KNISH

I went back to New York.
Whenever I return from the city, I´m full off new impressions and fascinated by interesting things that I saw, discovered and got to know.

This time it´s Knish or rather the absolutely gorgeous ´Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery´.
You can get Knish in a lot of places, particularly at food carts. I tried it before, but found nothing special about them. But by now I definitely changed my mind!

Knish originally comes from Eastern Europe (particularly Poland) and was brought to New York by Jewish immigrants.

Yonah Schimmel, an immigrant from Romania, sold the first Knishs in 1890 in Houston Street. The first shop was then established in 1910 (with his cousin), the ´Yonah Schimmel Bakery´, which is still run by the family.
http://www.knishery.com/

Back to Knish: it is a yiddish word and means cake or dumpling. The main ingredient is potato, and then you are free to choose from a large variety: it can be filled with sauerkraut, onions, cheese but you could also go for something sweet.
During the 2000s they got quite famous again.

But how did I discover Knish at all? After my Yoga Class I made my way through the East Village. I had an excellent coffee in "9th Street Espresso" (thanks to a hint from Ulrike). Afterwards I walked down the Houston Street. I actually planned to go to "Katz Delicatessen" (the most famous Pastrami in town). But when I discovered the long queue in front of it I decided to move on instead.

So I continued walking the Houston Street and then suddenly ended up in front of the Knish bakery. It looked quite nice and cute, so I decided to give it a try.
And I was lucky :) The food and the atmosphere were fantastic.
The bakery itself is in the basement. On the first floor is the small, original café, which looks like it didn´t change much during the last centuries.

At the entrance is a big showcase with a vast choice of Knish, sweet and salty, so it is really hard to decide on what to take.
The walls are full of newspaper articles, pictures, postcards and so on (Woody Allen was here!).
So after I made up my mind (I took a sweet Knish), I sat down and enjoyed :)

By the way, if you like American/ New York food, I recommend the "New York Cookbook", from Marc Grossmann (He is a Jewish New Yorker, but lives in Paris now). When I skim through the book I recognize a lot of very nice, typical American/ New Yorker dishes (not all that healthy, but that sometimes doesn´t matter).
Simple and veeery tasty!