Posted: July 26th, 2011 | Author: knish hunter | Filed under: Brooklyn, NYC mon amour | Comments Off
One of the great places to come to do work — on knishes or anything — is the Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection, second floor of the Central branch at Grand Army Plaza. It’s quiet and lined with volumes about all aspects of Brooklyn life.
I’ve consulted a fair number of titles of all stripes, including Joseph Heller’s Now and Then in which he issues a clarion cry for Shatzkin’s knishes of Coney Island and lists Mrs. Stahl’s as a rival concern favored by those with roots in Brighton Beach. Today I pulled this off the shelf:
Sodom by the Sea: An Affectionate History of Coney Island
By Oliver Pilat and Jo Ranson
Garden City Publishing Company
copyright 1941
Page 242:
In addition to thousands of frankfurters every day, the newcomer [Nathan's] also dispensed hundreds of gallons of root beer, Coca-cola, soda pop, and carloads of potato chips and knishes, Jewish potato cakes flavored with onion and fried in deep fat.
Yum. That’s your Coney Island knish, all right.
Posted: September 25th, 2010 | Author: knish hunter | Filed under: NYC mon amour, performance | Comments Off
Great news:
Get ready for a homecoming.
The Knish takes (back) Second Avenue.
I will be participating in the Conflux Festival and leading a knish processional on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.
That morning, the Yiddish Theatrical Alliance will make its annual trek to Mount Hebron cemetery in Flushing, Queens, where my great-grandfather is also buried. He was not a thespian, alas, but a saddle-maker, according to his death certificate. I like the idea of making the pilgrimage en masse and am eager to meet members of the storied Alliance. I hope Fyvish Finkel, one of the last greats, will be on hand, but he’s also got a show in the works.
Come one, come all. Knish lovers, knish enthusiasts and new initiates of all sizes, shapes, affiliations and taste preferences are welcome to join in the procession — or to join the flocks of onlookers.
Posted: March 29th, 2010 | Author: knish hunter | Filed under: Jewish celebration, NYC mon amour, performance, Whiffs and Sniffs | Tags: what i did last night | Comments Off
In the spirit of down-home happenings, I humbly present a preview of the Knish Color Guard. Thanks Lee and Natasha.
All hail the underbelly.
Last week I went to two most amazing performances:
Commemoration of the 99th Anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
Great Small Works’ most fantabulous Spaghetti Dinner
Great to be around old-time New York types who challenge the establishment and invite people of different ages, backgrounds, cultures, and money levels to share space and food. Bravo! Proof that New York is not just about glitz and glam but also about coming together and making a difference for people of all walks of life.
I like to think about this, especially on the eve of Passover, which is all about challenging the confines, structures and strictures we set for ourselves.
Pretty great how a bowl of popcorn or a plate of spaghetti can unite a crowd, spark a conversation, create commonality. I cleaned my plate at Great Small Works’ Spring Spaghetti and took in a smorgasbord of entertainment: a quartet of tiger puppets, a face-changing Peking opera performer, a story about the history of oil, an excerpt from a novel about online dating for the uber-hairy, and a sultry singer with a southern twang. But wait, I’m forgetting an important thing — the presentation by independent relief workers in Haiti and reports of their new projects.
At the commemoration of the 99th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, Annie Lanzilatto placed a phantom shirtwaist on a stick in my hand when I walked in and urged me into the procession with a one-ply specter of a shirt dangling three feet above my head. All of them had names. Mine said: unidentified woman. Annie is Bronx-born Italian with the accent and heart to prove it. “What do you want to change?’ she thundered to the crowd. “Do something.”
What does all this have to do with knish culture? I love these events for bringing people together with a focus on what’s inside on a person. Spectacle is about surfaces and what we perceive, but both of these shindigs also gave light to the invisible — heartbreak, injustice, people and perspectives that can be tough to find in the hullabaloo of the big city.
