Pastrami On Rye

So I spent the entire day in the Empire State yesterday on a buying trip for the store, but this is not a post about New York City. No, no. This is a post about food. Glorious food. Lean Pastrami on pumpernickel bread to be exact, and I had it last night and then I dreamt about it. Good food tends to do that to you.

Myself and a couple of my colleagues drove into NYC for the day and on the way home we stopped at the famous Rein's Deli in Vernon Connecticut. Now just about everyone that does the Boston to New York drive frequently, knows Rein's because not only is it an authentic New York style deli, but it's at the half way mark between the two locales and a great place to stop for a quick bite. As you may have read here before, I gave up eating sugar a while back and in doing so I effectively gave up all kinds of breads, bad carbs, etc. But, twice a week I can splurge a meal and have whatever I want and yesterday was my splurge meal.

I had a lean pastrami Rachel on pumpernickel bread, which for you layman, is a pastrami sandwich with Swiss cheese AND coleslaw on it. I like to douse it with, GET THIS, spicy mustard AND Russian dressing. Oh my, I'm getting happy just writing about it, and if you think that the sandwich I ate last night was not good enough to warrant an entire blog post, think again. I forgot how much I missed eating sandwiches. My culinary dream began with a bowl of kosher dill pickles to prepare the pallete, then some Jewish mother's penicillin, Matzoh ball soup. My sandwich which was then presented to me slightly warm, grilled on either side of the bread. I like the first cut of pastrami, which is diet lean, no fat. This a debatable point, fat or no fat, depending on your taste buds, and I devoured the creation in it's entirety with a bit of an effort. I could not let any of it go to waste.

Pastrami sandwiches are not the norm here in the home of the Patriots and the Red Sox, as the New York deli's seem to have the copyright on the cuisine in this part of the country, so imagine my delight when sinking my teeth into that delectable sammi. It's messy to be sure, but so worth it and Rein's will gladly bring you extra napkins, if the need be. It's so delightful that we left the city at 6pm, after a long day of working with tummies grumbling, and waited until 9:30pm to have our agreed dinner at Rein's, knowing it would not disappoint.

No wonder I had dreams about it all night. Not only do I not eat like that anymore, I don't ever eat that late. But it was so worth it, and I'd do it again in a New York second. It's just that my gastrointestinal system would disagrees with me today.

Was that TMI?

Sorry, my bad.