A long forgotten salty treat

10 April 2012
This review was first published in July 2001

Salt beef has rather slipped away from us Brits and been relaunched as a Jewish sort of delicacy - the kind of thing New York detectives eat from brown paper bags while on stakeout. But it is worth considering that when the ships containing a contingent of very bored Pilgrim Fathers docked in the New Country, they were probably particularly sick of salt beef, having eaten their way through several barrels of the stuff en route. No wonder the turkeys took such a hammering when they eventually made landfall.

Aside from all the dull stuff about finding a way to preserve meat through those long winters, salt beef has a charm all of its own when handled right. Good salt beef is pink with wicked saltpetre and loaded with salt, sugar and fat - any food containing so much that is bad for you must be tasty. And a good salt beef sandwich is a pleasure to be savoured.

It should be thick - the filling twice the thickness of the enclosing bread. It should be served on light rye bread - brown, but not coarse, and with nutty caraway seeds scattered through it. Then you need a good dollop of 'chrane' - this is the Jewish answer to Anglo Saxon horseradish sauce, mild and purple with beetroot. Enjoy, already!

THE KNOSHERIE

The Hatton Garden Knosherie - an imposing title abbreviated to Knosherie for practical purposes - was taken over in 1999 by Michael Bloom after the closure of that East End stalwart, Blooms in Whitechapel. The menu describes it as a 'Fully licensed kosher style deli diner' which seems to cover all the bases, although it doesn't prepare the unwary for the decor.

The chairs have shiny brass backs, and the tables are covered in fuschia-coloured oil cloth, so if you have a headache you owe it to your optic nerves not to venture inside without sunglasses. Which is somewhat surprising as the clientele look to be the sort of folk who may well suffer the occasional headache, but that's because this place is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, and a good many of the punters have already spent a while out on the razzle before pitching up at Hatton Garden for some solids.

The menu is lengthy and the food homely (in the most complimentary sense of the word). Start with a portion of chopped liver and egg and onions mixed - it's really top stuff, the egg and onion is creamy, almost like egg mayonnaise, and the chopped liver very smooth, close to a pate.

The soups - headed by the legend 'with Mama's touch' - range from bean and barley, to borsht and chicken soup with noodles, dumplings, stuffed dumplings or the 'Full Monty' which contains all three. The menu dallies with fish and chips, jacket potatoes, pasta dishes, omelettes and even salads before you get to the bit that matters - 'Our own hot salt beef and shawarma kebab carvery'.

The salt beef sandwiches are well made, suitably thick and have just enough fat within to make them eat well. Add a dangerously tasty latke - a deep fried potato cake with enough calories to sustain a whole slimming club for a week - ladle on some deep purple horseradish and you're away. But it is worth stilling that prickling conscience by ordering a 'new green' (translates as a lightly salted and pickled cucumber) so that the meal doesn't pass by without any green vegetable featuring at any stage.

The Knosherie is a very honest place, one glance at the decor, the signage, and the menu will tell you whether you will be happy here - what you see is what you get, and that could end up being a very tasty salt beef sandwich.

12-13 Greville Street, EC1 (020-7242 5190). Mon-Sun, all day. ??

REUBEN'S

A real restaurant with suitable airs and pretensions, the cafe/deli bit serves a decent salt beef sandwich, and downstairs there is an extensive menu littered with trad Jewish specialities.

79 Baker Street, W1 (020-7486 0035). Sun-Thur 11.45am-10pm, Fri 11.45am-3pm. ???

HARROD'S FAMOUS DELI

You have to suspect that Harrod's deli is only famous if you are a tourist reading the sign saying that it is. As the store marketeers recognised that the shoals of tourists who visited to gawp, not shop, could be persuaded to sit and eat, several little restauranty bits sprang up in the food halls. The salt beef is sound enough. The pricing a tad Harrodian.

Harrod's Knightsbridge, SW1 (020-7730 1234). Mon-Sat 10am-7pm. ????

BLOOM'S

When Bloom's retreated from the East End it was left to the Golders Green outpost to preserve the name, albeit under new ownership - and that's about all that's new. The food is traditional, portions are severe and the waiters have been there, seen that, and laughed at anyone foolish enough to buy a T-shirt.

130 Golders Green Road, NW11 (020-8455 1338). Sun-Thur noon-11pm, Fri noon-3pm. ???.

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