the knosherati
Alas, addressing latent marital discord was not really the reason we went to Forest Hills on Sunday. I mean, how boring would that have been? Though I had been saying for some time that I’d go out there and look around with my husband, it wasn’t until I read a proto-typical comment on Chowhound a couple weeks ago — something to the effect of “I can’t believe you even consider Yonah Schimmel’s knishes anything other than garbage. The best ones are actually from Knish Nosh in Forest Hills.” — that my interest in Queens was piqued. When Grub Street chimed in last week with yet another pock on Schimmel’s head, this time for having knishes “as bland as cotton and heavy as depleted uranium,” and lauded praise on Knish Nosh for their “flaky and delicate knishes” I knew it was finally time to take the E train past 3rd Avenue. To settle an argument, of course.
Now, as we know, my experience at Yonah Schimmel’s was far from disappointing. That said, I was hungover and carbs? Check! Grease? Check! Excessive portion size? Check! One could argue the bar to please my palate was especially low that afternoon. But, there is room in my gullet for more than one knish love, and oh boy, I think I have found the next one.
Knish Nosh’s knishes (three times fast, now!) are perfect. Absolutely perfect. Alex had the spinach, which struck the perfect balance of tasting green but not, shudder, like health food. I had the cabbage one and loved it; somehow, having soft leaves breaking up the mound of mashed potato made it less of a thud in the stomach. We didn’t try their famed pigs in blankets, or figure out what the heck a baked fries knish was, but I’ll assume it is a very good thing just the same. I did, however, do one thing I emphatically recommend you do not do while you are there, no matter how desperate the need may be at the time, which is to use their bathroom in the back. Um, that’s all we need to say about that.
Back when I lived in the Upper East Side, one of Alex and my favorite places to eat pizza was Nick’s. Their brick-oven style pizza rivals that of the more well-known places, and spares you the crowds and hurried attitudes. The original is in Forest Hills, and though we were too knish-knoshed to eat any more, we walked by it, only to be assaulted with the most fantastic bakery aroma. We couldn’t resist. Inside, the Bonelle Pastry Shop is tiny and old-school in the best of ways; it reminds me exactly of the simple bakery where I worked in high school, the kind of place that made the whole range of non-pretentious baked delights from bread to cupcakes and served them non-pretentiously (in other words, 1-2-3-4-recipe cupcakes with back-of-the-box-recipe icing were not $2.75 each). I rarely see bakeries like this anymore, or at least not in Manhattan. Alex and I split a coconut pecan bar cookie, something I am eager to recreate at home, and uh, I think I might know just the place to start.
Last but not least, a pretty un-scary punkin. Though we bought two upstate a couple weeks ago, only one of them has been carved as a certain husband of mine is no fun, and only wants to eat the seeds. As for the innards, I clean and dry them, and toss them in a frying pan with a pat of butter and sea salt until they are brown and crispy. It works like a charm, and seems to take half the time of toasting them in the oven. The mix above is of pumpkin, butternut and acorn squash seeds.
Hoo!
Nick’s Pizza
1814 2nd Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan
108-26 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills, Queens
Bonelle Pastry Shop
08-30 Ascan Avenue, Forest Hills, Queens
Knish Nosh
100-30 Queens Blvd. (67th Road), Forest Hills, Queens
I need to stop reading your entries a couple hours after lunch, but a few until dinner, because all that food looks so good I immediately become starving hungry!
I have never eaten a knish, but now I think I’m going to have to look up a recipe. Alas, I live in a wasp-y mid-western town and we have no where around here that would sell them.
Ooh, pumpkin seeds! My husband and I dismembered a couple of pumpkins on Friday, and we have the yummy snack to show for it.
On the knish front, my parents only ever brought me to Katz’s because my mom went there all the time as a kid. I’d always order a potato knish and an egg cream and we’d laugh at the sign that says, “Send a salami to your boy in the army!” Apparently, when I was much younger, I pointed out (very loudly) that the sign doesn’t rhyme…and then I found out that it did, when you’re from NY.
one of my best friends in high school lived right around there and now i’m kicking myself for never having gone there! i can even picture it in my mind, surrounded by preteen orthodox hoodlums!
Heh… I wanted to mention Nick’s, but, never having gone there, I can only suggest Adrienne’s, way downtown, for uber good Nick’s pizza (he owns Adrienne’s as well).
And my parents used to own Knish Nosh, when it was a Chinese restaurant. Or was it next door. I wasn’t born yet, but I know it was either that building or the one next to it that was theirs.
Pan-fried pumpkin seeds?! Genius.
Baltimore is famous for crabs, doesn’t mean anyone actually wants to live there. So they have a good Knish. Is it worth commiting social suicide?
Knishes look amazing - are you two always artistic? Even Alex’s spicy brown mustard is artfully drawn on the knish…
Just found your website and am in LOVE. Don’t worry, I live too far away to stalk you, but will be stuck to my computer combing the archives for the next few hours. And will then spend the next week NOT LEAVING THE KITCHEN (except to pee because, you know, ew) as I try and make every single recipe you’ve ever given.
I still don’t really know what a knish is. I don’t think you can get those in the midwest.
I like the pumpkin!
I believe - I might be mistaken but I read this in New York mag - that Nick’s isn’t brick oven at all, which is one of his tricks for perfect pizza every time. It’s a perfectly calibrated gas oven, instead, which means very constistently perfect pizzas.
We go to the Forest Hills’ location all the time, never even KNEW there was one on the UES!
Jessie - You know, I’ve never looked up a recipe for one, so let me know if you find something good. They can’t be THAT hard to make (I hope), I mean, just some dough and potatoes mashed with whatever flavors you like.
RA - I love that sign. But, I didn’t realize it rhymed until you just pointed it out. (Um, because I don’t have a New Yawk accent and stuff.) Thanks! Also, the one at Yonah Schimmel’s says “We’ll send a knish to your mother in Florida!” or something like that, because everyone has a mother in Florida, right?
Dahlia - Orthodox hoodlums. I can’t picture it at all! You should totally go out there and try them.
Yvo - No. way. That’s really cool; I’m so glad you mentioned it.
Luisa - In my kitchen, lazy almost always wins.
Jocelyn - Ack. Not. Moving. Anywhere. Yet.
Jessica - He was just showing off for you guys. :)
Nothing But Bonfires - Do report back if you try them; I love to get other’s input, and/or adjustments.
Krissa - I think I saw that article too, so I stuck in the “style” because I lazily couldn’t think of another way to describe this type of pizza to people who might be thinking of a standard NY slice. And to think I fancy myself a writer! For shame! That said, I love that you guys go there all the time. I’ve never heard a bad word about Nick’s. Also, the original appeared to have much more charm.
Tammi - Oops, didn’t mean to ignore you. Some web definitions, summing it up better than I would: “A pastry of Jewish origin that consists of a piece of dough (baking powder or yeast) that encloses a filling of mashed potatoes, cheese, ground meat and buckwheat groats. These pastries can be served as a side dish or appetizer.” [From MyChefCoat.com] “A knish is an eastern-European Jewish or Yiddish snack food. It is a dumpling covered with a dough shell that is either baked or fried. In the most traditional version, the dumpling is made entirely of mashed potato. Another version has the dumpling made of a combination of mashed potato and ground beef.” [Wikipedia]
I know this is a really late comment to this post but I had to say KUDOS to the pan-frying of the pumpkin seeds. My husband and I never got around to carving our pumpkins for Halloween. So this weekend I scooped em out and roasted the pumpkins. I fried up the seeds like you suggested and they’re fabulous! And now I have oodles of pureed pumpkin to play with!! :)