It’s a cheeseburger for the chosen people.
But it’s leaving some kosher customers quite verklempt.
Popular Upper East Side restaurant Talia’s Steakhouse recently began cooking up what is believed to be the city’s first kosher cheeseburger – a real-beef patty topped with tofu cheese in American or mozzarella flavor.
The formerly forbidden food is now being served as a “Kosher Parve Cheeseburger” at the popular glatt kosher eatery, which does not serve meat and dairy together, in accordance with Jewish law.
While many are excited to give the taboo take-out a taste, others are kvetching that the burger is bad news.
“I would never entertain the thought of eating cheese – real or fake – with meat,” comedian Jackie Mason, who keeps kosher, told The Post. “It makes me nauseous just thinking about it.”
Trying to skirt tradition is what irks others, also.
“Jewish law is very concerned for appearances,” said Rabbi Basil Herring, the executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America. “Not only should you always do the right thing, but it should be seen as the right thing.
“Any Jew who keeps kosher knows a cheeseburger is not permissible. But . . . what happens if a young kid, a 10-year-old, goes in there and says, hmm, maybe cheese on a burger is OK?”
The sacrilicious sandwich – priced at $5.50 for a single, $8.50 for a double – has even sparked a heated debate on several Jewish-themed Web sites.
One Jewish blogger sneered, “I think the idea of it is atrocious . . . You could find a way to kosherize everything, but if it wasn’t created kosher, leave it alone. You managed without it for the past 5,768 years. Don’t start now.”
Talia’s owner, Ephraim Nagar, who says he’s been selling at least 20 a night since introducing it last November, said he loves the debate because, “intellectually, we need to know what’s the answer.”
He said curious Orthodox Jews and non-Jews with allergies to cheese have become regulars, as well as a large population of former secular Jews who used to chomp on cheeseburgers before becoming Orthodox.
“It’s become a bit of a phenomenon,” he said.