• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Foodaism.com

  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Inspiration
  • About
  • Contact

restaurant

Sunday at Kenny and Zuke's Delicatessen

August 22, 2012 by Rob Eshman

More than Jews have kept delis, the deli has kept the Jews.

Yes, that’s a direct ripoff of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s famous dictum about the Sabbath.

I didn’t know Heschel, but I bet if I could have gotten him alone over a cup of cold beet borscht at Rattner’s, he would have thought it over, wiped the sour cream from the corner of his mouth, and said, “You know, you may have a point.”

The deli is where we eat, meet, laugh, commiserate, celebrate, feast, deal, cry. Take pulpit and prayer out of a synagogue, add corned beef, and you’d end up with something like a deli.  God is, of course, in both.

Read more at jewishjournal.com/foodaism.

Filed Under: Food, Foodaism Tagged With: deli, dining, food, kenny and zuke's delicatessen, los angeles, restaurant

Primary Sidebar

I said to the almond tree, ‘Sister, speak to me of God.’ And the almond tree blossomed.

–Nikos Kazantzakis, Letters to Greco

Welcome!

This is where I write about food, spirituality and most of the other things that matter to me. Let's dig deeper →

Subscribe

for your weekly recipe fix.

foodaism

These #leeks… bubbling away in plenty of olive o These #leeks… bubbling away in plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper, covered for a bit, then uncovered… these leeks. 

#gardening #gardentotable #veganrecipes
Never been much of a #Purim guy but when @rabbinao Never been much of a #Purim guy but when @rabbinaomilevy asked me to make enough dough for 200 #hamantaschen — that’s *my* celebration. I added fresh vanilla and some grated 🍋 rind to #Breads Bakery sturdy recipe. (And how dependable is my 31 year old @kitchenaidusa bucking and groaning under the load but mixing it up like a champ?) Happy Purim! 

#jewishfood #jewishbaking #homebaking #jewsofinstagram #nashuva
For those who prefer their Purim food savory, I gi For those who prefer their Purim food savory, I give you pitataschen. Sourdough pita, baked in a hamantaschen shape, and filled with avocado and hummus or with an egg, cheese and herbs baked right in the center. The latter are a direct ripoff, I mean inspiration, of @Abulafia in Jaffo, or sambusak, or #lahmajun, or any number of similar baked savory stuffed breads. But it’s #Purim, so they’re disguised as #Jewish. 

How to? Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone or baking sheet inside. Take pita dough (@mikesolomonov cookbooks have great recipes) or store-bought pizza dough. Cut and roll to about the size of a tangerine. Roll each ball into an 8-inch circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Squeeze together sides to form a triangle, pinching each side well. Brush with olive oil. For hummus version, bake until just brown, about 8 minutes. For egg version, bake until just set, about 5 minutes. Crack egg into well, add some cheese and some chopped fresh herbs and salt. Bake until egg is set, another 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Fill empty pitataschens with hummus and avocado. Use harissa on everything. Happy Purim!

#Purimfood #jewishfood #kosherfood #kosherrecipes #jewishrecipes #middleeasternfood #foodvideos
This is my happy place. For the goat it’s just m This is my happy place. For the goat it’s just meh. 

#babygoats #goatstagram #bajacalifornia #animalrescue
Roasted cod with a cilantro crust from #Falastin:A Roasted cod with a cilantro crust from #Falastin:A Cookbook made use of all the late winter cilantro in our garden. There’s so many layers of flavor to this dish: spices, herbs, garlic, lemon, tahini, olive oil. Oh, and cod. The fish section of this important book comes with a thoughtful introduction to the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has impeded the once thriving Gazan fishing fleet. I love that about this book: celebrating the food without looking away from how the people who cook it struggle and cope. Also: fantastic recipes like this. #cookbook #palestine #palestinianfood #middleeasternfood #foodvideo #fishrecipes
I was driving by the Ballona wetlands preserve Sat I was driving by the Ballona wetlands preserve Saturday just as an RV caught on fire. 

For several years city officials have allowed the delicate ecosystem to become an encampment site for RVs and unhoused men and women. 

This has had dire consequences: The people there are not getting the services they need. The natural landscape, what remains of a once vast marsh and now a critical urban habitat for birds and other animals, has been trashed— needles, garbage, feces, chemicals, gasoline. 

Finally, what had been a beautiful taxpayer-funded preserve that activists fought for decades to rescue from development, is now despoiled— not because of greed, but from misguided policies, apathy and inaction. 

When @LAFD put the fire out they found a dead body in the RV, not the only body found in the preserve since 2019. 

The new mayor and the new 11th district council rep have a chance to step in, finally, and repair the damage done to the nature and the people there. #homeless #losangeles #urbanparks
Quick: make a salad using only what’s ripe in yo Quick: make a salad using only what’s ripe in your yard in #venice in January. Roast beets, section oranges, chop mint then toss with olive oil — not from the backyard (@terre_di_zaccanello). Thanks for inspiration from “Olives & Oranges” by @sarajenkins & @cooklikeafox . #backyardgarden #gardentotable #veganvideos #beganrecipes #mediterraneandiet #foodvideos @revivalrootsnursery
You gotta love Venice. At @thevenicewest down the You gotta love Venice. At @thevenicewest down the block on a random rainy Sunday night the legendary Poncho Sanchez played. Even without the perfect #mojito you gotta dance. #morecowbell #congo #latinmusic #salsa #salsadancing #ponchosanchez #livemusic #venicebeach
An illustrated reel to go with my piece in @jdforw An illustrated reel to go with my piece in @jdforward (bio link) on “Searching for Jewish Sicily.” Everywhere Naomi and I went there were faint signs of a once vibrant Jewish world. Maybe the strongest clues left of its existence are in the food… thanks to all the wonderful Sicilians we met, especially our guide in #Palermo Bianca del Bello and @joan_nathan in whose footsteps we followed. Click on link in bio to read all about it.  #jewishitaly #italianfood #sicily #jewishsicily #koshertravel #sicilia #cucinaitaliana #palermo
Another night of Hanukkah, another fried food. Ton Another night of Hanukkah, another fried food. Tonight: Sicilian caponata alla giudia. Caponata, according to many food historians, has Jewish roots. You can read about it and find the  recipe in my article from @jdforward in the bio link. The recipe, from @labna, fries the eggplant cubes in a 1/2 inch of oil until they are almost caramelized. We ate caponata at every dinner in Sicily, always prepared a bit differently. But the fried version was my favorite. Probably because… it was fried. 

#italia #sicilia #cucinaitaliana #cucinasiciliana #sicilianfood #veganrecipes #veganvideo #vegetarianvideos #kosherfood #foodvideos #chanuka #hanukkah #Hanukahfood #jewishfoodie
In Sicily, I became obsessed with these simple chi In Sicily, I became obsessed with these simple chickpea fritters, panelle. Think of stripped down, basic falafel. Of course because they’re fried I decided to make a batch for Hanukkah. Recipe in bio link. #jewishfood #palermo #sicilia #sicilianfood #italianjewish
It’s traditional to eat fried food during #hanuk It’s traditional to eat fried food during #hanukkah — why stop at latkes? Mix 250 gr flour with 500 ml seltzer, stir well.  Dip in pieces of wild fresh cod and fry in hot oil. Serve with salt and lemon. This is a Roman Jewish recipe for fried baccalà. My big innovation is I fry outside with a propane picnic stove so the house doesn’t, you know, stink. Tomorrow: more fried food. It’s like an advent calendar, but oily. Happy Hanukkah!!! #jewishfood #italianfood #romancooking #italianjewish
Instagram post 17996374606600557 Instagram post 17996374606600557
The instant I tasted Chef Bobo’s frico I thought The instant I tasted Chef Bobo’s frico I thought: latke! @bobowonders shared his Friulian recipe with me so I could sub out the traditional #Hanukkah potato pancake for the Italian upgrade, made with potatoes, onion and Alpine cheese. (Montasio is traditional but the smart woman @thecheesestoreofbeverlyhills told me I could use piave instead and Bobo agreed. Swiss works too). You can make these in the skillet (my first try was a bit messy) or do as Bobo does @thefactorykitchen_dtla : form them in ramekins to make restaurant-fancy versions. The easy recipe is in my article @jdforward in the bio link. Read it, print it, make it for at least one Hanukkah meal. 

BTW if you don’t celebrate Hanukkah you’ll love them too. Grazie Bobo. 

#italianfood #hanukkah #latkes #italianjewish #jewishfood #kosherfood #foodvideo #friuliveneziafood #friuliveneziagiulia #italianrestaurant #cucinaitaliana
Wow, Chef Ana Sortun fixed kugel. Take a look: cri Wow, Chef Ana Sortun fixed kugel. Take a look: crispy threads of kataif pastry enclosing a filling of soft cheese, pureed butternut squash and golden raisins, topped with pomegranate and pistachio. I never liked sweet kugel until I tasted this reimagined version, part of the “8 Nights of Hanuka” menu at Birdie G’s in Santa Monica. Also delicious: Sortun’s olive simit stuffed with fresh goat cheese and another dish of deeply roasted parsnips dressed with caramelized onions and cabbage and shards of basturma. But that kugel….

#jewishfood #hanukkah #chanuka #latkes #kugel
Weeknight dinner at da Ettore in Naples. Naomi cho Weeknight dinner at da Ettore in Naples. Naomi chose eggplant parmigiana and a perfect pizza. When I stumbled over my order, the old waiter said, “I’ll tell you what you’re getting,” and ordered for me: fried zucchini blossoms and spaghetti with clams. The tables filled, but people kept coming, so the old waiter just set out more tables in front of someone else’s store. Then a minstrel came by and music broke out. Fast forward a month and I’m watching Howard Stern interview Bruce Springsteen, who explained it all. “I’m Southern Italian, Naples,” Springsteen said. “There’s a lot of innate music ability for one reason or another in Southern Italians.” 

#naplesrestaurants #italianmusic #italianfood @Howardstern #brucespringsteen #pizzanapolitana #cucinanapolitana @daettore @springsteen
Fried ricotta turnovers — Cassatedde di Ricotta Fried ricotta turnovers — Cassatedde di Ricotta — are a specialty of Grammatico bakery in Erice, in Sicily. The delicate dough hides a creamy, not too sweet filling, a comfort food version of cannoli. 

The recipe is in the book “Bitter Almonds,” which tells the remarkable story of Maria Grammatico’s life. Maria was sent to an austere orphanage at age 11, where the nuns used the children as free labor. “I put in a long apprenticeship at the San Carlo: for the first three years I did nothing but scrape the pans. They had to be perfectly clean; if I made a mistake I got a rap on the knuckles.”

When Maria left she had learned enough to open her own shop in Erice, which is now famous, packed with people. The pastries, cookies and marzipan candies I tried there were exemplary. 

But my favorite were these ricotta turnovers. Similar but lesser versions turned up on most Sicilian breakfast buffets.  Anyone know where to get them in LA? NY? 

#italianfood #erice #sicilianfood #sicily #italianbaking #pastry
Same dude, but now the cow has a T-shirt. #mercato Same dude, but now the cow has a T-shirt. #mercatoballarò #palermo
We first had these Sicilian “Esse” cookies at We first had these Sicilian “Esse” cookies at a Panificio Campanella in Monreale, outside Palermo. I like having them to dip in my coffee, so after we ate all the ones we brought home, I searched for a recipe. This one, from shelovesbiscotti.com, comes very close to what we had in the old country — simple, flavored only with lemon peel and a whiff of good olive oil. Enjoy! #italianbaking #kosherrecipes #biscotti #cookieporn #bakingvideos #foodvideos @PanificioCampanella #monreale
“The best bread in Italy is in France,” @stanl “The best bread in Italy is in France,” @stanleytucci writes in his food memoir @Taste (by the way, I did *not* see that knockout last chapter coming). In Sicily, that’s true of the dry chunks of plain white bread most servers plop on your table. But on the last day of our trip we walked into a bakery in Monreale, outside Palermo, and discovered Sicilian bread. Monreale is famous with tourists for its cathedral, but with locals for its small, round loaves, made with local semolina flour. Just across from the cathedral Naomi spotted a bakery opening after siesta, Panificio Campanella.

The young bakerwas dumping hot round loaves behind a display case. He broke one open and offered me a bite. It was a deep yellow-orange tint, with a nutty fragrance and a coarse, earthy texture. I had to see the flour. First he showed me a picture of the ancient Sicilian variety of wheat grains on his iPhone: “Native Sicilian hard wheat,” he said. Then he took me to the back and reached in to a sack, pulling out a fine yellow powder, which those same deep brown grains had somehow become.

I was using my pathetic excuse for Italian, but I definitely heard him ask me if I wanted it plain or a cunzatu. “Cunzatu" was the only Sicilian word I’d learned, because after three days in Palermo,I’d seen those sandwiches everywhere. He split a fresh loaf open and filled it with the ingredients: a deep red slice of tomato, salty cheese, a couple sardine filets, olive oil, dried oregano, salt and lots of pepper. He handed it over and I crunched down. Wow. The best bread in Italy, turns out, is in Monreale.

#italianfood #sicilianfood #sicily #sicilytravel #palermofood #palermo #stanleytucci #cunzatu #monreale #italianbaking #italianbread
Load More Follow on Instagram

Featured Posts

Passover Recipes

Two Chocolate Passover Desserts

A New Leaf [RECIPES]

The Sabbath Lunch Savior

Inside Empire Kosher Chicken

The Zeidler Table

Judy’s kitchen

Copyright ©2023 · Foodaism.com - All Rights Reserved.