NEW YORK (AP) — In traditional Jewish American food culture, a “deli” was where you went for a towering pastrami sandwich. You went somewhere else entirely to buy lox and a schmear: an " appetizing store.”
The quieter, less famous sibling of the Jewish delicatessen comes straight out of the kosher laws that forbid mixing meat and dairy — not just on the plate, but in the kitchen, the utensils, even the store itself.
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Various cream cheeses and other bagel fixings appear at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
A bagel with smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, and red onion, from Tal Bagels appears in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
A bagel with smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, and red onion, from Tal Bagels appears in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
Various cream cheeses and bagel fixings appear at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
Various smoked fish are displayed behind the counter at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
Today, many delis offer a combination of the two, and a wave of new places aims to capture both traditions.
Jewish immigrants in New York City a century or so ago set up delis for the meat items: corned beef, brisket, tongue, chopped liver. They set up appetizing stores for everything else: smoked and cured fish, cream cheese, pickled vegetables, herring in cream sauce, butter, eggs. (Fish is neither meat nor dairy in Jewish dietary law, so it can sit comfortably next to either.)
The classic appetizing trio of bagels, lox and cream cheese was invented in the U.S.
“Every generation latches on to this heritage of appetizing for Sunday morning breakfast,” says Gary Greengrass, the third generation to head up the Barney Greengrass deli and appetizing store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
At their peak in the 1930s through the 1950s, there were hundreds of appetizing stores in New York City. But as the food went mainstream and fewer customers observed kosher rules, many delis began offering both kinds of food on the menu. The number of appetizing stores decreased dramatically.
The last decade has seen a wave of new outlets around the country, often run by a younger generation reclaiming a Jewish food tradition.
Biederman’s Specialty Foods opened in 2021 in Philadelphia, modeled after classic NYC appetizing shops, with an emphasis on high-quality fish. A mix of appetizing foods and deli meats can be had at Mish Delicatessen, which opened in Los Angeles this year, and Steingold’s Deli, with three locations in Chicago.
Observant Jewish families don’t cook on Yom Kippur, a fast day. So a meal that can be pulled together ahead of time and eaten at room temperature is the perfect way to break the fast.
“Yom Kippur is the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup finals all in one day,” says Greengrass, who rents a refrigerated truck and parks it outside the store during the High Holidays, in the fall, to handle the increased inventory.
Business on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur has increased 12 to 15 times over the past 40 years, he says, and the store ships food around the country.
Smoked salmon is the centerpiece of most appetizing spreads today.
“Nova is probably what most people immediately picture — thinly sliced, cold-smoked salmon served with bagels, cream cheese, tomato, onion and capers,” says Emily Caslow, co-owner of Acme Smoked Fish, a brand based in Brooklyn whose wares can be found in many supermarkets and other outlets.
“But a traditional appetizing counter has always had much more variety," she says. “You might also find sable, whitefish, baked or kippered salmon, smoked trout and herring. One of the great things about an appetizing spread is that everyone can build their plate a little differently.”
Schmear, from a Yiddish word meaning to spread, morphed into a noun meaning cream cheese, but with a twist, says Cathy Barrow, a food writer and author of four cookbooks, most recently “Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish.”
“In many cases, home cooks and appetizing stores whip the cream cheese to lighten it, and even add ingredients like sour cream, lemon juice or seltzer to help lighten the texture,” she says.
As for the fish:
Lox is salmon that's not smoked — it's been cured in a salt brine, no heat, which gives it that dense, silky, salty texture. True lox can cure for weeks.
Nova is cured first, then cold-smoked at a low temperature (under 90 degrees F / 32 degrees C) so it never actually cooks. It’s milder and less salty than lox, with a delicate smokiness layered on top of that same silky texture.
Hot-smoked salmon is smoked at a higher temperature (well over 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C), which actually cooks the fish, so it comes out flaky and firm, more like a cooked fillet than the thin, silky slices of lox or Nova.
Greengrass says that when someone orders a bagel and lox, his staff is trained to ask if they really want lox or are thinking of Nova. Most people choose the smoked salmon, he says, but some old-timers prefer the lox.
And the most popular bagel at Barney Greengrass?
Plain, followed by the everything, then sesame and poppy.
Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, “Dinner Solved!” and “The Mom 100 Cookbook.” She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at Katie@themom100.com.
For more AP food stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/recipes
Various cream cheeses and other bagel fixings appear at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
A bagel with smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, and red onion, from Tal Bagels appears in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
A bagel with smoked salmon, scallion cream cheese, and red onion, from Tal Bagels appears in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
Various cream cheeses and bagel fixings appear at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
Various smoked fish are displayed behind the counter at Tal Bagels in New York on Sept. 13, 2026. (Katie Workman via AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A news helicopter used by NBC and Telemundo crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood and burst into flames, killing at least three people while reporters were covering the collision of an SUV and a city bus, officials and the news outlet said.
Colleen Williams, an NBC4 Los Angeles anchor, confirmed during live broadcasts that two people were killed Tuesday when the chopper went down. At least one other person was killed on the ground, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
“We are going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, process it,” Williams said, her voice shaking with emotion. Moments later the coverage cut off.
There were no immediate details on what may have caused the helicopter to crash. But an alarm can be heard sounding inside the helicopter's cockpit as it loses altitude in the final video the crew broadcast live before the crash. Just after the beeping noise starts, a woman’s voice says “uh oh.” The helicopter moves quickly away from the bus crash site and goes down. The woman says “You can’t pull up?” before the video stops as the chopper nears the ground.
The helicopter went down near a large storage facility in the neighborhood of Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley, officials said. News crews were reporting on a collision from earlier in the day, when an SUV slammed into the middle of a city bus, killing at least two people and injuring six others. Photos and videos online showed half the SUV lodged in the side of the bus.
At least four cars and two storage containers on the ground burned after the helicopter caught fire, which was quickly put out, according to officials. NBC4 reporter Robert Kovacik was at the bus scene and saw black smoke and rushed to the helicopter crash site. Dozens of police cars surrounded the scene as ambulances entered.
Two people were brought to a hospital, said Rico A. Gross, a fire department battalion chief. Their conditions were not immediately released.
Williams and the station’s website identified the dead aboard the helicopter as Eliana Moreno, a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station’s aerial coverage, and pilot George Marciniw. Both were employees of Angel City Air, which operated the chopper.
Moreno, born in Orange County, joined the Angel City Air helicopter team in 2010, the same year she earned a broadcast journalism and political science degree from Chapman University. She reported for several Southern California news outlets and began flying with Marciniw in 2023, the NBC4 website said.
Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School in 1974.
“I think a lot of us are still trying to process what happened, this terrible loss,” NBC4 reporter Lauren Coronado said during a newscast early Wednesday. She was standing near the crash site during the newscast and said a hazmat crew was cleaning up jet fuel.
In a tribute to Moreno and Marciniw, the newscast referred to them as “the team in the sky,” saying Moreno would often post videos from her job and was in awe of the view she had. News anchor Lynette Romero held a colleague’s hand and wiped away tears after hearing Moreno’s voice when one of her posts was played.
In an interview with the station, Esteban Jimenez, a pilot, said he had known Marciniw since the 1990s. He said Marciniw had been his instructor.
“I just talked to him on Sunday. We were talking about the aviation business and retiring,” he said.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said the alarm sounding in the helicopter’s final video sounds like the low rotor RPM warning horn that signals the main rotor is no longer spinning enough to keep the helicopter in the air.
“It just has all the earmarks of a potential loss of engine power and a dangerous decrease in the main rotor speed,” said Guzzetti who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA.
Guzetti said the pilot appeared to be trying to do an autorotation maneuver to use the wind to get the rotor moving, so he could help cushion the impact. But there would have been little opportunity to do that because the helicopter had been hovering at a low altitude beforehand.
NBC4 and Telemundo 52 Los Angeles said in a statement they “are deeply saddened” and extended “heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives.”
“Losing five Angelenos is very painful,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “And I know this community of Chatsworth, hit hard, will be grieving for some time.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked the emergency crews responding to both crashes and said in a post on X that “our hearts are with the victims and families.”
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said personnel will arrive Wednesday to begin an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.
The station said this is the second aviation tragedy in its history. In 1977, a KNBC news helicopter crashed when it ran out of fuel while returning to the station after covering a wildfire in Santa Barbara, killing the pilot and camera operator. The pilot, former U.S. Air Force officer Francis Gary Powers, had been in the news years earlier when he was shot down and captured while flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union for the CIA, an ordeal portrayed in the movie “Bridge of Spies.”
There have been at least eight fatal crashes involving news helicopters in the U.S. since 2000, killing 16 people, according to a review of federal accident records and news accounts. They include a 2023 crash in a New Jersey forest that killed the pilot and a photographer aboard a helicopter used by Philadelphia station WPVI and a 2022 crash beside a Charlotte, North Carolina, interstate that killed a pilot and meteorologist during a training flight for WBTV.
This story has been updated to correct that Marciniw, not Moreno, graduated from Burbank High School.
Golden reported from Seattle.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attends a news conference at the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined by other officials walk to a news conference near the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Two people hug each other behind police lines at the scene of a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass talks during a news conference at the scene after a helicopter crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows first responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows firefighters respond to a deadly bus crash, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
In this still image provided by KABC-TV shows a helicopter that crashed near a deadly bus crash, in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (KABC-TV via AP)
First responders work the scene after a helicopter crashed near a bus crash in Chatsworth, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
