 Hello, my name is Liam. I'm from Youqiao. Do you eat Chinese food on Christmas? People were excited about us being excited. And that made me excited. It was very cultured and we just loved it. It's traditional. It's traditional. I got the kinesis, guys! The best kinesis! Jewish, Chinese and Italian people have been right next to each other in New York's Lower East Side for over 100 years. Everyone gets along, but I'd say each respective community sorta does its own thing, which makes sense because each group is so different. But today we're with our friend Liam, who is of Jewish descent and grew up in the neighborhood his whole life, and he's gonna take us on a tour of Jewish spots in the L.E.S. There's a lot of famous Jewish people in America, but the food isn't as well-known, so we're gonna try a lot of stuff for the very first time. Let's go. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very special and very cold episode of Fun Bros. Food. We're on Houston and Lower East Side. We're gonna be doing a food crawl, learning about the culture of something that I've been wanting to do for a very long time, but haven't yet to get the chance to. And where we at? Guys, we are in front of Russ and Daughters, and we are about to embark on a Jewish food crawl across the Lower East Side. And who better to help us through this food crawl than Liam right here? So my name is Liam. I wanna raise New Yorker from the Lower East Side. I come from a Jewish heritage, and I've lived over a Jewish bakery all my life. We are gonna be hitting up the most famous Jewish bagel spots in New York City, and then we're also gonna be going to some of the most traditional, oldest Jewish bakeries, and then we'll hit up some spots that are a little bit doing a new school thing. Russ and Daughters, let's go. Guys, I just walked out of Russ and Daughters. I bought three of their most popular bagel sandwiches here, and I had some really cool interactions with people in there. They're very nice, you know? I think when you show an interest in what's going on, and like this guy was talking outside, he's been coming here since 1955, and it's so as good today as it's ever been. As a matter of fact, it's probably better today. It's the third generation of owners. Do you think that these spots should modernize? I think the food should stay the same as it was for 50 years, but I think the facility and the service and the aesthetic of the place could modernize, but keeping the traditional. Russ and Daughters has been around over 100 years, and it started by a guy named Russ, and actually he had no sons, so his daughters ran the shop, and that's why it's called Russ and Daughters. Okay, Andrew, these were not cheap. For three bagel sandwiches, which I got a Sturgeon, I got a Pastrami Russ, and I got the classic. It was a total of $52, guys. This spot is high quality, but it is expensive. Here, guys, we have the Pastrami Russ right here. This is Pastrami kind of flavoring on salmon locks. Classic bagel on locks, man, is tradition in Jewish culture. Coming from Europe, bagel, Jewish, we add fish because it's culture. Coming to America, salmon's easier and cheaper to use. It's even has the same. If you're a bagel on locks, Jew, that means you're a little Americanized, but you still hold your tradition. All right, so here we have the Sturgeon bagel, okay? Sturgeon is a fish. Sturgeon bagel. All right. Weirdly enough, it kind of tastes like a fishy turkey, too. Immediately next, we got to go with the classic. You're a layer of a lot of cream cheese. You got your smoked salmon right there. You got onions, capers. Salmon locks bagel. You're not just gone, got to say? I'll definitely go for this in the future. You rockin' with smoked fish. I'm rockin' with smoked fish. Last but not least, this is Pastrami? Pastrami Russ, this is the Pastrami salmon, bro. Pastrami sandwich. Look at that Pastrami flavoring on the outside. You see that? Pastrami Russ. I never had anything like that before. Muscle, it's a kick, it's an extra thing to this. What could be more in New York? We're freezing our butts off, eating Russ and daughters. We got to head over to Cat's Deli. All right, we're about to have a warm Pastrami sandwich, a matzo ball soup, and potato latkes. All right, you guys, we have made it to the world's famous Cat's Deli. I believe that Nicole Kidman had some sort of like scene here or something. I'll have what she's having. She's like, I want what she's having. That's an old reference, but Cat's Deli, it is just a famous place to get your Pastrami sandwich, your Reuben sandwich, corned beef, everything. This is really like in a weird way, a top 10 tourist location in New York City. Everything here is kosher. What does it mean to keep kosher? So in the Jewish religion, you have certain things you can and cannot eat. The most notable non-cosher meal is a pig or a pork. This is because we're not supposed to eat things closed. What do you mean, the hands? The hands are like the trotters. So what else has closed? Yeah, so wait, so what does a cow have then? Nothing, cows and hooves. No clothes, here at Cat's. Let's go. All right, we're here inside the Cat's Deli contestant. First up with the latkes, they're exclusive to Hanukkah and known for when you start that Hanukkah. It's basically potatoes, deep fried, and with pancake. Latkes. I've only had latkes like twice in my life. I think these are the best ones, ma'am. A lot of flavor. Maso ball. What are the different types of Jewish tribes kind of at their arm? Asanis, we've got the more Ethiopian Jews, which are black Jews. So Asanazis are more of the Eastern Europe region. Primary Jews that have been located to the Lower East Side. Sephardi Jews are more Middle Eastern and Mediterranean. One thing we're going to have to get into later is the Kaifeng Jews, the Chinese Jews. There are Chinese Jews in China. Smyr. What is a Smyrish? It's a Yiddish term for just a thread. Look at that. Look at that stack. The strong. Five out of five? Five out of five. We're just going to start to get into some deeper cut things. We are about to have a knish. This whole time we were calling it niche. It's from Poland. It's like a potato dumpling slash hot pocket. Let's go right here. We're in front of Yona Shimmel Bakery. This is on Houston. This has been open since 1910. You look at some of the photographs they've got in drawings. It's like this is like the OG of the OG. Tradition. Tradition. That's all it is. We're about to try some knish for the very first time. I think it is noteworthy that Liam you speak a little bit of Mandarin because you went to what? An immersion school in elementary? Yeah, I'm sure. Ni hao. I'm Liam. I'm the young man. I grew up in New York. That's what can happen in the Lower East Side. A Jewish kid goes to a Chinese immersion school. It's normal. Right next to the Jewish owner. There was still hella Chinese right there. Yeah. Chinese people and Jewish people have been in the Lower East Side together for a century now. You never see this anywhere else. You're burying up knishes down from the basement on a bell hop. This is something that they've been doing this whole time. I got the knish guys. The best knish. If you are just holding Jewish food in your hand, I think Jewish people know you are and they'll just talk to you. Where's the sour cream? Yo, what is an egg cream? I've never had an egg cream, Liam. So an egg cream traditionally in Jewish history. Seltzer, chocolate, and milk. So there's no egg in this. No egg, no cream, unlike the name. Egg cream. You got the chocolate, I got the vanilla. Oh, that's good. It kind of tastes like something you made at home. I've never had a knish before in my life. It's like cream cheese, potato, and blueberry. Is it kind of like one of those pastries? I've experienced it more as a savory food, but it's definitely more traditional. Blueberry knish. Perfect for the weather. Got the flaky pastry crust on the outside. Some kind of firm cream cheese in the middle. Spinach knish. That is like some really tasty and kind of salty spinach mashed potatoes wrapped up in a pastry. Let's just try these new flavors. We're just going to guess what they are. All right, definitely multi-grain. This is a healthy one. Okay. It's like a squash type of thing. I got the vegetable one right here. I'm just going to bite it. Whoa. Pumpkin joint looks crazy. I've got pumpkin, you've got cherry cream cheese, and you've got broccoli potato. I'm not going to lie. I'm really feeling the mashed potato ones. I'm rolling with the potato knish from Yona Shimmel. Derry, got to get it. Must have. Here, we got the classic knishes. What they would be eating in homeland Ukraine. That might be the best one. Really? Shut up. This was so ravey, it would be fire. That's like Thanksgiving in a bun. We're about to hit Grand Street. New spots, newly redone spots, and old school spots. So let's go to Grand Street. All right, so we have made it to Granite Essex in the Lower East Side, and we're right in front of a classic called the Pickle Guys. Pickles are very kosher, and Jews people love it. So they're not big on the history, but it's a tradition. What's really cool is they actually opened up a kosher burger spot using their pickles right next door called Diller. We're going to be checking out both of them. But first of all, let's take a look at some pickles. Pickles have been here since 1910. So it used to be the Pickle District. Used to be 40 pickle stores here at one time. Now there's only one left. This is it. We have about 40 different varieties left. And when I first started, there were only eight. And these are the best pickles in the world. What makes your pickle so good? Well, first of all, you start with good ingredients. Everything we do here is bundled by hand, not by machine or factory. Anything cracked, broken or bruised, goes to the garbage. You only get the best here. This is salad pick, the most popular pick we have. That crunch is incredible. I don't even know if I've seen them smile about anything in this video so far, but that pickle, spicy new pickle. I feel the kick in the back. There we go. That snap and crunch is real. All right, guys, we're here at Dillers. We're a spin-off for the Pickle guys. And Pickle talked to me one day and said, listen, I'm trying to be the side piece. I want to be the main dish. So we made a fried pickle as a main dish, and that's what we're sticking with. We started kosher over there, so we catered to the kosher community. We're outside of Dillers and we have a whole spread in front of us. We got fried pickles. We have a pickle pineapple lemonade. We got the pickled lentils, egg rolls, and then we have the kosher burger right here. But it's not just regular kosher. There's a word for it. That cheese on there is a hot level kosher. Halaf is real. Halaf is real, all right. Kosher beyond burger. You can tell those pickles are high quality because there's like that crunch and sweetness coming from their pickled lentil egg rolls. I'm not mad at that. Fried pickles from Dillers. I've had fried pickles before. These are the best ones. Fried sliced pickles, this might be my thing. I'll give these about a 4.5 out of 5. Last but not least, man, I think you got to go for this pickled pineapple lemonade. Pickled pineapple lemonade. Like that traditional lemonade with a little dill to it, but it's overwhelming ginger taste. Perfect. Okay, so three doors down from Dillers and the pickle guys. We have Kosher's and this is traditionally a huge Jewish community. So of course, you know, you're going to have a very high density of Jewish businesses. Kosher's has been here since 1936. But recently there was a change in ownership and it kind of modernized it to a younger generation. But you know what? I think the Bialys and the bagels and the recipes are generally the same. So Bialy, it's like a bagel, but without the whole it's baked, it's full with onions and poppy seeds. This is something that's exclusively Jewish. You will only find it Jewish spot. You can't find this out of a bagel. You can't find this at most delts. Moppers' opinion, better than bagel. I do know a lot of people like the Bialy better because it's softer generally. Okay. Hey, Liam, you got to hype into Bialy. Our bagels versus Bialys right here at Kosher's. Plain cream cheese Bialys. And then a plain cream cheese bagel. Yeah, both of them toasted because the battle is going down between the Bialy and the bagels. Can we do one order of the Bob the French toast? Yo, Liam, what do you think about the younger generation wanting to keep the traditional life but like, you know, more modernizing it? As diverse as this neighborhood is in, you have to keep evolving into this as in your food. This is exposed to the younger generation now as they use it. All right, we're here at Kosher's. They're known for the Bialys guys. Bialy with cream cheese. It's kind of like English muffin section. Kind of like a fluffy pizza dough. More garlic flavor. Bagel with cream cheese. The Bialy had more flavor and was easier to eat and it has a better ratio of carb to smear. Yeah, I feel overwhelmed with the bagel. I feel like it's almost a little dry in my opinion. I would take this over a Bialy. That's two to one. Bialys, last but not least, here at Kosher's, we have chocolate Bob the French toast. Bobka is a Eastern European Jewish bread and they have made French toast out of it on the griddle. Chocolate Bobka French toast. I'm gonna tell you, that is decadent. That chocolate is built in, but it doesn't taste like a chocolate chip. That's what I like. That is a five out of five. Six out of five. Yo, the chocolate Bobka French toast, everybody get it. You guys, we're going on a Jewish food crawl right now. We're near the end of it, but we're not done. Just keep it pushing. All right, going along with our theme of modernization, we are here at Rivington and Clinton in front of Davidovic bagels. What is like an old school technique they use here at Davidovic that a lot of bagel shops are not doing anymore? Well, it's kind of rolled up though, that's flip with a stick rather than a machine. Like you don't see that anywhere else in New York or even in the country. If you go to any bagel spot and they say that they sell hand rolled bagels, it's likely that they are bought from Davidovic. Davidovic bagels. You got only got rainbow. I don't, is that the traditional Jewish thing? The rainbow? I don't know about that, man. Not the Davidovic bagels. We have rainbow. We have holla bread. We got the grugolas, right? And then we got the pastrami bagel with everything on it. Rainbow bagel. The honey walnut spread is really sweet. Not traditional. I'm loving it. Pastrami bagel. How do you guys like the bagel? It's kind of thick, but it's not too hard. It has a good feel to it. It cuts in perfect. Unless I love Cozars, it's a better bagel. Salmon lox and cream cheese. That salmon lox was better than rest of the dogs. In my opinion. What? What? That's kind of the first. Grugola. This one's a little dry, Davidovic. Last but not least, we got the holla bread. It's the holiday season. I just want to break bread with the fam. You know holla bread. The bagels clearly taste different. I think it's the stick flip. Onto our next spot, but I got to say, shout out to Davidovic. All right, you guys. We just went a little bit further down on Grand Street. This is one of the most classic kosher bakeries. It's called Boiches. Boiches. Is this a spot that you grew up going to? Yeah, for sure. I actually live in the building right on top of it. Jewish food in the LES. How long have you been working here? Fifteen years. Fifteen. Fifteen. Do you eat Chinese food on Christmas and stuff? It has to be kosher. The first thing we got is a homotage. This is very, is eaten during prom, which is basically the Jewish Halloween. Okay, it represents the Haman, who was an evil figure in the Purim story. It could represent the ear or the pocket of health, but it represents a green man. That's why it's filled with cream or a prune-like flavor. Or eating something that represents an evil man. Almost, yeah. Okay. So why do we eat him? Is it like kind of teach him a lesson? We're like, yo, this is a representation. I've never seen poppy seed like this before. David, you're trying the prune one. I'm going to go in on this poppy seed one. Hey, Haman, I'll teach you a lesson. Eat your ear. I really like the prune one. It's underrated. The prune one is underrated. Prune one is about. This one was weird. This is rugola. Yiddish for a little twist. It's a dough wrapped in more like a poppy seed or a chocolate texture. Rugola. It has a deep cocoa flavor, a lot of cinnamon. Not bad. Coming up next, we have the famous black and white cookie. It's just a Jewish staple. I can't say for sure that it's coherently Jewish in terms of Jewish culture, but it's made by Jews for Jews. Jewish black and white cookie. Let's go. Chocolate vanilla. Can't go wrong, guys. Last, definitely not least, mandel bread. Mandel bread. It's something my grandmother used to make when I was little. Okay. Well, we saw this lady in there. She had been working there for 50 years. She used the old traditional bread slicer to cut this. They got the oldest good slicer out there. Is this chocolate bread? It's almost, yeah, it's like a chocolate bread. It's almost like, like, biscotti. Mandel bread. I know what you mean. This is like a chocolate-covered biscotti. Yeah, biscotti. It has that kind of, like, vanilla flavor to it. Oh, oh, oh! I'm not gonna let you guys get off the hook. Oh! Y'all both said y'all was gonna try that. Coast your soda. Maim chaiim. Oh, carbonation is very... Very bubbly. Very high. Lahaim. All right, we've made it to our last spot on Division Street. It is Miceli Bakery. It's a new bakery owned by a young Israeli guy. Spain to Middle East is Sephardic Jews and the Mizorai Jews in North Africa. And then, of course, Andrew, the Kaifeng Jews. Oh, the Kaifeng Jews from China. From Zhengzhou. If we thought that the other bakeries that we went to were a little bit old school, I'm sure this one is much different. Let's go check it out. All right, you guys, we are here at Miceli Bakery. Like you said, this man is from the center of Israel. He comes from a, you know, a very famous baking background. Here we have the chocolate bob cake on the bottom. Another way of making rougala. Okay, so kind of, I'm seeing some similarity to the knish here. Yeah. And then here I have the spinach one right here. Israeli baked Jewish goods. Very French. It has this, like, Frenchiness of a croissant. But it still has that, like, texture of a rougala. At Moises Bakery, that babka bread was, like, you know, your favorite. That's, like, the tradition. But this is, like, the new one. As you can see, this is, like, a twisted one. Babka. If you like Jewish bakery goods, but you kind of want it in, like, a more French croissant, decadent style, this would be a good pick. To twist the original form. All right, you guys, that brings us to the end of our traditional to modern Jewish food crawl through the Lower East Side. There was so much history. Like we said, a lot of these spots have been around for, like, a hundred years. My favorite thing was the pastrami sandwich at Katz. Maybe, actually, potatoes, spinach knish. I got to go with that French toe spinach. I don't really like fish, but that bagel and laks was delicious. I think that potato knish really blew me away because I didn't expect that. I think it was really cool just to be in the community and see how excited everybody was that we were filming the video. People were excited about us being excited, and that made me excited. I definitely want people to go out of their comfort zone. What do you want them to do? Go to a Russian daughter's, like, go out there and try things. The homotation. That's my third pick, the prune joint. Yo, Liam, huge shout out to you. Thank you for doing that, man. You don't have social media. All right, man. That's crazy. You're a young guy. Thank you so much for watching that traditional to modern Jewish food crawl in the Lower East Side. There is no better place to do it than the LES right now in the comments down below. Let us know if there's, like, another food that you guys want to see us explore in New York City. You know, I know it's hard to travel right now, but you can still travel within your own city. So thank you so much for watching. Hit that like button, click subscribe, turn on your notifications, and until next time, we out. Peace. How old is that machine? Older than you and me together. Does Father Stephen, you know his Father Stephen? I used to come here, I have a long hair. You think I remember? Liam, this sign says be a mensch. Wear a mask. What does this word even mean? Be a mensch? Be a good person in Yiddish. Wear a mask. You're helping the community right now. Be a mensch.