Bobby Orr, NHLHockey, and Rink Food
Knish, recipes below (image from horinca.blogspot.com)
Today we share this story on “rink food” in honor of National Pretzel Month.
News that NHL labor dispute is over and the games will be back on TV caused me to reflect on when I started watching hockey games in the 1970s during the height of Boston Bruin Hall of Famer Bobby Orr’s playing career (1966 to 1978). Orr sparked my short lived hockey career which led to many hours and meals in hockey rinks in and around Metropolitan New York. Most of the hockey rinks I frequented catered to the culinary taste and habits of the Jewish influenced communities in the metro New York area. The snack bars at the small rinks stocked traditional U. S. stadium food—burgers, hot dogs, fries, large pretzels (served with coarse salt and eaten with mustard), candy bars, and soda. But many of them sold potato knishes. Introduced to New York by Jewish immigrants at the turn-of-the-century, a knish is a seasoned potato puree inside a golden colored crust. Like Caribbean patties, and Argentinian empanadas, knishes are a great carryout food. Today I have a very eclectic palate much of it shaped during my hockey playing days in metro New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
