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The Yiddish word for lobster is "homar."
Jewish dietary laws state only fish with fins and scales are to be eaten, so shellfish, such as lobsters and shrimp, are all forbidden ("awser").
Zabar's, the famous gourmet emporium at 2245 B'way, NYC, is in the news again.
In 1981, J. Arthur Ranker wrote a book titled, "On A Scale Of 1 To 10...or How To Rate Your Mate, Cars, Restaurants, Movies, and Everything Else in the World."
In his list of Top 10s was Annie Hall, Lutece Restaurant, Jane Fonda, The Beatles, IBM Selectric typewriter, Playboy magazine, Ralph Lauren clothing, the Stage Delicatessen, The Israeli Secret Service... and Zabar's.
The Zagat Survey, 1999/2000 wrote the following about Zabar's:
"The house that lox built" is still packing in fervent fans who "just couldn't live without" this Upper West Side mecca and gladly "swim upstream to reach the counter" for "the cheapest, best variety of caviar" and "fabulous smoked fish"; the slicing of lox and Nova "is an art" in itself here, though the "countermen could do with a charm course."
1994 Headline:
THE CALL OF THE LOX AND DUE
PROCESS AT ZABAR'S;
A SALMON SLICER CLAIMS DISCRIMINATION;
HER EMPLOYERS SEE ONLY MANGLED FISH
Jan Hoffman, New York Times
Aug. 8, 1994
A determined young woman, Eleanor Wolper, is seeking justice. She believes that her salmon-slicing skills have been cruelly impugned. Murray Klein, 71, a co-owner of Zabar's, dismissed Eleanor... or she quit her job??? Slicing fish is a stressful situation and the "artist" is almost never a woman. Klein said, "Women are sensitive about the smell of fish. Men aren't. Women don't like the stink on their clothes."
Wolper said, "I have an affinity for cutting salmon. I get chills thinking about it--it's so beautiful to watch. And Zabar's always has the best." She left and took the case to Judge Dennis Aloysius Dooley.
F-a-s-t forward to 2011.
2011 Headlines
"Sorry Folks, There Is No Lobster
in Zabar's Lobster Salad"
"Claws Out Over Zabar's Mislabeled Lobster Salad"
"Will Bert and Ernie Ever Eat Zabar's 'Lobster' Salad?"
Scott Curkin, Eyewitness News, reports that Zabar's admits to selling lobster salad without the lobster. It actually contained wild freshwater crawfish. The owner, Saul Zabar, reasoned that crayfish, while not Maine lobster, is a distant cousin ("kuzin"/ "kuzine"). The salad goes for $16.95 a pound and Zabar says using actual lobster would make it more expensive ("tayer'). Doug MacCash, art critic at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, calls the scandal ("skandal"), "Lobstergate."
Perhaps this Yiddish expression applies to
Saul Zabar: "Er macht zack nisht visindicht."
(He pretends he doesn't know he is doing
something wrong.)
---------------------------------------------
Marjorie's favorite Zabar story:
(overheard)
Customer to woman behind fish counter at
Zabar's Upper West Side emporium, perhaps the greatest deli food and housewares emporium.) Every "bale-boste"
loves the store.)
"Are you Italian?"
"No, I get accused of being Italian a lot. I'm
just Jewish."
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