If you walk to the corner of 80th and Broadway, you’ll see a building unlike any other in Manhattan. It looks like it was plucked out of a medieval storybook and dropped in the middle of the city with its steep, pitched roofs and dark brown half-timbering over cream stucco. But the large comestible advertisements wrapped around the front windows and orange lightbox signs with a Western-esque font tell you it’s not a fairytale. You’ve simply stumbled across Zabar’s, a family-run Jewish store that has been serving the city since 1934.
Whether you need cheese from France, olive oil from Italy, freshly roasted and ground coffee beans, a homemade chicken pot pie or a classic New York Lox bagel on a Sunday morning, Zabar’s has you covered. The deli/grocer/cafe/artisan market hybrid is considered a staple for many New Yorkers, especially those who have lived on the Upper West Side through its many changes during the past few decades.
Zabar’s is a family business that thinks of all customers as part of that family too. I took a trip up to the legendary store and asked people there about their own family recipes, traditions and favorite food memories.
Laureen S. , Orange County, CA
I’m from a Philadelphia-Italian family, but my immediate family moved to Southern California when I was young and we lived in Orange County for most of my life. I like to say we were “California-washed” Italians. My mom obviously made pasta and a great tomato sauce, but by nature of being in California, we ate a lot of salads. I still make a lot of salads now. You can have fun mixing different ingredients and toppings. I remember being a kid, my brother and I would eat our dinner and then drink the extra salad dressing out of the bowl—my mom’s salad dressing was the best. In terms of Italian food, she would always make stuffed cabbage. I remember loving that. She taught me how to make her tomato sauce. I still make that often, but the thing I make most is definitely her pork loin. She made it the Italian way, you know, when it’s stuffed with garlic? It’s so good.
Clifford Krinsky, New York, NY
I’ve always loved flanken soup. You know, it’s got that thick lima bean and barley base? I come from a Greek-Russian Jewish family. My mother was Romaniote from Greece and my father was Ashkenazi from Russia, but I’ve lived in New York my whole life, since 1959. I’ve never really liked Greek food—stuffed peppers and that sort of thing. I’ve always gravitated more towards the Jewish side, especially flanken soup. Most of the food was plain, but it was good. I make the soup for myself a lot. It’s just as good as when I was a child. I used to make plain short ribs often too, but now everything’s just so expensive. I don’t want to spend $15 for a half pound of steak, so I don’t make it as much anymore.
Christopher Carballo, Dominican Republic
Dominican food always reminds me of home, you know. Beans, rice, chicken, things like that. My mom’s a great cook. We moved to New York when I was 13, but she cooks Dominican food all the time. December 24th is always a big night for my family. We make a huge meal and all eat together. That’s my favorite food memory. I think what makes Dominican food stand out is plantains. Mashed plantains are one of my favorite foods. I make my mom’s recipes for myself sometimes, and I think they still turn out pretty good.
Sienna Green, New York, NY
My mom’s Italian, so spaghetti and tomato sauce is big in my house. I think I can cook a little better than my mom, though. Every time I try to make one of her recipes, I think it tastes a little better. My siblings and I—we were so funny—when we were younger we found my mom’s recipe book. I laugh thinking about it now cause everything was “quick and easy chicken, quick and easy casserole,” you know, everything was quick and easy. I do think a lot about her turkey chilli, though. She always makes it for the Super Bowl. We’ll eat it over rice and that’s really good. I think my favorite food memory is Thanksgiving. It’s just a time when all my family and friends are together, celebrating each other.
Shoshana Mafaldi-Goldman, Brooklyn, NY
Mujadara. It’s a Middle Eastern dish. You cook the rice and the lentils with salt, but the piéce de résistance is the onion. So many onions. You cook six to eight of them until they’re all caramelized and crispy. When I was younger, we would normally eat it with yogurt, but sometimes we would have it with buttermilk, which felt so fancy back then. My mother was Syrian, so she’s the one who taught me how to make it. We would have it on our dairy night, which was Thursdays. I think when I make mujadara it tastes just like my mom’s. I’ve taught the recipe to all my friends. I tried one of their versions once. I’d never tell them this, but it wasn’t very good. But we’ll trade recipes a lot and when I make their stuff it’s always good. I promise they’re not bad cooks. When I think of food, what always comes to mind is “love” and sharing things you love with other people.
