Pastrami Sandwiches

This may seem like a very odd topic to write a blog on - but it's late - and I thought it was interesting.

A lot of tourists come to NYC and ask where one can get real "New York" food.  What IS New York food?  I mean - I personally eat a lot of scrambled eggs and Juice Generation juices.  I once recommended a Dumpling Shop to a group of tourists who looked really disappointed and after several minutes said "Where can we get New York Pizza?"  My heart sunk - we have good pizza- but you've not tasted these dumplings!

ANYHOW - after asking around it occurred to me that a quintessential New York "food" is a pastrami sandwich!  The Pastrami Sandwich was invented at Katz's deli in NYC in 1888.  Here is the pastrami legend according to wikipedia.  

"Volk, a kosher butcher, claimed he got the recipe from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing the friend's luggage while the friend returned to Romania. According to his descendant, Patricia Volk, Volk prepared pastrami according to the recipe and served it on sandwiches out of his butcher shop. The sandwich was so popular that Volk converted the butcher shop into a restaurant to sell pastrami sandwiches."

Apparently pastrami meat was popular because it was cheap.  

It is also pretty delicious.  

So should you wish to find on of the ten best pastrami sandwiches in NYC  - here are NYC10Best's suggestions.  

You will notice Katz's is listed as the number 1 place to eat pastrami.  So here are some fun facts about Katz's before I sign off for the night.

Katz's serves over 10000 pounds of pastrami each week.  And 12,000 hot dogs.  

It is a kosher style delicatessen.

During World War II, the three sons of the owners were all serving their country in the armed forces, and the family tradition of sending food to their sons became sealed as the company slogan "Send A Salami To Your Boy In The Army".

Katz's was the site of Meg Ryan's and Estelle Reiner's famous "I'll have what she's having"fake orgasm scene in the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally...; the table at which she and Billy Crystal sat is marked with a sign that says, "Where Harry met Sally...hope you have what she had!"