“No bowl of borscht” appears to possibly have been a short-lived New York City variant of “not chopped liver.”
A Southern variation of the same idea would be to compare something to “peanuts”—a common food.
Wikipedia: Borscht
Borscht or borshch (Russian and Ukrainian: борщ, Polish: barszcz, Lithuanian: barščiai, Romanian: borș) is a vegetable soup from Eastern Europe. It is traditionally made with beetroot as a main ingredient which gives it a strong red color. Other, non-beet varieties also exist, such as the tomato paste-based orange borscht and the green (zelioni) borscht (sorrel soup).
Etymology
The soup is part of the local culinary heritage of many Eastern and Central European nations. The Ukrainian and Russian name is borshch (борщ). It is also a staple dish in Eastern Europe, and made its way into United States cuisine and English vernacular by way of Jewish immigrants (as well as other Eastern Europeans) with the spelling borsht; the Yiddish word for the soup is “בורשט” (borscht). Alternative spellings are borshch and borsch.
4 November 1961, Washington (DC) Post, “Son-in-Law Insists K Preserves Marxist Purity in Travels Abroad” by Murrey Marder, pg. A8:
Take it from Nikita Khrushchev’s son-in-law: facing up to capitalists on their own opulent hunting grounds is, to quote an old New York saying, no bowl of borsch.
Google Groups: rec.food.cooking
Worst National Cuisine
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9/30/99
What’s your vote for worst national cuisine. I say England. My cousin’s girlfriend insisted on inviting us over for a “traditional” English dinner. Boiled beef, cabbage, parsnips and taters. Yum! Yum! My hubby disagrees and says the Russians win hands down. And that’s no bowl of borscht!
22 December 2008, The Mirror (UK):
Growing up Jewish in Ukraine was no bowl of borscht, says Mila Kunis.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Welcome to growing older. Where all the foods and drinks you’ve loved for years suddenly seem determined to destroy you” (4/17)
•“Date someone who drinks with you instead of complaining that you drink” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Definition of stupid: Knowing the truth, seeing the evidence of the truth, but still believing the lie” (4/17)
•“Government creates the crises so it can ‘rescue’ you with the loss of freedom” (4/17)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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