why Florida is New York.

One year later and I am back in Boca Raton, Florida. Home of all New York Jewish grandparents and many of their children. It sounds like NYC here; Flahrida is where we are, BOca raTONE, with implied Yiddish accent, exactly. Unlike in California, people look old here. The Northeast has beaten the hell out of them with weather and pollution and now they're in the warmest place they can get to easily, wanting to be served appropriately.

For me I have been coming here for years and I feel like I still can't find Florida. Maybe just a little in the non-tourist area of Key West I saw what original Floridians may have called their voice portrayed in architecture, wild roosters running about, and tropical flowers that had me doing double-takes with eyes and nose.

In the kitchen we sometimes say, "god is in the details." And the details here are easy to miss because people are driving through white hot light past developments that could make you think you've gone in circles, everything is so same.

But the details remind me of New York so much I could just plotz. Thank he-who- cannot-be-named that the most amazing bagels are here. The place I love is Way Beyond Bagels. You'd be hard pressed to see a goyim here. It sounds like Pathmark in Long Island on a Sunday. Except that everyone is really tan, wearing pastels and expensive sunglasses.

Last year when I came here there was a sign at the bagel emporium that said:

"We ship smoked fish from Brooklyn daily."

Today I had what fills the NY Jewish void I have from living in California. An egg and onion bagel, toasted, with cream cheese, Novi and tomato. Nova Lox is a smoked fish in it's own category. It feels like velvet, silk and cashmere for the tongue. Buttery, smooth, {= fatty, oily like a good 'slice'} delicious like no body's business.

Way Beyond Bagels has all the sweets of a NY deli as well. Rainbow cakes, black & white cookies, and rugelach. It's like the place has been transported by Star Trek. Completely intact and fresh.

And the food goes on. At the end of a day we went to a little place called Sonny's Gelato that had a small case of the best surprise. Just to complete my experience therein lay all the bright and flat colors of a cold thing that only a real new yorker could love. 'Italian ices.' On some level something actual Italians might be abhor to admit they had any relation to. Italian ices are served at every pizza joint and during the summer the ice cream truck carries fantastic little green wax round containers that come with a short squat flat wooden "spoon." The favorite flavors are cherry, lemon, chocolate and rainbow. Mine was always lemon. {go figure.}

Italian ices don't exist elsewhere. And they have a strange and wondrous characteristic. At the bottom of the container there's a layer of frozen syrupy yum. My cousin and I used to eat part of the top so that we could use the spoon to turn over the ice and scrape the bottom back and forth so it would get kind of fluffy. It was a detail that you knew if you really were intimate with your ices.

My friend A.Z.O. says that New Yorkers are self referential. We love our NY ways. We are proud and compare everything to it. Florida is a big state. But where I am is a mini New Yorker haven. The boroughs are here, much of Long Gisland, and a splash of Joisy just to keep the New Yorkers on their toes.

And from a family who grew up on an island half Jews and half "Family" {you know whaddi mean?"}, we ended the day right. Eggplant Parmigiana, broccoli raab and mini cannolis from The Cannoli Factory.

Comments

[john]

I like Miami and Miami Beach too. We had terrific Cuban food at the Versailles (rhymes with "bales") on Southwest 8th Street in the heart of Little Havana.

And: for really wonderful smoked fish, Barney Greengrass the Sturgeon King--Amsterdam Avenue between 86th and 87th Sts., in my old neighborhood--is hard to beat. A few years ago as I was paying for breakfast I asked the guy if I could order on line. "So you'll come Sunday morning, you'll stand on line, and you'll order!" he answered. (New Yorkers, of course, don't wait *in* line but *on* line.) But they've surrendered to the 21st century and you can order three or four kinds of salmon including the belly lox--saltier than Nova and my favorite--and the smoked sable (black cod) which is pure heaven at

https://www.barneygreengrass.com/

[Susan]

oh, oh, but those little Italian ices aren't just a NY thing! I grew up in PA, and they were my favorite summer treat as a kid. I can practically feel the little wooden paddle-spoon against my tongue now. I used to eat around the sides so I could get to the goo at the bottom.
thanks for this post- it made me drool, practically. I'm new to your blog, and I think it's marvelous.
(also, I think I met you recently at A's going away party! can that be?)

[haddock]

I hven't had an Italian ice in ages. Or a good bagel for that matter.

You're right NY'ers are pretty self-referential, particularly NY'ers in California. I only lived in NYC during my adolescent years and wouldn't describe myself as a NY'er but to my California born and raised wife I am a NY'er through and through. I'll take her word for it. Myself I picture as a Parisian who never got to live there.

[Kudzu]

Oh, my God! I had forgotten how many NYC things I miss from my life there. When I was pregnant with my daughter I would walk into one of the several bakeries on Bleecker (this was when it was still purely Italian) and the nonno of the family would start filling a cup with their housemade lemon ice. This happened almost every single day that summer, my only craving. My kids used to eat all the ice out and then chew up and suck on the little pleated paper cups....Then life on the Upper West Side taught me bagels, bialies, a nice piece smoked fish (yes, Barney Greengrass The Sturgeon King), all those deli/butcher/bakery things (halvah, anyone?) So here I sit in California wishing you a fine Pesach and wishing I could have those real tastes again, even in Flaridah.

[Fatemeh]

What a fabulous post!

I, too, miss Italian Ice like you wouldn't believe (and honestly, the only flavor is lemon!). And good lox... and salt bagels (prounced, of course, "beh-gel", not "bay-gel").

Happy Pesach to you & yours.

[sfmike]

There's so much unintentional racism in your post it's pretty staggering. Yes, there are non-Jewish people and values in Florida, but on the Gold Coast with Boca Raton as the epicenter, the dominant culture is New York Jewish, self-ghettoized to an amazing degree. Everybody else, the brown, the black and the redneck, are the nurses, the waiters, the cooks, the gardeners, and the drivers for this very self-absorbed group.

I've worked a couple of conventions in the area over the years, and I frankly found it repulsive (and I LIKE New York). And by the way, organized crime in Long Island and elsewhere is not just Italian-Americans as the movies have told you all your life, but much more multicultural, as in Irish-American, Polish-American and even, yes, The Chosen People.

Glad you got to eat some Jewish soul food and Italian ices, but the sign you quote, "We ship smoked fish from Brooklyn daily," pretty much summarizes the absurdity of a culture that shuts out everything but their own values. Give me Cuban culture (and food) any day of the week.

[Fatemeh]

Wow, Mike. You've taken a very personal, gentle story and politicized it to a degree which makes your comment sound like an attack.

Not at all in the spirit of the food blogosphere. Shame on you.

[shuna]

Hello Mike.

Wow.

Florida is really complicated. It's the South, for one, and where I am is surely the epicenter of many Jewish folks from NYC.

My blog's dedication is toward food, not breaking down all the inherant problems of one state in the deep South, let alone my own personal conflicts. Coming from one of the most famous Imperialist nations you must know that we are all racist and it's how we live our lives and (constantly} address our deeply personal prejudices. None of us are innocent.

Remember that in your first comment on Eggbeater you corrected my grammer. If that does not speak your white male privilege, I don't know what does.

One thing about being a Jew from NYC means that I grew up making fun of myself. (New Yorkers no matter what ethnicity, in fact.) Humour was used to save us from our reality. My humour is New York sarcasm, sometimes very dark. If you are too p.c. to appreciate or understand the complexity of how this works, I bid you farewell.

And please be humanist & brave enough to address what you want to shame me for through personal email. Using this forum is unacceptable to me.

S. Lydon

[manny]

I just wanted to post that I opened a Italian Ice store in Deerfield beach, Fl and all the ices are shipped from Ny. So antone looking to have those famous ices should call 954-421-1400 to get info thank manny.

[shuna]

Manny,

thank you so much! I'm not sure how you found Eggbeater but I am really glad you did!! I feel like you fulfilled a secret hope for eggbeater, but I can't explain it much better than that, so thank you for visiting and leaving more Italian Ices information.

[katrina]

gosh - some controversy here, huh? jeez. Just reading up on back posts.
thanks to the link of El Bulli too.
I liked this post and thought it was super funny by the way.

xo
k.

[Randi]

ok, this cracked me up. I was born in NY, grew up in Florida, Im jewish too. I go back to Florida a few times a year and its not Florida, its NY. LOL. Hey, do you have a good recipe for Black and Whites? I just love those!!

[Erica]

Anyone know where I can get some of the good italian ices or bagels on the west coast of Florida? I can't keep begging my NY relatives to mail me bagels.

[Erin S]

Looking for good italian ices? Because I was! I moved from NY two years ago and I just found an awesome italian ice place in delray beach, Paradices. I love their name and I love their ices! They even serve them in the little squeeze cups I used to get back home in queens. Try it out!

[ice expert]

I tried paradices and its awsome. I spoke to the people there and there water ices are shipped from the lemon ice king of corona. No wonder there awsome.

[larry wasserman]

That anti semite better watch it or some Lion of Judah is going to shove a salt bagel where the sun don't shine -- even in Flahrida.

[Dorsey]

I live in Orlando. I can't find Florida either.

[copper]

Your memory of making your italian ices "fluffy" really brought back memories. My sister and I did that with all of ours when we were younger. I have not been to Way Beyond Bagels. I will definitely have to check it out.