Mile End Deli

Mile End Deli fascinates me.  

"Mile End Delicatessen brings the comfort and flavor of Montreal-style Jewish cuisine to New York. Since 2010, we've been serving our signature Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, house-made specialties, and Canadian classics in a warm, welcoming space perfect for brunch, lunch, or a casual dinner. From cured & smoked brisket on rye to crisp latkes and rich poutine, our menu celebrates tradition with a modern twist."

Yes, it is a Canadian-Jewish deli, serving comfort food from both cuisines, so think Montreal smoked meats, but also latkes, and of course all the poutine.  It is located in Brooklyn, however I didn't visit myself in person, as we only got treats delivered.

They have breakfast all day (eggs, pancakes, bagels, Jewish nods like challah french toast and whitefish for the bagels), and then soups, salads, sandwiches (including all the smoked meats, schnitzel, etc), the aforementioned huge poutine lineup (including a sorta off the rails general tso's version?!), and all the Jewish sides like latkes, pierogies, knish, chopped liver, and kugel, and deli classics like potato salad, slaw, etc.  

We ordered only dessert.  Their entire dessert menu sounds decent with carrot cake and cheesecake (because, NY), chocolate or cinnamon babka (because, Jewish), and choc chip cookies (with maple, because Canada), along with the two very Canadian items we got.

Nanaimo Bars.  $70/dozen.

"Layers of chocolate, coconut, graham cracker crumbs."

"Layers of coconut, chocolate & fluffy custard".

Two different sections of their website describe the nanaimo bars slightly differently.  They both focus on the chocolate and coconut, but one also calls out graham cracker crumbs, and the other, fluffy custard.  I can safely say that if I wasn't familiar with nanaimo bars, there is no way I'd know what to expect from these descriptions.

But I have had a few others in my lifetime, certainly not a common dessert for me, but enough to know what it is.  Somehow, despite living close to the border, these never seem to have become popular in the Northeast US.  I'm not really sure why, but regional foods be like that.  I do remember back in 2017 when a pastry chef friend made some for me (yes, she was Canadian), and I do remember two years later dining at Momofuku Kōjin in Toronto (review, here) and having an ice cream cake with the same base as nanaimo bars, but they certainly don't show up regularly around here.

Nanaimo Bars.  $6 each.

Nanaimo bars are always made up of three distinct layers.

The base is shredded coconut with cocoa powder (and I guess graham cracker crumbs, although I didn't detect them).  The coconut flavor and texture dominate, and it is kinda dry.  I disliked this in the ice cream cake version at Momofuku, and didn't care for it much here either.  It was fine, but just not textures/flavors I really get excited for. 

The middle layer is the crazy one.  When you hear that a nanaimo bar has chocolate and coconut, you expect that middle layer to be coconut when you see it visually (or at least, I know I did the first time I had one).  But there is no coconut in that layer.  This is the custard layer.

To me this layer tastes like a mix between buttercream frosting and the "stuf" from inside an Oreo.  It is made with butter, powdered sugar, cream, and Bird's custard powder, so yes, the first 3 ingredients are indeed the same as buttercream. It is smooth, sweet, rich, and fairly solid (although soft).  I don't really taste the custard, but I imagine that is what helps the texture be more firm than buttercream.  If you like the stuf in Oreos, I suspect you'll love this.  It was my favorite layer I think, although very sweet.

The top has a very familiar taste and texture, but it took a few minutes for me to realize what it was.  It tastes like a very thick version of the chocolate shell on an ice cream novelty.  It has that same mouthfeel and slightly waxy flavor, not rich like a ganache, which is what it looks like at first, visually.  I wanted more real chocolate, less waxy, but it was uncanny when I identified it as the chocolate shell taste.

The layers were all fine.  They were interesting textures, and slightly different in taste and texture than they look visually.  They go together ok, but I don't feel like they actually accent each other much at all.  But overall, it felt kinda cheap with the not very chocolatey top layer, it ate kinda dry from the base, and it was too sweet from the middle.  Maybe this is why they haven't really caught on outside of Canada ...

3/5.

Maple Butter Tart. $4/each or $45/12.

"Quebec-style mini brown sugar and maple tart."

I believe this was my first time ever having a Quebec style tart/pie, or Tarte au Sirop d’Érable.  I truly did not know these were a thing, despite growing up fairly close to Quebec, and from a family of dessert eaters.  I've had many similar dishes, the classic Milk Bar Crack Pie or chess pie come to mind, or pecan-free pecan pie, but this is obviously different as it uses maple syrup rather than corn syrup, and isn't a true custard pie.  But it certainly reminded me of those more familiar-to-me pies.

The tart shell was flaky and clearly freshly made.  It was kinda sticky from the filling, and kinda greasy though.  Good, but not amazing.  The filling was, well, sweet.  Maple-y.  Very gooey.  Rich.  Kinda too much to just eat like that, but balanced with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?  That was great.

I can't compare this to what a maple butter tart should be like as it was my first.  But I did enjoyed it, once properly paired with ice cream.  I'd gladly have another.  3.5/5?  Maybe higher?