Zaftigs: A Review

"Is this too much meat? I will let you know after the first heartattack..." And so began my journey into the beast that is The New Yorker; not the sophisticated intellectual-aimed publication or a Yankee fan flipping you off at the bar, but a signature sandwich of Zaftig's Delicatessen on Harvard Ave in Brookline.

The sandwich menu here is a stunning lineup of simple deli favorites (tuna salad, salami, hot and cold corned beef) and their mouth-watering combinations. The one that caught my eye had the following description:

12 ounces of hot pastrami & corned beef, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on cissel served with half sour pickles, full sour pickles & sour tomato.

I ordered the New Yorker, my stomach growling for the combination of two of mankind's saltiest meats stacked together. I will admit I did not rationally consider what 12 oz of meat would look like, but the testesterone in me would not have let me backtrack anyway. When it arrived I stared in quiet awe. Two tiny slices of bread sat below and above two thinly sliced, pink rolling hills of meat. My hands squeezed the bread tightly in an attempt to hold the beef in place. They failed. Biting into it made things worse, as the slices of corned beef and pastrami tumbled to my plate, and smeared my face with Russian dressing. I alternated between this, and using my fork and knife to thin out the insides of the sandwich.

I was so overwhelmed by the mass of The New Yorker, it took digestion and 24 hours for me to think about it. After some thought, the Pro's and Con's...



Pro: Meat! Do you like thin-cut, melt-in-your-mouth, salty and peppery, high quality deli meat? That's what you are getting. And did I mention there is alot of it?! Also, it is simple: Meat, cheese and dressing on bread with pickles on the side.

Con: Hubris! The idea of that much meat could be supported by bread which was cut as thin as the pastrami, seems almost crazy. Choosing how to eat this became a challenge. I appreciate a good sandwich challenge, believe me, but the wizards in this deli either did not think it through, or were unsure about how they wanted people to eat it.


So if the carnivore in you is going crazy, looking to be satisfied by mountains of meat (with some bread) give this bad boy a spin.