La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.
I enjoyed some typically American (and New York American) meals during my visit earlier this month. I mentioned Nathan’s hot dogs, a favorite of mine. And the pastrami sandwich at Court Street Deli. But I also went to Junior’s, a Brooklyn institution, for lunch one day, just so I could say I did. There was also a good deli called Mile End near my hotel. I was supposed to meet my cousin and aunt there for dinner, but that didn’t pan out. Although I wasn’t feeling great that evening, I walked over and had a bite. Also in the neighborhood is Dekalb Market Hall, a large basement-level food court in City Point, a three-tower mixed-use development. The first tower is described as affordable apartments. I have no idea what that means in New York City terms.
But back to food. Since I don’t live in New York City, I still have money for food. The slogan at the top of this page, “Send a salami to your boy in the army,” was popularized in World War II. Note: Army rhymes with salami. So, repeat after me: “AH-me.” Send a salami to yaw boy in the AH-me.
This particular sign is displayed at the deli “A Taste of Katz’s,” a spin-off of the famous deli in lower Manhattan. Louis G. Schwartz was a waiter during World War II. He came up with the slogan to support his son-in-law, a P.O.W. He also came up with: “You’ll buy War Bonds sooner or later. So get them today from Louie the Waiter.” As a result, he raised $9 million for the war effort.
Disfruté de algunas comidas típicamente estadounidenses (y neoyorquinas) durante mi visita a principios de este mes. Mencioné los hot dogs de Nathan, uno de mis favoritos. Y el sándwich de pastrami en Court Street Deli. Pero un día también fui a almorzar a Junior’s, una institución de Brooklyn, sólo para poder decir que sí. No me excedí durante mi viaje y mayormente me salté la cena y solo tomé un refrigerio saludable (fruta y nueces). También había una buena tienda de delicatessen llamada Mile End cerca de mi hotel. Se suponía que me encontraría con mi prima y mi tía allí para cenar, pero eso no funcionó. Aunque no me sentía muy bien esa noche, me acerqué y comí un bocado. También en el vecindario se encuentra Dekalb Market Hall, un gran patio de comidas en el sótano en City Point, un desarrollo de uso mixto de tres torres. La primera torre se describe como apartamentos asequibles. No tengo idea de lo que eso significa en términos de la ciudad de Nueva York.
Pero volvamos a la comida. Como no vivo en la ciudad de Nueva York, todavía tengo dinero para comida. El lema que aparece en la parte superior de esta página, “Envía un salami a tu chico en el ejército”, se popularizó en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Nota: En neoyorquino, army (ejército) rima con salami. Entonces, repite conmigo: “AH-mi”.
Este letrero en particular se exhibe en la tienda de delicatessen “A Taste of Katz’s”, una versión derivada de la famosa tienda de delicatessen en el bajo Manhattan. Louis G. Schwartz era un camarero durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Se le ocurrió el lema para apoyar a su yerno, un prisionero de guerra.
• Tomé un BLT simple (bacon, lechuga y tomate) en Junior’s y mi refresco favorito, crema soda.
• En Estados Unidos la gente tiende a pedir su edulcorante (sacarina) por el color del paquete o por la marca. La mayoría de los restaurantes tienen múltiples opciones y muchas personas son muy exigentes acerca de qué marca usan. No sé si hay alguna diferencia de sabor. Todos son químicos.
• Junior’s tiene lo que se llama “el mejor tarta de queso de Nueva York”. No me permití.
• Harry Rosen abrió Junior’s en 1950; su familia era propietaria de un restaurante en ese lugar desde 1929. Su nieto es el propietario actual. El restaurante está en la esquina de Flatbush Avenue y Dekalb Avenue. Dekalb Avenue tiene otro nombre en honor a Harry Rosen y, más tarde, la esquina fue dedicada como Cheesecake Corner (esquina de tarta de queso).
• Mile End Deli (delicatessen del final de la milla), a unos minutos caminando desde mi hotel. Pequeño, anodino, básico, amigable y un buen sándwich Reuben de carne en conserva. Obviamente, no son del tamaño tradicional de los sándwiches neoyorquinos — pero más barato y más racional. ¿Mencioné que me encantan la crema soda?
Click the thumbnails to enlarge.
Haz clic en las miniaturas para ampliar.
I love that slogan!
That was me who loves the slogan. Clicked the reply on the right instead of the reply on the left (the one where you can leave your name.)
Kirk,
I do, too. Had forgotten about it until I saw the sign.
You ate like a king at those delis!
Debra,
I usually get carried away. Was proud of my self-restraint. I missed having a knish.
While I am not quite awake as of yet, when I read “Send a salami to your boy in the army” and you said army rhymed with salami, I said, out loud, “Send a salarmy to your boy in the army.” It took me a minute to realize …
Then I saw the Reuben, and being a sucker for a Reuben, I forgot about the salarmy.
Lastly, color me stunned you didn’t Cheesecake It at Cheesecake Corner.
Bob,
Truth is, I had cheesecake at dinner there a few years ago… and of course reflux that night. And although it was good, I didn’t think it was NY’s best. Besides, Meson Salvador makes excellent NY-style cheesecake (and Spanish style, too). As for salami, say it all with a NYC accent and it won’t matter.
Boud here. After all that deli food you didn’t try cheesecake?? But that’s the reason to go to New York anyway, never mind the museums and various sights. Shaking my head, looks like you can take New York out of the boy!
Boud,
Surprisingly, Meson Salvador makes superb cheesecake, so I don’t feel deprived. When we lived in California, the first thing I did when I was in NYC was start searching out cheesecake.
What we need to do at Juniors is skip the meal, and just order the cheesecake. By time you have made your way through the corned beef or pastrami, desert is not appealing.
David,
You’re right about that. If I’m going to have cheesecake, that should be all I have.
Thanks for the tour of these delis! I remember my first, and only, NYC deli sandwich at Carnegie Deli. It was HUGE! I thought it was joke! It was delicious!
Jim,
Carnegie Deli. My last time there was around 1990! Young English newlyweds sat next to us. She kept asking for more bread so she could make English sandwiches (one slice of meat between two slices of bread). It was so funny. The waiter, a brash New Yorker, finally slapped a loaf of sliced rye bread on the table.
How funny was taht!
Ah, East Coast ethnic food…how I miss it. (I saw the sign before reading the post and thought “Senda Salami” was an Italian brand name I’d never heard of.
Frank,
Made in Brooklyn! Senda surprised me. Although they’re combined when spoken, I didn’t think they were meant to be combined when written.
Thank you for the explanation on why the “send a salami” slogan worked. I was clueless there. I also very much like the slogan about Pierre and war bonds. Might as well! Exactly!
I worked in a restaurant once that was owned by a guy running a pyramid scheme which we did not know but found out later. We, the employees, knew that SOMETHING was up. He was never there and all of us ate whatever we wanted from the kitchen. It was a bit of a deli-like place. They sold “authentic” NY cheesecake and I ate so much cheesecake while I was there that I can barely look at a piece now. I was a vegetarian then and my favorite thing to eat was a veggie reuben which was rye bread, cheese, and sauerkraut. Those I still sometimes crave.
Ms. Moon
Ms.Moon,
There’s a lot of authentic out there! I really only enjoy sauerkraut when it’s on a Reuben. I never really thought about the fact that if you don’t think with a New York City accent, there’s no music to that slogan.
Cream soda, and anything vanilla in general, is proof of God’s love for the world. (David usually refers to vanilla as “plain” or “flavorless”. What does he know; he grew up in Michigan.)
Wicked hamster,
Cream soda, root beer, and real ginger ale are musts when I’m in NYC. So many people think of vanilla as simply plain or flavorless. I love it. SG’s sister once baked a “vanilla” cake from a box of chocolate cake mix. She simply left out the packet of cocoa. Then she couldn’t understand why the cake had no flavor whatsoever.
So much fun to see all of the NYC stuff!
I hadn’t thought about cream soda in ages… I don’t believe that we have cream soda on the grocery store shelves out here in St. Louis (but, I think that they did, many decades ago, when we had local soda companies in town).
Judy C,
I do miss cream soda, and root beer.
What possible other way can you pronounce “salami”??
It’s probably just as well they put the apostrophe-S on the end of “Katz”, otherwise it might have sounded like some nightmarish Southeast Asian food market – “a taste of cats”… Jx
Jon,
Salami is not the issue. It’s army (when the R is emphasized). Although I have heard the second A of salami pronounced incorrectly. Yeah, Katz deli would not have sounded as appetizing.
A coworker of mine is a sweetnlow or die of sugar kinda lady
Adam,
I used to use sugar or nothing. Since “Diabetic” I often use a fake sweetener, but I don’t care what brand.
I just can’t do artificial sweeteners and I try (often unsuccessfully) to avoid white sugar, so that pretty much leaves maple syrup, honey, or coconut sugar.
Now I WILL join you in a cream soda. Yum!
Kelly,
Coconut sugar. That’s one I’ve never tried.
When I was a kid, we had a soft drink brand named Crush… there was Orange Crush, Grape Crush and Cream Soda Crush in red or clear. And the clear cream soda was even sweeter than the red and seemed to make the paper straws go soggy faster, LOL!
I don’t know how you could resist all those cheesecakes either!
Tundra Bunny,
I’ve had Orange Crush but never heard of the others. That clear Cream Soda Crush sounds awful. We have excellent cheesecake here at Meson Salvador whenever we want it. So I don’t have the same craving.
I’m a fan of cream soda, too. It’s been ages since I’ve tasted some. All that food is mouthwatering. Do you mind sharing the name of the hotel you you stayed in? If you have already, I missed it.
The salami story made me flash on Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo, smuggling a huge salami on a plane returning from Italy. At one point, you may remember, she wrapped it up in blankets and pretended it was a baby. Then they ended up having to eat it so it wouldn’t be confiscated. Hilarious, at least to my adolescent self.
Walt the Fourth,
I have cream soda every time I go back. I stay at the Nu Hotel on Smith Street in Brooklyn. I remember and loved that I Love Lucy episode. And a lot of that series in Italy.
Dave and I often say that living in London, we most miss American delis and diners. There’s just nothing here that compares. I had no idea there was a “mini-Katz’s” in Brooklyn! As for Junior’s, in all the years I lived in NYC, I never went — mostly because I’m not a cheesecake fan and that’s their claim to fame.
Steve:
The mini-Katz’s in a brand new “dining market” in the basement of the new development. I decided to not pay those prices to order at the counter and have to search for someplace to sit (and still be expected to leave at least a 20 percent tip).
New York Deli! Nothing like them !
Urspo:
You’re so right. The one thing I missed this trip was a good potato knish. Next time!
I LOVE BLTs and Cream Soda!
Sassybear:
When I was a kid, we had chocolate milk with our BLTs. I just really miss cream soda. But I also missed my chance to have an egg cream!