Lower East Side Tenements.
By Moncrief at en.wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When my grandparents left Hungary at the turn of the 20th century, they settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My father was born in a tenement building on Delancey Street, under the Williamsburg Bridge. People lived there out of necessity, until they made enough money to get out.

Most tenement apartments lacked running water, heating in the winter, elevators, and forget about air-conditioning in the summer. The streets reeked with the smell of animal waste and rotten food. My grandparents escaped by buying a house in Brooklyn.

The Lower East Side then… (c. 1910)
Credited to the Brown Brothers [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

…and now!
By David Shankbone (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This is not just a history tour, but also a great food tour. We visit a Jewish deli, a matzoh factory, the world’s greatest candy store, Doughnut Plant, The Pickle Guys, and Russ & Daughters, the best appetizing store in the city.

Katz’s Deli became famous in American popular culture from the “I’ll have what she’s having” scene with Meg Ryan in the movie “When Harry Met Sally.” I go there for the food. Tourists ask me, “What’s real New York food?” Here I am eating a pastrami on rye, and drinking a can of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda. New York is the only place where I’ve found celery soda.

There is a reason my favorite candy store is called Economy Candy. You can buy gummy bears, jelly beans, and hard candy by the pound. Seniors get a kick out of seeing candies from their youth. And it’s one of the few stores that still sells candy cigarettes. How else are children going to learn to smoke these days?

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