Len Berk
By Len Berk
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Culture Is there life after Zabar’s?
So far so good. I don’t have Covid. I’m working hard at it; following all the guidelines, but being super aware that life is different now. Life changed dramatically for me in March when my friend Scott, store manager of Zabar’s, informed me that he didn’t want me working at Zabar’s until, as he put…
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Culture ‘Kiss Julie for me’ — a story for my devoted aunt
At least once a week at mealtime, I walk down the center aisle to visit Aunt Helen. She sits at the far end of the large dining room where walkers outnumber tables, where bibs and plastic replace napkins and stemware. I look from side to side at the blank old faces that surround me —…
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Culture I fought the scallop laws — and I won
The first Monday in November is the first day of the year that you can legally retrieve bay scallops from the waters of Long Island. On that day, bay scallop hunters put on their boots or their waders, in search of what some people think are the most succulent, sweetest, nuttiest and delicate bay scallops…
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Culture He may be our lox expert, but his heart belongs to clamming
He had opened about two dozen top necks, separated the meat from the juice, and was ready to put up the water for the linguini. Another pot on the stove, above a low flame, was some simmering Greek olive oil, mixing it up with two cloves of chopped garlic. The aroma in the kitchen was…
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Culture ‘Stretch one and paint it red’ — Tales from the life of a Bronx soda jerk
It was a very unusual experience — sitting in a wire mesh cage surrounded by dead chickens that were waiting to have their feathers removed. Aside from babysitting, it was my job: “Chicken Plucker.” What was required was a quick jerky movement of the fingers and hand to sever the chicken feathers from the chicken….
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Culture 20 phrases you need to know to work as a soda jerk
Editor’s Note: Our lox columnist has written about his past life as a soda jerk in the Bronx during the 1940s and 50s. At that time, working in that trade meant you had to speak the language of the lunch counter. We asked Len for a list of some of the most memorable phrases he…
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Culture Chinese food and me: The story of a lifelong love affair
CHAPTER 1: THE PLANTING The year was 1937. I was seven years old. I was with my father and mother, at a Chinese restaurant on 13th Avenue and 47th Street in Boro Park, Brooklyn. I think that this was the first Chinese restaurant I ever dined at, perhaps the first restaurant in my life. I…
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Culture In the Zabar’s lunchroom, an international language is spoken
You descend about 13 steps from the main floor, make a right and you’ve arrived at Zabar’s employee lunchroom. Well, it’s not exactly a lunchroom because it doesn’t have the required number of walls to be considered a room, so let’s call it a lunch area. Equipped with a large table and sufficient seating capacity,…
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