For a while I lived in Los Angeles. I think I had some fanciful idea I’d end up as a movie director. I managed to stick it out for two years, before a series of frightening events; a dead body upstairs went undiscovered for a week, a freebasing building manager, a homicidal stalker entering my apartment in the middle of the night, having no car and going everywhere by bus, the throngs of cockroaches and scampering rats, got to me. I slunk back to blighty with a trunk full of vintage thrift shop clothes and an aerobicised body. But there were some good times: my friend punk poet, Iris Berry and I used to visit Canters Deli after a night out. It was open every single day and all night. It never closed. I even, finding myself alone, went there on Christmas day. The middle aged waitresses were comfortingly maternal while at the same time, hard boiled. The list of celebrity visitors ranges from Judy Garland to Johnny Depp.
I always ordered the same thing: “kasha and bows” and “knish with Muenster cheese”. Kasha is buckwheat while bows is farfalle, a butterfly or bow-tie shaped pasta. A basic knish is mashed potato enveloped by a thin shell of pastry. This food is Jewish, from Eastern Europe. It’s heavy stuff, designed to tether you down while a Siberian wind is blowing.
Two establishments in New York took me right back to those days: a visit to Katz’s Deli (catch phrase: “Send a salami to your boy in the army”) and Yonah Shimmel’s Knishes, a few blocks away. Katz’s was where Sally had her fake orgasm over a sandwich in ‘When Sally met Harry’. Yonah’s has been going for one hundred years and, like Katz’s, is a New York institution. Their knishes are freshly made downstairs and brought up on a dumb waiter.
mmmmm……. knishes. One of my favourite foods….. I more or less lived off them in the late 80's when I spent a year in NYC. The best ones I had were from the stand on the corner of 85th & 2nd. He was outraged and then faintly amused that as a English gentile I would only have them with ketchup; I'm afraid American mustard has never been my bag.
My other fave Jewish food is chopped liver – Katz's was great, as was Zabar's. Here the best that I've had is from Selfridges food hall (bit poncy I know but I don't get to London often!). Can anyone out there let me know where to get it in West Dorset?!?!?!
Fun entry – I have never heard of this kind of food – you learn something every day! Love the look of the place too! xxx
oh brings back so many memories… love the yiddisha food the best x
love this post! Thankyou.
Really liked this post- very nicely written and some lovely photos 🙂
knishes sound amazing! next time im in NY… x
knishes sound amazing! next time i'm in NYC…
This post is not good for my weight loss challenge, or my travel budget…but ooooh so delicious looking.
i had a knish, with Muenster Cheese and gravy, about two weeks ago at Canters and thought of you, Kerstin… xoxo iris
um yum. Those were the days weren't they Iris? When we were young and had midnight snacks in Canters and listened to Chuck E of Chuck E's in love fame talk about his terrible descent into heroin hell
Such happy NYC memories, although my allegiance belongs more to the Carnegie Deli than Katz's, guess it depends on where I find myself when in need of comfort food, knish shaped or otherwise.
Must go back to New York soon….I really fancy a knish!
I want it Knish(es) in London! But where?
I'm based near Hyde Park/Bayswater Road.
Any Knish places nearby?
No idea in London!