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Eating Sandwiches is Learning History at Brent's Deli
By Gerry Furth-Sides

While it's always reassuring to know you are being efficient when you eat the life-affirming Brent's food (one sandwich is the equivalent of packing in breakfast and lunch and dinner all at one time) imagine how happy I was to learn how much history there is in just one sandwich.

For starters, take the astonishing Monte Christo sandwich and the Black pastrami. I am always happy to do so.

The Monte Christo has been popular in small restaurants and diners across the country since it was first invented in Los Angeles in the 1960s. The "traditional" begins with deli ham and Swiss cheese, and the entire sandwich is then lightly dipped in egg batter and grilled. Just for good measure - and maybe its health benefits? - Brents adds turkey to the mix.

If you think this sandwich is outrageous, just remember that this tribute to Alexander Dumas' French novel, The Count of Monte Christo is an offshoot of the French sandwich, croque monsieur, which has the same ingredients and satisfies more senses than any gourmet dish.

But wait; there's more. Powdered sugar is sprinkled on top, joined by a ramekin of raspberry or strawberry jam on the plate.

Another popular and almost equally outlandish dish is also historic: the addictive Black Pastrami sandwich. For starters, pastrami traveled to America by way of Romania after being invented by the wild Turks centuries ago. Very lean dry cured beef is rubbed with a wet paste of spices, usually brine, brown sugar, garlic, black pepper, parsley, onion and cloves, and smoked.

It is then sliced thinly as possible to be packed as thickly as possible between two pieces of rye bread. If this is a trick to make the diner think it is less fat, so be it. A deli favorite from the first, its original preservative purpose has long been obsolete.

Like the goulyas (Hungarian cowboys who rode the plains and cooked the meat they stored under their saddle in kettles) it was tough Turkish horsemen who rode with the pastryma over the steppes and plains of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

For centuries, a spicy, smoked meat known as pastyrma in Turkey was made from Beef or camel meats. It was smoked, salted, dried, and covered with a paste of garlic, chilies, and other spices to preserve and flavor the meat. Horsemen carried the meat in special saddlebags. The pressure of the riders' legs and the motion of riding tenderized it and worked in the spices!

The resulting pastyrma (the name may be related to the Turkish word for 'pressed') was exceptionally tender and usually sliced thin and eaten on bread with eggs, tomatoes or in bean stew. This delicacy spread throughout the Near and Middle East and then to eastern Europe.

In the Romanian language, the word pastrami is actually a verb. You'd say, "On Tuesday, I'm going to "pastramo the meat," or "she would pastrama the meat" or the Romanians "pastrami" lamb, goat, and geese - You get the picture; the same verb conjugations as ancient Latin.

For the most part unknown outside of Eastern Europe until the late nineteenth century, pastrami was introduced to Americans because of a chance meeting.

In 1887 immigrant Mr. Sussman Volk, a former classy Lithuanian miller, now demoted to role of kosher butcher on New York's Delancey Street, determined his place in history when he stored the trunk of an immigrant acquaintance in exchange for a family pastrami recipe.

Mr. Volk's fell in love with the easy-care pastrami that required no refrigeration, selling it first as slabs and then between two slices of rye bread (look ma, no packaging!). A hit from the first, Volk was soon selling his pastrami as quickly as it could be made to customers from near and far.

Flash forward to mid 20th century and Ron Peskin, veteran deli counter man working for his uncles and at various delis in the valley. He and his wife bought a failing deli, debt and all, in Northridge called Brent's after an offer too good to refuse in 1969. They kept the name in honor of their son, Brent. "For eighteen months I never took a day off. I made every sandwich, I wanted every one to be perfect," said Ro, reminiscing.

Ron, eventually joined by his son Brent, daughter Carie, daughter-in-law Dori and son-in-law Marc, helped grow the deli into the #1 delicatessen in the nation, most recently in Westlake Village. (www.brentsdeli.com.) I raise a pickle in praise.

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