For a long time I had believed the Chinese were one of the tribes, because of Jews’ affinity for Chinese food, particularly on Sunday night. Besides, historians have verified that Marco Polo, en route to Kubla Khan (born Cohen), visited Silk Road clothiers to buy yarmulkes to trade for Riedel plum-wine glasses in China.
My belief was reinforced during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan, a New Yorker. Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, asked, “Where were you at on Christmas Day?” She replied, “You know, like all Jews I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”
Aha! Proof of a Jewish-Chinese nexus. Then poof! I remembered that on Christmas Manhattan’s Chinese restaurants are the only ones open. Later, I found solid evidence of an ancient Jewish-Japanese food link: the existence of Shalom Japan, a restaurant in South Williamsburg, a Brooklyn neighborhood near my maternal grandfather’s 1930s kosher butcher shop, and the ever so elegantly named Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, owned by a Jewish guy, Ivan Orkin. (Incidentally, the Golan Heights Winery is negotiating to acquire a little known native Japanese white grape named koshu, which flourishes on Mount Fuji’s foothills. The sticking point: can the “u” be replaced by “er”?)
Visiting Shalom Japan, a favorite of locals, I relished the lox bowl with rice, daikon, avocado and ikura (salmon roe). I had thought the Lox Bowl was the place where Yeshiva played the Fighting Irish on New Year’s Day and won, 13.99 to 13.98.
Fusion lovers should explore Shalom Japan’s sake kasu (fermentation lees) challah with sake-dipped raisin butter. You’ve heard of a violinist’s violinist, a lawyer’s lawyer, a rabbi’s rabbi? This bread is challah’s challah. If you visit, order matzo ball ramen, served occasionally, and mochi blintzes, a chewy rice nosh.
Even though Shalom’s co-chef-owner, Aaron Israel, was reared in Great Neck, Long Island, a Tel Aviv suburb, one of his periodic entrees won’t win kosher certification. It blends udon, beet horseradish, chard, root chips and Berkshire pork. I’ve never understood what Orthodox rabbis have against the Berkshires.
At Shalom, you can order a cocktail called Oy Vey Iz Kir (Palmer Vineyards sparkling wine from Long Island blended with Manischewitz), inspired by the Yiddish moan oy vey iz mir: woe is me. You like bar mitzvahs? I drank He’Brew Messiah Nut Brown Ale, a mitzvah (good deed) from the bar.
Reviewing ramencentric Slurp Shop in the New York Times, Julia Moskin wrote that Orkin “drops hints of American comfort food and Jewish tradition: a rice bowl topped with smoked whitefish; four-cheese mazemen, a hot noodle bowl with sauce; chicken katsu, cutlets fried in chicken fat.” She didn’t say whether the seaweed came from Miami Beach.
Orkin owns two Tokyo ramen shops, which keep afloat thousands of well-off Yiddish-speaking Japanese furriers and doctors. Despite the high-volume eat-and-run clientele, you’ll find no brash Jewish waiter finger-in-the-chicken-broth chutzpah behind the counters.
When I last checked, the Slurp Shop didn’t offer a wine list. The nearest equivalent to a wine was Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, a canned soda once called “Jewish champagne” that used to be sold only in delis as hot corned beef’s digestif. If you haven’t slept for 48 hours before downing Cel-Ray, it could taste like sauvignon blanc. You prefer brut zero?
Order seltzer.
This story was featured in W&S June 2014.
illustration by Darcy Muenchrath
This story appears in the print issue of June 2014. Like what you read? Subscribe today.
Stephanie joined Wine & Spirits Magazine as Tasting Director in 2013 and became Italian Wine Editor in 2016. She spends a significant amount of time each year visiting Italy’s wine regions, tasting with producers and researching articles about their practices. Stephanie holds the WSET Diploma in Wine & Spirits and has worked in the wine retail and restaurant sectors, including five years as Wine Director at City Winery in NYC’s SoHo district. She previously worked in textbook publishing as an editor and marketing manager in Minneapolis, Chicago, Austin and Tokyo.
Thomas Whalen.
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Tom worked in fine wine sales at Zachy’s in Westchester and Crush in NYC before joining the W&S team handling advertising sales. A graduate of Skidmore College, Tom got his start in the industry through hospitality, including a stint as the GM and partner in Post Office Bar. He has also done consulting work for private clients on their wine cellars.
Tom brings a depth of knowledge to his role and, when he’s not networking with marketers, he’s busy raising his one-year-old son, listening to classic rock, or dipping back into Jon Bonné’s California Wine.
Alissa Bica
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Based in Los Angeles, California, Alissa Bica is the Spirits Editor and Critic at Wine & Spirits. She is also a Certified Sommelier and co-runs the home wine tasting company, Côte Brune and Blonde. In any rare moments of free time, she writes about obscure grape varieties in the blog Off the Beaten Wine Path.
David Paradela
Associate Editor
David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.
Corey Warren
Tastings Editor
Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.
Tara Q. Thomas
Editor at Large
Since Tara Q. Thomas joined Wine & Spirits in 1997, she’s traveled the wine world from Argentina to Australia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with more than 20 years of experience in the food and wine world, Tara puts her culinary knowledge to use as W&S’s resident food critic, and is the critic for the wines of Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, Argentina, and the Mediterranean. She’s particularly enthusiastic about the wines of Greece, where she once lived and cooked. Outside of W&S, Tara has authored two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine; contributed to the Oxford Companion to Cheese as well as Oxford’s forthcoming volume on spirits; and writes a wine column for Culture: The Word on Cheese.
Patrick J. Comiskey
Senior Correspondent
A former sommelier, Patrick J. Comiskey serves as the W&S critic for all domestic wines outside of California—including New York, Oregon and Washington—and contributes articles on the wines and viticulture of these areas. His wine travels include regular visits to US wine regions, as well as trips to France, Italy, Germany and Australia. Comiskey’s writing credentials include contributions to the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine section, the Los Angeles Times, Bon Appétit and the Robb Report, and also teaches classes and moderates panels on viticulture, wine tasting and various wine regions. His recent book, American Rhône: How Maverick Winemakers Changed the Way Americans Drink (UC Press 2017), was shortlisted for the 2016 André Simon Food & Drink Book Award and 2017 Louis Roederer Domaine Faiveley Wine Book of the Year.
Annette Farrell
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Susannah Smith
Editorial Coordinator
As a retail buyer, Susannah traveled abroad extensively, especially in Italy and Greece, to learn the stories behind her favorite wines and then connect others with the vines and the humans that make them. She is excited to join W&S, since that is the magazine’s mission. Raised to be curious, she finds, after over 20 years in the world of food and wine, that she loves best how wine touches so many disciplines—history, language, geology, cuisine, biology, horticulture—keeping the quest for knowledge fresh every day.
Joshua Greene
Publisher & Editor
Editor and Publisher of Wine & Spirits since 1986, Joshua Greene began drinking wine with meals during a summer in Galicia, Spain, at the age of 13. In later years, he worked in wine shops in western Massachusetts and served as wine captain at Wheatleigh, a small inn in Lenox. After graduating from Princeton University in 1981, Greene pursued a career in magazines, focusing on the management of special-interest publications. His work with Wine & Spirits began on a consulting basis, eventually leading to his purchase of the magazine in 1989.
Greene has traveled extensively in the wine regions of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, and all the major wine regions of the United States. In addition to his duties as editor and publisher, Greene serves as the critic for Napa Valley, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Portugal, Rioja, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He also writes feature stories and commentary for each issue of the magazine.
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Having begun his career on Wall Street, Roy holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and has worked for a number of corporate and boutique firms from New York to Japan. While he clearly enjoys wines—having, over the years, sampled many thousands—he remains true to his Caribbean roots and maintains a primary love for rum.
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Account Manager
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Patricio Tapia
Senior Correspondent
After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley;TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine,The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.
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