Shuls & Shpayz: Deutschland

Park Avenue Synagogue

50 East 87th Street, Upper East Side

Heidelberg Restaurant

1648 2nd Avenue, Yorkville

Ah, ja ja, here we ah. No this isn't Boston. Continuing the new tradition of a synagogue and a supper, we stay on the Upper East Side this week to see what a Friday night service is like at arguably the most prominent Conservative temple in the United States, the esteemed Park Avenue Synagogue, funny enough not located on Park Avenue with an address on East 87th Street and an entrance on Madison. For this adventure, Meryl and I recruited Neal, another one of our group who is interested in Jewish things similarly to us and would also be willing to try new cuisine. My first idea in tackling this project was to pick the synagogues and then try to find restaurants nearby knocking down the most notable synagogues in the city first, and also since going to the Burmese place last week was a secondary thought while looking for a dinner option. So not more than a few blocks away than the Park Avenue Synagogue on Madison Avenue I found the Heidelberg Restaurant, a holdover from Yorkville's days as a German neighborhood after the poor immigrants begot more well-to-do children who moved uptown from the defunct Little Germany (Kleindeutschland) in the Lower East Side. Being Jews from Ashkenazic families, we tend to be somewhat familiar with Germanic, Central and Eastern European foods, after all Ashkenaz is the biblical name of Germany, so it makes sense we have a bunch of salted meats, and cabbages, and slaws, and herrings and whitefishes in our menus. However, pork is also a very big part of the German diet, and specifically sausages which we don’t normally see on a Rosh Hashanah or Shabbat dinner table. Let’s not also forget potato pancakes and dumplings and the amazing schnitzel which is more or less the national dish of Israel after falafel which of course was brought to the Middle East by Jewish immigrants from Germanic areas in Europe. While in Israel schnitzel is most often made from chicken, in German-speaking countries, such as in Austria where it is the wienerschnitzel, it is often made from beef, in particular veal. So first we met at Meryl’s apartment and walked the few blocks over to the synagogue, and actually went through a security checkpoint and through a metal detector at the airport, though the security guard did not make us remove anything from our pockets and I’m not sure it was even on because of Shabbat about to start. We went in and I noticed it was not at all as cavernous as Emanuel and was brighter. The seats were interestingly elevated from the walking aisles and the whole sanctuary was not all that large. They were either wooden wicker style or had cushions of some sort, not typical pews in houses of worship. It was also interesting that the rabbi and cantors, hard to tell when you first get in, were all seated at the front of the room but off the bima on stools as if in a coffeehouse setting, perhaps to make for a more informal environment. The service was not too packed but had enough people, probably 50 or 60. At one point in the service, the rabbi went around the room and asked people who were there for the first time. I volunteered to introduce the 3 of us so I said our names that we’re from New Jersey but live in different parts of the city. For the second week in a row, I was put off by the fact that I couldn’t sing along with the prayers with the rest of the congregation. This was due to the fact that the cantors actually performed the prayers for us, harmonizing and taking turns, complete with music stands. They used elaborate melodies which were most certainly not allowing for participation by people who attended the service. Not to mention I looked up the female cantor after the service and it turns out she is actually a musical actress who performs regularly throughout the city. And Neal brought up the fact that the rabbi during his sermon failed to tie in that week’s parashah. It was during the time Israel and Palestine were having the back and forth conflicts in the Gaza. So, again a service that was more a show than an experience, which is to be expected in New York City so we are still in search of a meaningful service. On to the food now. So we get to the restaurant and it is pretty busy hidden behind scaffolding from the construction projects for the 2^nd Avenue subway East Side Access project. The hostess and waitresses were all dressed in themed outfits like an a bierhaus since it was rather late by the time we were eating she said it would be about 20 minutes until a table freed up. And of course I hadn’t thought to make a reservation (have since learned from that). There was very little waiting area so we could either go outside where it was cold or go to the bar area. I had seen on their sign outside that they were serving Gluhwein which I know also as Vin Chaud or hot wine in French which is very popular around Paris during cold months, and I remember the taste of it with its spices so I was excited to get a glass of it. And good it was. Finally we got seated and checked out the menu and found indeed it was very pork-heavy. I had also read on the United Nations of Food blog that the Schweinebraten dish was recommended but obviously as inferring from the “Schweine-“ part of the word it involves pork. Wanting to have sausage, I went for the Weisswurst, or the white sausage (veal-based) which included potato salad and slaw (sauerkraut). I was also considering the sauerbraten dish described as marinated beef, sweet/sour, potato Dumpling & red cabbage. As an appetizer, Neal and I chose to a split a beef tongue dish, which grossed out Meryl. As was to be expected, everything was a bit salty, and like the blog put it, the food was “well-behaved” nothing special but still good, at least in my opinion. German food like our beloved Ashkenazic food tends to be on the heavy side and with the salads and dishes full of vinegar and sourness and marinated meats, it was a filling meal. No tastes stood out in particular, while Meryl and Neal both decided they’d rather not to return to the restaurant. Northern European food is good, but just not as pleasing to the cosmopolitan palette, especially after having a cuisine a week prior as rare to the west as Burmese.