Matzo Monster

Stop kvetching! Your days spent worrying about when the world’s largest matzo ball will make its debut are over. On Thursday, many mensches unveiled their mammoth creation in New York City, a certifiable Guinness world record-breaker.

The 267-pound, 29.2-inch wide matzo ball was created to raise bucks and awareness for a charity basketball game between the New York Knicks and Israel’s Electra Tel Aviv. The Oct. 18 game at Madison Square Garden will benefit Migdal Ohr, a large orphanage in Tel Aviv.“Big Apple, big matzo ball, big basketball game ... what’s better than this in New York City,” event organizer Noam Sokolow of Noah’s Ark Original Deli told the New York Daily News.

Making the Kosher concoction was no easy feat. Its raw materials include 1,000 eggs, 80 pounds of margarine, 200 pounds of matzo meal and 20 pounds of chicken base. Whew! A dozen chefs tended to the burgeoning ball as it slow-cooked inside a 100-pound kettle in Teaneck, N.J., for two days.

Think making the matzo monster sounds tough? Transporting it was even trickier. Two dozen helpers schlepped it onto a custom-designed “soup sling” and into a large protective crate before gingerly placing it on a 24-foot freight truck that took it into Manhattan. Five men walked it onto the red carpet outside Noah’s Ark deli for the big unveil.

After all the measuring and oohing and aahing the matzo ball didn’t stay whole for long. A team of cooks cut it into pieces and distributed it to the crowd. The rest was sent to the Good Companions Senior Center in Manhattan, which provides low-cost kosher lunches six days a week — where tasters couldn’t help but compare it to the matzo balls mom used to make ... of course.

For tickets to the Oct. 18 charity game visit migdalohrusa.org.

Photo courtesy of infowidget via Flickr