I was watching the KTLA Morning Show this morning when they showed a table full of “Canadian” food that they were eating in celebration of Canada Day. Well the influence of the Jewish deli was so evident that one wonders where the combination started. Any time I see a brisket cooked to perfection as it appeared on the show my love of corned beef and pastrami comes to the surface. It also brings up my love for my Uncle Sid (rest his loving soul). He was always just a few feet from a corned beef sandwich and if he was offered a deli sandwich every day he was always happy. He was known to talk deli when he went shopping and was always amazed when they would offer him a job in their deli. After he retired he still had the skills and was always in demand at family gatherings to do the cutting with a skill that he had developed in the family business at an early age. Grandpa Harry had started a deli many years ago and they had the Alamo Deli in Chicago for many years. In fact my mother and father actually meet when she was working behind the counter of the soda fountain that they had in the deli. Sid, Ray, Al, Dorothy and Ruth all spent their time behind the counter. Dorothy and Ruth actually worked in Sears first retail store and proved in their later life that they were strong personalities that could do what they needed to, to keep up their lives on their own. Only Sid spent most of his life working in the business and when Sid and Bertha moved to Los Angeles he continued to work in the deli at Brentwood Country Market. It is very telling of the effect of the business that his son who owns a pharmacy has actually added a soda fountain and has the only fountain in the Los Angeles valley area. It was actually the idea of his son who never spent time in the deli but knows all of the family stories. It is just part of the family and when any of us travel it is still great to have deli. We all have our favorites but know that none are as good as the old days at the Alamo. Yes I have to admit the Langers in Los Angeles comes close. But Mom no one will ever make potato salad as good as you did. I know that you were proud that people in Chicago came into the store to rave over the potato salad that you made and I will not tell anyone what your secrete ingredient was.
You find that as you get older you remember more about the past. But the things that are most important are the times that family spent together. Even the sad times.
1 comment:
We received an email from a relative on Hubby's side of the family, recently. It discusses the Deli and I thought I would put it up for a remembrance of those days. She starts off speaking of their life in their apartment in Chicago and then moves on to the deli.
"(Hubby's Dad) worked nights then and (Hubby's Mom) prepared him a fabulous home cooked meal every afternoon around three or four. Everything was done just so and peacefully without any struggle. The grandma was there and the grandpa. They worked though day and night in their grocery store, as did (Hubby's Mom). There is another place you would not be able to duplicate today, even at Trader Joe's. Each customer was given the time and courtesy that they needed, and the immaculate store contained wonderful foods and they patiently sliced and wrapped each item. Maybe I am glorifying it, but at this distance it was another world. I spent as much time as I could, coming over from high school, when (Hubby) was born."
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