the delicatessen is an ingrained part of
Jewish culture but is in danger today
because of several factors hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com our host Sean Larkin got
the chance to sit down with journalist
David Sachs who’s on a mission to save
the deli you’re on a mission to save the
deli that’s the title of the book right
what does that mean there used to be
thousands of Jewish delicatessens around
North America now there’s just a couple
hundred in cities like New York there
were some 2,000 delis and now there’s
about twenty four for anyone who’s
tucked into you know a medium fat
smoking sandwich or car Notsil or a
plate of full sour pickles and you know
the joy that flavor brings you it’s
something that that’s worth fighting
what has come in what is challenging the
deli it’s a very time labor-intensive
food it’s the price of the actual
ingredients and processes are harder and
harder but they’re sort of rising it and
so the delis have been squeezed
economically the other reasons cultural
is that this was the food of these your
European immigrants our
great-grandparents came from Hungary
Romania whatever slice of that part of
the world are from and when they came
here they were eating this food or foods
like this on a daily basis but with each
successive generation that grew up you
know that changed their name from saks
the Saxon that really became more
Americanized or Canadian I’d the kids
grow up eating sushi in Chinese food and
Italian food and this crew dizon is
relevant to them on a day-to-day basis
because they just don’t have that
connection to that physical place can
you tell us where you went and where
where were the best delis you know kind
of give us the right overview what
happened there so for two months in 2007
I drove from my home in Toronto out to
California la over to Florida and back
stopping all along the way to Troy
Chicago Las Vegas
all these sorts of places visiting all
the different delis there and you know
it’s interesting every community does
Delhi differently so in Detroit they’re
really into corned beef they’re not so
much into pastrami Chicago even though
it was a city where a lot of the meat
was produced the deli culture never
caught on it was more of a hot dog town
in LA it’s it’s probably one of the best
deli cities anywhere you go to Canter’s
deli ornate nails and you know you’ll
have mel brooks at one table and you’ll
have like seth rogen of the next table i
mean it just it’s real and that makes it
that makes it fantastic I think the last
the last thing we want to know is in
your opinion what makes the best smoked
meat sandwich the first element is the
bread it should be rye bread it should
be freshly baked the sort of edge of it
should have a crispness to it you can if
you had a really good microphone you can
sort of hear a crackle there and then
the middle should be soft but it
shouldn’t break apart because you’re
stressing with a lot of steamed meat the
meat should be you know cured well
without too many preservatives and then
ideally like they do in Montreal not to
do with Langer’s in LA or cats is in New
York this should hand slice it because
when you hand slice if you can steam it
for that much longer can be that much
more tender and you can cut it thick you
can kind of thin you can cut fatty parts
you can cuddle inner parts um and that’s
pretty much it you know mustard love
lots of love sounds good yeah
Jewish culture but is in danger today
because of several factors hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com our host Sean Larkin got
the chance to sit down with journalist
David Sachs who’s on a mission to save
the deli you’re on a mission to save the
deli that’s the title of the book right
what does that mean there used to be
thousands of Jewish delicatessens around
North America now there’s just a couple
hundred in cities like New York there
were some 2,000 delis and now there’s
about twenty four for anyone who’s
tucked into you know a medium fat
smoking sandwich or car Notsil or a
plate of full sour pickles and you know
the joy that flavor brings you it’s
something that that’s worth fighting
what has come in what is challenging the
deli it’s a very time labor-intensive
food it’s the price of the actual
ingredients and processes are harder and
harder but they’re sort of rising it and
so the delis have been squeezed
economically the other reasons cultural
is that this was the food of these your
European immigrants our
great-grandparents came from Hungary
Romania whatever slice of that part of
the world are from and when they came
here they were eating this food or foods
like this on a daily basis but with each
successive generation that grew up you
know that changed their name from saks
the Saxon that really became more
Americanized or Canadian I’d the kids
grow up eating sushi in Chinese food and
Italian food and this crew dizon is
relevant to them on a day-to-day basis
because they just don’t have that
connection to that physical place can
you tell us where you went and where
where were the best delis you know kind
of give us the right overview what
happened there so for two months in 2007
I drove from my home in Toronto out to
California la over to Florida and back
stopping all along the way to Troy
Chicago Las Vegas
all these sorts of places visiting all
the different delis there and you know
it’s interesting every community does
Delhi differently so in Detroit they’re
really into corned beef they’re not so
much into pastrami Chicago even though
it was a city where a lot of the meat
was produced the deli culture never
caught on it was more of a hot dog town
in LA it’s it’s probably one of the best
deli cities anywhere you go to Canter’s
deli ornate nails and you know you’ll
have mel brooks at one table and you’ll
have like seth rogen of the next table i
mean it just it’s real and that makes it
that makes it fantastic I think the last
the last thing we want to know is in
your opinion what makes the best smoked
meat sandwich the first element is the
bread it should be rye bread it should
be freshly baked the sort of edge of it
should have a crispness to it you can if
you had a really good microphone you can
sort of hear a crackle there and then
the middle should be soft but it
shouldn’t break apart because you’re
stressing with a lot of steamed meat the
meat should be you know cured well
without too many preservatives and then
ideally like they do in Montreal not to
do with Langer’s in LA or cats is in New
York this should hand slice it because
when you hand slice if you can steam it
for that much longer can be that much
more tender and you can cut it thick you
can kind of thin you can cut fatty parts
you can cuddle inner parts um and that’s
pretty much it you know mustard love
lots of love sounds good yeah
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