The Grey Lady lets us know that desis have crossed a new frontier, with desi cooks infiltrating older ethnic food establishments in different parts of New York:

Exhibit A: the egg cream. For New Yorkers of a certain age, this was the nectar of a Jewish neighborhood, and Gem Spa was the drink’s sacred temple, certified as such by magazines and travel writers. Gem Spa is still there, still turning out egg creams at its narrow patch of a soda fountain in the East Village. But the person who owns the store and taught the staff to make this curious concoction of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup is Ray Patel, a 62-year-old immigrant from Gujarat state in India.

He learned the recipe, including the secret stirring motions that create a frothy head resembling beaten egg whites, from the previous owner (Italian), who learned it from the old owner (Jewish).

“People try to learn new things in a land of opportunity,” is Mr. Patel’s elegant explanation for how an Indian came to make a drink that is considered exotic west of the Hudson River, let alone in Gujarat.

I’ll bet they wrote the same article 30 years ago when the guy behind the counter was Italian. Gujarat is now as exotic as Sicily used to be, so the story becomes interesting enough to retell. What they miss is how little has changed. The owner may be a bit darker, but he’s still named Ray.*

However, don’t look to Ray to spice up the old standards. Ray’s probably a purist,  but somewhere there is a young Jewish foodie who’s hybridizing the old Egg Creams with desi flavors. Cultural appropriation goes both ways.

Similarly, one of the elite Pizza establishments now serves up pies made by an immigrant from Dalhousie:

Totonno’s, which was established in 1924 in Coney Island and claims to be the “oldest continuously operating pizzeria in the U.S. run by the same family,” has four locations but it despaired of filling them with Italian pizziolas, or pizza makers, and was not about to take just anybody.

“You have to have a feel for the dough,” said Louise Ciminieri, granddaughter of the founder.

Phuntsok Tashi came along just in time. Mr. Tashi, who is of Tibetan ancestry, immigrated five years ago from Dalhousie, India, in the western Himalayas, which has a large Tibetan community. A sister worked in a restaurant on Second Avenue and told him Totonno’s, a few doors down, needed a busboy. Soon Brooklyn-bred Risa Pleger, a part-owner, asked him if he wanted to learn the art of molding and baking a pizza. He mastered the trick of flattening the dough and spreading patches of mozzarella, tomato sauce and Romano over it. [NYT]

Unfortunately, the article skips my favorite example of newer ethnic immigrants serving up older ethnic food. The most prestigious (although not the best, IMHO) bagels in New York come from a bagelry established by two Puerto Ricans:

H&H is all that. You can take my word for it, as someone who has eaten a lot of bagels in his day, or you can take it on good authority from my Jewish relatives, who swear up and down about the infidels who think there are better bagels to be had in the city. Or you can simply listen to the thousands of New Yorkers who have, year after year, heaped praise on this simple bakery which hasn’t bothered to change anything about the way they’ve been making bagels (or decorating their store) since, well….. the beginning.

H&H was founded in 1972 by Helmer Toro and his brother Hector Hernandez, and has operated in its original location on Broadway at 80th street for the 32 years since it opened its doors. [cite]

It’s a classic immigrant myth. If you change the names and retell it, the old becomes new, just like the foods.

* I don’t know that the Italian owner was named Ray. I’m employing an ethnic stereotype. If you don’t like stereotypes used in a neutral fashion, then stay out of New York.