Deli envy in tasty Taiwan

By Danny Bloom

CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan– There aren’t many delicatessens in Taiwan, and the word “deli” has not yet been translated into Chinese. So when news reached me here the other day that the Stage Deli in Manhattan was closing — after 75 years in business — I paid attention. You see, whenever I get a hankering for some good pastrami on rye like I used to know in Boston and New York, there isn’t much I can do about it here in ”tasty, terrific,  tantalizing” Taiwan. There’s no such thing as a good deli here.

Sure I can feast my eyes and taste buds on all sorts of delicious Taiwanese delicacies, from fermented tofu to fried crickets, and one of my favorites during these cold, winter days — rat stew. Yes, real rats, but farm rats, fat and tasty critters raised on sugar cane diets, and known in Chinese as “heavenly mice.” There are also dumplings from A to Z, curry dumplings and super spicy dumplings, and seafood from this island nation that makes every wedding banquet a feast that is something to die for.

But there’s no one place I can go on this island of 23 million people to get a good pastrami on rye sandwich. Bagels, sure, Taiwan has bagels in every kind of color and taste, and there’s a Starbucks around every corner.But bagels and lox with cream cheese? Forget it. Not in Taiwan. I can only dream.

Which brings me to the news of the day: “Say Goodbye to the Stage Deli, a Midtown Manhattan Staple Since 1937.” A photo of Senator Bob Dole visiting the famous deli in 1996 accompanied the article in the New York Times overseas edition the other day, which began: “At midnight on Thursday, the Stage Deli, a landmark New York institution that got its start 75 years ago, closed its doors.”

Just like that, a chapter in Jewish-American culinary history was over. “It’s a sad day for New York,” owner Paul Zolenge told the Times. We’ve been struggling to make it through these hard times.” Zolenge ran the deli on Seventh Avenue, famous for its overstuffed sandwiches named for celebrities.

A friend of mine who has lived in Japan for many years, William Sakovich, told me in a recent email from  the Land of the Rising Sun that he, as a big deli fan from Baltimore, always wanted to go to the Stage Deli in New York, but it never quite happened.

“The last time I was in New York,  in 2000, a friend told me to go to the Carnegie instead, which I did, bypassing the Stage,” Sakovich wrote. “The Carnegie was okay, but they made sandwiches that were so huge, it was impossible to get your hands or mouth around them. Didn’t understand that. My wife, [who is Japanese], got a shrimp salad sandwich that was so big she ate half and ate the other half for dinner on the train back home.”

Then Mr. Sakovich told me a good story about a very good deli in Baltimore.

“In the unlikely event you or any of your San Diego Jewish World readers are ever in Baltimore, go to Attman’s,” Sakovich-san said.  “My father grew up in the neighborhood, and my uncle was best friends in grade school with the son of the owner, who became the owner himself. My father found every excuse possible to drive by that neighborhood for lunch, and I was often with him when it happened. In those days, there were shops in the neighborhood with plucked chickens hanging upside down in the window. As a result, when I was an adult living there, I found every excuse to go by that neighborhood for lunch at Attman’s myself.”

Delis come and go, but our love for them lives forever.

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Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World and an inveterate web surfer. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com