The Carnegie Gorgefest, A Family Tradition

Daughter and Son in Law of Food Went to New York. For us, one of The City's greatest point of interest is the food.

For our fist meal in Manhattan we went to the Carnegie Deli. The Carnegie has long been legend in our Family. Father of Food tells one of his first trip to the restaurant, which sums up what makes this place extraordinary.

When Father of Food first sat down to a table at the Carnegie, he asked the waitress for a Bowl of Soup and a Corned Beef Sandwich. The waitress looks at him and says dryly "Pick One." My father, not a small man, rather a somewhat hefty fellow at the time, a man that could ironically wear the name "Tiny," says "What am I, a kid? Bring me the soup and the sandwich." She did, and he was sorry. Try as he might, he did not finish that soup and sandwich because one soup and sandwich at the Carnegie could feed a hungry family.

Husband of Food and I kept this tale in mind when ordering our lunch. We were hungry so we settled on a Corned Beef Reuben and a side of Fries, for the two of us. Here is the Reuben. The plate is tilted a bit in this shot, so it is difficult to see just how big it is, but you get the idea, right?

We almost made it through the whole sandwich; I struggled to eat about a third of it, but I was not sorry. Now had I ordered the soup...

A French Dip Into Our History

If you live in Los Angeles or have ever lived in Los Angeles, you may have heard rumor of a place downtown which claims to have invented the French Dip. If you live in Los Angeles and have heard of this place, but have never ventured out to find it, you are at a loss. This place exists and is called Phillipe the Original. In a town full of slick, small portioned, diet obsessed, celebrity chef'd, get the best table in the house to be seen at or better yet not seen at restaurants, Phillipe's is a breath of meat infused genuine old fashioned air.

An ancient counter is staffed by a just slightly less old collection of "Carvers" all wearing smart uniforms out of a thirties period movie complete with hats bobby pinned into their locks permanently curled with curlers set for decades at night, only this isn’t a movie and those uniforms just might be from the thirties, when these women might have first started working at Phillipe’s.

You order at the counter where the lines are numerous and sometimes still long. You can get a lemonade for seventy cents and coffee for ten. You can pick out of Five Different types of meat for your French Dip: roast beef, roast pork, leg of lamb, oven-roasted turkey, or ham. A full diner and breakfast menu is also available. For your first visit, unless you're a vegetarian, why get anything but the dip? Finish up your order with a side dish or a slice of pie and then pick a table. Much of the seating is shared, so get to know your fellow Angelenos. This place is a blast for people watching.

Make sure to try a bit of the Phillipe's Hot Mustard on your Sandwich. It will cure your cold if nothing else. Although they claim to prepare about 40 gallons of hot mustard two times a week, I have a theory that they just go around the corner to Chinatown to get Hot Chinese mustard and put it into deli jars. In any case, I liked it, and I'm not a huge mustard fan.

Before you leave, walk around a bit. Check out the memorabilia on the walls. There is an entire room dedicated to the Santa Fe Train Engine. This place is something authentically special in a town that manufactures special.

If you live in LA, and have never been to Phillipe the Original, it is not too late.


Phillipe the Original
1001 North Alameda Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: (213)628-3781

Matzo Ball-o Loco

I had a craving for Matzo Ball Soup last night so I stopped by Junior's in Westwood.
It didn't dissapoint. Even my 18 month old twins were crying zzzooooup, more zzzzoooup.
What they wanted was more matzo ball.

Junior's is at:
2379 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90064-2109
and can be found on the Family of Food Map

For those too far from Los Angeles to make the trip to Juniors, here are some links to Matzo Ball Soup recipes.

Good all around recipes and tips:
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Matzo-Ball-Soup/Detail.aspx

Vegetarian:
http://euler.ecs.umass.edu/pass-veg/#Matzo%201

Entertaining:
http://blacktable.com/gillin040407.htm

Scientific:
http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/177/Matzo-Matzah-Ball-Soup

Video Matzo Ball Soup:
I love these videos. The lady in this, Evelyn Igdaloff, is so sweet and she takes so much care in making this soup. Also, she has the same apron I have!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10lFumlVQms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff9jr0as_e4

A Seder Plate Box

As it relates to this blog, this week was a whirlwind of food in combination with family. Disaster brought me home. As I met with my grieving relatives and sympathetic friends, I was treated to a brief gastronomic tour of my childhood. It did what Comfort Food does best, providing a distractingly familiar sensation in the hind brain, capable of calming the rush of thought threatening to overwhelm the frontal lobe.

At the Shiva (the traditional gathering of a Jewish family after a death), the coconut bars made of chocolate, not yellow cake, found their way into my mouth as dessert and out of my mouth as conversation. The astoundingly fresh Raspberry Russian Tea Biscuits were both a sweet to savor and a souvenir to keep me reminiscing on better days. Whether from Pincus or Davis Bakery, the trays of cookies and pastries overflowed with sugar, butter, and kinship.

After visiting the cemetery, my husband and I took a trip to Ho Wah so I could share with him the pu pu platter with it's incredible beef teriyaki and barbecued spare ribs. I showed him the purity of a won ton soup unencumbered by wor bar embellishments rather simply accompanied by shrimp chips. My children loved the shrimp chips.

I went to Corky and Lenny's to meet with a cousin and got chopped liver and corned beef extra lean, the way our family always ordered it. And if you are a hard core Family of Food reader, you may wonder is the ceiling still covered in a mural of trees? Check the comments. Well, it's not. Although the decor has been modernized, the food is still great.

After eating and eating on this tour, I was too full to want more, so I met a friend at Tommy's on Coventry, just to have a place to gather. Thinking of how my waist was growing I resisted ordering the banana milkshake that is my favorite from this old haunt. Husband of Food ordered one of those legendary shakes with whole fresh bananas and my husband promised me two gulps and a sip to satiate my desire to taste. An extra shake came anyway. Somehow, that banana milkshake needed to be in my ever expanding belly. So in it went.

This constant tide of food kept me from facing the sad reality that one of the people I loved most on this Earth was truly gone. It was not until I was home when exhaustion and hunger finally broke the dam holding back emotion. As I unwrapped a small keepsake given to me, one that will remind me of so many gatherings at the table of my Aunt, I faced the truth.

The Deli Experience Continued

It's fitting that the first Cleveland restaurant to make the Family of Food Map is Corky and Lenny's. Our whole family relied heavily upon the arts of this deli and restaurant when we lived on the East side of Cleveland and I'm sure those that still live in town still do. Whenever my grandfather would take me to Corky's he would buy a bar of Halavah for us to split on the way out. I don't love Halavah as a Candy, but sometimes when I go to Canter's in Los Angeles, I see Halavah on the counter on the way out and want to buy it for my Grandpa.

Canter's Los Angeles is also now on the map. As you can see from the previous post, my Dad loves this place. Many a late night Husband of Food and I would grab a Reuben and some Blintzes or Kugel in this Fairfax Deli. So close to Hollywood, we would often see a star or two. Now we live in the San Fernando Valley and we rarely get over the hill for a sandwich. Maybe we'll take the trip. It's worth it.


Corky & Lenny's

27091 Chagrin Blvd
Beachwood, OH 44122
(216) 464-3838


Canter's Fairfax Restaurant

419 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 651-2030

The Deli Experience

In recent years I have cut back on deli foods (corn beef, pastrami, chopped liver, knishes with gravy and even brisket) for health reasons. So when I break down and decide to have some deli, I want the whole megellah (full experience). All of my senses should be engaged. I love the enticing aroma of garlic dill pickles, smell the hanging salamis as I walk past the meat counter. I check out all the pastries for dessert or to take home after the meal. A good deli has a hostess to seat you. She will tell you to wait whether the dining room is empty or full. No matter how busy the restaurant is, you will hear chatter. Noise is part of the deli atmosphere and so are the waiters and waitresses. My favorite waitress was named Goldie, she was like my mother , telling me what to eat and scolding me if I didn't finish it. Of course the food is paramount, it's why we're there in the first place. Great delicatessens have huge menus with everything from breakfast to dinner and dessert. Sandwiches are overstuffed served on freshly baked rye bread, pumpernickel or kaiser roles. G-d forbid you should order corn beef or pastrami on white bread with mayo from Goldie. She probably would throw you out! Deli's are not romantic settings, but sharing a Reuben sandwich and a peace of cheesecake is real love.

Canter's in L.A. on Fairfax delivers the real deli experience. So when they opened a branch here
in Las Vegas at Treasure Island I was excited. Major disappointment!!! The design is somewhere between an airport lobby and a doctor's waiting room. The whole operation is efficient and almost maintenance free. You stand in line to order from a limited menu and they give you a number. They do bring your food to you. It is served on plastic disposable plates with plastic tableware. The tables are stainless steel and some of the ceiling fixtures look like they came from a Starwars movie. The room is cold (no global warmth here). The good news is the sandwiches are good but I miss the full deli experience.

Day of Atonement, Night of Plenty

This weekend I gave up food for one day, Yom Kippur, The Jewish Day of Atonement. Now, if you’ve been following this blog, you know by now, that I love FOOD, so a day without is a rough undertaking at best. I am not going to go on about the difficulties of forgoing sustenance; I just want to set up the joy that is The Breaking of the Fast!

Like the first light-jacket appropriate spring day after a grey down-parka requiring Cleveland winter, the first taste of food after a fast is an event at which you rejoice. At this time, I especially appreciate the Jewish prayer called the HaMotzi, where one gives thanks for bread. I was lucky enough to get an invite to a friend’s post Yom Kippur Dinner, where the each few guests brought some part of the delicious meal. Everything was wonderful, but I want to make mention of a few specific parts of the meal which were outstanding. First, I will give thanks for the bread. It was bakery bread, I believe, but in a town not known for its baked goods, a decent Challah is a blessing of its own. The hostess made her own hummus which was one of the best I have had. I would love the recipe if that friend of food happens to read this post. Then there were two excellent kugels made by that hostess, a cheese square casserole and a shredded potato dish which was addictive. At dessert we had, among other yummy treats, an excellent apple strudel made by a fellow guest. I won’t ask for a recipe for this one, just more strudel. As for my part, I brought a selection of desserts including one of my favorites, “The Cleveland Bar” from Solley’s in Sherman Oaks. Funny thing… I’m from Cleveland and when I first saw this treat in the deli case at Solly’s years ago, I asked if I could get one of those “Coconut Bars” in the case. “Coconut Bars” are what they are called in Cleveland. They had no idea what I was talking about. Now I just ask for the Cleveland Bar to avoid the confusion. Thanks to all who participated and thanks to my hosts who made for a terrific evening.

You can find Cleveland Bars at:
Solly's Deli & Bakery
4578 Van Nuys Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
818-905-5774
818-905-7445

Beginning the blog.

Angelenos have two inexhaustible conversations; how travel by car from one part of Los Angeles to another and where this City of Angels hides a decent slice of pizza. This blog is going to focus on the Pizza conversation. Yes, Pizza with a capital P. Food is important in my family. Our highest cell phone bills can be traced back to this simple question, "What did you have for dinner?" We hope to thwart the profits of Verizon and Sprint by posting our answers to that question here.

There will be blogging about the tiny restaurants in the San Fernando Valley, as well as the rest of Los Angeles, from me, the Daughter, but as the Father begins his expression you will read of great fare from Las Vegas. I hope to also lure my New Yorker brother to the blog as he will bring East Coast flavors to life and if you've ever been to New York, you know that these flavors are worth reading about.

Now back to the Pizza conversation, it is sometimes hit and miss, but my best bet for Pizza in LA is Damiano's Mr. Pizza on Fairfax. I had a meatball pizza there about a decade ago, that I still dream about. This place is dark, dark, dark, except for the glare of the beer fridge. While the lack of light robs you of your eyesight and ability to read the menu, it enhanses your other senses and is perhaps why the tastes are so rich. Give it a try. 412 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036


From the Valley, take Laurel Canyon over the hill to Fairfax, past Melrose. It's across the street from Canter's Deli. Or, take the 101 to and drive down Highland and cross over to Fairfax on any street before Melrose. Or maybe go over on Coldwater...