New York Food Tours: Jewish Cuisine

Within the hustle and bustle of busy, loud New York, there’s a food that stirs nostalgia and feels homey to many people. That’s Jewish food. Culinary historian Sarah Lohman, a blogger at Four Pounds of Flour acting as a docent for Context Travel, takes Alexandra Korey on a tour of New York’s lower East side for a literal taste of Jewish history. (This is a guest post from my friend Alexandra, an art historian based in Florence and the brains behind one of my favorite blogs, ArtTrav.)

When people immigrate, they bring with them culinary traditions that change based on the new country. Adaptations are made for local ingredients, and often, over time, people look to changes in their homeland and evolve their recipes. This is not true of most Jewish food: Jews who came to New York brought over traditions from mostly eastern Europe, but they did not have a “homeland” to which to look for the evolution of flavour. Many of the recipes for things like bagels, latkes and pastrami haven’t changed at all in a hundred years. So if you’ve got any Eastern European in you – like I do – chances are you’ll feel quite at home in a Jewish deli in New York.

Of the flavours we tasted with Sarah on Context Travel’s Jewish Cuisine and Culture tour, many were new to me. For example, we tried pastrami smoked salmon, which uses the same kind of spice rub and smoking found on beef pastrami but on the fish; we tasted “real” pastrami but also corned beef and the less fancy brisket; and we dined on Knishes begun 114 years ago (or at least their yeast was). Sweet and savoury pickled pineapple from a place that pickles everything finished our tasting walk and opened up the discussion towards the integration of other immigrant tastes (this one with a Dominican Republic influence).

As we munched for three hours, Sarah provided a walking history of the area, which proved most fascinating: the lower East side provided an entry into New York for poor immigrants from many nations over the decades, who would slowly move up and out, making space for the newest wave. Only now, as gentrification has pushed rent prices through the roof, has this changed.

Where to taste Jewish Cuisine in New York

Schimmel’s Knishes

137 E. Houston

A knish is a pastry stuffed with, most traditionally, potato or kasha (buckwheat grout). Yonah Schimmel has been at this location for 114 years, and his knishes are made from a mother yeast that has been kept alive the whole time. Now that’s historic food. Eat at the formica tables and check out the walls covered with photos of famous visitors (like Woody Allen, who filmed here).

Russ and Daughters

179 E. Houston

100 years of business in 2014 for the first store in town to be “and daughters” rather than “and sons”. This is an “appetizing” which is not a new word for appetizers, but apparently refers to milk rather than meat meals in the Kosher diet. If you were catering an event or just having friends over for an easy brunch, you’d order it from here, getting amazing smoked fishes, prepared salads, the freshest cream cheeses, but also fancy caviars and lots of tasty sweets. This does not come cheap, but it is the best quality. After so long in the take-out business, Russ and Daughters opened up a café at another location nearby in May 2014.

Katz’s Deli

205 E. Houston

This is a New York pilgrimage stop for many tourists, and is famous for its very thick pastrami sandwich. The sandwich costs 19$ but it is so loaded with beef, it costs them a fortune to make. Sarah explained that there is a lot of pressure on Katz’s and others to sell the property to real estate developers (for a lot of money!) but they’ve held off so far. The place gets very busy from lunchtime onwards, so consider an early lunch or late brunch.

Kossar’s Bialys

367 Grand St

The story of the Bialys really touched me. There’s a town in Poland called Bialistok that had a 50,000 person Jewish population before Hitler’s 1941 invasion. Now, they are 5. Their traditional bread, something like a bagel without the hole and with a bit of chopped onion in the middle, lives on only in New York.

Barney Greengrass

541 Amsterdam Ave

If you want to sample some excellent Jewish Cuisine without heading down to the lower East side of the city, Barney Greengrass’s is up near Museum Mile. This local café has preserved its retro look and no-nonsense service, and its huge sturgeon sandwich is worth the price. (In the photo, smoked salmon and cream cheese on pumpernickel bagel.)

For a guided tour in New York that includes tasting these foods, I highly recommend Sarah and her fellow docents at Context Travel and their group tour: Jewish Cuisine and Culture.