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!