Calling for a Good Jewish Deli on the SouthCoast

In the early 1960s, Greek immigrants to Salt Lake City, Utah, introduced a premium cheeseburger made perfect by heaping fresh, melt-in-your-mouth pastrami on top and finishing it with a special secret sauce. That pastrami cheeseburger has since remained the most popular, must-have belly pleaser of local burger chains.

A choice Jewish deli, featuring hot pastrami, corned beef and brisket, is one of the missing links in the growing local lineup of unique restaurants on the SouthCoast.

Like when you step inside Katz's Delicatessen or Pastrami Queen in New York City, the aroma of the meats, the half sour pickles, nova lox, mini latkes, matzoh ball soup, deli rye bread and homemade pastrami hash, is breathtaking. I love everything our kids used to make dispassionate faces at, like tongue, whitefish salad and kishka.

What's kishka? It's delicious stuffed derma that's encased inside of something very similar to a sausage's casing. A true one-of-a-kind, Old World delicacy, reminiscent of Thanksgiving Day turkey stuffing.

Katz's Delicatessen, on the Lower East Side, is an institution for foodies and is also famous for being the set of the "I'll have what she's having" scene in When Harry Met Sally.

To think, the tasty, over-overstuffed sandwich of pastrami, corned beef or brisket is part of what helped the Jewish immigrants assimilate in the United States. In a real sense, the delicatessen is where the children of immigrants became American.

Even though Katz's can claim to have "simply the best pastrami sandwich on the planet," word would spread quickly if there was to be an authentic Jewish deli in or around New Bedford.