Ask

You know, it isn't even that far from me. I can drive there in a half hour.

But I'd still pick it over some of the fancier places I've been.

Reason being, they have the best Reuben I've ever had. Better than my own, and that's saying a lot. My Reubens are amazing.

But this deli, and finding any deli out here in the south, in the mountains, that's pulling teeth to begin with.

But this place makes their own corned beef, sources their cheese well, makes their own kraut, has the bread made locally, and just throws some kind of magic on it all. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

They do chopped corned beef, that they then lightly cook on the griddle while the bread toasts on the side with the cheese melting. Then the beef goes on the other side, they scoop on the kraut, letting the juices run freely. The the dressing and the sandwich gets closed, then moved across the griddle, picking up hints of the kraut juice and the fats from the beef.

And they don't fuck around. The damn things are dummy thick. Something like a third pound of corned beef, a cup or so of kraut.

Then, they cut this gorgeous fucking monster in half, and put it in a paper lined basket with a giant fucking pickle cut into spears right in front of you.

This is the kind of sandwich you make love to, gently, over an hour or so. This ain't something you shove in your mouth and run back to school or work. You know the itis is going to hit before the first half is finished, and you may need to just pack the second half up and go home, defeated but satisfied. But, if you planned ahead and didn't eat, and you have time to address this beauty slowly, every bite just gets better as you go.

It's the perfect Reuben, which is already one of the "perfect" sandwiches to begin with.

Like, my Reuben is fucking bomb. I've crafted my way of making one over decades, and it is amazing, but I'm limited by ingredients. I don't have the level of experience, or the room, to properly make the corned beef or kraut myself, so I can only use what I can buy. Now, I can source the cheese well, and my cousin is the source for that deli, and my own source. I make my own dressing, and I kill that. I can make bread better than what they get, though that's only been the last seven years or so.

But man, the synergy they have, and the way they cook it on the griddle, I just can't match at all. The technique, the timing, with that corned beef and kraut? I could jizz my pants just thinking about it.