What Could Be Better Than Zingerman's? MORE Zingerman's

[filkertom]

The best deli on the planet has permission to build an expansion. Man oh man. They've been working to get this for awhile now, and the plan looks superb. I know the neighborhood very well (I was living one block over when the deli opened), and this will really liven things up nicely.

It's been awhile since we discussed this, so: What's your favorite deli meal? I'm fond of a huge lean corned beef sandwich with a few slices of Emmentaler (actual, Switzerland-made Swiss cheese) on a good hearty rye with a touch of honey mustard or Dijon, some thick-cut, crunchy potato chips, and (if the deli has them) some thin, crispy onion rings. Starter of chicken noodle soup optional but very much appreciated.

Comments

[catnip13.livejournal.com]

The Tempeh Reuben at Sugar Plum Vegan in Sacramento. House made bread and sauerkraut. It's amazing.

[wingus.livejournal.com]

The closest thing to a deli around here, I s'pose is a Firehouse Subs, and they make some darn good sandwiches.

[sweetmusic-27.livejournal.com]

Lebanon bologna and smoked provolone.
(Lebanon bologna is a lot like hard salami, but it has this tangy flavor that stands up to cheeses better.)

Oooh, or a double-toasted everything bagel with lox and cream cheese and maybe some onions, with a big glass of fresh juice. Orange, apple, whatever.

Or a grilled cheese sandwich - sharp cheddar, potato bread, with tomato soup.

(Hungry now.)

[virtualvirtue.livejournal.com]

The Vito with no tomato at Jimmy John's.

Otherwise, ham on rye with swiss cheese and spicy mustard or salami on rye with spicy mustard.

[laurensa.livejournal.com]

A really good Reuben is my favorite, but hard to find. Too many times, I've ordered a Reuben and got massive slabs of tough, chewy corned beef.

Or a French dip, with piles of paper thin roast beef and Swiss or provolone cheese, a bowl of hot au jus, and steak fries.

I think a trip to Zingerman's may be in the cards for this weekend.

[cathain.livejournal.com]

Steak in a sack (pita pocket bread) with provolone from Anker's Hoagies in Chattanooga.

[cathain.livejournal.com]

Buh. ANKAR'S.

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

*GLEE* Thanks! I just found an Ankar's that's less that 3 miles from my house!

[sveethot.livejournal.com]

A nice knish - yum. Or a nice felafel sandwich w/a side of cucumber yoghurt salad.

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Katz's. Ludlow and Houston.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

oh, my. You got the Real McCoy there, dontcha? How many meals could you get out of one of those sandwiches? :)

I don't know how they do it in Ann Arbor, Tom, but this gentleman will tell you, in Noo Yawk they pile it on like tomorrow is the zombie invasion and you might have to eat on this one sandwich for a while... if they're good they'll use Boar's Head (or something better I ain't heard of, but that's what I remember from being there)... along with bags of kettle-cooked chips and a bewildering array of choices in the soda case.... unlike Philly, the desserts weren't particularly memorable (though there was this one place up in Midtown that had fudge)... but still. You weren't gonna want dessert after this.

Here in the Emerald City you can get something vaguely resembling New York deli food... Buffalo Deli in Belltown has a good pastrami on rye, you can get it hot, with provolone... I'm not a fan of the ruben, given I'm not a fan of thousand island dressing, but a good hot pastrami... and the chicken matzoh soup, oh, my. (How come I never stumbled across the matzoh soup in NYC I dunno, wrong neighborhoods?) But I have braved quite a few storms to trudge up the hill, grab my soup and my sandwich and a cookie and a Dr. Brown's (black cherry if they've got it) and scurry back down through the wind and rain and still get back to my desk while this goodness is still warm....

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Me, one meal per sandwich. But then, I'm kind of a big eater. Normal person, two to three meals at least.

Some notes:

Boar's Head? Pshaw. The good places--like Katz's--make their own corned beef. (And everything else.)

Reubens don't actually use Thousand Island, they use Russian dressing. It's an understandable mistake, though, as the differences are very subtle. Or possibly nonexistent. We're not entirely sure.

Matzah (Matzo, Matzoh...let's just go with מַצָּה) ball soup: wait, you lived in New York and didn't encounter it? "Wrong neighborhoods" barely covers it. Sounds like you never set foot in the Upper West Side or the Lower East Side of Manhattan, let alone the various outerborough communities...

But at least you have the soda right. *grin*

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

make their own corned beef

True dat. What's that place on Roosevelt Island, IIRC, starts with a Z?

Right. Russian dressing. Still don't want it on my sammich. :)

(The diff, AFAICT, is Russian has more spice and no pickles. An improvement? yes. On my sandwich? no. On yours? up to you. :)

Upper West Side, once I did, but it was this diner... closest I got to the Lower East Side was Halloween in the Village. Man, what an experience! But no soup. Outerborough, a lot of time around Brooklyn Hospital... which, yeah, is odd I didn't run across the soup, because I remember seeing a fair number of Jewish folk, even Hasidim, coming and going... but no soup. Ah, well. As for the soda, how could I forget? :)

If I ever go back, though... I shall consult the natives!

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

It's not on Roosevelt Island, it's on the upper west side of Manhattan and it's called Zabar's. Already posted about it below. :)

[ladywench.livejournal.com]

When I used to live in Delaware, there was a place called "Talkin' Turkey" which served a white turkey chili (chunks instead of ground and white beans in a cream base) and a toasted turkey pastrami that I still dream about 10 years after I moved to another state.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

My favorite...
A bowl of chicken noodle soup with matzah balls; some yummy half-sour pickles; perhaps a knish, either potato or beef, or maybe instead a potato latke; a tiny dish of cucumber salad; for the sandwich, either perfectly lean, perfectly medium-rare roast beef, or instead a combination of corned beef and pastrami, either of those with a good brown horseradish mustard on a bulkie roll or just maybe a bulkie roll with onion; potato chips, while nice, are optional; a good black cherry soda or root beer - formerly I would have taken Dr. Brown's but the quality has suffered in recent decades - is not optional; and head elsewhere for dessert :P

Oddly enough, the best deli local to me makes one of the best steaks I've had around Boston.

[huskiebear.livejournal.com]

Squee! They're fresser-sizing Zing's! I saw that the decision was coming up yesterday but didn't see the outcome. I've been to a couple of NYC delis many moons ago (I think Katz's was one of them) and was mightily impressed by the sheer size of the sandwich - 3 inches of pastrami? Really? - and they were yummy, but Zing's has the best corned beef I've ever had. Period.I'm not sure if they make it or if it's Ginsberg's but that's damn good stuff!


As for my favorite: #2 (Zing's reuben), nosher, on challah, please. New pickle. Kreplach soup if they've got any left, or a latke with sour cream *and* applesauce, if not. (I think I just ordered lunch...)

[saganth.livejournal.com]

I've had some great sandwiches (Quizno's and DiBella's leap to mind), but my favroite is one I have to make myself:

turkey, genoa salami, 1 slice of liverwurst, romaine lettuce, tomato, swiss or cheddar cheese, spicy brown mustard on toasted pumpernickel-rye-swirl, with fat-free pretzels or Garden Salsa Sun Chips on the side.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

In general, I do love the classics, and will try a Reuben at any new deli I go to. (Had one this past week at Bread Basket. Not quite as good as Zing's, but good, and cheaper and closer.) At Zing's itself, I love both the regular Reuben and Binny's Brooklyn Reuben, which is made with pastrami instead of corned beef and pumpernickel instead of rye. I also have them replace the Russian dressing with spicy brown mustard.

Recently, I was listening to an album by the late Mitch Hedberg. I'm approximating, but one bit was something like this:

"I love sandwiches, man, but I don't like the sandwiches at New York delis. They give you too much meat! It's like getting a cow with a couple of crackers. I went into a deli one day and ordered a pastrami sandwich. The guy behind the counter asked me, 'Do you need anything else?' I said, 'Yeah, a loaf of bread and more people.'"

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*LOL* that's *so* New York. :)

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

I like a good Cuban...but my favorite is plain old salami on whole wheat with a schmear of mustard. Spicy brown, if I want the kick. But the salami HAS to be Hebrew National. There IS no other salami. Oh, and don't forget the endless bucket of pickles. ;-)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. I'd forgotten about the Cubans.

When I was at Georgia Tech we lived on the far end of the student ghetto there... and on the corner of 14th there was this unassuming place called Kool Korner, run by Sr. y Sra. Ramirez. Sr. Ramirez had been a chemist in Batista's Cuba, and when Castro came in, they snuck out. I don't know what kind of chemistry they used on their Cubanos, but come lunch time, there was almost always a line out the door. Om de nom nom!

Not too long ago I discovered something called a media noche. It's sort of a cross between a Cuban and a Monte Cristo, with the ham and cheese and such served up on this sweet egg bread. Alas, that place went kaputt! C'est la vie...

[skalja.livejournal.com]

I only went to Zingerman's once while I was in Ann Arbor - it's the other side of downtown from my usual school-related haunts, and a bit pricey for a student budget besides - but damn, do I miss it. Switzerland is not a sandwich place.

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

A burger and deep~fried pickles over at the Sidetrack in Ypsi. Damn, I miss the Sidetrack. *whimper*

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

OK~~it ain't deli, but dood~~deep fried pickles!!!

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I gotta disagree with you about the best deli on the planet... to my mind, that'd be Zabar's, on the upper west side of Manhattan. Favorite meal from there: a plate of combined meats -- rare roast beef, corned beef, pastrami, and Nova Scotia smoked salmon -- accompanied by a thick slice of sourdough bread and butter, some freshly made mozzarella cheese still in water, and their year-round hamentaschen for dessert.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

As far as delis go I've only ever been to Scholtzsky's when I went to Gen Con. I had the angus roast beef and cheese sandwhich, regular sized. It was one of the best sandwhiches I've ever had. In fact I'm going down there again for my brithday.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

?!?!?

My reaction to every visit to that chain is "Schlocky's Deli."

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Nothing beats a hot corned beef and tongue (not so lean that it dries the bread) on a fresh plain bagel with great full-sour pickles and cole slaw. Doctor Brown's soda (black cherry or cream, diet these days) or seltzer rounds it out.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Oh, good! The last couple of times I've been in town, the Zingerman's line stretched around the block. They need to do like Disneyland and put animatronic exhibits along their sidewalk. Hopefully the expansion will ease the crowding a bit.

My favorite deli meal is the custom nosher I usually get at Zingermans: chicken salad on challah, mayo, red onions, and artichoke hearts. Their farmer's cheese knishes are amazing, and so is their cream of chestnut soup.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The most important thing is to avoid peak times. Lunch is obviously a peak time. So are Wednesday and Saturday mornings (when they have the Farmers' Market across the street at Kerrytown). And Sundays after, say, 9:30-9:45, when the local churches start letting out. As a matter of fact, Sunday before church lets out is one of the best times to go.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, lunch on Saturday is exactly the meal that I'm not likely to have scheduled at my in-laws' house. :)

[eruvanna.livejournal.com]

Rare roast beef, Mild Provolone, mayonnaise, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Bean Sprouts, Pickles on a sourdough Kaiser

Pickle spear on the side

Salt and Vinegar Kettle Chips

Chocolate Milk

[juglore.livejournal.com]

I'm from Albuquerque. What's this 'deli' thing you speak of? And do these things come with red or green?

[jss]

A 50/50 mixture of lean corned beef and lean pastrami on rye (with caraway seeds) with Swiss cheese and Russian dressing. New garlic-dill pickle on the side. If they do homemade potato chips I might have some too, but if the sandwich is big enough I won't miss them.

What I don't like is when the bread is too thick.

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

I'm a purist. I want a very fresh smoked whitefish with sliced tomatoes and an egg bagel, and kugel if possible.

Corned beef, sliced thin and piled on rye bread with seeds and a good chewy crust and served with latkes and applesauce is good too, especially with chicken soup (real chicken soup, with chicken and cooked carrots), and floating matzo balls. As far as I'm concerned matzo balls dense enough to sink are suitable for use as artillery, and I don't eat artillery.

I love knishes, but I've only had what I consider "real" knishes a few times in delis. Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh is good for that; there was a good place in Seattle in the early '70's, and I've had them in Skokie. That's about it. I keep thinking I'll try my hand at making them myself, but I haven't yet.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Real bread and any of the following: Gruyere, Tomme Vaudois, Tallegio, but most especially Appenzeller. MMmmmmh yum!