Oy ve iz mir!

Not to be a kvetch....but I consider myself to be an expert on Jewish delis.  As a New Yorker from a predominantly Jewish area and married to a Jew, I've had more than my fair share of experiences at them.  My husband and I woke up this morning with a burning desire for a good bagel, corned beef on rye, and a knish.  So I schlepped all the way up to the PV Mall to get it.

Ok, first of all, the decor is terribly schlocky.  Its kind of like the tourist trap Jewish deli you find in Times Square.  Its like a Disney version of a NY deli.  

I take my number and head over to the cold case to get some drinks....of course they didn't have regular lemon Snapple (and why should they?  Its not like every deli, pizza place, and convenience store in NY carries it....) but they did have Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray which is always a welcome sight.  Another thing they had in the cold case which I found to be odd were jars of Nathan's pickles.  Nathan's, like the hot dog place.  I would imagine a Jewish deli would have Ba Tampte pickles....I didn't even know Nathan's made pickles!  It was a little lame to be honest.

Anyways, I go up to the counter where there doesn't seem to be anyone working.  There was no organization to it.  So I waited.  And waited.  In New York, the deli is a finely tuned machine designed to move people quickly.  Chompie's? Eh, not so much.  When I finally did place my order, the guy who took it had a hard time punching it into the computer and asked me to repeat it several times.  Despite saying I wanted my bagel toasted several times I was given a cold, untoasted bagel.  I waited a little longer for my order to come up and went on my merry way.  

Here is the breakdown of the food we ordered-

Matzoh ball soup- Surprisingly good.  I have never had matzoh ball soup with carrots and celery...so much chazerei!  Just give me the matzoh ball! Although, I will admit, it was solid.  I wouldn't go all the way to Chompie's for it because I know that I can make it better in my own kitchen. 

Plain bagel "toasted" with cream cheese- Terrible.  The bottom of the bagel was entirely too thick and was very hard.  They didn't even cut it all the way through, probably because the crust is too thick! 

Corned beef on rye- Meh.  The corned beef wasn't very good, it wasn't corned enough.  If they make their own they didn't use a piece of brisket that was fatty enough.  The rye (which was not marble rye...) was lackluster.   It couldn't handle the corned beef, became soggy, and eventually fell apart.  The pickle it came with was the grossest thing I've ever seen.  And it was definitely a kosher dill, even though I asked for a half sour.  The potato salad was actually really good though.

Knish- Terrible.  The knishes in my elementary school cafeteria were better than this.  First of all, the outer crust was way too flimsy.  It should have been much, much, thicker, especially considering the gargantuan size of the knish.  We essentially ate a large plate of mashed potatoes.  The potato inside itself was unremarkable.  Not only do I have this Jewish thing going on but I'm also Irish....I've never met a potato dish I didn't like.  Until today.  I didn't even finish my half of the knish. 

Now for the prices.  What's with this meshugas?  $2.29 for a bagel with cream cheese is a tad much.  In NY they run you about $1.35.  The corned beef sandwich was $12.50!  Now, I've paid that much for sandwiches in NY before but you get 2 lbs of meat and several layers of sandwich!  This was not a $12.50 sandwich.  I was also going to get us some whitefish salad to sample but at $15.99/lbs it wasn't happening.  

Why anyone should schlep all this way, in this heat, schvitzing all over, for this dreck?  I don't know!