a table across from where I am wallowing in my corned beef sandwhich is, to say the least, a bit offputting. But as you note things change. And so if the deli is a remnant in some ways of our past, then its current patrons, now diet conscious, ie, wary of what they gorge on, will prefer baloney to salami, and corned beef to pastromi, both of course not very healthy but even among the unhealthy, some foods rank a wee bit better than others.
I was raised in a family that taught me there are but two types of Jews: those who prefer full sour pickles and those who went with the half sour ones. And let us not ever ever forget the sour tomato!
And lest I forget! The "traditional" waiter at a Jewish deli. If you are old enough to have had the experience of the "traditional" waiter, you will know what I am getting at, even though I will not miss this fixture in those restaurants. What was this waiter like? Simply put, he was every young groom's
new father-in-law, without the smirk. Go, then, essen. Is it good for the Jews? Perhaps. Good for my health. No. But tradition matters too. It feeds the soul. And that is very healthy.
I loved this installment! Thanks for sharing! I fell doubly sad now because we’ve moved from CT.
This made me sooo hungry - last time I wanted pickles before 10 in the morning I was pregnant!!!!! I grew up in a town where there were two Jewish delis. I remember one had guys working behind the counter who were fast, curt and you needed to know what you wanted! Very Jewish over the counter mannerisms - it’s a jewish thing I believe - similar in Israel when ordering sabich (sp?) anyway it smelled great in there and they gave you a bowl of pickles if you sat down at the table. Didn’t allow Swiss on your corned beef - no way. I think they might have thrown you out in your ear if you tried to order that.
Why no Swiss? was it kosher?
My favorite deli was the Takey cup on the boardwalk on Beach 29th St where the Jews went to resident hotels in the summer. I started going when I was 2 years old and went until I was 7!
The takey cup was an egg roll crispy cup filled with chow mein: gooey and messy. And yes the Jews in Rockaway loved it!!!
I stayed in studio with my grandparents! It was all they could afford.
I’d go shopping with my grandmother everyday for the freshest ingredients!
All of the “hotel” residents were Jews who had escaped from Eastern Europe or whose parents had escaped. No one EVER talked about Europe or their families who had “disappeared!”
They tied to live their lives by finding joy in the present.
Every Saturday night a deli would cater masses of deli food! Every type of deli food imaginable!
And people would dress up in crazy costumes for fun. I was young and never sensed the underlaying despair that had never left the people.
Never heard of the Takee Cup but just looked it up! How I wish I could revisit Rockaway when it was Jewish!
I am, as you might know, an elderly Jew, and therefore the notion of a milkshake being guzzeled at a table across from where I am wallowing in my corned beef sandwhich is, to say the least, a bit offputting. But as you note things change. And so if the deli is a remnant in some ways of our past, then its current patrons, now diet conscious, ie, wary of what they gorge on, will prefer baloney to salami, and corned beef to pastromi, both of course not very healthy but even among the unhealthy, some foods rank a wee bit better than others.
I was raised in a family that taught me there are but two types of Jews: those who prefer full sour pickles and those who went with the half sour ones. And let us not ever ever forget the sour tomato!
And lest I forget! The "traditional" waiter at a Jewish deli. If you are old enough to have had the experience of the "traditional" waiter, you will know what I am getting at, even though I will not miss this fixture in those restaurants. What was this waiter like? Simply put, he was every young groom's
new father-in-law, without the smirk. Go, then, essen. Is it good for the Jews? Perhaps. Good for my health. No. But tradition matters too. It feeds the soul. And that is very healthy.