Comments (0)Having A (Matzoh) Ball
August 21, 2009Neil Rubin
Editor
With apologies to the “Welcome Back Kotter” gang, when this matzoh ball sits around the soup, it sits around the soup.
It’s hard to visualize the 267-pound chunk of matzoh meal, oil, eggs and salt. However, coming to mind is an off-yellow, pocked glob akin to “Pizza The Hut” in Mel Brooks’ goofy movie “Space Balls,” the character itself a spoof of Jabba the Hut from “Star Wars.”
A nostalgic journey through late 1970s Americana aside, the New York Post happily reports that hungry New Yorkers on the Lower East Side (where else?) recently munched down on the 29.2 inches in diameter glob.
Event organizer Noam Sokolow offered the obvious and always welcome rhetorical comment: “What’s better than this in New York City? Big Apple, big matzoh ball.”
Amid much fanfare, the gastronomic Goliath was on display outside his Noah’s Ark Original Deli. Lest you think crass publicity was the goal, it was all about promoting an Oct. 18 charity basketball game between the New York Knicks and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, an event whose proceeds will benefit an orphanage in northern Israel.
Remaining questions: How many sizes of matzoh ball soup will be sold at the concession stands and will the knaidlachen be soft or hard?