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MAVENS GUIDE

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As you enjoy a variety of tasty items from our menu, you may wonder “what makes this food so good?”  You may also wonder “what are some of these menu items, and how do I order them if I can’t even pronounce their names?!”  We’re glad you asked!  This little guide will get you well on the road to becoming a Deli Maven (expert), and will hopsefully entice you to be a little daring and try something new!  As always, if you have any questions about our menu, please do not hesitate to ask us.  Enjoy!

Kreplach (KREP-laakh)
Kreplach are meat filled, triangular shaped dumplings usually served in chicken soup.  We make our kreplach from choice roasted brisket mixed with sautéed onions and spices.  This mixture is then enclosed in our rich noodle dough and gently simmered until tender.  It’s a wonderful taste treat in a big bowl of our rich chicken broth.

Matzo Ball (MAHT-suh)
It’s the ultimate in Jewish comfort food: a big, fluffy matzo ball floating in a bowl of steaming hot chicken soup.  Made from a blend of matzo meal (flour made from the Jewish cracker known as “matzo”) eggs, oil and water, a matzo ball is one tasty dumpling.  It’s eaten any time, but especially at festive holiday meals to symbolize the circle of life.

Noodle Krugel (KOO-gul)
Similar to bread pudding, this sweet and savory dish is a great side dish or dessert, or can simply be enjoyed by itself as a great snack.  It’s made with wide egg noodles, raisins, sour cream and a few other choice goodies.  At the Stage, we make our kugel in house and serve it warm.  Enjoy!

Nova Scotia Smoked Salmon
Bagels, lox and cream cheese: nova is the star of this popular dish.  Known by many names (nova, novie, lox, belly, smoked salmon) it is a wonderfully versatile and delicious food.  Here at Stage Deli we respect the fine art of smoking salmon and leave it to the experts in New York to perform to our specifications.  The belly (the most tender and flavorful part of the fish) from Atlantic salmon is first brined and then lightly cold-smoked until the salmon acquires a silky texture and delicious flavor.  For a special touch, we hand slice each belly for maximum freshness and taste.

Pastrami
Pastrami is corned beef’s spicy cousin.  Although several cuts of meat can be used, ours is made with beef plate, a cut of meat similar to the brisket used in corned beef.  The meat is first soaked in brine and infused with flavor.  It is then dried, covered with cracked black peppercorns, and then smoked for extra flavor.  In the final stage of cooking it is slow steamed in our kitchen to get just the right texture.  The finest pastrami should have a gentle smoky flavor with a bit of spice and should be melt-in-your mouth tender.

Potato Latke (LAHT-kuh)
Latke is a Yiddish word describing our wonderful potato pancakes.  Our latkes are made fresh from perfect Idaho potatoes which are carefully ground and blended with eggs and delicate spices to form a batter. The batter is then shaped and pan-fried to a golden brown in pure vegetable oil. The result is light, tasty and crispy…best enjoyed with a dollop of sour cream and cold apple sauce.

Rugalach (RUG-a-laakh)
These little beauties come to us directly from Brooklyn.  They are tasty little rolled cookies filled with currants, cinnamon and nuts.  Add chocolate chips, apricot or raspberry and you have our three luscious flavors.

Slow-Roasted Turkey Breast
What makes our turkey breast so special?  Nothing.  That’s right, NOTHING!  Virtually all sliced turkey breast has added ingredients such as salt, water, nitrates, preservatives, etc.  Our turkey has absolutely nothing added.  We start with fresh raw turkeys and slow roast them daily in our ovens.

Smoked Sable
The king of all smoked fishes, sable is made from the highly prized black cod.  This fish is treasured for its silky, full flavor, and melt-in-your-mouth qualities.  The cod is marinated in a special brine and cold-smoked, similar to nova lox.  Enjoy it simply on a plate with a drop of fresh lemon or on a bagel with cream cheese.  For a special treat, enjoy a few slices with our scrambled eggs and onion and our crispy hash browns.

Stuffed Cabbage
This old-world delicacy is prepared at Stage Deli the way it was intended. Seasoned, all-natural ground beef and rice are wrapped in delicate cabbage leaves and simmered in a rich sweet and sour tomato sauce.  The result is a savory and hearty taste treat.  Enjoy it hot with plenty of mashed potatoes to soak up the delicious sauce.

Albacore Tuna Salad
People love Stage deli’s tuna.  Its great taste is a result of our simple philosophy; great ingredients make great food!  We start with only the finest solid albacore tuna and add a few simple touches that will keep you coming back for more.

Bobka
Bobka is a cinnamon raisin coffee cake that’s served tall and fluffy.  We make this beauty here at the Stage and serve it warm.  Visit our deli to take some home, available in whole or half cakes.

Challah (KHA-la)
This is the Yiddish word for egg bread.  Ours is made daily and topped with sesame or poppy seeds.  Enjoy it as French toast or on any of our great sandwiches.  Best yet, take a loaf home and enjoy it as toast in the morning.  Add some blueberry preserves and a cup of your favorite coffee for a perfect light breakfast.

Char-Grilled Chicken Salad
What’s the big deal…it’s just chicken salad, right?  What makes the Stage Deli’s chicken salad extraordinary is what we don’t do to it.  We use the finest chicken breasts and char-grill them for extra flavor.  We mix them with great quality mayonnaise and celery, then we stop. Just plain, simple chicken salad.  Simply the best.

Cheese Blintzes
Our blintzes are thin crepes filled with a sweetened, flavored farmer’s cheese which gives them a slightly sweet flavor, plus a delicate hint of citrus for balance.  We’ll add various fruits for special occasions, but no matter what we put on them, our blintzes are always made from scratch in our kitchen and pan-fried to order.

Chicken Fricassee (FRIK-a-zee)
We like to think of our fricassee as Jewish buffalo wings.  We start with plump chicken wings and simmer them slowly in a rich tomato based fricassee sauce.  The result is a savory taste treat which is served hot and sometimes enjoyed on a bed of white rice.  Ask for extra napkins…we encourage you to use your hands with this dish so you can enjoy every last tasty drop!

Chopped Liver
Made fresh daily, our chopped liver starts with select, fresh chicken livers that have a nice, light taste.  Then we add caramelized onions, hard boiled eggs and seasonings to create a perfectly smooth and elegantly tasty chopped liver.

Corned Beef
A great corned beef sandwich starts with the finest, hand-selected, choice, all natural beef briskets.  Stage Deli briskets are chosen for their premium marbling to provide maximum flavor and tenderness.  These special briskets are then infused with our special blend of herbs and spices and aged until they reach their flavor peak.  The really important part is that we then cook them long and slow, until perfectly tender.  Available in regular (our preference) or lean, Stage Deli’s corned beef is a melt-in-your-mouth treat!

Gefilte Fish (guh-FIL-tah)
This former peasant food is raised to new heights at the Stage.  We use premium white fish fillets in place of the traditional fish scraps.  Once combined with our favorite seasoning, the fish is ground and formed into ovals which are poached in an aromatic fish stock.  Served cold with spicy horseradish, our gefilte fish is one holiday dish that’s perfect for every day.

Stage Deli Rye Bread
Our seedless rye bread has been a Stage Deli tradition since 1962.  It’s special because the loaves are specially half-baked to our demanding specifications.  We then take these half-baked ryes and finish them in our ovens just before serving.  The crispy crust and fluffy center can only be enjoyed hand-sliced.  The old-world skill of hand slicing bread takes time to learn, but we think you’ll agree that the result is well worth the extra effort.

Herring
High in Omega 3 fatty acids, this humble little fish is an old-world delicacy with new-world health benefits.  Here at Stage Deli we serve it 3 ways: Marinated (boneless pickled slices mixed with sour cream and thin onions), Maatjes (pronounced MAHT-jes, these are boneless fillets marinated in a savory red wine sauce) and Smoked Kippers (brined and smoked, served hot with sautéed onions and eggs).  Try them all with a big hunk of warm Stage rye.

Kasha Varniskas
Jewish health food!  A hearty combination of bowtie pasta (“varnishkas” in Yiddish), sautéed onions and roasted buckwheat groats (or kasha).  Enjoy it hot as an earthy side dish.  It’s also great with roasted brisket or our slow-roasted chicken.

Kippered Salmon
Start with the finest line-caught, wild King salmon, brine it with water, salt, sugar and spices, and gently smoke it until flakey and moist.  You now have Stage Deli’s kippered salmon, which we bring in straight from New York.  Enjoy it with sliced onion, fresh tomato, a poppy seed bagel and cream cheese – it’s tender, flavorful, moist, and well worth the trip.

Kishka (KISH-kuh)
Kishka, sometimes known as stuffed derma, comes from Eastern Europe.  It is a savory, sausage-like dish used as a starch to accompany dinner.  At Stage Deli, we make our own kishka (a rarity these days).  We start with a natural kosher beef casing and fill it with traditional ingredients like vegetables, flour, ground beef trimmings and spices.  The resulting kishka is slow roasted, sliced and served with natural gravy.

Knish (kuh-NISH)
Knishes are a light pastry dough stuffed with a variety of fillings and baked golden brown.  At the Stage, depending upon the chef’s whim, you will find potato, meat, roasted vegetable or kasha knishes.  All are enjoyed warm with or without our house-made brown gravy.

Kosher Dill Pickles – Old & New
First, let’s get it straight.  In a Jewish deli there are two kinds of pickles…new and old, and neither is made with vinegar.  We start with crisp summer pickles rushed from the farm to pickle barrels for extra crispness.  The pickles are soaked in a brine of water, kosher salt, fresh dill and a dozen herbs and spices that make up our secret recipe.  Now, for that slightly flavored, cucumber-like taste, we halt the pickling process shortly after it begins and you have your bright green, new dill pickle.  Leave the pickle in the brine a little longer (try months!) and voila, an old dill—sometimes known as a sour dill—is born.

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