It all started as we reminisced about the food of our youth. Bob remembered kishke, and Larry, his mother's noodle kugel. Tippi fondly recalled cold tongue, sliced thick and served with Italian dressing and cottage cheese. Heather yearned for a cream soda. There was only one location in the city that could satisfy these hungers -- Squirrel Hill. Pittsburgh is a city of ethnic neighborhoods, many retaining an old world flavor. Squirrel Hill is Pittsburgh's Jewish neighborhood, where one can find the best Jewish delicatessins, Kosher butchers, Judaica, tucked in amongst 1st class dress shops, shoe shops, book stores, restaurants, coffee shops and the like. We found our way to Kazansky's on Murray Ave. Other friends, who had heard of our quest, joined us. We ordered up a Jewish feast - chicken soup with matzoh balls, kishke, tongue sandwiches, chopped liver, noodle kugel, blinzes. Heather had her cream soda. For those of you tucked away in Vermont who might ask, what's a kishke? what's a kugel? I'll elucidate: To make a kishke, first you must go to a Kosher butcher and get some derma. Derma is the washed beef intestine. You make a stuffing of flour, matzoh meal, melted chicken fat. Stuff the derma, tie it off like a sausage and boil it for several hours. But you are not done yet! Then you brown it in the oven with roasting meat or chicken so that the skin of the kishke becomes brown and crisp. Slice, and serve. Kugel is a noodle pudding. Larry's mother made her kugel with cinnemon and raisins, but from the comments around the table, there are as many variations on kugel as there are cooks! Cook a pound of noodles, either wide or narrow, drain. Beat up 5 eggs, add 2 T cinnemon and 2 cups raisins. Mix into the cooked noodles, pour into greased 13" pan. Dot top with butter and bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, check, bake 10 minutes more if needed. We had planned to walk up and down Murray Ave. and do some serious window shopping, but the rain was coming down in sheets, so that had to be postponed for another day. Instead, we got into our cars and drove up the hill to the Jewish Center which sits on top of its own parking garage. There is always an art show in the main atrium of the building. Today the work on display was by a young artist named David Stanger, on the subject of the Golem. Bob knows both David and his father, and acted as our guide for this show. He also knows the story of the Golem, which he told to us: The Golem was a man of clay, created by a rabbi in Prague in the 16th century. The Rabbi used the Golem as a servant, commanding him to do the menial tasks of the household. Later, he used the Golem to guard the townspeople, and keep them from calamity. The Golem wanted the Rabbi to teach him. After a while the Rabbi tired of teaching him, so he taught him to read. That way the Golem could learn by himself. But, the more the Golem read, the unhappier he became. He wanted to be human. In the end, he worked himself into a frenzy. The people were so frightened by him that he had to be destroyed. Stanger's depiction of the Golem is very concrete, and his figures resemble the plaster body casts of Pompeii. The twisted, contorted positions indicate the anguish of the Golem.