🚀 go-pugleaf

Keith Bennett (kbennett@cpcug.org) wrote:

: Not that you started this, Ira, but there seems to be an undercurrent
: of implications that those who are the most Jewish and the most a New
: Yorker are most qualified to judge delis.

: Let's have some fun with this...I wonder how we should measure this
: qualification...I'm also Jewish from New York, and my grandparents came
: here from eastern Europe in about 1916.  They lived in Brooklyn and worked
: in clothing sweat shops.  My father had not spent much time outside of New
: York until he was sent to China and India in World War II. 

: Can anyone beat that (I'm sure you can...)?

OK, I'll play. I'm Jewish from Brooklyn, all four grandparents came here
from Russia in early 1900s. I attended school through college in Brooklyn.
When my father was growing up his family owned a restaurant. When *I* was
growing up, my father was writing local NY and syndicated cooking columns
and cookbooks. Some columns were under the byline "Prudence Penny" in
Hearst newspapers. His real name was Hyman Goldberg. It was too easy for
me to eat well without cooking, so I never got enthusiastic about it --
but I'm a well qualified eater! 

I find the local deli offerings depressing. I used to like Hofberg's when 
it was near Georgia Avenue near the District line, understand that it 
still exists but has moved. I used to like Carnegie Deli near Tysons when 
it first opened, but (as has been documented here earlier) it's pretty grim.
I like the *real* NY delis -- Wolfes, Carnegie, Stage. And in San Diego I 
have a favorite whose name escapes me right now. I just tried Loeb's 
downtown DC. It was OK, but nothing special.

(Once while in the Stage, I was seated near Jackie Mason, who was
increasingly strident about not getting the service to which he was
entitled. He eventually stormed out. My companion and I and many other
people thought he'd received perfectly reasonable service, and was making
a scene for the sake of it. Nothing that interesting has ever happened to
me in a DC deli.)

--
Gabriel Goldberg, Computers and Publishing, Inc. 
13382 Brookfield Court, Chantilly, VA 22021-2618
Voice: (703) 968-5738   FAX: (703) 502-0673  Internet: gabe@access.digex.net