This delicious saga of how immigrant food became American food follows European immigrants on a remarkable journey from the Ellis Island dinning ha...
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Dec 31, 2010
Terry
rated it: 
ETA: I really enjoyed this book! My only tiny quibble is that it's publicized as being about "Five Immigrant Families" and it's really not--in most cases there just isn't enough material to discuss the families at any length at all, and in fact, in some places Ziegelman mentions the fact that the family happened to live at 97 Orchard and then never mentions them again (it's merely a way to organize the history around certain immigrant food, and I'm not sure it was really necessary--th
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Jan 15, 2011
The Library Lady
rated it: 
This book's title is deceptive. There is very little about the five immigrant families in this book. The real focus is on how the arrival of various groups of immigrants influenced and changed the food world of New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The people have little more substance than cardboard figures tucked into the story to illustrate it. And while there is some interesting information about food of the period here, the style is so higgledy- piggledy, jumping fro More...
The people have little more substance than cardboard figures tucked into the story to illustrate it. And while there is some interesting information about food of the period here, the style is so higgledy- piggledy, jumping fro More...
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Jan 14, 2012
From the culinary curator of the Tenement House Museum in New York, a reconstructed history of the kitchens of five waves of families from 1860-1940--the Glockners (Germans), Moores (Irish), Gumpertzs (German Jews), Rogarshevskys (Polish-Lithuanian Jews) and Baldizzis (Sicilians). The cyclical food history pattern is always there--the immigrants are eating crazy, spicy, strange-smelling food and they should knock it off and quit hanging around with other emigrants in basement restaurants talkin
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Jan 05, 2012
Laura
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This is not about 5 immigrant families, but rather, the foods that various immigrants consumed and how it contributed to American culture. Initially, I was annoyed by the deceptive title but there were enough interesting facts and compelling description for it to redeem itself. For example, I found it interesting that most immigrants were pretty open to assimilation except when it came to their native foods. The Irish immigrants were somewhat of an exception because they had subsisted on virt
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Dec 21, 2011
Cameling
rated it:
Through the 19th and 20th century, New York has seen waves of immigrants from various countries. In the 1800s, blocks of apartments known as tenements were developed specifically to house the incoming immigrants. The author concentrates on 5 families that lived at 97 Orchard in New York through the 1800s and early 1900s, and divides the book according to each family of Germans, German Jews, the Irish, Russian Jews and Italians.
These families however, appear rather briefly in each chapt More...
These families however, appear rather briefly in each chapt More...
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Feb 19, 2011
Gina
rated it: 
Fascinating! If you love food <g>, then you’ll like this one. It was so interesting to me to find out how certain foods that I love came to be based on the stories of the five immigrant families featured in this book.
The best way to describe this book is from the 1st paragraph in the Introduction. It reads:
“97 Orchard tells the story of five immigrant families, each of them, as it happens, residents of a single New York tenement in the years between 1863 and 1935. Tho More...
The best way to describe this book is from the 1st paragraph in the Introduction. It reads:
“97 Orchard tells the story of five immigrant families, each of them, as it happens, residents of a single New York tenement in the years between 1863 and 1935. Tho More...
Jan 26, 2011
For me, the most memorable parts of Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a coming-of-age novel set in the tenements of Brooklyn, involve food. When I think about that book, my mind jumps to the scenes when Francie Nolan buys half-priced stale bread from the bread factory wagons or when Francie’s mother tells her how to get the butcher to supply them with fresh ground beef. Food was important. The good times for Francie’s parents are described when they both had steady jobs and were able to
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Oct 28, 2010
Susan
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97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement is remarkable not only for its stunningly rich documentation, but for the richness of its unique central idea: an intensive, extensive study of the foodways of European immigrant families who lived in a single tenement building over five decades. Using the building as the setting for her dramatic narrative, author and food historian Jane Ziegelman tells the multilayered, multidimensional stories of German, Irish, J
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Nov 16, 2011
Grace
rated it:
Decent sociological descriptions of immigrants, food and assimilation (or lack thereof). The book could have been much more deep and engaging, so it was a disappointing read overall. Hello? How about a picture of 97 Orchard Street? Also, more historical research on the families. Ostensibly, the book chronicled the lives of 5 families in the lower east side tenements just before and after the turn of the century. That would be the 18th - 19th century. It was really light on information ab
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Sep 07, 2011
NJMetal
rated it:
97 ORCHARD is a fun and educational read for even the most casual of foodie. The book discusses life of turn of the century immigrants from the late 1800's to the start of World War I. The typical life of German, Irish, Russian Jew and Italian immigrants are focused on and it is all presented through they eyes of their food. Unquestionably a very unique take on the immigrants story.
The story follows chronologically from the earliest influx of Germans on through the Italian influx le More...
The story follows chronologically from the earliest influx of Germans on through the Italian influx le More...
Aug 30, 2011
Belinda
rated it:
An unfortunately named book that covers in detail the culinary history of immigrants to NYC, 1865-1935. While the book is tied to the Tenement Museum currently housed at the title's address, the book ventures out into the street markets, over to Ellis Island, back to the home countries of the immigrants and then ties the traditions all to the converging immigrant neighborhoods in NYC.
If you're the descendent of immigrants, you will likely find parts of the book interesting, especial More...
If you're the descendent of immigrants, you will likely find parts of the book interesting, especial More...
Dec 30, 2010
Kalen
rated it:
I love immigration stories/histories but the premise of this one is a bit of a stretch. The book is billed as the history of five different families who lived at 97 Orchard Street, as told through food. Really, it's the history of the immigration experience on the Lower East Side with the five families' stories tenuously thrown in. This would have been much stronger if there was more information on the specific families (especially the Moores--they seemed to be an after-thought) or if the advert
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Jun 24, 2011
Kathrina
rated it:
If you mix a people's NYC history from the period of 1890's through 1930's, full of every kind of immigrant with their crazy last names, constant clatter of languages, bustles and suspenders, greasy packs and steamtrunks, and mix that with the smells of knish and streudel, mutton chops and saurkraut, almonds in sugar syrup and gelato, I WILL MOST LIKELY READ YOUR BOOK. Something about that great expectation, enough to spend your last penny to ship your family across the globe for a new beginning
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Dec 03, 2010
Diane
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I love this book! I'm second generation German/Austrian and my husband had German ancestors in NYC who were living just as described in the book. The description of the "Turners" marching through was especially poignant to me. My husband's great grandfather was a member of Turners Rifles in the Civil War and reading about them in context was wonderful.
Some of the other comments bemoan that there was not as much information about individual families as they would have liked More...
Some of the other comments bemoan that there was not as much information about individual families as they would have liked More...
Dec 31, 2011
Sheri
rated it:
This is by far one of the best and easiest reads I've had in a long time. Ziegelman held my hand and took me back in time--where I traveled from Germany, Ireland, Russia, and Italy to the US. She continued to take me from tenement to food markets, tasting both fresh and rancid fair, visiting food carts and candy stores, eating homemade meals made from the most minimal of resources tasting at times bland and empty to rich and delicious. We visited family kitchens, restaurants, delis, bars, and
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Sep 05, 2011
Theresafic
rated it:
I loved this book. It really told you what life was like for different immigrant groups in NYC. Many of the details I heard parts of before, but did not realize for example how Germans gathered in groups of 3,000 on Sundays to drink and talk. The Irish didn't really have a national cuisine except for potatoes and how hard it was for Jewish people to eat American food due to kosher laws. I did not realize that Kosher laws were first changed or relaxed by immigrants to America. The whole book was
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Feb 27, 2011
Jennifer
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This was an interesting but not well-structured discussion of immigration and culinary history, focused on five families (German, Italian, Irish, and both German and Russian Jews) in one New York tenement building (97 Orchard Street, to be exact). The information was fascinating, there were both recipes and many excerpts from 19th century newspapers and cookbooks, and there was lots of discussion about how food was both a way to assimilate but also to maintain culture. Each family gets a chapt
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Oct 07, 2011
Diane
rated it:
Enjoyed this very much for all I learned about how immigrants to this country lived and ate in New York City on the Lower East Side in the 19th century. Food really is culture & vice versa. On a personal level I was reminded of my grandfather-in-law Freddy Schang, who took me to eat at Luchow's once in the 1970s (and I didn't get it at the time) - and I finally understood the cultural origins of my father's obsession with oysters at Christmas. (Ew! Oysters!!!) I was not surprised that in a tim
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Sep 19, 2010
Bookreaderljh
rated it:
An interesting way to present the immigration patterns of New York City. Obviously food has a lot to do with culture and it was interesting to see how the "newcomers" to the country assimilated their food into society as a whole (or vice versa). I really enjoyed the sections about Ellis Island and how immigrants came to this country and where they started from and ended up. Curiously though the five "families" were used as a method to tie the histoy, sociology and anthropolo
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Jun 05, 2011
Melissa
rated it:
To mark this as "read" is really kind of a lie. They need to have a "skimmed" shelf on here.
What can I say about this book? How about blah, ugh, or sigh? I stand by my first thoughts that I put in my status awhile ago... "it is a random, crazy mess! The author repeats bits of information over and over. She rewords it each time, but it makes the book tedious and frustrating to get through. Then there are really odd bits of information thrown in that make More...
What can I say about this book? How about blah, ugh, or sigh? I stand by my first thoughts that I put in my status awhile ago... "it is a random, crazy mess! The author repeats bits of information over and over. She rewords it each time, but it makes the book tedious and frustrating to get through. Then there are really odd bits of information thrown in that make More...
Oct 21, 2011
Emily
rated it:
I could have done without the numerous recipes throughout. I understand the inclusion of them, but they really interrupted the narrative for me.
I also got the feeling that the author really wanted to write about the Ellis Island cafeterias (this was the most energetically written part of the book) but couldn't figure out how to just focus on that in a full-length book. Instead, there's this, focusing on five families who lived at one address during a span of history. Given that widely More...
I also got the feeling that the author really wanted to write about the Ellis Island cafeterias (this was the most energetically written part of the book) but couldn't figure out how to just focus on that in a full-length book. Instead, there's this, focusing on five families who lived at one address during a span of history. Given that widely More...
Feb 23, 2011
Steven
rated it:
Jane Ziegelman tells the story of five successive waves of European immigrants to New York City's Lower East Side through their culinary heritage. Her fascinating portrait of these immigrants shares some of the hardships they experienced and how their traditional foods provided comfort and joy as well as anchoring them to their old cultures as they assimilated into their new home land. Over time these immigrant foods enriched the American culinary landscape with dishes as diverse as corned beef
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Jul 14, 2010
itpdx
rated it:
This is an absorbing account, focused on food, of immigrants in New York City, organized around five families that lived in the tenement at 97 Orchard (now a museum). The author, Jane Ziegelman, writes about the food traditions that the immigrants brought with them and how they shaped American food culture. The book covers families in the tenement from its opening in the 1860's until it is closed and boarded up in 1935. The families covered are German, Irish, German-Jewish, Lithuanian-Jewish
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Apr 04, 2011
James
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I read this because I visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard last year. Jane Ziegelman is director of a new cooking program at the museum. The book purports to be the story of five families who lived at 97 Orchard: the Glockners, the Gumpertzes, the Moores, the Rogarshevskys, and the Baldizzis. When I visited, I saw the Gumpertz and Balidizzi apartments. Several Goodreads reviewers have commented that the book doesn't really focus on the families in the way that the title imp
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Jan 10, 2012
Sue
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Yet another book I picked up for thesis research and loved. This story looks at several immigrant families who all lived at the tenement building of 97 Orchard in New York's Lower East Side around the turn of the 20th century. But it looks at these families through the lens of their food - more specifically, their cullinary traditions. The author looks at what their lives would have been like in their respective homelands, how their cullinary traditions would have come to pass in the first place
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Feb 12, 2011
Evi
rated it:
As others have stated, I thought this book was going to be about 5 immigrant families- and technically it is. They are named, placed at 97 Orchard and then what years they lived there. Otherwise, it talks about the food that the immigrant group, which they were from, ate. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in the history of New York, the various neighborhoods, and the food that is/was eaten there. There were a lot of interesting facts about the food of the immigrant groups (Ir
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Dec 15, 2010
Trisha
rated it:
Such an interesting book full of information about the immigrant experience during the last years of the 19th century. The title refers to a tenement apartment in New York's lower East side that was home to newly arrived immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy and Eastern Europe. By focusing on the kinds of foods and food related customs they brought with them, Ziegelman paints a vivid portrait of what it was like to cook in cramped and unsanitary kitchens, using ingredients found at street mar
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Oct 13, 2011
Stacy
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This was a really look examination of American immigrants through the medium of the food they ate. 97 Orchard is a tenement on the Lower East Side of New York City, and the author delves into some major ethnicities of immigrants who lived there in the 1800's: Irish, German Jews, Germans, Eastern European Jews, and Italian.
Did you know that goose was the traditionally favored meat of Jewish people, or how America went from disdaining to adoring Italian food? This book is replete with More...
Did you know that goose was the traditionally favored meat of Jewish people, or how America went from disdaining to adoring Italian food? This book is replete with More...
Jul 08, 2011
Mallie
rated it:
A good portrait of the culinary culture of New York Immigrants in the late 1800s-early 1900s. It reads more like a factual account than a story, however. Would have liked to know more about the specific families profiled, rather than just what their lives "could have been like." Still learned a lot and certainly feel more informed about the culinary past of NYC, including a lot of the influences that shape the way and what we eat today.
Favorite quotations:
"E More...
Favorite quotations:
"E More...
Mar 15, 2011
Ann
rated it:
March Book Club selection--very interesting and informative book which I very much enjoyed but would have never picked up had it not been our book club selection. It dealt with five separate immigrant groups that lived in the Lower East Side of Manhattan between the mid-1800's and mid-1900's: first the Germans, then the Irish, then German Jews, Eastern European Jews, and last the Italians. The book focuses on the culinary life of these groups and the impact they had on the area. One review ca
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