Len Berk
By Len Berk
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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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Culture The 16 customers you’ll meet at the Zabar’s lox counter
Outside, the sun peeks out over the high condo buildings and blazes across 80th Street into the windows of Zabar’s. New Yorkers are scurrying up and down Broadway. Mommies stroll by with adorable babies on their backs or in their strollers. When I’m at the window, I wave at the passing kids. Some wave back;…
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Culture The oldest customer at Zabar’s lox counter — the tale of the 105-year-old man
Zabar’s is a slice of life. People scurry from room to room, section to section, walking, looking, seeing, listening, deciding, talking, thinking, tasting. Big people, little people, fat, skinny, tall, short, young and old. They’re all here. I’m watching them. Some of them are watching me. There are as many stories here as there are…
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Culture The sturgeon will see you now — an expert’s guide to smoked fish
Smoked salmon or lox? That is the question. On Sunday mornings in the 1940’s and 50’s, Jewish people lined the streets of New York to get their lox fix from the appetizing stores around at the time. It was a ritual; there had to be lox on the Sunday breakfast table. Why did it happen?…
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Culture ‘Should he sit or should he go’ — a uniquely Zabar’s dilemma
It’s located just behind the manager’s desk in between the two time clocks that are used for signing in and out at break time, lunchtime and arrival or departure time. Customers use it when they discuss problems, order merchandise and inquire as to the location of various store items. Without question it’s in a very…
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Culture Of arms and the sushi man, I sing — a poem from the Zabar’s lox counter
What the devil is that guy doing in my spot? I walk into the store at 7:30 am. It’s my early day; the day I watch the store wake up. I like seeing the store at that time, but I wonder — what’s that guy doing in my spot? As I get closer and closer,…
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Culture ‘May I help you, Mr. Perlman?’ — a lesson from the maestro at the Zabar’s lox counter
So, I was slicing away. I looked up and sitting before me was Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Perlman is a regular at Zabar’s — you know, like Woody Allen’s mother. He’s been shopping here for years. He is held in such high esteem that the store manager assigns one of the sub-managers to walk around the…
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