Save the Deli

In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen

David Sax

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780547417356
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Arts culinaires

James Beard Award Winner: A cultural history and culinary travelogue from "the M.F.K. Fisher of pickled meats" (A. J. Jacobs). These days there are very few places you can get authentic hot pastrami sandwiches, delicious matzo ball soup, and chewy, crusty rye. In this travelogue, die-hard delicatessen lover David Sax searches out the best Jewish delis around the United States—and the world—and digs deep into the history of the deli: its characters, greatest triumphs, spectacular failures, and uncertain future. Going far beyond New York landmarks, past and present, like Katz's, the Carnegie Deli, and the Second Avenue Deli, to Chicago, Florida, LA, Montreal, Toronto, Paris, and beyond, Save the Deli is the story of diaspora, and of one man's quest to save a defining element of the culture—and the food—he loves. It even includes a glossary of food and Yiddish terms, for the goyim or the woefully assimilated. Just don't read it on an empty stomach. "An epic journey, akin to The Odyssey but with Rolaids." —Roger Bennett, author of Bar Mitzvah Disco

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Frontispiece
• Introduction
• NEW YORK, NU?
• Next! Behind the Counter at Katz’s Delicatessen
• From Pushcarts to $15 Sandwiches: A Nosh of New York Deli History
• Formica Philosophy: Why New York Needs Its Jewish Delicatessen
• Pastraminomics: The Dollars and Senselessness of the New York Delicatessen Business
• Death of a Deli: The 2nd Ave Deli
• USA: COAST TO COAST WITH LATKES TO BOAST
• Detroit: Motown’s Deli Blues and Michigan’s Suburban Jews
• Chicago: Can Deli Return to the Windy City?
• The Yucchuputzville Diaries Part 1: Goy West Young Man
• I Left My Kishkes in San Francisco
• Los Angeles: Hooray for Hollywood
• Las Vegas: Luck Be a Brisket Tonight
• The Yucchuputzville Diaries Part 2: Schmaltz by Southwest
• Florida: Where Deli Goes to Die
• TRAVELS IN THE DELI DIASPORA
• Montreal: A Smoked Meat Kingdom
• Toronto: Home Bittersweet Home
• London: God Save the Deli
• The Fine Art of Jewish Delicatessen in Belgium and Paris
• Krakow: Heartburn from Poland’s Tortured Past
• Deli’s 2nd Coming (Just off 3rd Ave)
• Food and Yiddish Appendix
• Listing of Delis
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Illustration Credits
• About the Author