As a native New Yorker, I always look foward to getting back to that great city for tons of reasons. But one of the biggest reasons are Egg Creams, specifically the Chocolate variety!
What is an Egg Cream? Well, non-New Yorker, you take a bit of chocolate syrup (I always liked Bosco’s), pour in some ice-cold milk, and stir in seltzer water. Much yummier than it sounds, trust me…
So I have three questions for this one topic:
What is the story on the creation of the Egg Cream? I’ve heard Brooklyn and Manhattan as place of origin, and various dates of creation from the turn of the centiry to the Depression.
How did it get the name Egg Cream when it is devoid of eggs?
Hypothesis: The head on it made it look like an egg might be in it, and calling it that meant they could charge an extra nickel for it back in the day…
Why didn’t this wonderful beverage emmigrate from New York city like other great culinary trends from the Big Apple? I can’t get an Egg Cream anywhere outside of New York. And though I can tell someone how to make it, it’s never the same…
PS - Best Egg cream for my money is at Magazine store right on the corner of St. Marks and 2nd Avenue in the heart of the East Village!
Accoding to food writers Jane and Michael Stern, Egg Creams were named so because they are “rich as eggs.” I’ve never had one, but they sound good – a little chocolate syrup never hurt nothin’.
Okay, so there are some transplanted New Yorkers who make 'em. I wish some of them lived my way!
But what I mean is that, you get tons of non-New Yorkers who claim to own a “NY Style Pizza” place (it usually sucks) and anyone can make a bagel it seems (don’t know if they were invented in NYC, but I can say they at least were perfected there).
But only a native knows about Egg Creams. An important distinction…
A couple of similar drinks you may be interested in trying:
In large areas of Canada and parts of the midwest, they have the brown cow - half milk, half cola tastes somewhere between an egg cream and a ice cream float
At any decent vietnamese restaurant (and some restaurants of other southeast asian cuisines), you can get a drink that actually has egg yolk - egg yolk, club soda and condensed milk. This is really worth trying for you egg cream fans.
Egg creams; NYC
Pizza; Chicago
Sourdough bread; San Francisco
Buffalo wings; Buffalo
Fish tacos; San Diego
Cheese steak sandwitches; Philly
Hot dogs; NYC, again (Nathan’s)
Del Taco; Los Angeles
And on, and on.
Some treats are better in their hometowns.
I’m starving.
Peace,
mangeorge
I thought egg cream was just east coast vernacular for a soda. Well, not like sodapop, but like a 1950s’ ice cream store soda. I bet you could still get them out here in retro places.
BTW, you can get reasonably good fish tacos here in San Diego, but they are just pale copies of the real ones from San Filipi, Mexico.
Urk. What is a fish taco, is it actually a taco with fish in it? If I take a Taco-Bell taco and slap a halibut in it, is that basically the same thing?
I’m east coast (Washington, D. C.), and it sounds like what we call ice cream sodas. As I understand it, the term “egg cream” is strictly a NY name. Different regions may have different names for the same thing - I call a soda (Pepsi, etc.) a soda, but midwesterners call it pop.
“I’m east coast (Washington, D. C.), and it sounds like what we call ice cream sodas. As I understand it, the term “egg cream” is strictly a NY name. Different regions may have different names for the same thing - I call a soda (Pepsi, etc.) a soda, but midwesterners call it pop.”
—Sycorax
Never thought about it before but…
I really am surprised that the egg cream hasn’t become a part of the bagel explosion.
You have just caused me to ask a question at our local kosher deli. It will be worded something like this: “If you can serve me Dr. Browns, can you serve me an egg cream?”
I think Fox’s chocolate syrup would be proper.
An egg cream isn’t just a regional name for ice-cream soda. It is essentially an ice-cream soda without ice-cream. Syrup, milk and seltzer, according to the recipe in Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern. As I said before, I’ve never had one, or seen one on a menu in any of the states I’ve visited (except New York, where I didn’t have one – at that time I wasn’t familiar with the name and assumed raw eggs {shiver}. I’ve always been sorry for the missed chance).
Now, fish tacos, I know! Corn tortilla, fried fish, shredded cabbage in lieu of lettuce, a spicy white sauce and a squeeze of lime. Yum! We had some people visit from Wisconsin recently – they were profoundly grossed out by the whole concept. I had to shame them into trying it by pointing out that I tried bratwurst while in Wisconsin. They were converts from the first bite. I think they had fish tacos every day of their visit after that! And, they went home with my knock-off recipe for Rubio’s style fish tacos!
I’ve only been to New York on the occasional weekend, but I can state for certain that an egg cream is NOT an ice cream soda. I only had one of the bottled variety (loved it, BTW) but it’s nothing like yer standard float. I actually thought it had egg in it from the taste and consistency. It is rich! and damn yummy to boot
It’s my understanding that, in Boston, a “milkshake” is just that: milk, with chocolate or whatever added, but NO ice cream. To get what the rest of the country calls a milkshake – milk and ice cream – you have to order a “frappe.”
There’s a diner in Chicago (Harlem just north of Touhy) that has, on its sign, “milkshakes” and “Boston milkshakes.” Until I explained the above to my friends, this had been the butt of endless jokes because they (and myself until I knew better) thought it was a redundancy in the sign and thus open to ridicule.
I’ve been a New Yorker for the past 17 years, but grew up in the Cleveland area.
The same Jane & Michael Stern volume we’ve been quoting also refers to the “phosphate,” which they indentify as a beverage indigenous to the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Pitsburgh geographical swath. Like an egg cream without the milk, they state.
I vaguely remember ordering these in Cleveland diners back in the 1960s, particularly strawberry ones. Anyone else remember them? Were they just fountain-mixed soda pop? (Chocolate was another available choice…yuck.)
Satan: re bagels, I live in California and I don’t know what the hell these things are they try to pass off as bagels here. And if you have to eat one of them, you have to tell the person you’re getting it from not to toast it, otherwise you end up with a crunchy bagel, which is so not the point.
Never regret what seemed like a good idea at the time.
