Posted by Erin Zimmer, May 20, 2010 at 12:15 PM
Just like you can't leave Peter Luger without ordering steak, you really can't go to Ben's Best Delicatessen without biting into a pastrami sandwich. In this latest episode of Food Curated from documentarian Liza de Guia, we meet Jay Parker, the third generation owner of the deli in Rego Park, Queens.
He started as a grill boy at age 13, where his job involved making sense of frenetic orders: "four with, three plain, two with mustard, hoo behhh fehhh faster, faster!" (that was pretty much a direct quote from the video). But even years later, the pastrami is still slow-cooked exactly the same way (at a low temperature for five to six hours), and it turns out just as soft to the touch "like cotton candy," Parker says. They don't plan on changing that, ever. Watch the video, after the jump.
And look for our own Queens correspondent Joe DiStefano slurping on matzo ball soup, aka Jewish Penicillin, in the video!
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, March 29, 2010 at 2:30 PM
[Photos: Sara Markel-Gonzalez]
Tonight is the first night of Passover, and there is no better way to start the holiday than with a Matzoh Ball Soup round-up, Queens style. Although Jewish-style delicatessens and eateries are not so easy to find these days, I took a walk down Queens Boulevard to see if I could still get a good bowl of the old favorite. Here's what I found in my own borough.
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Posted by Carey Jones, October 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Robyn Lee]
Our Top Five
- The Winner: Two Little Red Hens
- Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe
- Lady M Cake Boutique
- Cheesecake Factory
- Fairway Market
In the pantheon of iconic New York foods, not much outranks the proud cheesecake. Whether after dinner at Luger's, by the round at Eileen's, or shipped across the country by Junior's, New York cheesecakes are a force to be reckoned with. The cheesecake is a dessert that's perfect in its simplicity. A silky, creamy base, an optional thin crust—and that's it.
What makes a first-class cheesecake? It's smooth and creamy, just sweet enough, with a hint of tartness. If there's a crust, it adds something extra without overwhelming the taste of the cheesecake itself. And it's rich enough to seem a bit decadent, without going down like a cement pour. You should want to keep eating—at least, for more than one bite.
So we canvassed the boroughs for New York's best cheesecake, arrived at our finalists, and assembled our panel of crack tasters. All cakes were tasted blind, brought to the same temperature, in similar-size slices. We even scuffed up the edges of the more cosmetically privileged. And we had our tasters start with different samples, to cancel out the effects of palate fatigue—a real concern, after 14 cheesecakes. As it turns out, the first bite wasn't always the best bite.
(For the purposes of fair comparison, we went only with bakery cheesecakes, rather than restaurant ones. We also excluded all flavored and ricotta-based cheesecakes—stay tuned for later taste-tests.)
So after countless miles traveled, bites considered, and calories consumed, we've arrived at our winners. Our favorites, our surprise showings, and the best cheesecake in New York—after the jump.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 16, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Corned beef is pretty good any way you slice it, but we're defining "killer" as the kind made in-house at restaurants, delis, and butchers. They've pickled and braised the beef themselves, which deserves a little extra respect. Whether in sandwich form or paired with boiled cabbage or cut by the deli slicer, here is the serious beef.
Marlow and Daughters
Butcher Tom Mylan with beef
Butcher Tom Mylan calls his approach a "simple, pre-Industrial style." That translates as cured with rock salt and black pepper for 20 days. He actually has the beef, sourced from different farms like Slope Farms, in the back all the time as an outside-the-glass-case secret, but is hyping it up this week.
Price: $10.50 a pound
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 19, 2008 at 5:15 PM
On tonight's Top Chef, the aspiring top toques have to cook hot dogs. The show sprung a surprise on the contestants by bringing in one of New York's premiere hot dog cart purveyors, Angelina D'Angelo, to show them how it's done.
I'm proud to see Angelina, because I wrote about her in my New York Times hot dog round-up in 2005. I love the idea of Angelina appearing on the show, but I have no clue why they chose Donatella Arpaia as the guest judge. Donatella's a really good restaurateur whom I know reasonably well, but my guess is she knows squat about hot dogs.
If you want to try one of Angelina D'Angelo's hot dogs head to Dominick's on Woodhaven Boulevard and 65th Road in Rego Park, Queens (map). She's usually there on weekdays after 11 a.m.
A preview of the episode, after the jump.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 26, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The timeless rivalry between D and L?
Unless you count competitive barbecuing I’m not much for sports. But if I had to declare a baseball allegiance, it would be to the Mets, mainly for geographical reasons. I was born in Queens, grew up on Long Island and now live within walking distance of Shea. Hell, I’m so clueless about baseball I didn’t even know that there was a Subway Series happening this weekend. Now thanks to the tabloids, I also know that Yankees slugger Jason Giambi likes to don a golden thong to break hitting slumps. Frankly I’m more interested in the oddity known as "Subway Series Bread" than in watching the Mets and Yanks battle it out.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, June 6, 2008 at 9:45 AM
"I'm going Uyguring" isn't something I get to say very often, but I wish it were. As far as I know, there are only three restaurants in New York City that specialize in Uyghur cuisine, the food of Central Asia's Turkic people—and I don't foresee that number growing.
Accompanied by five hungry friends, I visited one of these restaurants, Cafe Arzu in Rego Park, Queens, with a few specific dishes on my mind: giant dumplings, giant rounds of bread, and giant bowls of hand-pulled noodles. All these dishes were consumed, and then some.
Lepeshka, the homemade bread, resembled like a hubcap-sized donut, although where there would've been a hole, a small flower design had been cut out of the dough. The bread had a thin crispy crust on the outside encasing soft, chewy innards. It was addictive eaten plain, and even more so when dipped in the soup we would get next.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, May 29, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Bone handle makes meat pie eating easy!
As a resident of the Queens nabe known as Rego Park-istan, due to its high concentration of Uzbekis and other Central Asian immigrants, I’m no stranger to the savory pies known as samcy (or samsa). Usually these pies come stuffed with fatty bits of lamb, and occasionally you'll find versions packed with pumpkin, but the other night I happened upon a strange and wondrous samcy, at an Uzbeki spot called Cheburechnaya.
Named for the crescent-shaped pastry called chebureki, Cheburechnaya clearly wants you to know what they specialize in. But after seeing "samcy with ribs" on the menu, I almost fell out of my chair with interest. When the pies arrived, I discovered the name "ribs" is misleading, since there was only one rib bone sticking out of each triangular pastry- but considering how tasty and bizarre the meat pies were, it was forgiveable.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 2, 2007 at 7:45 AM
Here's a baker's dozen plus two of my favorite bakeries in New York. Are they the best fifteen in Gotham? You tell me.
As the northeast weather turns colder and Thanksgiving approaches this man's attention turns to baked goods. Of course it doesn't take much to get me thinking about pies, cakes, cookies, and any other food item containing the holy trinity of butter, sugar, and flour. That smell, that wondrous, incredibly alluring bakery smell, is what I live for. If I'm feeling blue, that smell transports me to a better, happier place.
New York City happens to be home to more great bakeries per square block than any other city in the country. Why? A couple of reasons. New York has long been the first stop in America for an incredibly diverse ethnic groups. Many of those ethnic groups, the Germans, the Russian and Polish Jews, the Hungarians, the Austrians, the southern Italians, and even in smaller number the French settled here at different points starting at the turn of the twentieth century. Many of these folks brought incredibly rich baking traditions with them.
During the eighties, however, as ethnic enclaves began to break down and disperse, many of the great ethnic bakeries of New York closed. French bakeries like Dumas, Bonte, and Colette shut their doors. So did the great Hungarian bakeries Riga and Mrs. Herbst's. Ditto for great Jewish-style bakeries like Litchtman's and Grossinger's.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 23, 2007 at 8:00 AM
Writing about the late, great Abe Lebewohl, a man's stomach turns its attention to delis—Jewish-style delis of course. Some of my earliest food memories are of eating at Wilshire's Deli on Central Avenue in Lawrence, New York. I remember my typical lunch there being a pastrami sandwich and two hot dogs, but I couldn't have eaten that much, could I?
One of the first dates I went on with my wife was at the dear departed Gitlitz's on Manhattan's Upper West Side. But when it comes to delis in New York, I don't need to wax nostalgic. Though there are far fewer delis here than there once were, there are still enough excellent examples in Gotham that we maintain our status as America's preeminent Jewish-deli city. Some Los Angelenos insist that L.A. is a better deli city, but I believe they have simply spent too much time in the sun.
How do you judge a deli? To me there are clearly established yardsticks, pastrami or corned beef, soup (matzo ball or mushroom barley), and french fries. The quality of the cole slaw and the pickles matter as well.
Using those yardsticks, here is a list of my favorite delis in New York. Are there great Jewish delis outside New York? I love Langer's pastrami in Los Angeles, I've enjoyed many smoked-meat sandwich and french fry lunches at Schwartz's in Montreal, and my Baltimore friends swear by Attman's, but, Serious Eaters, I long to know of others around the country. Do tell.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 6, 2007 at 12:30 PM
David Sax is a young food writer in Toronto who has dedicated himself to saving the Jewish deli.
He's very passionate and zealous on this subject, so I wasn't surprised that yesterday he sent me a splendid link to his post about a story I somehow missed.
The New York Daily News reported that the New York City Department of Health temporarily shut down Ben's Best, one of the best remaining Jewish delis in the city, for health-related crimes related to hanging salamis and combination sandwiches. You really should click through to David's post, but in case you don't, here's Mr. Sax in mid-season missionary form.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 3, 2007 at 9:03 AM
Most cheese danish are big, heavy, sweet, and sodden. The cheese danish at Marquet Patisserie on 74th Street between Broadway and West End is small, dainty, light, and almost savory. It's only six bites, but each one of those bites is a source of unalloyed pleasure. If you've never had one you're missing out.
Andre's Hungarian Cafe (on 85th and Second in Manhattan and Queens Boulevard in Rego Park) has a terrific, Mittel European cheese danish. It's an open pastry with an island of sweetened cheese in the middle. It's identical to the cheese danish I grew up eating at the Cedarhurst Bake Shop. Are there other great cheese danishes I'm missing?
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