Saturday, February 4, 2017

Pastrami Taste-Off of 2017 Part 1

One thing M and I discussed early this year was what sort of "food resolutions" we wanted to make for this year. A food resolution is basically a goal that we set for ourselves food-wise, just like any other New Year's resolution but for food. They're simple "try xyz restaurant" or "try abc type of food" type of promises to ourselves to do this year. One that I added was one I've been talking about with M for a very long time now. I want to do a pastrami taste-off from as many places as we can. Obviously the big ones are on our list (Katz's, 2nd Ave, etc.) but I wanted to open it up to any and all pastrami. For instance, if we're in LA, maybe we'll try to make a stop over at Langer's.

The first entry in the taste-off is Mighty Quinn's Barbecue. We didn't intend to start here, but on MLK day we had just finished our Dominique Ansel eating extravaganza, and we needed some actual savory food for dinner. Mighty Quinn's was in the area, and they had a special that day for a smoked pastrami sandwich. It seemed as good a time as any to kick things off. The sandwich came piled high with pastrami and a generous squeeze of mustard. On the side you can get slaw, pickled onions, and pickles if you want, like all of their other BBQ dishes. We got all three because we love their free sides.


The sandwich was tasty, but I found the pastrami to be a bit on the dry side. Even the fattier portions were dry, and that was a bit disappointing. The spices were spot on, though, and the overall flavor was okay. M, on the other hand, really liked the pastrami because she prefers it to be less fatty and greasy, and there wasn't much fat at all, and she liked the smoked flavor. The one criticism she had was that the roll was supposed to be an onion roll (and she really likes onions), but no onion flavor came through at all.


Overall, this was a good first entry into our taste-off. The pastrami was a little too dry for my tastes (but not for M), but the sandwich and the general flavor of the meat were good. I'm definitely looking forward to continuing and actually finishing this challenge.

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