You see me write about Brooklyn frequently. For those of you who are not New Yorkers, Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs of New York City, is a treasure trove of neighborhoods, culture, people, and food.

Today was a great day to take advantage of the Super Bowl Sunday offer at the Mill Basin Kosher Deli in Mill Basin, (Brooklyn, for their world-famous pastrami: buy a pound (it’s about $29.00) get one free.

[5823 Avenue T, Brooklyn, NY 11234]

Warning: Never come to New York City for a pastrami or corned beef sandwich and ask for it on any other bread than RYE. (A club roll is OK). DO NOT ask for it with cheese, it is NOT done. (It’s NOT kosher). It’s mustard or Russian dressing only, got that? If you don’t heed my advice you will be lynched on the spot. Or run out of town. Or pointed at as a tourist.

Then you need a good sour or half sour pickle and a potato or kasha knish, the foods of Jewish gods. (Irving, Moshe, Sadie and Molly).

“In the heart of Mill Basin, Brooklyn, sits a classic New York deli with an amazing secret. The deli’s owner, Mark Schachner, has been lining its walls with priceless works of art for the past 20 years.

Mark is a man dedicated to serving mouth-watering overstuffed sandwiches, with little time for the pretense of the art world, but around the time he opened the deli in 1973 he started developing an interest in art and began his own collection. In the 1990s, Mark began bringing some of his favorite pieces from home into the restaurant purely for his own enjoyment. Customers started taking notice and it became a staple of the deli. Along with pastrami and rye, the museum serves a regular rotation of Schachner’s massive art collection.

Patrons are especially fond of the pieces by the modernist master Marc Chagall. Schachner’s favorites are by Erté, the famed Art Deco pioneer. Schachner enjoys them so much that he owns several hundred pieces and had the illustrator design the sausage-themed paper place mats. Now any customer can walk away with an Art Deco take on deli meats.”

You may drool now–

The best chocolate around is at Jo-Mart Chocolate,
2917 Avenue R, Brooklyn, NY 11229 (Midwood)

“My father Martin started JoMart on April 15, 1946. Six well-known confectionery shops surrounded his first location in Brooklyn. In addition to sweet shops, there was an abundance of appetizing stores selling nuts, fruits and candies. The presence of so much competition should have sent him to another location. In fact that was the reason he and his cousin Joe picked that location. It was a simple, brilliant plan. People from all over New York would come to Franklin Ave to buy chocolates and other confections. He would make it fresher and better than all of them. Sixty years have passed and those other shops are long gone, but our mission hasn’t changed. I am using the same stove and copper kettles to make fresh chocolates and confections.”

You may drool now–