{"id":77,"date":"2012-07-08T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-08T23:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2022-01-02T13:33:06","modified_gmt":"2022-01-02T18:33:06","slug":"mile-end","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/?page_id=77","title":{"rendered":"A Miss is as Good as a Mile"},"content":{"rendered":"

My dear friend Gwen and I have dinner together about once a month, and since I\u2019m the obsessive foodie of the duo she leaves the choice of restaurant up to me. Back in the day when Brooklyn restaurant Mile End had just opened its doors, I emailed her with this suggestion….<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi Gwen,<\/p>\n

There are a few places I\u2019d like to try, one of which is the highly hip Mile End, on Hoyt Street off Atlantic. They have \u201cMontreal Smoked Meat\u201d \u2014 in other words, I\u2019m told, their take on Jewish deli. Jewish deli? There are Jews in Montreal? Who knew? Isn\u2019t it too cold in Montreal for Jews? Did they get lost on their way to Florida? Were they holding the map upside down? Reading it from right to left? (Congregational hazard.)<\/p>\n

I suspect the only things worth ordering are their specialties, the meat and the poutine (Canada\u2019s proof that even though it is French-identified, they inherited their culinary training and tastebuds from the British).<\/p>\n

Because I had heard about their stellar reputation, I went over there one afternoon at about 1pm \u2014 I reckoned I was going to beat the rush; in theory, there was inevitably a queue extending outside the door populated by savvy New Yorkers baying for a scrap of this transcendent meat. Indeed, when I arrived, there was no line. There were also no available tables. But there\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>a hastily scrawled sign on the door which read, \u201cOut of Meat.\u201d I ventured in anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you like to sit at the counter?\u201d the tattooed, pierced and bespectacled Canadian hipster chick inquired.<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, I don\u2019t know. You\u2019re out of meat? I mean, that\u2019s pretty much all you sell, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. We\u00a0always\u00a0<\/em>run out of meat by this time. So would you like to sit at the counter?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you\u00a0always\u00a0<\/em>run out of meat by this time,\u201d I persisted, \u201cwhy don\u2019t you prepare more in anticipation of the hungry hordes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019re going to be getting another smoker soon so we\u2019ll have two. That should help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI should think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo…counter?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess so. I\u2019d like to try the poutine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you know about poutine?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m a foodie. I know about pretty much anything you can eat and have it not kill you. And there are some exceptions to that, too. Any foodie worth his Fleur de Sel knows about poutine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you from Montreal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Why do you ask?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you know about poutine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI see. I think this is where I came in. Very well then. The counter it is! One order of your finest poutine, mon amie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re out of poutine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeg pardon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said we\u2019re out of poutine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPoutine is just a pile of french fries with cheese and gravy dumped on it!\u201d By this time my voice had ascended at least an octave. \u201cWhich one are you out of?!\u201d I wailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n

I took a deep breath. \u201cI see. Why, then, did you not append the word ‘poutine’ to your otherwise informative placard on the door?”<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, nobody would come in to eat then, would they?\u201d<\/p>\n

I surveyed the customers solemnly munching their salami sandwiches. Salami sandwiches which they might as well have procured from the C-Town across the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll come back,\u201d I sighed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome back for lunch tomorrow,\u201d she chirped. \u201cWe\u2019ll have more meat then!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Right. See you around noon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, better make it before 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As they say in Montreal, oy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My dear friend Gwen and I have dinner together about once a month, and since I\u2019m the obsessive foodie of the duo she leaves the choice of restaurant up to me. Back in the day when Brooklyn restaurant Mile End … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3336,"featured_media":0,"parent":12453,"menu_order":90,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-77","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16564,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions\/16564"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethnojunkie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}