I'll never forget this restaurant or the bad date I went to this place. Newly single and finally getting back into the life of a bachelor in New York City, I met a girl and we decided to go out for dinner one night. So I wrenched my brain to find a place and came across Fiamma Osteria. I read that the chef of Fiamma was named one of the best new chefs in 2002 by Food and Wine Magazine. Food and Wine Magazine never steers me wrong. The plans were set and reservations were made for 9:30 pm on a Saturday night.
We arrived at Fiamma about 5 minutes earlier then out reservation. I walk over to the host, gave my name and was told it would be a few minutes. "Please enjoy a drink at our bar". Another lady comes over to us and escorts us to an elevator to take us to the second floor bar. I grab a drink for my date and I and we nestled ourselves into a corner and wait for our table. After 30 mind numbing minutes of sheer boredom a gentleman walks over and tells us our table it ready and to follow him back to the elevator. Is this place serious? 30 damn minutes? As I walked over to the elevator I was thinking to myself, "this date is going really bad; hopefully the food will make up for it".
We make our way back downstairs and are shown our table. The place was nicely decorated and low lit. A nice place for a first date. A small menu dated for the week of. A good sign: showing the menu always changes and the food is fresh and seasonal. I should be in for a real treat. For some odd reason my date and I did not order appetizers. I don't know if it was the tension between us or I just didn't want to eat because I kept thinking in the back of my mind this date sucks and the less I order the quicker this will be over and I could be on my couch watching Fight Club with a nice bottle of wine and a pie from Tottono's. So I went straight for the main course. Seared Tuna over risotto. My date had the goat cheese ravioli's.
Fiamma was packed that night. Not an empty seat in the house. Over dinner I was telling my date about the chef and how he was picked one of the best new chef's by Food and Wine Magazine. I could have honestly been telling this information to a wall because I would have gotten a better response out of it. Our Food had arrived. I like my Tuna rare. I am known to go to my local fish market get a pound of Tuna and bring it home and slice it up into sashimi. I am more than sure I told our server rare but my Tuna was medium almost well done. I don't like sending food back so I sucked it up and tried it. How bad could it be right? Awful, tasteless, fishy, crap. The risotto was dry, over salted crap! I asked my date what she thought about her ravioli. She said it was pretty good. I tried a piece and the ravioli was drier then my date’s personality. What can I expect from a girl who lives in Jersey? To her, modern Italian food is stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut.
Growing up I was always told to finish my food, starving children in China and all. But I could not do it. Who eats well done tuna? It's like eating a well done piece of red meat. My date was sinking like the Titanic and I could not wait to get out of there. I asked for the check and our dishes were taken away. As my date and I waited for the check she brought up a good point "It's funny the waitress didn't ask you what's wrong with your food considering you left so much. Even in Applebee's when I don't finish my meal I'm asked if there was something wrong with my food". I explained to my date, "I take this as a loss, the food sucked, I will never come back here or recommended it to anyone". The check comes, and it was $145. This couldn't be. I went over the check and a bottle of wine was added to my bill which we didn't even order. With this girl I needed the hard liquor only. Was this waitress trying to get over on me? Knowing I'm on a date and not to look cheap in front of my date she adds things to my bill? Ha, in your face waitress! This girl is boring and not even worth the mental anguish to try and sleep with her. I called over the waitress, told her we didn't order the $55 bottle of wine and can she please take it off my bill.
Fiamma Osteria, one of the worst places to eat in New York City. I wouldn't recommended this place to a soup kitchen.
Edited by a.j
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Bond St. Sushi
A friend of mine had been ranting and raving about a Sushi place in Manhattan called Bond Street. Every time I would mention a sushi place I'd hear "Yo, you gotta try Bond Street". I would have rather gone to Nobu, fuck it even Nobu next door. I checked out some reviews of the place and they seemed decent. So finally we made plans one night and headed into the city so I can try this mystical sushi place named Bond Street.
Located in the West Village on, what a coincidence, Bond Street, we made our way into what looked like a fancy apartment building then a sushi restaurant. Inside the place was dark, kind of small, and well decorated. If I knew this place was so fancy I would have left the bathing ape hoodie and the dunks at home and put on a nice shirt and my Prada kicks. Not only am I a gastronome but I am also a sneaker head. We are greeted by two fancy gentleman and asked for our reservation. We didn't have any so we were told we would have to sit at the sushi bar which I didn't mind at all. A lot of people do not like to sit at the sushi bar.
The sushi bar has a special place in my heart. When I was at the ripe old age of 12 my parents took me along with them to meet a relative of ours visiting from Brazil. At 12 years old I was hesitant to eating anything except my mothers cooking and McDonalds. We all sat at the sushi bar where my mom was trying to feed me sushi. The sushi chef noticed I was hesitant to eat anything my mom tried to feed me. The chef looked over the bar, smiled asked me if I liked shrimp. I answered "Yes, I do". So, on a small dish, one piece of sushi was served to me. As I examined this piece of sushi I was being told by the sushi chef to go ahead, eat it, it will taste like bubble gum and the rest is history. I don't know where that place was, or what sushi chef made me but that day I added another ethnic cuisine notch to my belt.
My friends and I grabbed a drink at the bar and waited to be seated and in about 10 minutes a gentleman came over to my friends and I, and told us our tables are ready. As I walked through the place there was not an empty seat in the house. We are showed our seats and given menus. The bar was cramped and when I say cramped I mean there's more room in a Japanese capsule hotel room then at the sushi bar. It was bad. The lady sitting next to me kept elbowing me as she checked her phone.
I scanned through the menu and I started off with a salmon Ceviche which consisted of salmon, blood oranges and shallots. For my entrée I went with the spicy Tuna with chili mayo, Lobster tempura with a yellow tomato and yuzu pepper dressing and the sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry dressing and reduced balsamic vinegar. The menu was small with not much variety, which was sort of new to me. You have to understand when I go for sushi it's usually in Brooklyn where they have so many types of rolls that they're running out of names to call these rolls. One place in Brooklyn went as low as calling a roll “the iPhone roll.”
In Brooklyn the sushi chef's are Chinese. So it was refreshing to hear the chatter of Japanese behind the sushi bar. The head sushi chef was trying to get everyone's attention to give a toast that most traditional sushi chef's give to show appreciation for the customer. I thought to myself this is the real deal, no iPhone rolls here. My Ceviche had arrived. Any fool knows acids make a fish dish sing. This was more like 3 tenors at the Met. A harmonic balance of acids and textures. I had quickly grabbed my Treo and jotted down what flavors I tasted as I are this dish. Yeah, that's right I'm going to rip off this dish and serve it to my friends.
My sushi had arrived . The presentation of my sushi was a little cheesy. The spicy Tuna roll was formed into an arch, while the rest of my sushi was cut into rolls. Was the Tuna made into an arch as some kind of representation of a rainbow with the sushi at the bottom as a pot of gold? We'll start with the rainbow itself. Kind of mediocre for my taste. It was just a simple spicy Tuna roll. Although I have to add the fish was very fresh and the rolls were not compacted with tons of rice. The Lobster tempura was a little off balance. It was good but not anything to throw a parade for. The sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry sauce however was anything but ordinary. I am used to the basics when it comes to sushi: soy sauce, spicy mayo, ginger (to cleanse my pallet in between rolls) and that fake Wasabi. So the orange curry sauce for the roll was nice change for me.
For desert I had banana dim sum: little dim sum dumplings hand wrapped, fried and topped with ice cream. It was okay. Let’s leave it at that. The bill came to $380 without the tip. All in all Bond Street has a real nice décor and a good place to go if you're looking to impress someone on a first date. The sushi was very fresh but mediocre to me. I'd say the winning dish of the night was definitely my appetizer.I rate bond st a 2 out of a 4 .
edited by a.j.
Located in the West Village on, what a coincidence, Bond Street, we made our way into what looked like a fancy apartment building then a sushi restaurant. Inside the place was dark, kind of small, and well decorated. If I knew this place was so fancy I would have left the bathing ape hoodie and the dunks at home and put on a nice shirt and my Prada kicks. Not only am I a gastronome but I am also a sneaker head. We are greeted by two fancy gentleman and asked for our reservation. We didn't have any so we were told we would have to sit at the sushi bar which I didn't mind at all. A lot of people do not like to sit at the sushi bar.
The sushi bar has a special place in my heart. When I was at the ripe old age of 12 my parents took me along with them to meet a relative of ours visiting from Brazil. At 12 years old I was hesitant to eating anything except my mothers cooking and McDonalds. We all sat at the sushi bar where my mom was trying to feed me sushi. The sushi chef noticed I was hesitant to eat anything my mom tried to feed me. The chef looked over the bar, smiled asked me if I liked shrimp. I answered "Yes, I do". So, on a small dish, one piece of sushi was served to me. As I examined this piece of sushi I was being told by the sushi chef to go ahead, eat it, it will taste like bubble gum and the rest is history. I don't know where that place was, or what sushi chef made me but that day I added another ethnic cuisine notch to my belt.
My friends and I grabbed a drink at the bar and waited to be seated and in about 10 minutes a gentleman came over to my friends and I, and told us our tables are ready. As I walked through the place there was not an empty seat in the house. We are showed our seats and given menus. The bar was cramped and when I say cramped I mean there's more room in a Japanese capsule hotel room then at the sushi bar. It was bad. The lady sitting next to me kept elbowing me as she checked her phone.
I scanned through the menu and I started off with a salmon Ceviche which consisted of salmon, blood oranges and shallots. For my entrée I went with the spicy Tuna with chili mayo, Lobster tempura with a yellow tomato and yuzu pepper dressing and the sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry dressing and reduced balsamic vinegar. The menu was small with not much variety, which was sort of new to me. You have to understand when I go for sushi it's usually in Brooklyn where they have so many types of rolls that they're running out of names to call these rolls. One place in Brooklyn went as low as calling a roll “the iPhone roll.”
In Brooklyn the sushi chef's are Chinese. So it was refreshing to hear the chatter of Japanese behind the sushi bar. The head sushi chef was trying to get everyone's attention to give a toast that most traditional sushi chef's give to show appreciation for the customer. I thought to myself this is the real deal, no iPhone rolls here. My Ceviche had arrived. Any fool knows acids make a fish dish sing. This was more like 3 tenors at the Met. A harmonic balance of acids and textures. I had quickly grabbed my Treo and jotted down what flavors I tasted as I are this dish. Yeah, that's right I'm going to rip off this dish and serve it to my friends.
My sushi had arrived . The presentation of my sushi was a little cheesy. The spicy Tuna roll was formed into an arch, while the rest of my sushi was cut into rolls. Was the Tuna made into an arch as some kind of representation of a rainbow with the sushi at the bottom as a pot of gold? We'll start with the rainbow itself. Kind of mediocre for my taste. It was just a simple spicy Tuna roll. Although I have to add the fish was very fresh and the rolls were not compacted with tons of rice. The Lobster tempura was a little off balance. It was good but not anything to throw a parade for. The sesame crusted shrimp roll with orange curry sauce however was anything but ordinary. I am used to the basics when it comes to sushi: soy sauce, spicy mayo, ginger (to cleanse my pallet in between rolls) and that fake Wasabi. So the orange curry sauce for the roll was nice change for me.
For desert I had banana dim sum: little dim sum dumplings hand wrapped, fried and topped with ice cream. It was okay. Let’s leave it at that. The bill came to $380 without the tip. All in all Bond Street has a real nice décor and a good place to go if you're looking to impress someone on a first date. The sushi was very fresh but mediocre to me. I'd say the winning dish of the night was definitely my appetizer.I rate bond st a 2 out of a 4 .
edited by a.j.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Bangkok Thai House
Bangkok Thai Restaurant is nestled on 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge. One night a friend and I were on our way to speak to someone about a tattoo in Sunset Park. As we drove by Bangkok, we both decided that we should make a pit stop at this place on the way back because we were both hankering for some Thai. Usually when I want Thai food I make my way to SEA in Williamsburg but I didn't have 3 hours to burn to wait for a table in the freezing cold.
As my friend and I walked into Bangkok we're greeted by an older gentleman who barely spoke English. We walked past a bar and a glass display case with hand made jewelry and clothing from Thailand. There was a camera nailed to the wall that must have been at least 25 years old. No koi ponds or a DJ spinning house music at this place . There wasn't any fancy designer seating or funky menus. My friends this place was a hole in the wall. A definite sign of good food and cheap prices.
The gentleman who showed us to our table was also our waiter. The menu had a big selection. I hate big menus. It shows that you do not have seasonal ingredients and your restaurant is boring because basically this is the menu take it or leave it. I usually leave it and go somewhere else. I also tend to order the simplest dish reason being is because if you screw up on a simple dish how great can your most perplex dish be? We start out with a few appetizers. Thai fried calamari with sweet chili sauce and Thai fried spring rolls. One thing I can not stand is the word "calamari". Calamari is a word used for fried squid in many European languages around the Mediterranean such as Greece or Italy. It has no business being put on an Asian menu. For entrée we both had ordered the shrimp pad Thai. Yes, two morons ordering the same dish. But I quickly persuaded my friend to order the same as me after giving her my rhetoric about how if you can’t cook the simplest of dishes you should be shunned from the culinary community.
Our appetizers had arrived. I started off with the springs rolls, bland, greasy , basically they sucked. Even the sweet chili sauce could not save this dish. Strike 1. Thai fried SQUID! Ha up yours calamari! I honestly thought they served us onions rings. I don't know where they got this squid from but it huge. Cut into rings and deep fried. I have to say they were good. I asked my friend if she tasted beer but to be honest with you she wouldn't know her ass from her elbow when it came to food tasting. If it wasn't for me she would be on a strict diet of peach Snapple, coffee, and diner hamburgers. The calamari was soft and crispy at the same time. Cooking squid is simple, you either cook it for 3 minutes or 30 minutes anywhere in between you're just have a bunch of rubber bands.
I could not stop laughing at the 1981 video camera nailed to the wall. This place had a certain kind of charm. Not charm like walking into Masa at the Time Warner Center where the tasting menu is $800 for a party of two. More like a feeling of it's a local place, with good food, good prices, and good service. Our Pad Thai had arrived. Smelled pretty good and was heavily garnished with peanuts. The shrimp were small and dingy. I had to take a few bites before I could honestly give my opinion on the dish. At first I tasted nothing, second bite all I tasted was sweet, third bite was more savory (don't ask me how), finally on my fourth bite it all came together. This pad Thai was a winner , it did not beat out Sea's pad Thai but it definitely crushed Planet Thai's which I rated number 2 on my list of best pad Thai's. Although the shrimp was extremely dry the dish over all was great. My friend had also agreed with me about the shrimp but remember what I said about her ass and elbow.
For dessert we decided to split something. We decided to go with the Thai ice cream. Coconut ice cream scooped over sticky sweet white rice. A pretty weird combo until I tasted it. This dessert was good. Really good, better than anything on the menu. The texture of the sticky rice and ice cream was perfect and the taste was not too over bearing and sweet. The bill came to $49 with a tip. Over all Bangkok is a good spot if you don't want to set up a tent in front of SEA and camp out until your table is ready.
Edited by A.J.
http://www.bangkokinbrooklyn.com/aboutus.html
As my friend and I walked into Bangkok we're greeted by an older gentleman who barely spoke English. We walked past a bar and a glass display case with hand made jewelry and clothing from Thailand. There was a camera nailed to the wall that must have been at least 25 years old. No koi ponds or a DJ spinning house music at this place . There wasn't any fancy designer seating or funky menus. My friends this place was a hole in the wall. A definite sign of good food and cheap prices.
The gentleman who showed us to our table was also our waiter. The menu had a big selection. I hate big menus. It shows that you do not have seasonal ingredients and your restaurant is boring because basically this is the menu take it or leave it. I usually leave it and go somewhere else. I also tend to order the simplest dish reason being is because if you screw up on a simple dish how great can your most perplex dish be? We start out with a few appetizers. Thai fried calamari with sweet chili sauce and Thai fried spring rolls. One thing I can not stand is the word "calamari". Calamari is a word used for fried squid in many European languages around the Mediterranean such as Greece or Italy. It has no business being put on an Asian menu. For entrée we both had ordered the shrimp pad Thai. Yes, two morons ordering the same dish. But I quickly persuaded my friend to order the same as me after giving her my rhetoric about how if you can’t cook the simplest of dishes you should be shunned from the culinary community.
Our appetizers had arrived. I started off with the springs rolls, bland, greasy , basically they sucked. Even the sweet chili sauce could not save this dish. Strike 1. Thai fried SQUID! Ha up yours calamari! I honestly thought they served us onions rings. I don't know where they got this squid from but it huge. Cut into rings and deep fried. I have to say they were good. I asked my friend if she tasted beer but to be honest with you she wouldn't know her ass from her elbow when it came to food tasting. If it wasn't for me she would be on a strict diet of peach Snapple, coffee, and diner hamburgers. The calamari was soft and crispy at the same time. Cooking squid is simple, you either cook it for 3 minutes or 30 minutes anywhere in between you're just have a bunch of rubber bands.
I could not stop laughing at the 1981 video camera nailed to the wall. This place had a certain kind of charm. Not charm like walking into Masa at the Time Warner Center where the tasting menu is $800 for a party of two. More like a feeling of it's a local place, with good food, good prices, and good service. Our Pad Thai had arrived. Smelled pretty good and was heavily garnished with peanuts. The shrimp were small and dingy. I had to take a few bites before I could honestly give my opinion on the dish. At first I tasted nothing, second bite all I tasted was sweet, third bite was more savory (don't ask me how), finally on my fourth bite it all came together. This pad Thai was a winner , it did not beat out Sea's pad Thai but it definitely crushed Planet Thai's which I rated number 2 on my list of best pad Thai's. Although the shrimp was extremely dry the dish over all was great. My friend had also agreed with me about the shrimp but remember what I said about her ass and elbow.
For dessert we decided to split something. We decided to go with the Thai ice cream. Coconut ice cream scooped over sticky sweet white rice. A pretty weird combo until I tasted it. This dessert was good. Really good, better than anything on the menu. The texture of the sticky rice and ice cream was perfect and the taste was not too over bearing and sweet. The bill came to $49 with a tip. Over all Bangkok is a good spot if you don't want to set up a tent in front of SEA and camp out until your table is ready.
Edited by A.J.
http://www.bangkokinbrooklyn.com/aboutus.html
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Katz Delicatessen
Another summer weekend day was wasted by Mother Nature. You guessed it, rain, and on the worst possible day of the summer, the day I was throwing my annual bar b queue. Nothing too crazy, stuffed hamburgers, hot dogs, and my famous Asian glazed chicken. After all what's a true gastronome if you aren't able to master the art yourself? However, thanks to the rain the bar b queue was canceled. This had left my friends and I with the critical decision to make "What's for dinner?" Honestly, I was in the mood for a good sandwich. Coming from the Mecca of sandwich shops, Brooklyn .Well known sandwich places such as Leoni’s , Johns Deli, or Nick and Tony’s just didn't cut it. I had to make my way to the lower east side of Manhattan for my first pilgrimage to Katz’s Delicatessen.
Here I am, 27 years old, a child of Russian, Jewish immigrants, a native New Yorker and this is my first time visiting the holy land of cured meats. I was ashamed; more so embarrassed to call myself a gastronome or even a true New Yorker and never have eaten at Katz. So a quick zip through the battery tunnel, onto the FDR, and before I knew it I was walking into Katz’s. As I walked in I noticed a huge seating area , saw dust on the floor ,and a man giving little pink tickets as if I was about to ride the roller coaster in Coney island. The place seems as if it hasn't been renovated since it opened in 1888 and for a minute I felt as if I had just walked out of a tenement apartment on Orchard Street in the 19th century and down the block for a sandwich. Unlike some pretentious hipster “crapery’s” with house music blasting, dim lighting, as if it the place was selling shitty clothing instead of shitty food. The walls were decorated with pictures of celebrities, political figures, and others that I am too young to probably remember or know. The seating area was flooded with fanny packers a.k.a tourists, hipsters, and old timers.
While waiting on line I could not decide what to get, brisket, corn beef, pastrami? Rye, club, or white? Fries, onion rings, cold slaw, macaroni salad? “NEXT!” as the man behind the counter shouted. Do I dare go for it? So I ordered a pastrami and brisket mixed on a club roll with a shmear of mustard on the pastrami. The best of both worlds served to me on a plate with pickles. The most important thing to do at Kat’z is leave the sandwich maker a tip of at least $2. As a result of me leaving a tip, the gentleman making my sandwich handed me a plate with a few slices of pastrami and brisket to try. A good move on his part because the meat looked so good I would not give a second thought of jumping over the counter and biting into the brisket and pastrami like a savage.
My sandwich was laid out on a plastic tray with a side of sour and half sour pickles. I was asked for my ticket where the price of the sandwich was written on. As I walked down to pick up an order of fries and a can of Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda I thought to myself as to how stupid I am for taking so long to visit this place. I grab my order of fries, my Dr. Brown’s, and head for the table where my friends were sitting. I was so excited I didn't know what to eat first. The fries were steak cut fries, golden brown and crispy, but I had to start off with the sandwich.
After opening up the sandwich and taking a sniff of the meat to get my taste buds going I noticed the meat was sliced thick. Being a native Brooklynite I like my cold cuts cut paper thin. But considering this is fresh meat I didn't give it a second though. I took a bite into the brisket side first. It was a little dry but seasoned right. I've had a lot of over salted and over seasoned brisket before in my life. Most people don't understand red meat only needs salt and pepper. Now to the pastrami. Perfection. The pastrami was juicy, a little salty but delicious, the brown deli mustard added to flavor of a great pastrami sandwich. The fries were golden brown, crunchy. I like my potatoes well done, almost even burnt. One thing I have to mention…no deli sandwich is complete with out a black cherry soda. I prefer Boylan’s black cherry myself but Dr. Browns did the job.
I honestly couldn't eat another bite. After the fries, the brisket side of my sandwich that I polished off with a grin on my face, and the soda, I realized people going to the electric chair don't eat this good. I brought my other half of the sandwich over to the counter for it to be wrapped. After semi -flirting with the counter girl she threw in a few pickles for the ride home. I grabbed the ticket off of my tray and walked over to the register to pay for my meal. This had to be the best sandwich I've had in quite a while. It was a real sandwich, a living remnant of what it was really like to eat in the lower east side once upon a time. Simple food prepared by the hands of those who respect tradition. None of this hipster, designer, Subway, Quiznos, Panini crap. Yes, this was a little pedestrian for my palate but there is one thing I learned in life as a person who loves to cook, eat, and eat some more…simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Here I am, 27 years old, a child of Russian, Jewish immigrants, a native New Yorker and this is my first time visiting the holy land of cured meats. I was ashamed; more so embarrassed to call myself a gastronome or even a true New Yorker and never have eaten at Katz. So a quick zip through the battery tunnel, onto the FDR, and before I knew it I was walking into Katz’s. As I walked in I noticed a huge seating area , saw dust on the floor ,and a man giving little pink tickets as if I was about to ride the roller coaster in Coney island. The place seems as if it hasn't been renovated since it opened in 1888 and for a minute I felt as if I had just walked out of a tenement apartment on Orchard Street in the 19th century and down the block for a sandwich. Unlike some pretentious hipster “crapery’s” with house music blasting, dim lighting, as if it the place was selling shitty clothing instead of shitty food. The walls were decorated with pictures of celebrities, political figures, and others that I am too young to probably remember or know. The seating area was flooded with fanny packers a.k.a tourists, hipsters, and old timers.
While waiting on line I could not decide what to get, brisket, corn beef, pastrami? Rye, club, or white? Fries, onion rings, cold slaw, macaroni salad? “NEXT!” as the man behind the counter shouted. Do I dare go for it? So I ordered a pastrami and brisket mixed on a club roll with a shmear of mustard on the pastrami. The best of both worlds served to me on a plate with pickles. The most important thing to do at Kat’z is leave the sandwich maker a tip of at least $2. As a result of me leaving a tip, the gentleman making my sandwich handed me a plate with a few slices of pastrami and brisket to try. A good move on his part because the meat looked so good I would not give a second thought of jumping over the counter and biting into the brisket and pastrami like a savage.
My sandwich was laid out on a plastic tray with a side of sour and half sour pickles. I was asked for my ticket where the price of the sandwich was written on. As I walked down to pick up an order of fries and a can of Dr. Brown’s black cherry soda I thought to myself as to how stupid I am for taking so long to visit this place. I grab my order of fries, my Dr. Brown’s, and head for the table where my friends were sitting. I was so excited I didn't know what to eat first. The fries were steak cut fries, golden brown and crispy, but I had to start off with the sandwich.
After opening up the sandwich and taking a sniff of the meat to get my taste buds going I noticed the meat was sliced thick. Being a native Brooklynite I like my cold cuts cut paper thin. But considering this is fresh meat I didn't give it a second though. I took a bite into the brisket side first. It was a little dry but seasoned right. I've had a lot of over salted and over seasoned brisket before in my life. Most people don't understand red meat only needs salt and pepper. Now to the pastrami. Perfection. The pastrami was juicy, a little salty but delicious, the brown deli mustard added to flavor of a great pastrami sandwich. The fries were golden brown, crunchy. I like my potatoes well done, almost even burnt. One thing I have to mention…no deli sandwich is complete with out a black cherry soda. I prefer Boylan’s black cherry myself but Dr. Browns did the job.
I honestly couldn't eat another bite. After the fries, the brisket side of my sandwich that I polished off with a grin on my face, and the soda, I realized people going to the electric chair don't eat this good. I brought my other half of the sandwich over to the counter for it to be wrapped. After semi -flirting with the counter girl she threw in a few pickles for the ride home. I grabbed the ticket off of my tray and walked over to the register to pay for my meal. This had to be the best sandwich I've had in quite a while. It was a real sandwich, a living remnant of what it was really like to eat in the lower east side once upon a time. Simple food prepared by the hands of those who respect tradition. None of this hipster, designer, Subway, Quiznos, Panini crap. Yes, this was a little pedestrian for my palate but there is one thing I learned in life as a person who loves to cook, eat, and eat some more…simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
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