NewYorkFirst.com: Yonah Schimmel Knishes

Where The Knish is Delish.

The knish is believed to have been developed by Eastern European Jews, who wrapped dough around potatoes or kasha as a way of adding interest to these inexpensive staples. After the turn of the century, Yonah Schimmel, a rabbi from Romania, began making them for sale to New York immigrants.

Yonah Schimmel began by selling his products (just potato and kasha first) on the beach. Schimmel's territory was Coney Island. But Schimmel also sold his wife's homemade products from a pushcart on the Lower East Side before opening the store on Houston Street in 1910.

Over the years the store has achieved celebrity status. An oil painting of the facade hangs in the Museum of the City of New York. Yellowing newspaper and magazine clippings decorate the original store, proving the fact that famous folk, including Nelson Rockefeller, Eddie Cantor, Barbra Streisand and Zero Mostel, sampled the store's specialties, which are rolled by hand and baked in brick ovens on the premises.

Yonah Schimmel knishes are handmade, baked (never fried), and filled with a wide variety of ingredients to a "pleasantly bulbous" size that can serve as an entire meal. At Schimmel's, knishes are baked in the basement of the store and brought up to customers on a dumbwaiter.

So how many calories are in a knish? About 300 in a kasha knish. That translates roughly into one health club exercise class or twice around the Central Park Reservoir track.

Availability: Please Read Before Ordering: All orders are shipped direct from Yonah Schimmel Knishery, Monday thru Thursday, via NEXT DAY AIR. Your order must be received before 12 Noon (NY time) to ship the same day; after 12 Noon orders ship the following day. Orders received after 12 Noon on Thursday will ship the following Monday. (Perishable orders do not move on weekends).