Lunchtime: In Praise Of Delicious Knishes
Can we talk about things that are delicious for a moment? Particularly with regards to lunchtime? Thanks for hearing me out, I've never done this before and I'm a little nervous. I'm a big fan of indulging in whatever the hell you want when it's 15 degrees out. Savory pastry. Extra-smooth sour cream and cream cheese-spiked mashed potatoes. Extra-smooth sour cream and cream cheese-spiked mashed potatoes enveloped in savory pastry. Maybe baked until golden brown so the inside is creamy and potatoey and the outside is crisp, golden-brown and glistening with butter? AND it's Jewish? I'm calling Grandma Norma, she's gonna plotz.
Okay, I'm done. But seriously, my family's been noshing at NYC world-class knishery, Yonah Schimmel, for damn near a century. Grandma Norma knows these knishes well, I should bring her a bag next time I head down to Boca. My mom, a NY-California transplant, asks if I picked up knishes every time I mention I'm in the Lower East Side. If I brought her knishes, I bet she'd stop holding my Bat Mitzvah jewelry ransom "for when I'm old enough."
A couple of months ago, something terrible happened: Gabila's Knishes, the biggest knish factory in the entire world burned to a crisp. I love when what I was going to say works extra-well in context. My insensitivity aside, however, there was a subsequent shortage to the point of "no knishes, anywhere" for two weeks. Except, of course, at Yonah Schimmel. But those, and the ones at other notable delis around the city, are the homemade round kind. Gabila's are the square ones you get everywhere else, but boy are they good! They were back in business in no time, and knish-lovers everywhere were only mildly traumatized.
If you've never had one, you would love it unless you seriously don't like any food, ever. And I realize knish is not an English word, but I find the fact that you can't describe a knish as delicious without kinda rhyming to be really endearing. Final thought: one time an Indian friend called me a Seinfeld samosa. I'm not even playing the open-minded bi-cultural recipe editor here, I just genuinely think samosa filling would be awesome in a knish, completely objectively speaking. Feel free to let me know if you'd hit that.
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