Posted on 02/24/2012 2:32:16 PM PST by nickcarraway
A purist’s hunt for the city’s best rendition
These days, New Yorkers are more likely to be able to recommend a place to get a good banh mi than a good egg cream.
The name egg cream is thought to derive from the Yiddish "echt" (sounds like "egg") cream, meaning "genuine" cream. For those of you who claim New York City as your home but were raised in, say, Idaho, allow me to clarify something right off the bat: An egg cream is made with neither eggs nor cream.
Traditionally, an authentic New York egg cream is composed of just three readily available ingredients: Fox's-U-Bet chocolate syrup (no other brand will do and please, don't use vanilla, and, please, not coffee, strawberry, or any other flavor), ice-cold milk, and seltzer (preferably dispensed from a soda fountain or at least a pressurized seltzer siphon bottle).
But, as they say, just because you have uranium, doesn't mean you know how to construct a nuclear bomb. It's the way those ingredients are combined that makes the difference between a gloppy sweet chocolate fizzle and the "echt"-stasy that is a genuine egg cream. The following are my current top 10 spots in New York City for egg cream. (Sammy's Roumanian is excluded only because it is a do-it-yourself version). And, of course, depending on the particular soda jerk (that's a respected professional title, not an insult), your results may vary.
"I'll have a large please"
yup you gotta have Fox-u-bet syrup to make an egg cream...
and seltzer...
no egg....no cream.
and if you’re broke...get a 2 cent plain.
First time I’ve heard of this. What’s special about the Fox-u-bet syrup? Why wouldn’t Hersheys work?
I want the Five Dollar Shake.
First time I’ve heard of this. What’s special about the Fox-u-bet syrup? Why wouldn’t Hersheys work?
That egg cream would go beautifully with a Reuben- heavy on the Russian dressing and kraut. Yum. Now I have a craving.
White or brown head?
sorry, I grew up on vanilla egg creams
Thank you.
Am I to understand there is no alcohol involved?
Perhaps it's EVIL.
Sorry, Friday afternoon after a harsh week, and a classical culinary education made me say that.
It's 10 minutes to beer time.
/johnny
<< sorry, I grew up on vanilla egg creams >>
Same here, bro. Tried a chocolate one from time to time — and I’m a chocolate over a vanilla fan in general — but the vanilla egg cream was something I grew up with. It was a Saturday tradition with me and my Jewish friend. I STILL have one with my pastrami on rye (w/mustard) when I’m in a NYC Jewish deli. LOVE ‘EM!
And I’m not Jewish!
Dubious.
Growing up in New York, I heard many theories about the etymology of the name, but the one which sounds most plausible to me is that the foam on top of an egg cream looks like beaten egg white.
What alcohol is to be mixed with it?
That’s right, The milk and seltzer form a head when mixed.
It's a very old (early 1900s) brand, originally (and probably still) manufactured in Brooklyn, New York, so afficianados of the egg cream insist that it is the only authentic syrup to use.
The closest I can get is Neslies Quik, milk and an Alka Selzer will that work!!
My mom’s fav, and I followed in my mom’s footsteps:)
Thanks for the memories!!!
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