Steve, Lon’s best friend, is getting married tonight. The rehearsal dinner was held last night at Friedman’s Delicatessen Friedman’s Delicatessen. I absolutely loved the idea. Rehearsal dinners are predominately for out-of-town guests and what better way to greet out-of-towners than with a real NYC-style meal: kosher-style deli!
Lon enjoyed the potato latkes, although neither of us loved them, because they weren’t really traditional latkes. They were deep fried, which can do no wrong, but they were more like fritters than latkes.
I don’t like hot dogs, but these were pretty good! Of course the fatty flaky pastry surrounding it helped. Lon polished off a bit too many.
The matzoh ball soup was prettier than most, a really smooth and big ball, but it didn’t have much flavor.
The Kasha Varnishke was the favorite for both of us, a carb-lovers delight! The bow ties were al dente, with a good proportion of kasha stuck to each piece and onions lightly sweetened the deal.
The dish of mushroom barley was forgettable.
These fries were fatter than I like, but managed to be crispier than most this thick-cut fries. Since they were hand-cut, there were a few miscellaneous thinner pieces and I did hunt for those.
Each person was given three half-sandwiches: pastrami, corned beef, and turkey breast. I don’t ever like corned beef or turkey cold cuts so I only ate the pastrami, which fit my imagination of a perfect Jewish deli sandwich. We were so full by the time sandwiches came so I’m glad I only wanted to eat one of them, again Lon finished off quite a few.
These rugelach were interesting. Most have a jam or chocolate paste rolled into the dough, but these seemed to have a brownie-like texture for the chocolate part.
I have to disagree with you only on one thing–deep frying latkes! Oy! Yummy!