For decades soft pretzels have been served as a snack on New York’s street corners. Vile. The worst were the soggy specimens sold by a sad man in front of Bloomingdale’s Lexington Avenue facade. HG once had a much-touted Pennsylvania Dutch soft pretzel with mustard at Philadelphia’s farmers market. It was okay. Not great. For HG, the only worthwhile pretzels were in big glass jars on the counters of Bronx candy stores. These crisp pretzels–twisted or vertical– were much enjoyed by HG with a cold egg cream. Info for the uninitiated: An egg cream contains no egg and no cream. Just seltzer, U-Bet chocolate syrup and ice cold (or semi-frozen) milk. HG’s recipe, reprinted from the New York Times, is included in The Jewish Encyclopedia. HG notes that pretzels are having a makeover in the form of crushed pretzels as a coating on fried foods, as pretzel bread, pretzel rolls and biscuits. HG still craves those old time candy store crispy delights.
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