2nd Ave Deli

We haven't made as much progress on our pastrami taste-off for this year as I thought we would, but I at least was able to get out to 2nd Ave Deli with my coworkers to welcome some new members. I still wish I had been able to try it when it was at its original location on 2nd Avenue, but walking over to 3rd Avenue was well worth it.

Pastrami is always a little on the salty side, but this pastrami was so rich and delicate. It melted in my mouth, and was incredibly delicious. I ended up adding a small spot of mustard to enhance the flavor, and the tartness really accented the flavors of the pastrami. This was easily the best pastrami sandwich I had ever had, and I'm extremely excited to next try to hit up Katz's as the coworker who set this lunch up made it very clear that, as good as I thought this was, Katz's is just transcendent. Hopefully M and I can make that judgment for ourselves!

Week 51 - Kosher

Week 51 of the challenge - kosher - coincided with the start of Hanukkah, which made my challenge choice pretty easy. Latkes! I love eating latkes but I don't deep fry at home, so I set off looking for a recipe that would allow me to make latkes without tons of oil and frying. In the kosher recipe library on Chabad, they had a recipe for some low fat latkes that you could make in the oven, so that was my plan!

I mostly followed their recipe with only slight modifications. I used:

- about 2 lbs of potatoes ($0.75)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.60)
- 3 tsp canola oil ($0.15)
- 1/4 cup flour ($0.15)
- salt and pepper ($0.08)
- 1 large egg + egg whites of 1 large egg ($0.38)

For about 2 trays of latkes, the cost was only slightly over $2. I made some power greens and mushrooms, just like with the previous night's Canadian dinner, which tacked on a few dollars. All together, that was a pretty affordable meal.

The steps to make the latkes were:

1. Peel potatoes and remove outer layers and ends of onion.

2. Set up food processor with grating blade. Grate potatoes and onions. Drain in colander over a bowl. Dispose of the water but not the potato starch that collects on the bottom.

3. Once the potatoes and onions seem dry (I thought they were, but perhaps they could have used some more wringing), move to large bowl and mix with the potato starch, flour, salt and pepper. Mix well.

4. Add the egg, egg white, and 1 tsp of canola oil, and mix some more.

5. Add canola oil to baking sheets and brush the oil on. (We only had one clean pan so I did one this way, and used foil + nonstick spray on another pan. It worked better this way.) Scoop spoonfuls of the latke mixture onto the sheet and form/press into circular cake shapes.

6. Bake at 450 degrees on the lower and middle racks of the oven for about 12 minutes.

7. Flip latkes and swap baking sheet positions. Bake another 10 minutes. Latkes should be golden brown at that point, but it might depend on your oven and setup. (The latkes on the foil did not brown very much.)

Usually you eat latkes with sour cream and/or applesauce, but I ate them plain and with the vegetables, and A added sriracha to a few. We like sriracha so it's up in the air for us whether it's better with the traditional toppings.

The latkes were okay, but not that flavorful. I added plenty of salt and pepper, but they still tasted like they could have used more. The texture was different coming out of the oven, and frying would definitely taste better. So overall they were just okay.

It was interesting doing this kosher challenge. Even though I knew one big part of this meal would not be kosher - our kitchen - it made me think about all the steps of the meal and any accompaniments with the kosher rules in mind. It's something that doesn't usually enter into the planning process for me, so it was an interesting exercise. I probably will not make these latkes again as they just don't compare to the fried ones, but I'm glad I tried. Until we get an air fryer, I think I'll leave the frying and the latkes to the experts.

Milk n' Honey

The next stop on my block by block challenge was Milk n' Honey. On the block, you hit that before Karam, but since I went on a Friday and they were already closing for the weekend, I skipped that last time and knew I had to go back. Knowing it was next up, I was, however, having some trouble figuring out what I would get there. Milk n' Honey has a lot of the same things as the other generic midtown delis that I don't frequent very often - breakfast, sandwiches, make your own salad bar, pizza, sushi, etc - except that it's a kosher (dairy) place. Their prices are also higher than most generic midtown delis (I'm guessing this is because they're kosher and that either increases expense or pushes price up because there is less competition).


One thing I did notice is that they had "handrolled bagels" (which seemed to get good reviews) and those were only $1.25 (same price or cheaper than a lot of the generic delis). This morning, I got an early start (and did not eat an appropriately larger breakfast) so it seemed like a good day for a mid-morning snack/second breakfast bagel. I went for a toasted onion bagel (with no cream cheese or toppings, since I know I'm having Italian food for lunch in a few hours).

Handrolled bagel
Look at all those yummy onions!
Thumbs up! My first impression was that the bagel was a nice size and very generously covered with onions on BOTH sides. Usually onion bagels will have less onions on the bottom but this was like having two top halves in one bagel (unless they "messed up" and gave me 2 top halves, which I would not complain about). The bagel was soft and doughy on the inside and the outside was chewy and crispy, all like a good bagel should be. I don't know if I would go back for sandwiches or salads (since they still seem too expensive to me unless I used the groupon or google offer there), but I would definitely go back for a bagel (and maybe next time with cream cheese or fish)!