enormous meal. Legion are the legends
of the banquet centerpiece — a statue
of the bar mitzvah boy molded in
chopped liver.
This is generations removed from the
pioneer days of Jewish American cook-
ing on the Lower East Side. Today the
pushcarts have almost all disappeared,
but not the heartburn of nostalgia. For
those who cherish the good old ways,
memory's delights are sold bottled,
canned, frozen or fresh — commercial
borsht, gefilte fish, corned beef,
pastrami, rye bread and bagels. There is
not yet a prayer to say over a thawing
bagel, but somebody is surely working
on it.
Excerpted with permission of Macmillan
Publishing Co. from Noshing is Sacred.
Copyright 0 1979 by Israel Shenker.
Does Food
Pose A Problem
For Jews?
ELSA SOLENDER
Contributing Editor
ammy's Roumanian Restaurant
on Manhattan's Lower East Side
still offers pitchers of thick
golden chicken fat on every
table alongside the sour pickles, green
tomatoes, fried onions, roasted green
peppers and grated radish. And diners
do occasionally smear a bit of schmaltz
on a slice of rye bread or mix a little
into the chopped liver. But today's
typical Jewish wife may very well frown
at a husband who indulges in a
schmaltzy nostalgia trip, worrying about
the effects on his health. Few Jewish
mothers press chicken fat sandwiches
on their children nowadays. Even
Sammy's Roumanian prudently
advertises the greaselessness of its
S
menu offerings.
In a word: "slim" is in.
Americans seem obsessed with the
pursuit of svelteness. According to a re-
cent Better Homes and Gardens survey,
nearly 90 percent of Americans believe
they weigh too much, and more than
35 percent want to lose 15 pounds or
more. A November 1985 Gallup Poll
reported that 31 percent of American
women between the ages of 19 and 35
diet at least once a month, and 16 per-
cent retard themselves as perpetual
dieters. In another survey, 79 percent of
fourth grade girls think they're too fat
— less than 5 percent of boys feel fat, a
striking contrast. American women diet
all the time; American boys & men
diet because of doctor's orders or to
meet, say, a sports classification.
Sharon Portnoy, a Maryland native
CI)
73