In preparation for my journey from the MinneApple to The Big Apple, Rob
and I met Steve Dropkin at Zaroff's Delicatessen <www.zaroffsdeli.com>
this afternoon. Pretty good stuff. I told our waiter Vinny (Gangsta
Guido's cousin, I'm sure) that I was in training for a visit to the 2nd
Ave Deli in Manhattan.

Steve and I each had a knish; his fried and mine baked. Yum. I think
mine was about equal to the frozen ones I bought at Cecil's in St. Paul.
I didn't taste the deep-fried version. Rob ordered the cabbage rolls
and brought most home with him -- they were in a sweet-sour sauce that
had raisins in it. He said they were really filling. The meat was
cooked in the cabbage, not before. I could tell. :-)

My dainty appetite dictated the brisket platter with the two latkes
accompanied by sour cream-topped applesauce, carrot tzimmes, and two
latkes. Oink, oink. Five slices of brisket topped with a sweet-sour
sauce that also involved diced carrots and turnips in it. I enjoyed all
of it and thought the tzimmes was a little weird. It was not what I
expected. The pudding part was gluey and made without milk. It
appeared to me that the carrots (sliced) were kind of put on top and
sprinkled with raisins. It was tasty but I expected something different
-- please don't ask me to explain why, I just did. The brisket was
tasty and I'll have it for supper later or tomorrow evening. The latkes
were thicker than I expected them to be and reminded me of my own potato
pancakes. Tasty enough.

Steve had a pastrami (IIRC) sandwich on not-marble-rye bread (though
that's what he ordered), accompanied by a humongous bowl of potato
salad. The salad was good. Mild and not vinegary or mustardy. We
managed to get Vinny to bring us more half-sour pickles, too. Those
were good! Steve washed his sandwich (piled with pastrami) down with a
Cel-Ray soda. That was a new one for me. Kinda tasty, too.

Vinny kept bugging us about ordering dessert -- don't know if we were
holding him up, but I'll bet he asked us three times if we were going to
order or were ready to order. We wuz conversing, Vinny!! We settled
on the rugulach. They came to us hot, like they'd been nuked, and the
dough wasn't the kind of dough I remember from some rugulach that Kay
Hartman and Margaret have sent me.

I was going to bring home something from the deli counter but changed my
mind -- too full! I'd go again. The best part was seeing and
visiting with Steve again. He's a great restaurant guide! Oh, I was
just kidding about our waiter's name. I have no idea what it was. He
looked like a Vinny, though. :-)

The End.
--
-Barb
State Fair prizewinning jams and jellies for sale at the Burnsville
Senior Citizens Bake Sale, November 19, 2003; 9:00 a.m. -6:00 p.m.
Diamondhead Education Center, Burnsville Parkway & Nicollet Aves,
Burnsville. 952-707-4120