Food review: Corned beef sandwich

Restaurant: Moishe's Pippic (San Francisco)
Food description: Hot corned beef sandwich on rye bread with spicy brown deli mustard and deli pickle
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

After being impressed by their pastrami, I put Moishe's corned beef to the test, as promised. The result? Good corned beef, as far as corned beef goes, but not nearly as tasty as the pastrami. The meat had flavor, but it was oh-so-boring and really relied on the mustard to help it do its job. The texture of the meat, however, was much much better than the pastrami, totally tender and no tough gristle to chew through. Very surprising, considering they are both made from the same brisket cut. I don't know, perhaps they are overcooking the pastrami or something? A simple mashup would solve everything: combining the texture of the corned beef with the flavor of the pastrami to create the Ultra Super Pastrami Deluxe. Oh yeah, wasn't I supposed to be talking about the corned beef? Well, there's not really much else to say, because why would I order this again when the pastrami was clearly better? Nuff said!! Oh actually, I heard they've got amazing beef brisket on Fridays only, so stay tuned for chapter 3...

Food review: Hot pastrami sandwich

Restaurant: Moishe's Pippic (San Francisco)
Food description: Hot pastrami sandwich on rye bread with spicy brown deli mustard and deli pickle
Food rating: 7 out of 10
Times ordered: 2

Updated 4/17/07
I gave another go at this sandwich, this time ordering the "fatty" version since the first time around was a little chewy. The fat definitely changed the flavor in a different-but-not-better way. I could see myself altering between the two versions equally depending on whether I'm feelin' East Coast or West Coast. The pastrami itself was exactly the same yumminess as before, thankfully. The extra fat mellowed out the flavor of the spices a little but also smoothed out the flavor in that way that good fat always does. I was hoping it would be a little more tender with the fat, but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately that's going to cost it a half point, netting out at a 7. Still very good, but I'm going to save those higher scores in the hopes that a better pastrami sandwich exists elsewhere in the foodiverse.

Original post from 2/24/07
Moishe's Pippic, what the f#@& is that? You mean Moses' bellybutton doesn't ring a bell? Sorry, I couldn't resist looking it up, but I can tell you what it translates to: an authentic Jewish Chicago deli with a kick-ass pastrami-on-rye sandwich. They use Vienna meat imported straight from Chicago, giving me a little taste of Chi-town right in my backyard. Loved the friendly staff and the homey kitschy decor too. But back to the sandwich: the bread was simple, soft, and fresh. The rye wasn't overpowering and not too seedy. The pastrami was very flavorful and not too garlicky or peppery, and was very lean, so it had some stringy tissue here and there. I didn't mind it so much because it tasted excellent. I heard you can order a fattier cut, which should take care of that. The mustard was spicy brown deli mustard, which I forgot how much I liked, and complemented the sandwich perfectly. Normally I require the presence of cheese on all my sandwiches, but I surprisingly did not miss the cheese at all in this case. The sandwich was light and felt healthy, and the pickle lived up to my expectations. Though it doesn't compare to Katz' Deli in NYC (no offense), it's still one of the best pastrami sandwiches I've had lately. Looking forward to checking out the corned beef next time.