Sabin was born into a Jewish family in Białystok, in the Russian Empire, before emigrating to America. His table culture was that of Ashkenazi cuisine: a kuchen or leavened bread in the morning, clear broth and dumplings to open the Friday evening (Shabbat) meal, tea drunk from a glass with jam as a sweet treat, and throughout the week modest snacks eaten quickly. The meal is organized not as starter-main-dessert, but around the foundational broth, the table bread, and the glass of sweet tea that closes and warms.

A small flat roll with a central well filled with golden onion and poppy seeds—it literally bears the name of Sabin's hometown. The slowly softened onion and toasted poppy seed are the aromatic signature of this table: neither sugar nor fatty filling, just the scent of onion on a tender crumb.