"reuben" news and stories

The season is changing, so how about trying a new variation on something old? The Reuben is a favorite and it inspired the following sandwich. Now, this isn't entry level finger food -- it's vegan, a bit sloppy, and most kids won't like it.

Ingredients:

• 1 cake extra firm tofu
• 1 cup sweet teriyaki marinade
• 2 tablespoons vegan mayo. I use nayonaise but any will do, probably even canola mayo
• 1 tablespoon relish
• 1 tablespoon hot pesto or chutney
• 1 small yellow squash (which is widely available this time of year)
• 2 slices light rye bread

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Normally when I write about a gigantic Guinness-worthy food item I have some confirmation. In this case I don't. As a matter of fact, I don't even have a photo of the freakish food in question. So, imagine the sandwich pictured here much, much larger. Good, now picture it even bigger!

I'm pretty confident that the near 300-pound, four-foot-by-five-foot reuben was that was laid out for St. Pat's partiers at a Milwaukee bar last night is one for the books. One hundred pounds of corned beef, 40 pounds of swiss, 80 pounds of sauerkraut and three gallons of thousand island dressing went into the nearly 300-pound creation. What I want to know is what did they cook it on? And just how many pounds Tums were consumed afterwards?

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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