Pastrami on Rye

Pastrami Reuben-Sherman’s Deli & Bakery, Palm Springs, CA

Most kids grow up with their parents prodding them to eat their vegetables. I grew up with my father trying to convince me that delectable dishes like gefilte fish and chopped liver were our “soul food”. I was about as receptive to eating a slimy patty of fish paste as I was to attending Hebrew school. But one part of my heritage that actually stuck was pastrami—and with good reason.

The pastrami reuben—a heaping pile of generously-seasoned brisket served on grilled rye bread with Swiss cheese and sauerkraut—is the holy grail of Jewish delicatessen. While the elderly folks of Palm Springs may have to remove their dentures to fix their lips around this iconic sandwich, the experience at Sherman’s is well-worth the effort.

The star of the show is obviously the pastrami—as you can tell by the real estate it occupies in the photo above. The meat is tender, as lean as beef needs to be, and wonderfully aromatic, with lots of black pepper and coriander brightening up the bovine decadence. The fixings are the perfect foil and really what make the sandwich such a ubiquitous menu item at deli’s across the country. The slab of Swiss cheese is the glue between the meat and the briny, pucker-inducing sauerkraut that cuts through the fattiness of the pastrami perfectly. With a sandwich like this, you’ll also want a side of pickles that could peal the paint off the walls. The rye bread—scattered with floral caraway seeds that are little fireworks of flavor—is the ideal vesicle for the mammoth caloric cargo load. To top it off, the Reuben comes with a cup of rich, creamy Russian dressing that I was shamelessly tongue punching by the end of the meal.

In this age of Uber Eats and fast-casual dining, traditional deli’s like Sherman’s are falling by the wayside. But few things have the nostalgic power to bring us back to better days like the foods of our forefathers. My normally-health-conscious aunt having a Meg Ryan-esque orgasm over the same sandwich certainly added to my delight. We all have a history that we can sink our teeth into, which may not make up for the 2,000 calories I just ingested, but it makes meals like this even more delicious and soulfully nutritious.