a person of great taste

the story goes, i was only 1 yr old. my parents had brought me to their closest friends house for sunday brunch. it was a classic jewish spread: bagels, tomatoes, onions, various salads, and of course, the obligatory lox platter. 1lb of it to be exact. everything was going great; the coffee was strong, the bagels were fresh, and the lox was...gone. all of it seemingly vanished into thin air. that is, until my parents noticed their baby's pink stained hands and guilty expression. the smell of smoked salmon emanating from my hiccups was probably also a clue. yep, i ate a pound of lox all by myself when i was 1. and i haven't been deterred since.

i love lox. it's both quintessentially jewish and totally new yorky. i look forward to a sunday morning breakfast of a warm crusty bagel with the right amount of cream cheese (not too much or too little), a juicy slice of tomato, and perfectly sliced lox. it has to be soft (not fibrous) but in no way mushy. i may have strayed from my jewish heritage in many ways, but i will never deviate from my love for lox. i spent years turning up my nose at gefilte and chopped liver, but this fish was never my foe.

this week i have been cat sitting on the upper west side, which just happens to be the lox capital of the world. i dragged my beau down amsterdam ave to smoked fish mecca, barney greengrass. i wanted eggs, but i wanted my lox and bagel too, so i got both. the massive menu fortunately includes every combination of breakfast and fish imaginable. i went with scrambled eggs with a generous side of lox and white fish. it came with a toasted bagel and a slab of cream cheese. i asked for a few slices of tomato and i was good to go. the eggs were fluffy, the lox was silky, and the whitefish was so smoky i called it "fish bourbon." even though he was disgusted by that thought, mark had to agree.

as i worked happily on my various breakfast components, i noticed a woman eating by herself at a nearby table. she was older; hair thinning, skin sagging, but i was moved by how content she looked to be eating her meal.  i wasn't aware that she had noticed me, but on her way out she stopped by our table and in a voice tinted with jewish heritage and new york breeding she said, "i hope you don't think i'm strange for saying this, but anyone who eats eggs with lox and white fish is a person of great taste." she smiled approvingly and made her way out. meanwhile, i was beaming. i personally have always considered myself to be a person of great taste, but now i knew for sure. if this woman, this perfect stranger who had probably seen so much in a lifetime was able to recognize my gifts within an instant, i knew she must be right. who cares that 99% of the dishes at barney greengrass include these same three ingredients. affirmation? check!

the fact was, it was a perfect new york moment. eating at a jewish deli on the upper west side, a stranger offering you their unsolicited opinion-- sometimes it doesn't get much better then that. 

so thanks mom and dad for not chastising me when i was only 1 and instead encouraging me to cultivate and pursue my tastes until they were honed and precise. you have produced a daughter with superior predilections and discerning orientations. well, at least according the lady in the diner.

speaking of loving new york and breakfast, i had to share this fantastic photo that was in this week's new york times dining & wine section. nyt shared their picks for the city's best coffee. it's a great list, and if you are a coffee connoisseur, it offers so many alternatives to the ubiquitous chains. i especially like this photo because it embodies how i feel about new york if i were to personify it: completely loyal, passionate about the details, and unapologetically itself.