JeffB wrote:The meats at Manny's and Langer's are not really comparable, as they are doing very different things (with Langer's meat being a prime filet to manny's tasty burger). Langer's pastrami should be compared with Katz's, and that's about it.

That said, I was just at Manny's for the first time in a long while, and the pastrami/CB mix I had (with a schmear of chopped liver, ordered on the side) was a damn fine sandwich. Bread is much better at Langer's than any of the above, but things such as chopped liver and pancackes are, IMO, sub-par there.

Each place is way cool, and since they are thousands of miles apart (albeit in strikingly similar parts of their respective cities), I don't get much value out of ranking them.

In that case, Jeff, I think that I have the perfect place for you.

It's called the Eastside Market, and I'll be sharing the details real soon...





E.M.

"Each place is way cool, and since they are thousands of miles apart (albeit in strikingly similar parts of their respective cities), I don't get much value out of ranking them."

. . . and remember, Manny's is a Jewish cafeteria, one of the last of its kind (Shapiro's in Indianapolis, I understand, is another). Langer's pastrami is incomparable (and does anybody order anything else there nowadays?), but Manny's has many other qualities that make it unique to Chicago and worth a detour.

The photos of Langer's pastrami are fantastic! What kind of equipment was used to take them?

I'm downloading one of the photos and printing it out for my office.

I agree ... Langer's has the best deli pastrami, bar none. I've eaten their pastrami for more than fifty years!

But ... I know how to make pastrami every bit as good as Langer's, and perhaps even better. If anyone wants to do so, let me know and I'll Email you the recipe and complete instructions ... no charge.

It will cost about $20 or $25 for the beef brisket, spices, and curing salt to make $100 worth of pastrami.

Please post the recipe. (I eat Langers about once a week now that I work in Downtown LA.)

The recipe is too long to post. If you send me your Email address, I'll send it to you as an attachment.

Actually, I tried to send you the recipe, but the Email address you had listed on the website is no longer valid, so my Email was not delivered.

If it's really too long to fit into a single post, why not start a new thread in "Shopping and Cooking" and split it into a few posts in that thread?

I'm sure others would appreciate it.

Good suggestion, but I don't know how to do so! I guess I'll give it a try, however.

There are others besides Langer's, Schwartz's, and Katz's for a similar style. I don't know where they all are, but, eg, Ben's Best in Rego Park, Queens, is kosher, excellent, and hand slices quality pastrami. I thought they were very comparable to Katz's. They're just not in Manhattan so they don't get the press Katz's or Carnegie's gets, I suspect.

I found Langer's pastrami decently sweeter than Katz's, but every bit as good. I thought that Langer's as a deli overall was better than Katz's. I think Katz's has probably jumped the shark more than once and it seemed that beyond the pastrami there wasn't much of a reason to go there. Wait, I take that back. Your boy in the army would be lucky to be sent a salami. The half sours aren't half bad, either.

But with Langer's I can go across the street and get a bacon-wrapped dog with grilled onions and jalapenos. Of course, with Katz's I can walk down the street to Yonah Schimmel's and get a knish or Russ & Daughters for some whitefish salad.

Jake's, don't forget Jake's.

Geo

Geo wrote:Jake's, don't forget Jake's.

Geo

Re: Jake's

http://www.onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/jakes.html

E.M.

Sad news for Langer's fans

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/ ... obituaries

Al Langer
RIP



Three generations of Langers

Here's a nice writeup I came across:

http://www.savethedeli.com/?p=279

I loved one of the responses to the article:

"I am sure that his love of deli foods did him no harm if he lived this long …

Maybe pastrami is, after all, a health food …

Couldn’t hurt …"

jbw wrote:Langer's pastrami is incomparable (and does anybody order anything else there nowadays?)...

some years ago my then 19yr old nephew ordered the spaghetti & meatballs to which the waitress ask "Do we even have that on the menu?" Can lead a horse to water.....

Just had Langer's pastrami sandwich this past weekend, still glorious.

FYI, if on the street parking isn't available, they do have a parking lot a block away that offers free parking if ticket is validated at the restaurant. This came in handy as this past Saturday the area around Langer's was packed with people/cars.

While I love Langer's pastrami a few hundred miles up the coast one will find Mission Chinese and the fusion of all fusion.

Kung Pao Pastrami

G Wiv wrote:Kung Pao Pastrami

I'd eat it. I can imagine pastrami stir fry in black pepper sauce would be delicious.

I've seen quite a number of burger joints in the greater LA area that serve pastrami on the burger as an option. Locally I just had the pastrami burger at Frato's in Schaumburg http://fratospizza.com/ the burger was double patty so the burger meat overwhelmed the pastrami flavor.

The kung pao pastrami at Mission Chinese is one of the best things I've ever eaten. I can't think of a dish more perfectly aligned with my palate.

If you like the pastrami burger (a SoCal thing by way of SLC, of all places to be the origin of excess), Three Greens here in Chicago (Hubbard & Orleans) has an Au Cheval burger topped with Dillman's (RIP) pastrami.

Not 100% sure but pretty sure that the term colossal is used to describe any L.A. sandwich topped with pastrami.

=R=

JeffB wrote:If you like the pastrami burger (a SoCal thing by way of SLC, of all places to be the origin of excess) . . .

My understanding is it's a Salt Lake City thing by way of Anaheim. About ten years ago, a very fine history of (though certainly not the last word on) the pastrami burger appeared in a Salt Lake City newspaper.

In Salt Lake City Weekly, Ted McDonough wrote:As for the invention of the pastrami burger, that story remains cloaked in some mystery. All agree the burger has its origins in California, somewhere near Anaheim, where, before there were Greek burger palaces in Utah, there were Utah Greeks living and flipping burgers in California.

JeffB wrote:. . . Three Greens here in Chicago (Hubbard & Orleans) has an Au Cheval burger topped with Dillman's (RIP) pastrami.

That sounds good. Is their fry sauce up to snuff?

ronnie_suburban wrote:Not 100% sure but pretty sure that the term colossal is used to describe any L.A. sandwich topped with pastrami.

I don't know very much about Los Angeles, but am curious about this. It certainly seems colossal burger often refers to a burger topped with pastrami (the term pastrami burger is common too), but is that true for sandwiches in general? It's hardly definitive, but a Google image search for colossal burger los angeles versus colossal sandwich los angeles left me wondering. It does sound somewhat familiar though. If someone could confirm this use of colossal, I'd be grateful. It's something I'd like to look into a little more.

Getting back to the topic of Langer's, on a years-ago visit I finally tried their most popular sandwich, the #19 – pastrami, Swiss cheese, coleslaw, Russian dressing.



I enjoyed my colossal Swiss cheese sandwich very much, but honestly I think I might prefer the perfect simplicity of Langer's unadorned pastrami sandwich.

I normally have to hit up Langer's on visits to LA. On a recent trip, my brother introduced me to Wexler's. We visited the Santa Monica location. Meats and Fish smoked daily. I had a pastrami sandwich, hand cut, on rye with spicy brown mustard, dill pickle spear, and a chocolate phosphate to boot. Pretttttyyyy, pretty good. The included potato salad wasn't anything special.
Wexler's Deli
616 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401
http://www.wexlersdeli.com