Jew food run

As you are reading this, I have just returned from trip to Shaker Heights and I can reveal to you, while I attended the Shaker Heights High School Class of 1981 Reunion, my real purpose in my trip was to make what my friends have come to call a "Jew food" run.

To Corky and Lenny's I went - with my list and a craving for matzo ball soup.  I walk to the counter and the man greets me with a smile.  "You're back.  It's been awhile."  He knows that I'm hooked.

"I have some nice corned beef," they say, enticing me with a grin that stretches ear to ear.  I place the order and tell them that I'm headed to 2 hours south.  "I'll wrap it extra nice for you."  Then comes the bread, the liver, the coconut bars and latkas. 

"What about some nice smoked white fish - it travels well."

I look at the fish and it looks at me.  There isn't a love connection.

You want anything else, they say knowing that I do.  I'm hooked.; we all know it. It's the Kosher Elephant in the livingroom. I look and name a few more items.

"I have some nice creamed herring," the woman says with a cheshire cat smile.  I pass. She shrugs.  The deal is done.

At the cashiers I tell them I am traveling.  The woman with the big Sally Jesse Raphael glasses tells me to be careful.  "Keep the liver cold - it's delicate.  Sniff it when you get home.  If it smells bad, its gone bad."

Driving back to Columbus I traveled the speed limit, but without putzing about, for my hatchback was laden with ice coolers of a corned beef, Jewish rye, latkas and chopped liver.  The further I get from Cleveland I start to feel like myself.

And when I arrived at my garage, will I be honored as a hero? 

Depends.

My husband will ask "Did you get the coconut bars?  The jumbo macaroons" - he asks.  He is more desirous of the tender angle food cake, smothered in chocolate syrup and rolled in coconut then I am to him, I feel for a second. I answer yes; he smiles; its a mitzvah! 

I am the mensch that I see in my minds eye.