Beef tongue and matzo ball soup, good for what ails you.

PLEASE NOTE THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED

Feed a cold, starve a fever, or so the old saying goes. But what if you’re down with a bit of both? Well then the cure  as any good Jewish mother knows is surely to eat something. Enter Ben’s Best, my local old-school Jewish deli. Whenever I have a cold I stop in for a bowl of Jewish penicillin, aka matzo ball soup ($6.75). Chicken soup helps with the cold part. As for the feeding yesterday I opted for a beef tongue sandwich. ($14.95).

My sandwich arrived moments after I finished the outsized mug of soup. Call me a glutton if you must, but this is one stubborn cold that needs feeding. Also I ate  a vegetarian dinner the prior night and had a hankering for meat. Cold or no cold, the outsized stack of creamy slices of cold beef tongue always satisfies my hunger. Even though my tastes can best described as exotic, I never lose sight of lucky I am to live just a walk away from this taste of old New York. When Andrew Zimmern asked if I knew a good Jewish deli to break for lunch when we were shooting the Queens episode of Bizarre Foods America last winter, I knew exactly where to take him and the crew.

Ben’s Best, 96-40 Queens Blvd., Rego Park, 718-897-1700