Pastrami at Katz and immigration
You see that? Now if you saw that in Arizona, you could prolly be like, "Oh shit, you don't look American, show me some fucking papers." That new law is exactly that random to me. That building don't look right. Duh, it's illegal. My skin don't look right. Duh, it's illegal. I mean, WTF?! Here I am, all feeling Chinky and American and New Yorker-ish, brimming with anticipation to write about some seriously awesome pastrami... and on the other end of the country, some cop could stop me as I'm chewing a deliciously fatty piece of pastrami and ask me for papers. It boggles my mind.
As far as politics and semantics go, we have to be really careful about what we label as 'illegal' because if something is illegal and we still do it, why is it illegal in the first place? I went to high school in a state where sodomy was illegal. But I mean, you get a bunch of upper-middle class white kids, what do you think they're doing besides sucking each other off in a daddy-bought Lexus? (Wow, did I really just say sucking off in a food blog?) I say all this just to note that it's understandable that people don't know how to approach the word 'illegal'.
As a country we might struggle with the word illegal, and in the food world we even struggle sometime with the word 'delicious'. The trustworthiness of any individual claim is highly variable, but I challenge someone to really find the pastrami at Katz to be anything but delicious.
The fatty, peppery goodness of their pastrami just takes you out of your seat. One minute you're sitting in a packed dining room with walls full of pictures, and the next minute you're lost in how deliciously happy your tongue feels. The sensations of the moist goodness can only be better described by the aforementioned teens in upper-middle class high schools.
I'm glad to be back in New York, to be eating food that identifies strongly with the city, with its people (both legal and illegal).
Katz's Delicatessen
205 E Houston St.
New York, NY 10002
212-254-2246
I also adore Katz's pastrami, and I'm so happy New York doesn't have an insane law like Arizona.
Meredith
May 4, 2010 12:29 pm
Sucking off?
I would think that would show up quite often in a food blog. I mean, I'm you could be found sucking off the meat from a juicy chicken drum stick. Because if I know you, there's nothing you like more then sucking off hot juicy stick meat.
Jon
April 29, 2010 11:07 am
I'm confused. There *is* such a thing as an illegal immigrant--someone who has entered the country illegally, without proper registration, etc. And much of this huge category of people are using USA resources, etc., without ever paying a cent in taxes, etc.--taking from the system without paying their fair share into it. Are you saying this is all well and good? I'm not saying that the situation in AZ is optimal, but there are illegal immigrants here (I'm afraid to even guess how many) and something has to be done at some point. Maybe this issue will now begin to be addressed in a rational but proactive way at the national level.
Katz's pastrami--yum!
drmoze
April 29, 2010 11:38 am
@bionicgrrrl,
OH yes the portions! Those sandwiches are simply monstrous. I don't know how one could eat desserts after tackling a whole sandwich. Pretty insane.
@Rob,
Definitely right about the black and white cookie. There's much that we can learn in life if we just look to food sometimes. It's often not so complicated.
@Ang,
I don't understand their paying system either. They could just as easily have the cashier at the end of the line where you get food...
@Jon,
You know me too well!
@moze,
There is such a thing as illegal immigration since we have laws that define it. But you know, all this done under the auspice of protecting our borders is kinda ludicrous since if someone wanted to fly a plane into a giant building, they don't even need to cross the border. Plus, it's not like illegal immigrants come cross the border just to use our hospitals or something and then go home and tan on the beach. The ones that stay find productivity somehow.
Danny
April 29, 2010 11:55 am
Dude there's not much more to say about the ignorance in AZ that hasn't already been said. As the son of Mexican immigrants AND a lawyer-in-the-making, it's so many levels of bullshit, a small step away Jimenez Crow laws, and generic bullshit. I've also recently moved away from the love of the tri-state to the South, and although people here aren't stereotypical rednecks, the few that ruin it for everyone else use these type of legal fallacies to justify their bigotry. It's a shame that we can't learn from history, or even attempt to objectively look at numbers and the real sources of problems, but I won't spam up your lovely blog with a large dissertation on stupidity in America. Instead, I'll paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, a beloved New Yorker Jr. Foodie (who apparently did comedy and had a show...?), who said that we should look to the white/black cookie to solve the race problems of the world.
If a cookie can live in flavor harmony, why can't we?
Rob
April 28, 2010 11:25 pm
Katz is great but its paying system is a bit odd.
As for AZ... WTF? Makes me feel like we live in the freaking Twilight Zone. It also makes me not want to go there.
Ang
April 29, 2010 12:07 am
Don't worry Dan, if a cop pulls over a beat up old van with Mexican plates and he opens the back to find 17 blonde haired, blue eyed people with thick German accents and dirty hands from picking lettuce all day... he now has the reasonable right to ask if they are here legally.
It's called protecting ones borders and it's about effing time
f650gsd
April 28, 2010 3:43 pm
@James,
A time machine would also be useful to try pizza way back when... damn now I want some pizza!
@wonders,
Y'all were there just a day after I was! It was so packed on Saturday even though we managed to snag two seats. The bread gets soaked up in the juices and it's so good!
@Zach,
Making sense?! I can't do that!!!
Danny
April 28, 2010 3:57 pm
I love the pastrami at Katz's! Love the seasonings and love the portions! For those who can, on the weekdays there's hardly a crowd. Oh, and welcome back!
bionicgrrrl
April 28, 2010 8:29 pm
Interesting tangent - now that I think about it, the thread between egregious use of "illegal" and egregious judgment of food can be traced to a bizarre sense of entitlement...
In any case, Katz's pastrami is so fucking good that it just might be illegal. This is one of those meals that makes me wish I had a time machine, so I could jump back a few decades and eat pastrami all over the city, seeing how the essence of the food has held up over the years.
James
April 28, 2010 11:35 am
We took a friend to Katz's on Sunday, it was packed but so worth it. The bf prefers the corned beef but the pastrami is so melt in your mouth delicious! I tend to eat it sans bread...I don't like that the bread sticks to your teeth when you take a bite. The cole slaw was good too, a little too saucy but still good. I always make the mistake of getting the $2.50 dr. browns sodas. Next time, I'm bringing my own water.
wonders
April 28, 2010 11:51 am
Hmmm... it might have made more sense to say that if the people in Arizona had been around in NYC in the early part of the last century, Jews would have been sent home and there'd be no places like Katz's in the LES!
Zach
April 28, 2010 2:36 pm