- Hardcover: 319 pages
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) (19 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0151013845
- ISBN-13: 978-0151013845
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 15.4 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 931,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
David Sax writes beautifully balanced sentences full of sharp insight. . ""With an army of restaurant consultants and designers at their disposal, the developers of Las Vegas casinos have managed to conquer the last stronghold of independent eating in America, turning the upper end of the food chain into another packaged concept." Or try this slice of writing straight from the steamer. "The narrow space between the counters became a gauntlet of doom, as hip checks and arm grapples met brazen countermen who dared walk into another man's space." This book is so well written that even a vegetarian could enjoy it. The author loves the world of the deli. He writes with sensitivity. He is an investigative journalist who uncovers the light secrets. After 45 years living in London, I thought I knew everything there was to know about London delis. I was wrong. No London writer has discovered as much as Sax. I never thought to read again of the Nosh Bar, Phil Rabin's and Carol's - the Great Windmill Street legends - or learn that a deli-man who had worked at all three and more could be found in Edgware at a place called B&K. Sax is a Salt Beef Bard and Poet of Pastrami. Help yourself - you'll be going back for more.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
55 reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Cutting against the grain
3 Sep 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
New Yorkers are going to hate this book. Not only does it name the two best cities for deli as Los Angeles (all true New Yorkers can't stand LA, especially transplants who have to live or work there) and Montréal (CANADA? Huh??), it was written by a guy from Toronto. How can NYC not be the undisputed Deli Capital of the World? And what does a Canadian know from deli, anyway?
The answer is this: David Sax is on a mission. It's right there--it's the title of the book! Sax has traveled the world in search of the best of Jewish delicatessen culture and food. Believe me, Sax knows just about all there is to know about the deli classics everybody is familiar with, like pastrami, bagels, and knishes, as well as about hardcore Jewish soul food, such as p'tcha, kishke, and cholent. He's eaten more deli than you can possibly imagine. He knows what he's talking about.
Sax keeps the tone light and entertaining for the most part, even though Save the Deli serves up generous helpings of history, food criticism, and travel writing. The only (minor) flaw in the text is that Sax hasn't woven the chapters into a flowing and coherent whole very well. Some sections end abruptly, while others feel somewhat disconnected from the material that follows. This may stem from his background as a magazine writer. Nonetheless, the book is enjoyable and fun to read overall.
Bottom line: Save the Deli is a combination travelogue, tribute, and polemic. While Sax's aim is serious, he leavens his writing with a great deal of humor and sensitivity. Anybody who loves corned beef on rye with lots of mustard, always stops for fresh rugelach, or is just a dedicated fresser will dig this book. Maybe New Yorkers will too, when all is said and done. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for daring to buck the conventional wisdom about NYC delis.
[a personal note: for those who think Canada can't possibly have good deli, I have four words for you. Smoked meat. Montréal bagels. `Nuff said.]
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Two books in a similar vein to this one:
Eat This!: 1,001 Things to Eat Before You Diet-eat your way across the United States
The Man Who Ate Everything-pompous and pretentious, yet utterly compelling
The answer is this: David Sax is on a mission. It's right there--it's the title of the book! Sax has traveled the world in search of the best of Jewish delicatessen culture and food. Believe me, Sax knows just about all there is to know about the deli classics everybody is familiar with, like pastrami, bagels, and knishes, as well as about hardcore Jewish soul food, such as p'tcha, kishke, and cholent. He's eaten more deli than you can possibly imagine. He knows what he's talking about.
Sax keeps the tone light and entertaining for the most part, even though Save the Deli serves up generous helpings of history, food criticism, and travel writing. The only (minor) flaw in the text is that Sax hasn't woven the chapters into a flowing and coherent whole very well. Some sections end abruptly, while others feel somewhat disconnected from the material that follows. This may stem from his background as a magazine writer. Nonetheless, the book is enjoyable and fun to read overall.
Bottom line: Save the Deli is a combination travelogue, tribute, and polemic. While Sax's aim is serious, he leavens his writing with a great deal of humor and sensitivity. Anybody who loves corned beef on rye with lots of mustard, always stops for fresh rugelach, or is just a dedicated fresser will dig this book. Maybe New Yorkers will too, when all is said and done. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for daring to buck the conventional wisdom about NYC delis.
[a personal note: for those who think Canada can't possibly have good deli, I have four words for you. Smoked meat. Montréal bagels. `Nuff said.]
------
Two books in a similar vein to this one:
Eat This!: 1,001 Things to Eat Before You Diet-eat your way across the United States
The Man Who Ate Everything-pompous and pretentious, yet utterly compelling
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Mouthwatering Memoir of Jewish Delis
3 Oct 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
David Sax has produced a book that induced hunger pangs every time I sat down to read a chapter. His primary mission is to identify the surviving (and hopefully thriving) Jewish deli today, both in the epicenter of the Deli Universe - New York - but also in select cities around the US, and even some in Europe. However, Sax also sets the historical context, describing the rise of Deli culture to the peek of the golden age in the 40s and 50s and then the inevitable decline. Alternately, Sax is mourning the disappearance of the Jewish deli and celebrating islands of thriving deli culture that he finds in both expected (Los Angeles) and unexpected (Boulder) cities. There is much description of the different pickling processes to produce pastrami and corned beef, comparisons of matzoh ball soup, and the Pavlovian descriptions of the less well-known, but more arterial clogging speck (pickled brisket fat), kishke (schmaltz-stuffed intestine) and grine (chicken skin cracklings). To help out, Sax includes both a glossary, and a listing of all the delis he visited. Although there is much to mourn in the passing of so many delis, there is reason to snap on your bib and head out to find the still-surviving and newly inaugurated delis that are true to the time-tested techniques of food preparation that produce sandwiches to die for.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Bright tastes and dark shadows
28 Aug 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
David Sax has a passion for deli, and he's willing to travel the world, literally, to find it. No dish is too exotic, which reminds me of Anthony Bourdain, but while Bourdain explores all culinary bases, David Sax sticks to the rib-sticking food of his youth. He gives a good picture of all the people he meets, and their quirks, but his descriptions of the food will really make you drool. Better have a can of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda on hand while you read this!
There is plenty of humor, but a darker side, too, as he considers an exhibit of cooking pots at Birkenau, a [...] extermination camp, and reflects on how Jewish cooking was decimated by the Holocaust. He explores Poland, where some people, Jews and non-Jews alike, are attempting to reanimate the cuisine.
He finds plenty of people as devoted to deli as he is, people who prepare it, serve it, eat it and talk about it with gusto. He explores the history of the foods, the preparation and the short-cuts (such as instant corned beef, at which he practically sneers).
There are some charming photographs of delicatessens and the people who maintain them, but I would really have liked some recipes. Although there is a list of delicatessens, and a glossary for people who don't know what all these dishes are, it would have been absolutely terrific to have some basic recipes for the home cook to try.
If you've never tried delicatessen, try reading this book. It may well give you an appetite!
There is plenty of humor, but a darker side, too, as he considers an exhibit of cooking pots at Birkenau, a [...] extermination camp, and reflects on how Jewish cooking was decimated by the Holocaust. He explores Poland, where some people, Jews and non-Jews alike, are attempting to reanimate the cuisine.
He finds plenty of people as devoted to deli as he is, people who prepare it, serve it, eat it and talk about it with gusto. He explores the history of the foods, the preparation and the short-cuts (such as instant corned beef, at which he practically sneers).
There are some charming photographs of delicatessens and the people who maintain them, but I would really have liked some recipes. Although there is a list of delicatessens, and a glossary for people who don't know what all these dishes are, it would have been absolutely terrific to have some basic recipes for the home cook to try.
If you've never tried delicatessen, try reading this book. It may well give you an appetite!
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