Can you identify a cold cut by sight alone, or will your wits be spoiled? Check out these lunch meats and test your sandwich smarts!

The day of all things green was upon us this week, so in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to give you some Corned Beef Brisket foodie flick goodness, courtesy of Pioneer Living.

Corned beef is a brisket or similar cut of beef cured or pickled in brine before it is cooked. The "corn" title comes from the corn-sized salt that is used to cure it.

Unfortunately, there is no instant satisfaction for this recipe. The long, 3-week curing process means you might want to tackle it next year. But there is just enough time to whip this up for Easter, or any time you're jonesing for beef prepared in a different way. The recipe requires minimum effort on your part, and even better, as Sarah points out, two briskets mean you can cure one for corn beef and one for pastrami (if you have the means to smoke it) at the same time.

Why? Because I said so, that's why.

Actually, it's National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day! Further proof that there's a holiday for every food (for the record, yesterday was National Peach Melba Day). Here's Emeril's Favorite Pastrami Sandwich recipe, and here's one for a Turkey Pastrami Roll. How about some Fried Pastrami?

New York City's Carnegie Deli will honor talk show host Jerry Springer by naming a sandwich after him. The deli, which is equally famous for its corned beef as well its  gruff waiters, will christen the sandwich tomorrow at 2:00PM. Customers may even have a chance to be served by the man himself.

There's no word as to the ingredients of the new sandwich. One thing's for sure - there won't be "lotsa corned beef plus lotsa pastrami." That artery-clogging combo comprises a  gutbomb called the "Woody  Allen." Geez, Woody must have one hell of a metabolism.

What do you think the "Jerry Springer" sandwich would contain?

I am doing a beef sandwich study in Los Angeles, which was basically motivated by the Italian Beef I had at Mr. Beef in Chicago. Now I know I'm not going to get the same Italian beef with giardiniera here in LA, but there are still a few places that are well-known for other types of beefy sandwiches - French dip, corned beef, and pastrami.

In the WWF (World Wide Food) Smackdown between Mr. Beef and the French Dip at Philippe's in Los Angeles, the Italian Beef won. Now I am moving on to pastrami because truth be told, I used to eat hot pastrami sandwiches all the time when I was little and my Mom would ask me to sit quietly reading in the clubhouse deli while she played tennis with her friends.

Langer's Deli is in a sketchy part of LA, which probably explains why they don't stay open past 4:00 PM. The interior looks just like an old-school diner, but in 1980s Denny's colors - brown, yellow, and orange. I didn't see a hot pastrami Reuben on the menu, so I asked them to add Swiss cheese and sauerkraut to their standard hot pastrami, with a side of Russian dressing. The sandwich was a little more than $10.

The sandwich was pretty thick, but it wasn't necessarily stacked high from the pastrami. They put a lot of sauerkraut, and though I love me a sour pickled cabbage (uh, hello? kimchee?), the amount of kraut was a little overwhelming. The pastrami was good, but much fattier than I am used to, and I'm not afraid of fatty pastrami. Overall, the sandwich was fine, but I doubt I'd risk my sanity by going back (I didn't feel very safe walking fromthe parking lot to the restaurant).

Next on the roll call: Johnnie's Pastrami (Culver City), and The Hat (San Gabriel Valley).

Langer's Deli
704 S. Alvarado Street (@ 7th)
Los Angeles, CA 90057
(213) 483-8050