Soups and Stews – Page 2 – The Saboscrivner

Selam Ethiopian and Eritrean Cuisine

A while back, I went to a Transformers convention here in Orlando with one of my closest friends. We went to high school together in Miami, and he was in town for the show, visiting from Tampa. He is a vegetarian, so afterwards, I suggested lunch at Selam Ethiopian and Eritrean Cuisine (https://www.ethiopianrestaurantorlando.com/), located at 5494 Central Florida Parkway in Orlando, just off International Drive and close to the Sea World theme park. I’ve only ever had Ethiopian food once before, a long time ago, at Orlando’s only other Ethiopian restaurant, Nile, which I need to get back to. But I had been hearing great things about Selam for years (including a Michelin recommendation), and it lived up to every bit of hype.

We started our epic lunch by sharing this order of two lentil samosas, fried to perfection in their thin, crispy shells. These were flatter triangles than the pyramid-like Indian samosas most of us are probably used to, with lighter, thinner shells that were more like spring roll wrappers than the empanada-like exteriors of Indian samosas. They were stuffed with a blend of lentils (a legume I love), onions, jalapenos, and herbs. Selam also offers samosas with minced beef or chicken, as an alternative to these vegetarian ones. The chunky hot sauce was absolutely delicious. I’d say it had a medium-hot spice level, so too much for my wife, parents, and in-laws, but not hot enough to make people run to the bathroom or beg for a glass of milk.

We each ordered lunch combination platters that are served on injera, which is a thin, sourdough-based bread that you rip apart with your hand and use it to scoop up or dip into various stewed meats and vegetables. It’s a similar concept to Turkish lavas bread and Indian naan, but the injera is much thinner, more like a crepe or a very thin pancake, and almost spongey in consistency. I’m always a little surprised Ethiopian food hasn’t caught on more as a mainstream cuisine, because Americans do love dipping things into other things. Be prepared to scoop and dip, because there are no utensils! The cuisine offers some of the most delicious vegetarian dishes I’ve ever tasted, and I say that as a committed omnivore.

This was my meat combination platter, which included four different meats. The green vegetables on the left are gomen besiga, a dish of sautéed collard greens with beef, ginger, garlic, onions, and jalapenos. I am a huge fan of collard greens, even though I didn’t grow up eating them, but now I am delighted to try every version I can, usually on barbecue and soul food menus. But these were like nothing else. To the right of the greens is ye beg wot, chunks of lamb stewed with onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. I love lamb and stewed meats in general, and that had so much flavor. The redder chunks of meat in the middle are beef wot, a similar stew made with beef that was a little spicier. (If I mixed up the lamb wot and beef wot, I apologize to everyone!) The dark red dish on the right with the hard-boiled egg (a pleasant surprise) is doro wot, a spicy chicken stew flavored by seasoned butter called niter kibbeh and a pretty spicy spice blend called berbere. After this meal, I bought a little thing of berbere at Penzey’s Spices, and I need to experiment with it more. That is homemade cottage cheese in the top right. I loved everything. I’m always excited to explore a new cuisine, and whenever a restaurant offers some kind of combo to let me sample multiple dishes and flavors, I will take that opportunity.

My friend did the same thing by ordering the vegetarian combination platter. That’s a little side salad on the left, followed by ye timatim fitfit, which is the injera bread chopped up and sauteed with fresh tomatoes, green chilies, onions, garlic, and herbs. It was cool to see how versatile the injera is, and kind of a meta thing to use the flat injera to scoop it up with, like dunking Oreos into cookies and cream ice cream. The next one over, the yellow-orange dish, is ye kik alicha wot, which is mild split peas stewed with onion, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. After that, the dark red is ye misir wot, with pureed split red lentils simmered in chopped onions, garlic, ginger, vegetable oil, and berbere sauce, so it was spicier than the split peas next to it. Next up is atakilt (vegetable) wot with the most delicious potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions, cabbage, and ginger, all stewed together. Finally, the vegetarian combo platter had ye gomen (collard green) wot on the right side, which was probably similar to my gomen besiga, only with no beef in this one.

My friend, who is always a generous guy, let me sample all of those, and I have to say that as tasty as my meats were, and how exciting it was to try all those unfamiliar flavors, the vegetarian combo blew them away with depths of flavor. If I was skilled enough to cook Ethiopian and Indian recipes well, I could probably go vegetarian, or at least eat vegetarian more often than I do, which is not as often as I should. But I recommend this highly to everyone, whether you eat meat or not, to demonstrate the absolute wonders and miracles you can achieve with vegetables and spices.

In fact, two years before I published this review, I listed Selam’s vegetarian combination platter in Top Tastes, where I listed my favorite local restaurant dishes of 2023 in Orlando Weekly, back when I was writing those every year. (Somehow we skipped 2024, and who knows what’s going to happen this year.)

I hardly ever drink coffee, but if you go to an Ethiopian restaurant, it almost feels like a necessity to do the traditional coffee ceremony, so we did. While I don’t pretend to be a coffee connoisseur, this was really delicious and strong coffee, with a depth of flavor I never notice in plain black American-style coffee. That said, I’ve never been into plain black coffee, and here at Selam, I needed some sugar in mine to mellow it out.

While this meal goes back a while, I remember it like it was yesterday. I kept holding off on publishing this review because I was hoping to return, ideally with other friends to try other dishes. Unfortunately, it is far from home, and Ethiopian food is a hard sell for most people I know (including my wife, who was brave enough to try it with me that one other time, 16 years ago, but it wasn’t her thing). But I give Selam my highest possible recommendation, whether you are familiar with the cuisine or completely uninitiated and a little intimidated. Don’t be intimidated! Everything was a hit, and it’s FUN. It would actually be a fun place to take a date, because you eat with one hand, which is kind of sensuous, and you share everything. But if any of my friends ever want to go to there on a weekend, I’m your huckleberry!

Lim Ros Thai Cuisine

Lim Ros (https://limrosthairestaurant.com/) is a new Thai restaurant in Maitland that opened in the fall of 2024. According to the website, “Lim Ros” means “to taste” in Thai, and there is plenty to taste on the menu. It is located on the bottom floor of a fancy-looking apartment building on the corner of State Road 17-92 (aka Orlando Avenue, which turns into Mills Avenue as you head south) and Lake Avenue. The interior of Lim Ros is modern, spacious, and upscale, with high ceilings and lots of natural light that make the dining room look even larger. When we went for lunch a few weeks back, it wasn’t very busy, but I imagine it is poppin’ on Friday and Saturday nights.

My wife started her meal with a Thai iced tea, as she will at any Thai restaurant. This one was sweet, creamy, slightly smoky, and refreshing, as they should be.

She also started with an order of summer rolls, her go-to appetizer at any Vietnamese restaurant we visit, so she wanted to try them on a Thai menu. The soft rice paper wrappers held massive amounts of finely shredded lettuce, chewy rice vermicelli noodles, julienned carrots and cucumbers, Thai basil, and shrimp , but vegetarians and folks who keep kosher can also order them with tofu instead of shrimp. That is peanut sauce on the top, even though it looks like it could have been cocktail sauce.

I’m not a big summer roll guy, but she insisted I try half of one, and these were a lot more substantial than the usual summer rolls at Vietnamese restaurants. Thicker. Girthier, if you will. Okay, that’s enough of that.

After being introduced to life-changing larb last year at Isan Zaap Thai Cafe, my favorite Thai restaurant in Orlando, I decided to try the larb gai here at Lim Ros. It is a spicy, tangy, refreshing, cool salad made with ground chicken and various crunchy vegetables and fresh herbs: carrots, red onion, cilantro, mint, kaffir lime leaves, roasted rice powder, and served with cucumber slices for scooping and crisp iceberg lettuce leaves for making lettuce wraps. Dig this gorgeous plating:

I must admit I preferred the taste and texture of the larb at Isan Zaap, which was made with ground pork and pork liver, as opposed to the ground chicken in this larb gai. This one also seemed to have a lot of funkiness from fish sauce. Trying to roll up some larb gai lettuce wraps was a messy business, and my fingers smelled like fish sauce for a day or two after this meal.

For entrees, we both ordered off the lunch menu, which has some nice specials. Everything comes with a house seaweed soup and a crispy fried spring roll, so you get a filling meal with a couple bonus items for less than the price on the regular menu.

My wife defaulted to pad Thai, a safe choice for her because she isn’t into spicy food at all. If the classic dish of rice noodles, eggs, bean sprouts, chives, peanuts, and pork sounds basic or unadventurous, I would disagree, because every restaurant’s pad Thai is different, and a truly great one can be a monumental discovery. She said this one was just okay. I tasted it, and she agreed with my criticism, that it lacked the acidic tang from citrus it needed to achieve perfect balance. To be fair, that is my biggest complaint about most versions of pad Thai that I try.

Since my go-to Thai dish, drunken noodles, wasn’t on either menu at Lim Ros, I decided to try something totally new (to me): Panang curry. Here is the whole lunch platter:

This is the actual Panang curry, with Thai eggplant, Thai basil, kaffir lime leaf, chili, and pork (which I chose, but you can also choose chicken, tofu, or vegetables, or beef or shrimp for a $2 upcharge). I wanted something spicy, and I would have to describe it as “medium hot,” but next time I will challenge myself with “Thai hot.” I added all my rice to the bowl of curry and mixed it all up, so that alone dampened the heat level.
I was surprised that the Thai eggplants were little, round, and green, not at all like the huge purple-black eggplants all of us are used to. They looked like tiny round watermelons on the outside, and they had a texture similar to zucchini.

This was the house seaweed soup, which reminded me a lot of the standard miso soup served in Japanese restaurants, but with a delicious “roasted” flavor from the seaweed. Umami? Maybe your mommy. There were tiny little white tofu cubes in there, along with all the seaweed, carrot, onions, and scallions. It was a very nice soup, and it reminded me that I never order Thai soups, but I should branch out.

And the spring roll was a standard spring roll — no big surprises there — but you can’t go wrong with a spring roll! I took the shredded cabbage and carrots home, mixed in with most of my larb gai, so I had a whole meal for the following day.

We both thought Lim Ros was perfectly fine, but there are other Thai restaurants we like more, including another recent discovery I will be reviewing soon, so watch this space. It’s a very nice restaurant and would probably be great for a date, a business lunch, or for bringing family and friends who are unfamiliar with Thai food and nervous about trying it. If you want Thai and you’re already in Maitland or surrounding Fern Park to the north or Winter Park to the south, you can’t go wrong. However, the next time my wife and I are craving Thai, I might drive farther in other directions.

Walala Asian Noodle House

Earlier this year, I met two foodie friends at a relatively new restaurant in Orlando’s “Chinatown,” a huge plaza in Pine Hills on West Colonial Drive that is absolutely full of Asian-owned restaurants and other businesses, including Enson, a sprawling supermarket. I’ve eaten at a few places in the Chinatown plaza and reviewed two of them, both of which have since closed. But one that I know isn’t going anywhere anytime soon is Walala Asian Noodle House (https://walalaasiannoodlehouse.toast.site/), specializing in hand-pulled noodles in rich, beef-based soups from Lanzhou, China. The noodles are called lamian, the term that gave us both Chinese lo mein and Japanese ramen. Don’tcha love etymology?

Back in 2023, I visited and reviewed Mr. J’s Hand-Pulled Noodle in Ocoee, but I really preferred my meal at Walala. Not only was it a lot closer to home, but everything had more flavor. Of course, it helped that I went with two friends, and we shared everything. That said, we all ended up with the same kind of long, thin lamien noodles, even though Walala also offers Japanese ramen (but there are so many good places for ramen already, especially my favorite, Ramen Takagi), Hunan-style rice noodles (which we all thought might be too similar to the familiar noodles in pho), hor fun noodles (I’m assuming wide, flat noodles like in beef chow fun or ho fun, even though hor fun cracked us all up), and they added knife-cut noodles to the menu after our visit.

It was my choice to start with a tea-infused boiled egg for each of us. I know, I know, in this economy? But before eggs became a luxury good, I was experimenting with pickling eggs with different combinations of vinegar, herbs, spices, and other seasonings, and I enjoyed similar tea eggs at Mr. J’s. (Anyone else reading that in the late Arleen Sorkin’s voice? Seriously? Just me?) Just like at Mistah J’s, we had to peel the eggs ourselves, but these came pre-cracked:

Due to the cracks, they took on beautiful patterns from the tea infusion process:

We shared an order of rich, chewy pig ear slices tossed with spicy chili oil and fresh herbs, including lots of fresh, bright-tasting cilantro. This is probably better than you are thinking. They were cartilicious!

One of my friends got braised beef boneless short rib soup with the hand-pulled noodles. I was tempted by it, because I love any braised meats and especially short ribs, but she let me try a piece, and it was an excellent choice.

Another friend, much more familiar with Lanzhou cuisine than the rest of us, ordered braised honeycomb tripe soup with the same hand-pulled noodles. I enjoy some unpopular organ meats (give me all the liver, beef tongue, beef tendon, and chicken hearts you have!), but I’ve never developed a big appreciation for tripe, despite all the times it has ended up in my pho and I still eat it. It’s a texture thing, but this tripe looked a lot different from the style most Vietnamese restaurants add to pho.

I ended up getting the large sliced beef shank noodle soup because I love lamb shanks so much, and because this one also came with beef skewers on the side. I couldn’t pass that up! The meat was very tender, the broth was a little spicy and very unctuous from all the meat (including bones and fat), and the noodles were nice and springy and chewy. Totally different consistency from Italian pasta or the rice noodles in pho.

Why didn’t at least one of us order a different kind of noodle? The world will never know. (But they also offer rice noodles and ramen, although you can get good-to-great ramen at so many other places.)

Anyway, Walala does something I’ve never seen a restaurant do before. If you eat all your noodles but still have a lot of soup left, they will bring you another order of plain noodles to add back into your soup, and it’s free! It almost sounded too good to be true, but two of us tested it.

And here are the heavily seasoned, slightly spicy skewers of slightly chewy beef. These are individual cubes, not whole pieces, so it was very easy for us to share.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try the Chinese pickles, but there are so many interesting things on the menu, including new knife-cut noodles they didn’t have on my initial visit (wider and flatter noodles, essentially shaved off the block of dough straight into boiling water, so they end up with beautiful fluted edges), a return trip can be easily justified.

So that’s Walala, although you’re probably hearing A LOT more about it, since it just received a prestigious Michelin recommendation at the recent ceremony last month. I personally have more faith in my own taste and that of my friends, acquaintances, and mutual followers than a non-transparent process and anonymous reviewers from a tire company, but I am still thrilled for Walala and all the other local Michelin award recipients (see my recent reviews for others). Regardless of my own skepticism and misgivings, those awards will drive more business their way, and I don’t begrudge that to anyone. It’s one of the most unique Chinese restaurants in Orlando, and especially if you love noodles like I do, you must get over there as soon as possible.

An Vi

As all Orlando residents know, the vast majority of our Vietnamese restaurants are mostly located together in the Mills 50 district, centered around East Colonial Drive and Mills Avenue, east of downtown Orlando. There are a few more in Orlando’s Chinatown, centered in Pine Hills on West Colonial Drive, west of downtown. A few Vietnamese restaurants have come and gone in the Seminole County suburbs, closer to where The Saboscrivner lives, but they are never fantastic, and they rarely last. So when An Vi (https://www.anvirestaurant.com/) opened relatively close to home in Casselberry (I think in 2023), we hoped for the best. I am pleased to say it did not disappoint after two visits — one for takeout and the second for dining in. Chef-owner Joseph Nguyen and his wife-partner Rose Nguyen opened An Vi after running two Vietnamese restaurants in Seattle, and my favorite city’s loss is our gain.

For our first takeout order, my wife requested lemongrass tofu with rice vermicelli noodles (bun). I didn’t try any, but she loved it.

We ordered shrimp pad Thai noodles to share, since we hadn’t had pad Thai in a long time, and it always hits the spot, even from a Vietnamese restaurant. Especially from this Vietnamese restaurant. I love it when the pad Thai is a little bit tangy, even approaching sour, and An Vi nailed it. Some places make it too sweet, without that acidic tang to balance it out.

We also shared an order of gumbo, that Cajun stew that usually contains shrimp, chicken, andouille sausage, and the “trinity” of onions, celery, and green bell peppers, served in a rich roux thickened with okra and ladled over white rice. If getting gumbo at a Vietnamese restaurant sounds even weirder than getting pad Thai at a Vietnamese restaurant, consider that many Vietnamese immigrants settled along the Gulf Coast in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and there is a wonderful culinary fusion cuisine called Viet-Cajun. (King Cajun Crawfish is one of several Viet-Cajun restaurants around Orlando that serves this style).
My wife and I both adore good gumbo (although I like mine much spicier than she does), and An Vi’s version did not disappoint either of us.

I am famous for my love of sandwiches, especially banh mi, the Vietnamese sub sandwich that is a product of French colonialism. While the menu teased a ribeye French dip banh mi that sounded amazing, I was told it is no longer available. I chose my standard, a house special pork banh mi, with a few different pork-based cold cuts, pickled carrot and daikon radish, and fresh cilantro and jalapeno peppers served cold on fresh, crusty French bread. It is a surprisingly light and refreshing sandwich, compared to the heavy gut-bomb Italian hoagies and Jewish deli monoliths-on-rye I love so much. I usually like a lot of mayonnaise (usually Kewpie brand) and pork liver pate on my banh mi, but I didn’t notice any on this particular sandwich.

Despite being a bit dry as a result, it was generously stuffed with the various meats and vegetables.

About a month later, we were both hungry on a Friday night and climbing the walls after working from home (and eating at home) all week. I took my wife to dinner at An Vi, since it is so close, and we knew we would get seated and served quickly. My wife always loves summer rolls with peanut sauce at any Vietnamese restaurant, but we almost didn’t order these, since they were called “fresh rolls” (also known as goi cuon) on An Vi’s menu. But when we saw them being walked out to another table, we asked, and she was glad we did.

She ordered a house special vermicelli platter that came with a lot of neat meats in addition to the rice vermicelli, but she didn’t love all of them. Luckily, I did.

It included grilled beef, chicken, and pork sausage skewers, all with a slightly sweet, tangy, and funky flavor from being brushed with fish sauce. There was also sugarcane shrimp, with ground shrimp brushed with fish sauce and reformed around a length of sugarcane before being grilled, and a fried spring roll stuffed with pork. While she liked the vermicelli and all the crushed peanuts, I think the funky fish sauce flavor turned her off these grilled meats, so I happily devoured them. I think I’ll order this exact dish for myself on our next visit to An Vi.

I had a feeling she might not love all those unique meats, so I ordered a fried catfish banh mi sandwich because I wanted to try it, but also because I know my wife always loves fried catfish and might end up preferring it. I was right — it was good, and she loved it. This banh mi almost reminded me more of a New Orleans-style po’ boy sandwich, the way it was dressed without the traditional butter, pate, or pickled vegetables. The side of Cajun fries really hit the spot too.

Since Pho Huong Lan is my absolute, accept-no-substitutes favorite restaurant for pho, I tried the bun bo hue at An Vi instead of pho. Labeled as Hue’s spicy beef soup on the menu, it was warm and refreshing, spicy without being overwhelmingly so. I was so glad I had the foresight to wear an expendable shirt for all the inevitable splashing of the oily orange broth.It was good, but the bun bo hue at Pho Huong Lan still wins.

I ordered a side of French bread (the same bread they use for the banh mi) for dipping in the rich, spicy broth and for eating plain to cut the heat.

I hope An Vi makes it in Casselberry, where too many good restaurants that are considered “exotic” don’t last. While our first impulse when we crave Vietnamese food is still to schlep down to Mills 50, I am glad An Vi is so close to us, and I’m sure we will be ordering plenty of takeout over the cooler months ahead.

The Bayou Kitchen and Lounge

The Bayou Kitchen and Lounge (https://thebayouorlando.com/) is a New Orleans-style restaurant in Longwood, Florida. I loooove Creole, Cajun, and New Orleans-style food, all tracing back to the four trips I got to take to New Orleans between 1998 and 2001, as a young lad obsessed with music and food. Sadly, our options here in Orlando are somewhat limited to Tibby’s and Vietnamese-Cajun places like King Cajun Crawfish. (I still remember the long-gone Crooked Bayou in downtown Orlando and Jockamo’s way out on Sand Lake Road and John Young Parkway!) So needless to say, I was excited when The Bayou opened, and even more excited to read good reviews.

I recently made it over there on a weekend for lunch with my wife, and we were joined by one of her old and dear friends. My wife and her friend both ordered cups of gumbo, which looked more like bowls to me. (A lot of restaurants will give you a really puny cup, but not The Bayou!) It comes with a scoop of white rice in the rich stew, but my wife’s friend asked for hers with no rice, and this was the better photo of the two of them. The gumbo wasn’t very spicy (at least I didn’t think so), but it was loaded with chicken, shrimp, crawfish, andouille sausage, and both bowls came with a small crab leg sticking out, for dramatic effect. (We ended up taking both crab legs home, along with a bunch of other leftovers, where I cracked them open for myself. There wasn’t much meat, but I often think that even larger crab legs are more trouble than they’re worth.)

After becoming a huge fan of charbroiled oysters at one of my favorite Orlando restaurants, High Tide Harry’s, I thought I was being a cool, sophisticated guy by ordering charbroiled oysters for the table. However, I ended up eating almost all of them myself. I guess I can’t complain, even though I really did order them to share.
These were pretty big oysters on the half shell, fully cooked and covered with sizzling garlic herb butter and parmesan cheese, served with slices of toasted French bread dabbed with even more garlic herb butter. Not exactly health food!

Here’s an extreme close-up of one of the oysters. Was it delicious? Yes, of course it was! Enough garlic butter makes anything delicious. But it reminded me how much I prefer my oysters raw and chilled, with maybe just a tiny bit of mignonette. The Bayou doesn’t serve raw oysters, but they are so refreshing that way, and so heavy this way!

Our friend ordered a fried oyster po’ boy sandwich (the Bayou’s menu calls them “poboyz,” which I do not love) with a side of fried okra, and she seemed to really like it. I was impressed that they bring in French bread from the Leidenheimer Baking Company in New Orleans, which is the best-known and most beloved po’ boy roll out there. Unfortunately, the menu calls it “Linenheimer,” but I knew what they meant.

I couldn’t resist a po’ boy either, especially since they had the authentic rolls. I got a combination of fried oysters and fried crawfish, which you are allowed to do. The po’ boys come dressed with shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and pickles, and creamy, tangy remoulade sauce, as they should. I got house-made potato chips as my side.

But I also got a side of onion rings, because I am The Saboscrivner, and I try onion rings whenever and wherever they are available. Ring the Alarm for these big rings! They had kind of a loose battered coating — not my preferred style, but pretty good nonetheless. I thought they were very salty, even by onion ring standards.

My wife always loves chicken and waffles, so she jumped at the chance to order it here. You can choose between jerk chicken and fried chicken strips, so she went with the fried. It was served over a big pearl sugar waffle, which is definitely the new hotness when it comes to waffles. While she was grateful she didn’t have to get spicy jerk chicken, we both thought the fried chicken could have used more seasoning, especially at a restaurant specializing in such a well-seasoned, savory cuisine.

Since we were partying pretty hard (by our standards), she added on a side of fried lobster, which was only $11. She liked it a lot more than the fried chicken, needless to say.

And adding to this wild, uninhibited festival of fried food and heavy carbs, we all shared an order of beignets for dessert. It seemed like the thing to do. These fried dough balls, topped with enough powdered sugar to look like they were partying in the ’80s, are similar to doughnuts, and they are a major treat in New Orleans, especially at iconic establishments like Cafe du Monde.

So that was everything we had at The Bayou, which turned out to be quite a lot. I thought the food was better than Tibby’s and certainly different from the Vietnamese-influenced food at King Cajun Crawfish. I did wish The Bayou had a muffuletta sandwich on the menu, but I wish every restaurant had those. Nothing ever seems to compare to the food I enjoyed with dear friends in New Orleans almost 25 years ago, but for Orlando and its surrounding suburbs, this was pretty fine. Plus, The Bayou is the kind of unique, locally owned operation we should all strive to support, especially on a day like today, which happens to be Small Business Saturday. Tell them The Saboscrivner sent ya, and I guarantee you’ll have a great meal, but they will have no idea what you’re talking about!

Sarge’s Delicatessen and Diner (New York)

I recently took my wife on a whirlwind trip to New York City to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Before that, we had gone there for our 10th anniversary back in 2019, where I reviewed six restaurants, and before that, we were last there for our honeymoon in 2009.

We made the most of this recent trip — we saw two shows together, and while she saw a third, I made off to attend New York Comic Con, where I got comics signed by beloved writers and artists and posed for a photo with my favorite actress, Carla Gugino. Food-wise, we enjoyed a fancy anniversary meal, visited old favorites Ess-A-Bagel and Junior’s, and I took a trip to the Bronx to visit several iconic Italian delis along Arthur Avenue (which will be the subject of a future Saboscrivner ‘sclusive).

As great as my Arthur Avenue adventure was (spoiler alert!), my single favorite meal on this latest NYC trip was Sarge’s Delicatessen and Diner (https://sargesdeli.com/), and not just because I was back with my wife after a day apart from her, mostly spent waiting in long lines with fellow nerds. Sarge’s is located in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood and first opened in 1964 — not as ancient as Katz’s Delicatessen, but still an impressive run. You will see why shortly.

I should note that on past trips, we had always gone to the historic Katz’s, a Lower East Side landmark and tourist trap known for its legendary pastrami (and legendary chaos). But since we’ve been more than once, and since I’ve had equally fine pastrami at Langer’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles and The Pastrami Project right here in Orlando since our last Katz’s visit, I wanted us to have a new New York deli experience. People always say that the pastrami at Sarge’s may not be quite as good as Katz’s (maybe an 8 or 9 instead of a perfect 10), but the rye bread is better (it wouldn’t take much), the menu is larger, and the entire experience is a lot more pleasant and relaxing, with booths(!) and table service(!) and no long lines. It sounded amazing, so off we went, reunited after spending our longest day in New York doing our own things.

We were seated right away by a lovely and patient server (try finding one of those at Katz’s!), and there were no long lines to get in nor any weird rituals with tickets. My wife started the meal with a magnificent chocolate milkshake, while I opted for a cool, refreshing vanilla egg cream (no doubt made with Fox’s U-Bet vanilla syrup, which I always keep on hand back home). I had just walked from the Jacob Javits Convention Center to the theater district to meet her as her show let out, so I probably would have been better off with delicious New York City tap water, but I was caught up in the moment.
For those of you who never read my reviews, an egg cream contains neither eggs nor cream. It is made with seltzer water, milk, and a flavored syrup — traditionally Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup, but I also love egg creams made with Fox’s U-Bet vanilla and coffee syrups. As a result, they are more like a soda than a thick, heavy milkshake. Sometimes I even enjoy one at the end of a heavy meal to aid with digestion, but tonight I opened with the egg cream.

Like any good deli, Sarge’s quickly brought out free plates of regular and half-sour pickles and fresh, cool, crunchy cole slaw. I devoured the cole slaw and had one of each kind of pickle, and they were all terrific, especially as the first real food I had eaten all day.

We were blessed with blissfully cool October weather on our trip, so my wife got one of her favorite Ashkenazi Jewish comfort foods: matzoh ball soup. It was a huge bowl with one huge matzoh ball in the center, but no visible pieces of chicken, no vegetable, no noodles, just the ball. She said it was amazing soup, and after trying a spoonful of broth, I concurred.

She ordered half a pastrami sandwich with her soup, and she loved it as well. As you can see, Sarge’s serves huge, overstuffed deli sandwiches, but the main difference between Sarge’s and Katz’s pastrami sandwich is that Katz’s hand-slices the pastrami, resulting in thicker slices, while Sarge’s uses a machine, ending up with the much thinner, uniform slices you see here.

Whenever I visit a deli, whether it’s Jewish or Italian, I always try to sample as many different house specialties as I can, especially when I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to make it back. I certainly hope to return to Sarge’s one day, but that didn’t stop me from ordering a Custom Combo sandwich with three different meats: the excellent pastrami (on top), its underrated cousin corned beef (in the middle), which was equally great, and rolled beef (the darker meat on the bottom), a mysterious, mythical meat I had only ever heard of, but never seen available anywhere else. For those inquiring, I made sure to deconstruct the sandwich to taste and truly appreciate each meat separately. So what is rolled beef? I wasn’t entirely sure, either before or after eating this heckin’ chonker of a sandwich, so of course I did some research and found a Tablet article about the history of rolled beef. It is cured and smoked beef navel (similar to pastrami in that regard), but less fatty, less peppery, usually served cold, and traditionally a cheaper option at delis. It was great, but I still prefer the perfection of pastrami in the pantheon of salted, cured meats.

And me being me, I saw onion rings on a menu and had to order them. I always try onion rings wherever I am, and I review them in a recurring segment on this blog called RING THE ALARM! Well, folks, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but our server turned every head in the dining room when she walked out this titanic, tremendous tower, this massive, monumental mountain of gorgeous, golden-brown batter-dipped onion rings. It was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.
Dear readers, you stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, I can say without hesitation that these were the absolute finest, worthiest, all-time best onion rings I’ve ever had in my life. They narrowly beat another New York deli landmark, the aforementioned Junior’s, which previously held the prize with their similar style of onion rings. These are crispy on the outside (not quite crunchy), and almost cakey on the inside — kind of like fluffy funnel cakes, but savory instead of sweet. I’ve only ever encountered this style of onion rings at iconic Jewish delis, and it is definitely my favorite.

So that was our first-ever trip to Sarge’s Delicatessen and Diner, but hopefully not our last. There are over 200 items to choose from on that vast and voluminous menu, and I doubt any of them would disappoint. In addition to the deli sandwiches they are probably best known for, Sarge’s offers the usual smoked fish you would hope for from a good appetizing store (nova salmon, salty belly lox, smoked whitefish, and even fancy smoked sturgeon and sable, plus multiple varieties of herring), a full breakfast menu, hot dogs and burgers, all kinds of diner classics, and even beer, wine, and liquor. If you’re looking for comfort food in Manhattan and want to enjoy it in actual comfort, as opposed to the tumult of Katz’s, Sarge’s is the place for you. Tell ’em The Saboscrivner sent ya… and they’ll have no idea what you’re taking about!

Adega Gaucha

Adega Gaucha (https://adegagaucha.com/) is an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse located at 8204 Crystal Clear Lane, Orlando, FL 32809, right in front of the Florida Mall, just south of the busy intersection of Orange Blossom Trail and Sand Lake Road. It opened about two years ago, and it is a single, locally owned restaurant, differentiating it from the similar chains Texas de Brazil (which I reviewed back in 2019) and Fogo de Chao (which I have been to twice, but never got around to reviewing). I grew up going to all-you-can-eat buffets with my family, and then they helped keep me alive through college and grad school. Because of my buffet background, I have a great appreciation for the variety and abundance of restaurants like this, even though I could never have afforded the typical decadence of a Brazilian steakhouse as a poor student. Despite the never-ending parade of patient waiters serving roasted meats on giant swords, my favorite part of this meal is always the sumptuous salad bar buffet, where I can gorge on some of my favorite foods, like cured meats, smoked salmon, and various fancy cheeses and roasted and marinated vegetables.

My wife, on the other hand, is not a buffet person, but she does appreciate a well-cooked (but never well done) steak, far more than even I do. We both like our red meat as rare as possible, and we share a fondness for marbled ribeye steaks, lamb, tender brisket, and gamey meats like bison. That’s why these Brazilian steakhouses are a rare and luxurious treat for both of us. We have gone to Texas de Brazil for a handful of special occasions in the past, and she suggested a return visit as a “last hurrah” before an upcoming surgery and a year where we’re both going to try to eat a little less and a little healthier. I suggested we try Adega Gaucha as an alternative, and I am so glad we did, because we both liked it even more than the vaunted, venerable old standby. Now I’m suggesting it to you stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, and I will do my best to point out the little differences that set this singular local establishment apart from its chain competitors.

I am happy to report that Adega Gaucha is cheaper than the “big two” chains. The full churrasco experience for dinner is $55 per person, and lunch on weekdays is $40. I would much rather eat a big meal like this for lunch than dinner, and ideally on a weekend, because I can’t think of anything sadder than gorging at a nice restaurant like this while worrying about rushing back to work in the afternoon and trying to be productive. Luckily, Adega Gaucha offers all the same stuff from the dinner menu for their Saturday and Sunday brunch, lasting from 11:30 AM until 3:00 PM, for $45 per person. To compare to the Orlando Texas de Brazil, weekend lunch from noon until 4:00 PM is $60. That $15 makes Adega Gaucha seem like a bargain, and I haven’t even gotten into how good the food and service are!

We made a reservation for 11:45 AM on a Sunday, and we were the very first party to be seated and hit the gourmet table (salad bar and buffet), so I was able to pause for some photos. Here is the charcuterie — pretty standard pepperoni, dry prosciutto and cured ham sliced paper-thin, and genoa salami folded into pretty flowers, atop a mountain of cheeses. As one would hope, they had glass sneeze-guards in place, to prevent these decadent selections from people’s germs. I grabbed some of these cured meats, along with the fine smoked gouda in the middle of the cheeses.

I helped myself to some melt-in-your-mouth nova salmon, leaving all the capers behind for diners who like them. Those white things I cut off are hearts of palm, which I have never developed an appreciation for.

This was beef carpaccio, another decadent delicacy, that I have never noticed at Texas de Brazil or Fogo de Chao.

My wife liked the sweet potato salad with raisins and dollops of goat cheese in the top left and the quinoa salad in the top right. I really liked the potato salad in the bottom left and the seafood salad in the bottom center. We both appreciated the tiny spheres of fresh, soft mozzarella cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar in the top center. I am slowly developing a taste for beets, but I was a little too overstimulated to sample what seemed to be beet salad in the bottom right.

Back at our table, we were greeted by a basket of warm, freshly baked pao de queijo, Brazilian cheese bread — chewy little buns that my wife always likes a lot. She said these were better than Texas de Brazil’s version!

Something else Adega Gaucha does that Texas doesn’t is allow the table to select three sides. My wife chose fried yucca, which I am not into, and I chose caramelized bananas, which I figured we would both enjoy. They are so delicious. Go ahead, take those bananas!

I knew she would dig the sautéed mushrooms, so I let her take those. She liked them, but she found little marinated mushrooms on the gourmet table that she liked even better than these sautéed ones. Longtime readers know mushrooms are my Kryptonite, but I never claimed to be a fun guy.

Here is my plate after my first and only venture to the gourmet table, loaded up with some of my favorite foods in the world. Aside from things I have already discussed, I treated myself to sweet and spicy Peppadew peppers I could eat like candy (and have before), pink pickled onions, roasted red bell pepper, and one of the jewels of the gourmet table, candied bacon, which had a hint of spice and was a huge hit with both of us.

Then we turned our little red cards green to signal the gauchos to arrive with gifts of meat. (And how about Gaucho? The last truly excellent album by Steely Dan, if you ask me, but I give Aja a slight edge.)

I lost track of all the different cuts of steak the gauchos brought by our table, but between the two of us, we probably tried them all: filet mignon, top sirloin, the popular Brazilian sirloin cut called picanha, flank steak called bavette or fraldinha, and our beloved ribeye. Both of us always politely asked for rare, and the gauchos patiently offered us the rarest of the rare. I was overjoyed that none of the meats were over-salted, which is a major issue for me at both Texas de Brazil and Fogo de Chao, where on top of the encouraged gluttony, everything is ridiculously salty. I filled little metal ramekins at the gourmet table with fresh chimichurri, that wonderful, pungent condiment of oil, vinegar, garlic, and parsley, and fresh mango salsa that was tasty enough to eat with a spoon by itself. The mango salsa passed my “Would I eat this over vanilla ice cream?” test. Yes, it was that good — sweet and spicy and acidic and cool and refreshing and perfect in every way. I should have gotten a photo of it. I’m sorry!

But as good as the various cuts of steak were, for me, the highlights were the leg of lamb (also rare), the tender pork sausage called linguica, the roast chicken legs with crispy skin (capturing everything you would hope roasted chicken legs could aspire to be), and our absolute favorite meat at any Brazilian steakhouse, costela, the tender, juicy, marbled beef ribs that the gauchos serve sliced crosswise against the giant bones. As soon as the first gaucho visited us, we asked for the beef ribs, and you should too. Before we learned of the greatness of beef ribs at Brazilian steakhouses, we didn’t know to ask for it, and it rarely made appearances when we would dine at Texas de Brazil. But at Adega Gaucha, ask, and you shall receive.

Below, you can thrill to a later plate with more beef rib slices and two more delicacies that I’ve never had at Texas de Brazil or Fogo de Chao. You might have noticed the little dark round things at the top of the plate pictured above and the bottom of the plate pictured below. Those are chicken hearts, and they are wonderful, hearty (heh) fare. If you think that sounds gross, you are certainly welcome to your opinion, but they are such a delicious protein — dark and rich and slightly chewy, but so flavorful and extremely nutritious. I have bought chicken hearts before, marinated them in Italian dressing and then sautéed them, but mine always came out a little chewier than I feel they should be. I’ve had them on skewers, grilled over binchotan charcoal at Susuru and Tori Tori, two local Japanese restaurants that specialize in Izakaya-style pub grub like yakitori. But I had never had them like this, and I absolutely loved them. It’s funny that despite having all these different cuts of steak at my disposal, I liked the chicken hearts so much, but I did.

And that beautiful thing on the right is another hallmark of a meal at Adega Gaucha that I have never seen elsewhere: grilled pineapple, rich with butter, sugar, and cinnamon for a crispy, caramelized outer crust, like the best part of a pineapple upside down cake. This was a huge treat, serving as both a palate cleanser between the rich meats and a dessert. It was a damn delight, and we could not have been happier to end our meal with a few slices of the grilled pineapple, artfully cut off whole pineapples on the same kinds of swords wielded by the gauchos.

I have heard the cocktails and desserts at Adega Gaucha are as awe-inspiring as the meats and the gourmet table offerings, but we don’t drink, and we were too full for dessert, aside from that grilled pineapple. But next time (and there will be a next time!), I am ordering a Brazilian limeade, with fresh-squeezed lime juice and sweetened condensed milk. That has to be the best thing ever, to go with so many other “best things ever” we enjoyed and will absolutely return to enjoy again. In the song “Hey Nineteen” on Gaucho, Donald Fagen sang “The Cuervo Gold, the fine Colombian, make tonight a wonderful thing.” For your friendly neighborhood Saboscrivner, hopefully less pathetic than the narrator of that song, the beef ribs, leg of lamb, chicken hearts, chicken leg, linguica sausage, smoked salmon, caramelized bananas, mango salsa, and grilled pineapple made our first visit to Adega Gaucha a wonderful thing.

Chain Reactions: JINYA Ramen Bar

JINYA Ramen Bar (https://www.jinyaramenbar.com/) was first founded in California by second-generation restauranteur Tomo Takahashi, after he had already opened a JINYA restaurant in Tokyo in 2000. There are multiple JINYA Ramen Bar locations around the United States, including two in the Orlando area — the first in Thornton Park near downtown Orlando, and the second just opened in Oviedo.

I had never been to the Thornton Park JINYA location, but always meant to try it after reading rave reviews and rhapsodic recommendations. When I heard one was opening closer to me, I was excited, and when co-owner Taff Liao invited me to a “friends and family” preview over Facebook, I was overjoyed.

I just got home from that lunch, where I ran into foodie-about-town and all-around good dude Ricky Ly, founder of the Tasty Chomps! food blog and the really terrific Orlando Foodie Forum Facebook group, arriving at the same time to dine with his family. It was a great experience, and I am here to tell you that JINYA Ramen Bar will be an asset to Oviedo and East Orlando. Don’t hesitate to check it out.

***Before continuing with my review, I must note that even though I fully expected to pay for my meal, I did not realize that the “friends and family” preview would be comped by the restaurant, like a dress rehearsal for the staff before its grand opening for the general public. I don’t get invited to stuff like that often, and I honestly would have felt more comfortable paying. Still, I was honored to be there, loved my meal, and left what I hope was a generous tip for the friendly staff. But in the spirit of full disclosure and candor for my constant readers, you stalwart Saboscrivnerinos, I was not charged for this wonderful lunch.***

The restaurant is on the ground floor of the Ellington apartment complex, one of the many new developments in Oviedo.

The dining room is a gorgeous, modern, dare I say sexy space with nice light fixtures, brick walls, that trendy and ubiquitous plant wall, and lots of natural light streaming in through floor-to-ceiling windows.

An open kitchen overlooks the dining room. There is an outdoor patio, but you will be inhaling exhaust from busy Mitchell Hammock Road if you sit out there, and it was already hot outside when I arrived just before noon, even in late October.

Being a solo diner, I sat at the bar, where two friendly female bartenders hustled, making gorgeous, artful cocktails while keeping my Sprite glass full. One of them patiently explained the menu in detail, and I did not have the heart to tell her I studied it in advance. The entire staff is warm and welcoming and well-trained during this soft opening, so expect excellence when you arrive in the days and weeks to come.

I started with an order of crispy rice with spicy tuna, from the Small Plates section of the menu. I have loved these at other Japanese restaurants, including the late, lamented Kabuto, which closed back in December. This order came with three small rectangular bricks of rice, coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried to light, crispy perfection. Each crispy rice brick was topped with a puree of mildly spicy tuna and tiny, cute jalapeno pepper slices.

I tried one plain, one dipped in the zingy seasoning sauce, and one dipped in the gyoza sauce (it ain’t just for gyoza anymore!), and no matter what I did, every bite was magnificent. I could see ordering these every time I return to JINYA Ramen Bar in the future, which will hopefully be often. In fact, if they ever decide to offer a larger order of ten or twelve, I would probably order that.

I could not go to JINYA Ramen Bar without ordering a bowl of ramen, even if it was unseasonably hot outside. JINYA makes its own ramen noodles from two different kinds of flour, then ages them in a special noodle-aging machine, which proves that we truly live in an age of technological marvels. I ordered JINYA’s version of my standard ramen order at any Japanese restaurant, tonkotsu ramen, which features a rich, creamy pork bone broth. Specifically, I got the JINYA Tonkotsu Black, with a slice of savory, fatty, tender pork chashu, green onion, two sheets of dried seaweed called nori, a seasoned soft-boiled egg with a perfect runny, creamy yolk, garlic chips, garlic oil, fried onion, and “spicy sauce.” It was served with thin noodles, but different bowls of ramen come with thicker noodles. I like ’em thicc, so I will try that next time.

It was masterful. All the ingredients harmonized so well. The broth was delicious enough to slurp even without anything else in it. It wasn’t spicy-hot, but it sure was temperature-hot, enough to make me sweat and blow my nose. The noodles had an ideal springy chew, and the nori sheets softened as soon as I dunked them into the steaming broth. It was one of the better versions of tonkotsu ramen I have enjoyed in Orlando, but different enough from mainstays like Oviedo’s underrated Ramen Takagi and Baldwin Park’s trendy Domu that you still must dare to compare.

I could have kept going, and in fact, I thought long and hard about topping off this luscious lunch with two salmon poke mini-tacos on crunchy rice “tortilla” wrappers. But when I found out I was being comped, I felt guilty taking advantage of the JINYA owners’ generosity and opted against ordering anything else. I will absolutely return — with my wife and with friends — as soon as I can. It is a straight shot east from our home, and if this was just a preview while the staff was training, I can’t imagine how much it will improve as everyone gets more experience, because it already felt like a well-oiled machine that had been operating for a while.

Thank you to Taff Liao for inviting me, and I’m sorry I did not get to meet you. I did get to chat briefly with Eric, another one of the owners, who was very friendly. Trust me, folks — you are in for a treat. Having not been to the Thornton Park JINYA Ramen Bar before, the new Oviedo location did not disappoint in any way. In fact, it is almost too cool for Oviedo and East Orlando, but here’s hoping everyone discovers it and enjoys it as much as I did.

Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen

Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen (https://eatzasian.com/) is one of the nicer, more upscale Vietnamese restaurants in Orlando’s Mills 50 district full of Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants, markets, and shops. That said, as someone who does not love high-end, fancy, luxurious dining, it is still very accessible and welcoming for all. It is also unique because it received prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand awards in 2022 and 2023. To clarify, that does not mean it has a Michelin star, like some of the highest-end eateries, but rather it was recognized for its “good quality, good value cooking.” Chef and co-owner Huong Nguyen focuses on street foods from Saigon, but her menu offers several dishes that Orlando’s other Vietnamese restaurants do not serve.

I first went to Z Asian with a former co-worker in late July. She and I both left our workplace for new opportunities this year, so it was a chance to catch up and chat. She is vegetarian, and Z Asian has so many vegetarian and vegan options on its menu, I thought it would be a perfect choice for dinner.

We started out with an order of two vegan summer rolls (goi cuon chay), with tofu, vermicelli noodles, and shredded lettuce rolled up in transparent, sticky, chewy rice paper and served at room temperature with a side order of peanut sauce. My wife loves summer rolls with peanut sauce from other Vietnamese restaurants like Little Saigon and Pho 88, but they are usually not my favorites. I’m not a big tofu guy either, but I’ll try anything once, and this was an excellent summer roll! The tofu had the consistency of a firm omelet with a slightly crispy exterior, balancing against all the chewy ingredients.

I also chose an order of pan-fried rice flour (bot chien), something I always see on Vietnamese menus but had never tried before. It always looks good, and I thought my vegetarian friend would like it too. It came served on a blanket of lovely fried eggs, although there is a vegan option too, without the eggs. It was served with a side of crunchy, sweet pickled carrot and daikon radish, with a sweet chili soy dipping sauce. This was AWESOME. We both loved it. This was another dish with a crispy exterior and soft, yielding interior, kind of like fries or tater tots — not in taste, but in “mouth feel.” They were terrific with the sauce, and I liked the pickled vegetables (necessary ingredients on any banh mi sandwich) a lot.

My friend ordered stir-fried garlic noodles with tofu. I didn’t try this, but she seemed to like it a lot. In addition to the fried tofu (similar to the pieces in the summer rolls), it came with bok choy, carrot, and plenty of crunchy bean sprouts.

I ordered special rice noodle soup (hu tieu thap cam), with thinner rice noodles than you usually find in bowls of beefy pho. Instead of being a beef-based soup like pho, this soup included pork, shrimp, squid, fish cakes, and krab sticks, in addition to aromatic herbs. It was a nice, light soup and a pleasant change from the pho I’ve ordered so many times elsewhere. Somehow, I managed not to splash my clothes, which was a minor miracle.My research tells me hu tieu is a Chinese-Cambodian invention that was adapted to Vietnamese tastes in the city of Saigon, and that I could have also ordered a “dry” version with a small bowl of soup on the side to protect my work clothes in the future.

Before leaving, I ordered the pan-fried rice cakes (minus the eggs) to bring home for my wife to try. She was dazzled with them too, and they did not lose their subtle crispiness on the drive home.

And I also brought home a dish I had really wanted to try, after seeing so many people post photos of it. My vegetarian friend would not have been into this at all, but I knew my wife would share my appreciation of Z Asian’s grilled jumbo squid (muc nuong sate). You can get squid at lots of restaurants (Italian, Greek, Chinese, steakhouses, and so forth) in the form of breaded, fried calamari, but I had never seen such squid served in such a beautiful presentation as this. If your fellow diners aren’t averse to eating cephalopods (so that counts out my in-laws), this will be a real attention-grabber at your table, and I strongly recommend it.
The menu says the grilled jumbo squid is marinated in “house sauce,” and it is served with house-made jalapeno green sauce, but it did not need to be dipped in anything. Squid can sometimes get chewy and rubbery, but this was so tender and flavorful, with slight spicy and sweet flavors balancing out the taste of the ocean (but not a fishy taste).

It wasn’t long before I returned to Z Asian with my wife, who ordered a Thai milk tea (tra Thai) that was rich and cool and creamy and sweet, with a slightly smoky flavor.

For some reason, I could not decide what to order. Normally I am not intimidated by a large menu, but for this second visit, I just couldn’t choose. I eventually picked something pretty random, the seafood stir-fried noodles in garlic sauce, which came with tail-on shrimp, squid, fish cakes, and the usual bok choy, carrots, and bean sprouts. I chose egg noodles instead of rice noodles, but I had completely forgotten that this was essentially what my friend ordered on our first visit, minus the seafood. To be completely honest, this was okay. I feel like I did not make the best choice. I might have been happier with pho or bun bo hue, but I kept thinking about how hot it was for soup (on a scorching August afternoon in Florida), and how it would be hard to beat Pho Huong Lan, maker of the best pho and bun bo hue I’ve ever had anywhere. Plus, with Z Asian’s huge menu, I wanted to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone, trying something new instead of something familiar I’ve had dozens, if not hundreds, of times over the years. But there wasn’t anything wrong with the dish; I blame myself for being uncharacteristically wishy-washy and not choosing wisely. I was kind of hoping the garlic sauce on the noodles would be more like the awe-inspiring buttery garlic noodles at Kai Asian Street Fare, but not knowing any better, I just set myself up for disappointment.

As always, my wife was smarter than I, choosing a favorite from other Vietnamese restaurant menus: slices of tender grilled beef, tail-on shrimp, and a crispy fried spring roll cut in half, served over rice vermicelli noodles, with shredded lettuce, julienned cucumber and carrot, diced scallions, and crushed peanuts. This was not a noodle soup, but a very refreshing, summery dish with warm and cool ingredients. Sometimes you can’t go wrong with a classic!

So that’s Z Asian Vietnamese Kitchen. I would absolutely return and try something different next time — maybe something with clams or snails, or maybe even sample the bun bo hue or the pho. But I really don’t think you can go wrong, and if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you have a lot more options here than most other restaurants in and around Orlando. And if you don’t want to take my word for it, a certain tire company also really recommends the place.

Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant (Los Angeles)

Any of my friends, family, and long-time readers know I am a huge fan of delicatessens, whether they are Jewish or Italian. I am thrilled to say that I recently got to visit the city of Los Angeles for the first time, and on a short, three-day work trip, I still managed to fit in meals at two separate Jewish delis. I’ll write about the first one I visited a little later, since it was part of a magnificent food hall, but this review is about the second L.A. deli I went to, which happens to be second to none.

Founded in 1947, Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant (https://www.langersdeli.com/) is a timeless classic, probably the L.A. equivalent of the legendary Katz’s Delicatessen in New York’s Lower East Side. I have been to Katz’s a few times and reviewed it after my latest trip there, in 2019. The atmosphere at Katz’s is chaotic, like so much else in New York City, but the pastrami is so good, it is worth the high prices and less-than-relaxing meal. However, my admonition to anyone going to Katz’s is to request their pastrami sandwich on a club roll, since the rye bread sucks. It is essentially an edible napkin, although it doesn’t work much better as a napkin than it does as bread.

I have no such grave advice to offer about Langer’s Deli on the left coast, aside from just making sure you go to Langer’s. I would rank the pastrami on par with Katz’s — equal, if not better, but that makes it god-tier pastrami that is better than just about anyone else’s from anywhere. We all got a kick out of the description of the pastrami from Langer’s menu, especially the last part: “Hot pastrami is a select cut of beef, sugar-cured and seasoned as corned beef, then slowly smoked for tenderness and tantalizing taste and flavor, then covered with choice and costly spices.”

I am also thrilled to report that the rye bread at Langer’s is terrific, and it is also a lot more of a chill vibe there, without the bedlam of the Katz’s experience. I went with two of my new co-workers who are both based in L.A., but none of us had been there before. Located on the corner of 7th and Alvarado that has seen better days (man, that sounded like a bit of inter-song banter on a ’70s Tom Waits record), Langer’s is near another Los Angeles landmark, MacArthur Park, a once-beautiful park where someone once left a cake out in the rain, but it is kind of sketchy and foreboding today.

Anyway, we all had a very pleasant lunch, and being smart people (librarians all), we stuck to the house specialty, that perfect pastrami. My new supervisor ordered the French dipped pastrami sandwich, which came on a roll with au jus on the side. Apparently, L.A. is the place to be if you’re a French dip fan, with the famous Philippe the Original as another destination for sandwich aficionados that I hope to visit in the future.
He seemed to love his sandwich, even if he expressed a bit of cognitive dissonance over our other colleague’s choice.

She ordered the iconic #19, Langer’s most popular sandwich, with pastrami, Swiss cheese, creamy cole slaw, and Russian dressing on rye bread, which was a very smart choice. I could not get over how soft the rye bread was, yet it had a crispy, crackly crust that you never get with supermarket rye.

As for me, I could not decide between two sandwiches on Langer’s menu, so in true Saboscrivner style, I ordered both of them, to eat a half of each at the restaurant and enjoy the other halves later. This was my #6, with hot pastrami, chopped liver, and Russian dressing on that same perfect rye bread. You can see that the pastrami is hand-carved into thick slices, and it was so juicy and moist and tender and rich and fatty, I cannot rave enough about it. The chopped liver was savory and creamy and perfect, and a squirt of mustard brought some acidic brightness to this sensational sandwich.

My other choice was the #44, with hot pastrami (of course), sauerkraut, and Nippy cheese, served on grilled rye. It was essentially a pastrami Reuben, except the Swiss was replaced with Nippy cheese. What the heck is Nippy cheese? I loved the sandwich, and yet I’m still not entirely sure. I was too distracted to ask our patient server, but my research shows that Kraft used to sell a processed cheese spread called Nippy cheese (before my time), but the stuff at Langer’s is more like a tangy American cheese that had melted into the grilled rye. It was such a rich and salty sandwich, almost any cheese would have gotten a bit lost in the shuffle, but I like American cheese more than most, and I have zero regrets about my choice. It was the best Reuben I’ve ever had, especially because I prefer pastrami to the standard Reuben filling of corned beef, and because almost any cheese has more character than Swiss (fit for Reubens, Cubans, and that’s about it). The pickles were pretty classic deli-style kosher dills, by the way.

Even though I order macaroni salad almost anywhere that offers it to compare and contrast, I can say that the macaroni salad at Langer’s was nothing special, and I think my co-workers agreed. The mayonnaise-based dressing was a bit thin and runny, and I think there was yellow mustard in there too. I had been curious about it, and I’m not sorry I ordered it, but I would not get it again. If I ever make it back to Langer’s, I think I will try their chili next time, perhaps in the form of chili cheese fries.

As a mustard aficionado (see my past Cutting the Mustard features for more mustard reviews than you ever dreamt of), I was a little surprised to see Langer’s uses good ol’ Gulden’s Spicy Brown, but that’s the mustard my dad always bought, and it’s a classic for good reason.
My colleagues were good and drank water, but I had heard Langer’s has its own cream soda available as a fountain drink, so I couldn’t resist. It was much better than that deli staple Dr. Brown’s — sweeter, more vanilla-ey, and more refreshing. It was a hot August day in L.A., and I definitely took advantage of the free refills.

I had such an amazing time on this trip to L.A., especially getting to meet my co-workers in real life and visit the beautiful school I work for remotely. Aside from the professional stuff, this magnificent meal at Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant was a highlight of this too-short visit (the first of hopefully many). Not only did the pastrami live up to its legendary status, but I had wanted to eat here for many years — ever since I read journalist David Sax’s 2009 book Save the Deli. I had planned to go there alone as my first act in Los Angeles, on the way from the airport to work, before even checking into my hotel. However, sharing that experience on my second day in the city with two new co-workers, getting to know them better over sandwiches, and considering them friends from here on out, made my Langer’s lunch that much more profound and unforgettable. (And unlike Katz’s, it was a relaxing lunch on top of everything else good about it!)