Whenever I venture to Katz’s famous delicatessen located on East Houston street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (better known as LES), I always order the same thing: Two Knishes and two hot dogs. Plus a cream soda to wash it down.
If you are a native New Yorker, you have been to the famous Kosher-style eatery many times.
Out here in the Midwest, I can’t get a goddamn knish!
So my wonderful wife got on-line and searched out a deli in New York (Copiague to be exact) and had them deliver the knishes to us. We ordered a ton!
Thank heavens for Gabila’s out on the island! What a fine selection they have. Here is their website if you would like to order them.
I haven’t stopped eating them since they arrived. (Thank God I workout!)
Many people reading this blog have no idea what a knish is - pity those poor souls, they don’t know what they’re missing.
Here you go in a nutshell…A knish is a snack that is very popular in the jewish community (but not limited because the Irish and Italians eat ‘em too). It’s fried dough filled with mashed potato. When cooked, you would slice it open and pour brown mustard on top of it. (My mouth is watering and I’m staring over my right shoulder at the freezer)
Many hot dog stands’ in Manhattan carry them. I’m sure the supermarkets also have them in stock.
I recall the days as a youngster lying out on the hot dry sand at Brighton Beach and there was that guy who always walked around carrying brown bags in both hands with handles shouting, “HOT KNISHES, ICE COLD SODAS…HOT KNISHES ICE COLD SODAS!”
The dude had to be melting! He had long pants, black shoes and socks! Plus he was lugging a few bags.
When she felt like we deserved them, my mom would splurge and buy us one each but most times we brown-bagged it. I didn’t like eating them on the beach because pebbles of sand always found their way on the knish.
In my late teens and early 20’s I would travel on my mountain bike down to play basketball at Manhattan Beach with guys like Glenn, Turk and Jackie Ryan. After running for a few hours we would head over to a deli in Brighton Beach and grab a couple of knishes and wash it down with a forty-ounce!
A knish with mustard, there’s nothing like it and thank God for UPS and Fed-Ex!
Sounds like a small bus. op. in the making. I think I will pick some up at the supermarket and have for lunch, I love Knish’s with mustard. I like 40’s as well. Maybe I will one those too, lol.
The grass isn’t always greener when you move. If I could’nt have pizza, egg creams, knishes, and gyros. life would hardly be worth livin!!!!
JV,
We can all agree that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side but when you move for the right reasons, it’s a lot greener!
Hope you are well…
Steven,
You definitely moved for the right reasons. getting to do what you like for a living is worth all the bad pizza and bagels..A common theme is that wherever folks move to is they can’t get a good slice, bagel, or egg cream.. hell the rest of the world always asks ,” IF there is not egg in it, why do they call it an egg cream”.. To that I have no answer.You are the first I have heard with knishes..
My suggestion.. drink more beer!!!
You know it just dawned on me. Why don’t you turn this into a book of blogs and insights and you can have all proceeds go to saving Holy Name School.
I’ll bet alot of people would be more than eager to contribute even more great stories and pictures of growing up in “the Neighborhood”
You can do the book signing in the school yard.
you can call it “I can’t get a goddamn Knish’ the Container Diaries.
I’m serious you need to think about this.
I too, did love to get a knish at Brighton Beach. The supermarket one’s just aren’t the same. I also loved the guy that went around with his Poloroid camera and took your picture for $1.00. I still have the picture I got there. I was there when they were filming The Warriors. I saw the star in the Pizza place on the boardwalk. When the movie came out and the posters were in the subway station, Annie or Joanne pulled down the part with Michael Beck’s face & I hung it in my room.
The book signing in the school yard would be so funny. I think Farrells would be a better spot for it though. Maybe you could get some containers made up with your picture on it.
Helen
Drinking a container and looking at his mug???
That is a classic example of mixed emotions !
Helen, good call. The Warriors was a great flick. I remember going into Manhattan to see it one Friday night. Do you remember the lady who played the DJ (Lynne Thigpen)? She was also in the movie Godspell and Lean On Me (The Joe Clark story) and she was also the Chief in the TV series Carmen Sandiego. I always tell Sue that I remember more crap like this that will never make me any money. LOL!
JV, when coach becomes the head man at MSU or UM then the cost of containiers with his picture on them will go up expomnentially because he’d be a celebrity.
I love Godspell.
Yes, knishes makes me think of the guys with the brown paper handle bags walking down the beach while I lifeguarded Coney Island. Those guys would work so hard…..they would sweat profusely and keep on going through the deep sand.
Jerry,
Why not SJU??? He’ll teach them Holy Name style.. tough all around and smart (at least when it came to
hoops?
JC-MSU or U of M is a stretch - I spent two years at MSU and what a great experience! I’m just at the Juco level, I have a ways to go but thanks for the props.
JV-SJU is a great job, I hope they get it going soon. Norm Roberts is a good guy. Shoot, I’d settle for CSI…
Helen-The Warriors is one of my favorite flicks. We saw it on 18th ave and afterwards thought we were a rival gang.
Tony F-You are very astute. The book is in the works (I like the ‘I can’t get a Goddam knish’ idea for a chapter) and has been for some time now. Going over things with some editing/revising. As for the book signing in the schoolyard, that would be a great idea. Or like Helen says, Farrell’s could be an option if it rains!
It is tough to come in and sit down on the computer and start reading about knishes and great places to eat as I sit here with a bowl of left over Macaroni and cheese that was left over from my daughter’s dinner. Hey Steve, I think a great blog would be places worth traveling out of our neighborhood to eat. Just to name a few, Pizza at Spumoni Gardens, a pastrami sandwich at Katz’s Deli after practice at LaSalle, a calzone from Lenny’s on 5th, a knish and dog at Nathan’s in Coney Island , nowhere else counts.
iSN’T THIS L’ENNY’S 50 TH ANNIVERSARY? NEXT TO FRANK’S , IT WAS MY FAVORITE PLACE TO GO.. YOU BUY
RECORDS AT
5TH AND 9ST RECORD STORE, GO TO GERMAINES OR J&D’S.
AND HIT LENNY’S FOR A CALZONE, ZEPPOLES, OR A SLICE..
MY DAUGHTER JUST RETURNED FROM EUROPE STUDING AT
SJU.. SHE SAID YOU PAY BY THE WEIGHT OF THE SLICE..
There is no way you could make any of this stuff up.Let me know when. I want to be first on line for the book signing. I was gonna say Farrell’s but it would be a better tribute to do it in the schoolyard.
Keep up the good work.
Coach, I am sure that you tell your players to Dream Big, no reason you shouldn’t do that as well. Your time at MSU and SPC have given you great experience and hopefully your time will come. Valvano’s best team at Iona beat Louisville at MSG when they were ranked #1 no one gave us a chance yet the Gaels shocked the world beating the eventual National Champions. That team’s slogan was Dare To Dream.
JV, SJU is a prime job and believe me I’d love to see coach end up there some day. SJU could really use a guy who understands what that program means to NYC. For selfish reasons, I would actually love to see him as a head man in the MAAC conference first though.
JC,
Thank you.
I tell my kids every day to attend class and always do the right thing!
I was at that Iona-Louisville game at the Garden when Iona beat the eventual National champions with Darrell Griffith. Ruland finger rolled the ball in at the end. I remeber seeing Glen McMillan from holy cross HS pick the ball up off the floor with one hand and throw it down the floor like a baseball for a fast break lay-up. McMillan only played one year at Iona but man did he have a big game that night! The Garden was rocking that night!
The question is: Can Iona ever beat Lousiville again like they did that night? How ironic that Kevin Willard is the head coach at Iona and before arriving in New Roch - he was an assistant at L’Ville?
Lenny´s Pizza is still going strong. On Wednesdays in the day they have a 2 for 1 sale on pies but I swear the sauce is different. At night they go to their own homemade sauce which makes all the difference in the world! I teach and my school orders them for the kids for special parties/awards. They now deliver but they have got a kid on a bike delivering so by the time you get your pizza (if you live on Sherman Street like me) you are better off driving and picking it up yourself. Great pizza to this day!