Showing posts with label pastrami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pastrami. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Perils of Pastrami at a Bastion of Boredom

The Sinister Center of Pastrami Punishment
Oh my cousins, what a set of light spins it has been here in the ciudad of Los Angels; cool, grey and actually kinda refreshing. The makai was soft and cool, and it jangled the bells of your own Harlequin’s cap ever so softly as he danced through the streets looking for pranks to play and jests to make.

In my odd wanderings your own clown of comestibles came across a Greenblatt’s Deli, a veritable temple of the pickled, the smoked and the cured. Without hesitation I capered in, to find out what wonders waited within.

The place is small with a deli counter to order from, and a wine and spirits store connected next door. There is a small dining area in front and a larger one up the stairs that the rather bored wait-staff rest at. Not once, not twice but thrice did your own Harlequin pass this group of servers, jingling bells and parading his majestic beribboned staff. Not once did they look up from their conversations, which boded only mischief for them from your own victual vagabond.

I set to play my finest prank of the day on the trio of torpid teenagers, I would tie their shoes together, so the gaggling group would become one big server, sprawling and crawling on the floor like a great rat king. How the customers and cooks would laugh to see them tied together like a great octopus.

Giggling wickedly, I set to tying and then I saw her, my Columbine, Kourtney with a “K”. She had a wicked smile, and sparkling glassies, surely she was only being held captive by these muddle headed minions of mediocrity. Determined to free her I sat down in a booth right in front of the three to plan my rescue of fair Kourtney with a “K”, my thoughts of mischief and mirth abandoned to nobler thoughts of my Columbine.

She noticed me immediately, my diamond patterned hat and bells making me hard to miss to the alert eye, and hers was most alert, it made me wonder why she did not see me the first three times. She brought me a menu and a glass of cold water. I sipped at it and found it tasted of soap and old food.

A trick! I thought she knows that Harlequin would appreciate a fine jest even if it were played on him. When I showed her that I did appreciate her joke by blowing soap bubbles, she hurried away to fetch me a clean glass with soap free water..

Clean glass in hand, I set to ordering a grand luncheon to fortify myself for my daring crusade to liberate Kourtney with a “K” from the clutches of boredom. I decided on a favorite of deli dancers of the past and ordered a hot juicy pastrami sandwich with a side of potato salad, sauerkraut and pickles.

When I was ready to order, my Columbine needed to hear it twice, as she was dazzled by my magnificent visage, and forgot the order as soon as I said it. Moments later, she brought me my grinds and I looked upon it with wonder, the sandwich was a thin thing, modesty layered with unimpressive, tasteless gyu. This was not the carne of places like Billy’s, Langer’s, or even Canter’s, it was flabby without any smoky character or even yummy fat.

Another trick! I thought with a grin, Kourtney with a “K” was trying to signal your own victual vagabond of the desperateness of her plight by substituting his hot and juicy pastrami with supermarket carne. I turned to catch my Columbine’s eye, to assure here that I had understood the sandwich signal for help. She was however talking animatedly with her fellows at the stairs again, could it be that she was not my Columbine after all?

I polished off the peaked pastrami, the perfectly perfunctory pickles, and the pallid passel of potato salad, after all, your own narrator was still famished. I cleared my plate and awaited my check, my plan was to grab up my Columbine when she came with my check and to spirit her away so that she could join us to dance in the sun and gambol away from this grotto of grumpiness.

She did not notice me, still animated talking and laughing with the gormless gaggle of grumbling groupies. I shook my bells and raised my harlequin staff in salute, nothing. It was not until I stood to leave that she even approached me sullen and sad.

“Come with me Kourtney with a K,” I cried, “come see the sun and dance far away from this place where the food weeps because of its mediocrity and shoddy treatment.”

“Foolish harlequin,” Kourtney with a K growled, “I am happy to work here, and now that we have your money, why would I wish to walk with you…a foolish pauper of potables…begone.” I left defeated, my jester’s bells tinkling sadly.

Oh brothers and sisters, Greenblatt’s is nay not the deli for me, the food demands a great deal of the folding gelt, and you say to your own Metrowalker, all deli delights are costly. But cousins, Greenblatt’s food is not excellent, and its servers seem bored and unhappy at their jobs.

Most of all dearest ones, Greenblatt’s is where my Kourtney with a “K” works, and there she languishes amongst the mediocrity.

Greenblatt’s Deli
8017 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles
(323) 656-0606

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Lifting my spirits and some heavy metal

Has it been so long since we have written cousins? Oh the shame, well here I am back with you again, Metrowalker! Your very own lord of misrule!

I hear you my dear brothers and sisters, crying out that this big old evil metro is making you feel deep dark and blue? I too! I too! So your own Metrowalker went a jaunting not too long ago to find a little something to raise his flagging spirits, and lighten the old murmuring red pump.

First there was the little matter of levitating the ferro cousins, everything seems so much nicer when your muscles are rewarding you with happy dappy bursts of dopamine from their over use, and your own Uncle loves the weird buzz he gets from the little bits of sangre floating in the corners of his winkies.

Of course afterwards, the horrible hollowness of appetite roared, a terrible noise that drove your own victual vagabond to distraction. So off I capered looking for something grand to fill the aching void.

Now Glendale is wild with grinds, Italian, Asian of all sorts, and of course Armenian places dot the suburbs like stars in the heavens. But nothing would do but the soul grinds of our own Eastside metro cousins, that’s right …DELI!

Fortunately, oh my brother and sisters, there is a temple to the cured, the smoked, and the pickled, not far from where your own Metrowalker chose to sweat out his blues
We are talking Billy’s Deli, the meeting place for those who need a knish, crave corned beef and must have matzo balls from before the Galleria was a twinkle in some developers eye.

Perching in a booth, your loyal narrator perused the menu, its plastic protected pages full of sandwiches, salads and selectable delectable from the cold larder, oh what to have? I caper and bound with the multitude of meals that are menufied.

Then a voice called out from deep inside, a sandwich of pastrami, and tongue on toast would just be the piece of the puzzle, with a side of those sour pickles and pickled tomatoes to cap off the taste. Of course I ordered some fries too, if you are going to toast in perdition, you should do it for something good no?

Mira that tower cousins, a veritable butcher shop between rye, and I your own hungry harlequin attacked it with gusto! The pastrami was tasty, as was the smooth fatty tongue, touched with a bit of spicy mustard and punctuated with a salty sour tomato, oh the bliss….

Billy’s is also the home of according to my departed brother Ian, to quite the chopped liver, and after trying it I have to say he was right. It is rich and sweet with caramelized onions, with just a hint of metallic tang of organ meat.

This viande is just the thing for your toasts or crackers, topped with some sharp pickles or even smooth chopped egg it is a grand experience. Now brother Ian said it was made with beef liver, when every other deli uses chicken, and that makes all the difference. Be it bovo, or yard bird, I must say that a tastier dish I could not have had.

But what is the true measure of a palace of pastrami cousins? Is it the status of their salami, the rank of their roast beef? No say I! As these grinds are sometimes not even made en casa. I propose that it is the soup that gauge the height of the castle's walls oh my brothers and sisters. Billy’s has all the usual suspects, chicken noodle, matzo ball, and of course chicken in a pot, enough to keep a cold ladened dancer happy for some time.

Your own feasting fool tried the matzo ball, and cousins it was not bad at all!. The broth was mild, speckled with chicken and carrots, with a dumpling dense and flavorful. Was it the soup of your own Metrowalker’s granny gran? No, but then again, your very own Uncle never knew his grandmom, and even if he did…well she would think a matzoball was something that you sprayed for.

Can I recommend Billy’s to you oh my cousins, well Bon V, Metrowalker’s meal munching amigo has a thumbs down on the joint, but I liked it friends, a great place to rest after making like the governor and defying common sense and gravity. I will be back to try Billy’s borscht, that beet bastion that has buffered Bolsheviks by the bowlful. Ian said it was the bomb.


Billy's Deli


216 N Orange St,


Glendale, CA 91203-2612