Sometimes documentary offerings can seem too serious and make you feel rather hopeless and horrible about things. I know that was the case last weekend when I finally watched Food, Inc. and now I can barely eat anything processed or delicious anymore. But Deli Man made me very hungry again. It was a lighthearted documentary and I was very glad that it was offered in theaters here. The movie was ambitious, perhaps overly so, as it tried to give us a complete history of Jewish Immigrant food in the Delicatessen, particularly in New York, but also to give us a personal history of one deli man, Ziggy Gruber. Ziggy comes from a long line of deli owners and has set up shop in Houston. In between salivating as you watch the film you definitely learn lots of things about Jewish cultural history through their food. It is overly sentimental and schmaltzy in more ways than one, but you stop caring after a while about being emotionally manipulated, because while it just seems like tasty food to us, to these men who run these delis it is their way of keeping history alive.
The history of Jewish immigration and of how they set up their delis to a height of nearly 3,000 just in the New York area and ten thousand more around the country is inspiring and makes you think about how your own immigrant ancestors would’ve felt when they first came across on the boat and how they tried to make it once here. So then it is a blow to find out that only about 150 such Jewish deli’s remain. It would be more disheartening if the remaining delis weren’t in such great hands as those highlighted in the movie. They are keeping their great-grandparents dreams alive one gigantic sandwich and one bowl of chicken soup at a time. While we all know that great satisfying taste of a pastrami sandwich some of the more interesting parts of the documentary were when Ziggy was able to make some of the more Jewish kitchen dishes inspired from those that the Eastern European Jews would have brought over.
The funny parts of the documentary feature quick interview quips from these Deli Men and from a few jewish celebrities who basically require matzo ball soup everyday to survive, among them are Jerry Stiller and Larry King. Jewish comedians have made careers out of jokes revolving about their culture and food, and the documentary has lots of laugh out loud moments inspired by them. One of the best lines of the documentary was much more serious when one interviewee stated how important these recipes were. Because while other immigrant cultures stress equal or even greater importance on food, like Italians, these recipes are still being refined and over in Italy. More Italians can emigrate here, Italian-Americans still have contacts with family back in Italy. Eastern European Jewry cannot refresh its culture, it cannot look back to the old country for inspiration. They do not have a country, the population has been destroyed. So delicatessen become even more important, because outside of Bubbie’s kitchen this is all that’s left. Ziggy and his fellow deli men have vowed to keep this tradition alive.
Ziggy is quite likable to feature in roughly half the documentary and we care enough about his personal life for it to earn that running time. I will admit though the historical parts of the documentary were more fun for me. Jewish culture and cinema has a tougher task than most as it seems they must represent Jewish Americans while at the same time create personal and esoteric stories. Woody Allen is the best example of this, but it is apparent in nearly any movie that you could call ‘Jewish’ and Deli Man is no different. If I were you I’d sneak off to see this and then head to your favorite Jewish Deli. Jake’s in Milwaukee is terrific. Manny’s in Chicago near Union Station is even more so. It’s nearly Passover, so why not be a little Jewish and sink your teeth into a stuffed cabbage and rip off a piece of challah. Jews know food.
midwestmovieman 