"Brooklyn Gift Basket" ideas?

Okay, so my mom (who's from Brooklyn) has her 79th birthday coming up, and for the longest time I wanted to give her a gift basket of old/classic Brooklyn flavors...

I want to start off with egg cream ingredients (Fox's U-Bet, of course) and some black-and-whites, some REAL Bialys, etc... but WTF is up with online prices these days?? $40-$60 for 12 cookies? $3/bottle for U-Bet -- fine! But I added 4 different bottles to my cart for $12, but then $11 to ship them?? WTF is that about?

I'm not a cheapskate, but I don't like getting ripped off, either. I think it'd be cheaper to drive to Brooklyn myself.

Anyway, any suggestions?

U-Bet is sold in lots of supermarkets, and not just in Brooklyn. You should also be able to find it in any soda distributorship. A nice touch would be adding an old seltzer bottle (if you can find one).

I was looking into the soda bottle, but wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort (taste-wise) versus normal seltzer?

My biggest wonder was the black-and-whites... WTF is up with that?? lol If I drove to Brooklyn, how much would a dozen cost? Certainly not $40+, right!

I Don't Know if this will help, or be any cheaper but

Brooklyn Egg Cream Kit

there is also some more stuff related to them on the site

I hope I helped

I linked to that "ridiculously expensive" site already

The seltzer in those old bottles would NOT taste appreciably different from that sold in a standard soda bottle.

The black and whites are sold in any decent bakery in the area (and they wouldn't cost $3.50 each).

I might have to take a road trip in the next couple weeks then...

When is your mom's birthday??

Will she be in Jersey or are you going to your brother's house? (You may wanna consider getting her some Nathan's hot dogs... there's one in the Ocean County mall, or if she's gonna be at your brother's you can get a package of the franks in any supermarket).

How about some old Dodgers stuff? Maybe photos or shirts?

Believe it or not, my local ShopRite makes really, really good black and white cookies. And they're not very expensive at all. Want me to buy you some and overnight them?

And what are the famous cheesecakes from Brooklyn?

Geoff -

When you speak to your mom, ask her exactly where she grew up (the block or the address). I wanna try something.

SB's idea about Junior's cheesecake (you can buy it online) is another good idea.

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a black and white?

I'm not from NY, so I can't give you the details, but it is a large, spongey cookie with vanailla icing on half and dark chocolate on the other.

Oh man, now I want some.

They are really, really good. I had no idea they were a NY thing, though.

Why can't I live in a place where I can enjoy all this different kind of food that i've never had and never heard of?

Thanks, guys!

SC, they're up here in NJ for the summer, her birthday is the 25th. We had Nathans a week ago with chili. I thought Hebrew National was my favorite, but not any more. I'll try to remember to ask where exactly she lived. SB, I'll check Shop-Rite, there's a really good one close by, thanks! As for Junior's cheesecake, I sent one for Valentine's Day. I do most every year, but have yet to be in Florida to try it myself so maybe I'll get another one! lol

It's my favorite cheesecake.

I've never been a fan of the black-and-whites, but your mom would know about Chinese restaurant cookies. Back in the day in Brooklyn, you could get these after dinner (no, not fortune cookies). They are about 5" across and have a dollop of chocolate about the size of a silver dollar in the middle.

I see that some local bakeries still make them and I'll buy a few when I come across them. Ask your mom about these. I bet she remembers them.

We get them where I live, but I've always associated them with NYC. I don't know how popular they are.

In Lancaster whoopie pies (Two small discs of a spongey chocolate cake with whipped cream between them) are popular and I've heard some of the locals refer to them as a black and white. I'm not a huge fan of the whoopie pies.

Those Chinese restaurant cookies sound great, but I'm not sure that I've ever seen them. My favorite bakety cookie is the linzer (powdered jelly cookie). i haven't had one in a long time. They can get a bit messy.

We call them Linzer tarts here.

Who are you calling a tart??

Not you, cookie.

Should have known that you would outdo me.

I just want to see what he comes up with here....

Geoff,

Entenmann's sells Black and White Cookies.




You should be able to get them in New Jersey.

You can also buy them at KOSHERBYTE.COM where they are three for $5.95

And Ruby Tuesday sells "steaks" (Okay, Entenmann's is actually pretty good - just aiming for total authenticity )

But thanks, my friend, for KosherByte.com -- that could come in handy!

Damn, I got a week...

Did you ask your mom what street she lived on??

Sorry, no... forgot. Will try to remember tomorrow...

You forgot! For Mama? you forgot! That's an infamia!

Mama! Mama Mia! Imagine if she forgot to do something for you! Madone a mia!

She forgot my birthday once and still feels guilty about it after like 25 years... Of course NOW it'd be no big deal since I'm trying to forget them myself!

I emailed my dad to find out and he said New Jersey Avenue...

That's not enough info to go on (I'd really need the cross street as well). I wanted to get an old photo of the block or neighborhood and mail it to ya in time to give to your mom.

Lemme know if your dad remembers the cross street and I'll give ya one of the web pages I use and point ya in the right direction so you could print out a picture for your mother.

That is a pretty cool idea. Hopefully he'll remember...!

Geoff, how nice to want to give her something special. Her birthday is the same as my sister's birthday.

I never heard of black & whites either. Only movies and film.

Sometimes I really think I should be from NY/NJ. Anyway, happy birthday to Geoff's mom.


TIS

You should move here, TIS! Bone-chilling winters are "invigorating"!

(I'd say "no earthquakes", but then The Big One will come! lol)

Ha ha.. My kids laugh at me when I tell them that if I had the money, I'd buy a summer home (or condo or whatever) in NYC area. Yet, I am serious. Perhaps, if I win big in Vegas next week. ....Like that's gonna happen.

No, I would stay in CA in the winter without a doubt.



TIS

How about we share a timeshare? You can have winters in NYC, and I'll tackle the brutal winters of LA?

Ha ha...if we're gonna do that, we could just exchange each others homes and not buy anything. I get CA winters though.

I know it's off topic, but I have looked into a say, months stay somewhere in NY. It's between 3/4 grand (and up) a month for a 500 sq. ft. place. Of course, I have know idea what area I am looking at either. Anyway,sorry, continue on topic. I'm just blabbing. I'm on vacation as of today so I'm in a very "up" mood.


TIS

You're on vacation, yet still up at 6-7am?? You didn't read the vacation manual...!

Ha ha!!! I'm a very early riser as I get older. Plus, I'm going to see the grandkids today. And, they are all up bright and early as well.



TIS

I see now why you're not coming out to NJ... cuz at 10 AM when the rest of us are still in bed, you're impatiently waiting for 5 hours!

I hope you enjoy the grandkids as much as I enjoy my niece/nephews! Certainly worth getting up for!

Sweet! I had planned (and may still go) to Wegmans tomorrow (half hour away) to see if they had Fox's U-bet and black-and-whites. I decided to try the local Shop-Rite and they had both!! The syrup was $2/bottle ($3 online) and the B&W's were 2 for $2 ($40/dozen online ). They may not be authentic "Brooklyn" B&W's but Shop-Rite has a terrific bakery, and these look great (bigger than I thought!), so I'm not too worried. Got the selzer and milk, too.

I wanted to mostly go to Wegmans because I wanted to make a homemade pea soup and figured they'd have the best ingredients. I'll see if I'm to it tomorrow. She likes pea soup, too.

Buy her a copy of "The Excorcist".

Pea Soup is pretty simple, Geoff. You need a hambone, some water, a bag of dried peas, carrots and onions. That's pretty much it. You certainly don't need Wegman's for that. I don't know if you can buy a hambone, because I always make pea soup a couple of days after I bake a ham, so I just use my own.

I'm talking Gordon Ramsay -style pea soup! Not the add water to Manishevitz (which is fine!), but something a bit lighter for Summer...

Soak me some cherries and I'll save you some (if it's good)

Orange peel this year, although the cherries did go over well.

All right, this is the modest gift basket I came up with, all of which doesn't fit into the basket... doh!

Homemade pea soup*, 2 bottles of U-Bet, 2 bottles seltzer, 6 black-and-whites, 1 pkg Manischewitz Fruit Slices (candies I remember from when I was a kid), and 2 bars chocolate-covered Halvah (awesome sesame candy), milk...



...and a pound of fresh figs (finally!) for my dad.

*I went all out and made gallons of this stuff -- with fresh peas mixed in! I tried to make a less heavy pea soup that's a bit lighter for summer, but it still came out hardy. I experimented a bit, too, and included a pureed sweet potato into the mix, as well as fresh peas and snap peas. Took like 3 hours to cook. Came out pretty good, though.

Nice touch with the halvah and fruit slices (both a staple of Brooklyn Jews). A very nice gift basket!!! I'm sure your mom will love it.

(Is it too late to add something simple? Get a picture online of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers - they won the World Series and were much loved in Brooklyn. Here's a link to one - CLICK HERE ).

My mom quit baseball after the Dodgers left -- I'm sure many did!

I wanna try to get a DVD together w/ footage of the twins - hopefully I'll have time (have a couple hours)...

Very nice Geoff. Those are some huge cookies!

You're such a good son. Let us know what she thought of your gift.

She LOVED IT!!! She hasn't had some of those items in YEARS. Of course she was most grateful about the thought and effort behind it all. It's too bad she's sick right now and cannot really eat anything yet. Hopefully tomorrow! Thanks for all your ideas!

PS - She also loved the DVD I whipped together with about 5 minutes of footage I had of the twins. I think she played it 5 times

Cool, although I'm sorry to hear she's not feeling well.

I hope she feels better soon Geoffy.

I'm glad she was thrilled and hope she feels better soon to enjoy the basket. That's a very thoughtful present.

I get those same Glad storage containers. Good job.

JG, that is an AWESOME gift basket! Wow! I think you are a very, very good son, and, being a mom, I admit that such a gift would have made me cry.

Hope she's feeling better soon.

Thanks, everyone! She just called me a little while ago telling me the pea soup came out great -- but true or not, mom's will say that anyway. I'm gonna try it myself tonight...

Nice basket Geoff. A very thoughtful gift!



(Now I'm craving some Halavah and an Egg Cream)


You're a good son my friend!

Great job, JG! Way to make your Mom's day!

I don't know any mom who doesn't feel that homemade presents made from love are worth way more than store brought gifts. I'm sure this will be a gift she'll treasure a lot, just thinking of the thought and time you put into it.