Unforeseen circumstances changed my posting plan for the second week in a row. I had intended to write about two different locations owned by the same Jewish-style deli but had to cancel the second stop on account of feeling under the weather.
But I did make it to the other spot, that being The Borscht Belt’s new stand in the former Chestnut Hill Farmer’s Market, now known as the Market at Fareway. My sister tipped me off on their recent opening and joined me there for lunch on a sunny weekday afternoon.
The Borscht Belt stand sits toward the center of the relatively small market and has a menu that is abbreviated compared to their full-service location in Newtown, PA, but which does include many of the key Jewish deli basics – most notably hot pastrami and corned beef.
When it was our turn to order, my sister wasn’t up for a heavy sandwich and opted to stick with matzo ball soup, while I went in the opposite direction with pastrami on rye.
I also requested the extra meat option. This decision was based on being disappointed with the size of my sandwich – but not the quality of the meat – when visiting Borscht Belt’s Newtown location shortly after it opened a couple years ago.
The operation wasn’t the smoothest I’ve dealt with, but their relative newness may have played a role in that. After a fairly long wait for our order, we had no difficulty finding a table.
My family generally speaks freely when unhappy with something we’re eating and my sister had a short list of issues with her matzo ball soup. First, it wasn’t hot. On top of that, the matzo ball took up most of the container, leaving insufficient space for broth. Finally, the matzo ball was too dense for her taste. I generally get chicken-noodle when I’m in a soup mood at a deli and have no opinion on how dense a matzo ball should be.
Thankfully, I had no serious complaints about my pastrami sandwich, except that it still wasn’t particularly big by Jewish deli standards – and for its price; $24 with the extra meat. But it was enough to satisfy my appetite by the time I finished it.
The thick and flavorful slices of meat were hand-carved, which I prefer for pastrami and corned beef, and hotter than my sister’s soup. While I wouldn’t quite put it up there with the best I’ve had – including the pastrami at Jake’s Deli in Milwaukee that blew me away during my recent trip – it was very enjoyable.
Having said that, I still prefer the experience of eating at a full-service deli and would be more likely to return to the Newtown location than the stand in Chestnut Hill.
In light of the deli portion of this post being shorter than anticipated, I decided to hit a second new eatery in the Philly region – Anomalia Pizza of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, which opened just a few days before my visit.
I’m always on the lookout for a good slice shop and the photos I saw posted on Facebook by someone promoting Anomalia’s grand opening looked promising. What I saw when I entered and approached the counter reenforced my sense of optimism.
Anomalia’s doesn’t serve sandwiches, so there was no cheesesteak option, but they did have a pie called the Italian Stallion on their counter that included chopped steak and onions along with swirls of a red pepper sauce.
I decided to try it along with a plain slice.
While the presence of the red pepper sauce on the Italian Stallion caused me to hesitate for a moment before placing my order, it turned out to have an excellent flavor and worked well with the rest of the pizza’s ingredients.
My one complaint about that slice was that the onions were placed on the pizza raw. I’d love to see them caramelized, but they should at least be decently fried.
The plain pie was a garden-variety New York-style slice, which is a good thing in my book.
The crust had a nice crunch to it and the sauce was flavorful and perfectly proportioned to the cheese.
Anomalia’s may be a bit far from where I live to make it a regular stop, but if I ever find myself near Fort Washington while craving pizza, I won’t hesitate to return there.
On a side note, we drove back to North Jersey to give another shot to Lee’s Hawaiian Islander with our friends. I had mentioned in last week’s post that they were closed for their annual vacation the first time we went there in late August.
They were open and we had a fantastic time in a setting that looked like it was stuck in a time warp from half a century ago. Polynesian-style Chinese (or tiki) restaurants were popular during the 1960s and 70s, but have long since gone out of fashion. Lee’s must be one of the last ones left in the eastern U.S.
Unfortunately, for the first time since I’ve been putting out blog posts, I accidentally deleted most of the photos I took while we were there. There is some mysterious force preventing me from posting about Lee’s.
Here are the only two shots I have – one of the exterior and one with the dining room in the background and our flaming PuPu platter and foil-wrapped chicken in the foreground.
Anyone interested in a better look at Lee’s can find a nice series of photos here.
As a write-up on our meal at Lee’s was on tap for next week’s post, I’ll have to come up with an alternate plan for a third straight week. Two new cheesesteak shops have opened near me. Trying at least one of them is the front-runner for Plan B as of this writing.
BZ Maestro Eats 
Beautiful pastrami — and abut the right size for me
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I had a bigger problem with the amount I paid for that size sandwich than with the size itself. It was plenty for lunch. But you get twice as much meat for a little less money at Radin’s and Famous 4th Street and a similar amount for much less, and without having to request and pay extra for additional meat.
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The prices were the first things to catch my eye and I initially thought you’d found a great bargain, until you commented on the size of the sandwich.
But it does look good, and about the right size for me as well these days.
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