Shouldn’t have let fly over states vote.

A reuben has a pretty strict definition. In my opinion, the required components are:

- Rye bread

- Sour kraut

- Corned Beef

- Swiss cheese.

If any of the above components are swapped out, you no longer have a Reuben sandwich. If you can swap out the corned beef, then what's the limit here? Can you shred up whatever they make veggie burgers out of and call that a reuben? Even swapping out the Swiss or American is incorrect, IMO.

I think that's why breakfast is doing so well. Is that sausage (what kind of the 100+ varieties), bacon, beef (someone compared this to a Philly, so now I'm curious), fish, or what? It's a super ambiguous sandwich, while no other sandwich in this vote has a whole lot of movement. Just look at the wide variety of breakfast sandwich pictures that's been posted already. I wouldn't eat half of them, but they are all considered the same thing.

for the record, this is the breakfast sandwich i voted for.



bagel haters be damned

That's a good looking sandwich. I like everything bagels that aren't completely coated with stuff.

Melk,

I'd call that "$20, GTFO."

Must have something to do with sauerkraut tasting like puke. Unfathomable.

No it would be like a cheeseburger losing to a big mac. I don't want gross sauce or extra bread ruining my burger.

After trying this variation on the Reuben (corned beef and coleslaw) as a refresher course, I feel I can make a more informed vote. While the toasted rye bread makes for a delightful contrast of temperature and texture, the immaculately simple greatness of a pastrami on rye stands alone. Pastrami for president!

Granted. But are well telling a Reuben to GTFO or a Pastrami & Corned Beef Sandwich?

Nah, because there you're comparing cheeseburger to a specific ****ty sandwich not a type of sandwich that can be made in various different ways.

But I get the general point you're trying to make. I guess if you think that the extra stuff that turns a pastrami sandwich into a Reuben makes it worse, that seems weird to me.

I went 0-for-4 in the previous round.

I am solidly on track for 0-for-2 in this round of losers.

But what a terrible seeding of Reuben vs Pastrami!

My tastes have always run a bit off the "normal" path, but after seeing the results of this sandwich tournament, I weep for OOT.

Looks like what Junior's Deli on the Westside used to serve, Mother **** that place was good. RIP Junior's

This. If you're having great pastrami, then standalone pastrami on rye > Reuben.

The worse the pastrami is, the closer Reuben gets, to where I can perhaps see a Reuben edging out a pastrami in some middle tier places.

But if you go even lower quality than that (puke), then the Reuben toppings are likely to be bad as well, and the bad Reuben will be even worse than the bad pastrami.

Great pastrami is the best though, and would be a worthy winner of this competition. There are some who would say that great pastrami is better just by itself and not as a sandwich, but whether you or I would agree or disagree with that is irrelevant. Pastrami sandwich is not going up against standalone pastrami meat. A great pastrami sandwich > Reuben > cheesesteak > breakfast sandwich, and that's what matters. Three cheers for pastrami!

And you have to pay through the nose for good pastrami, which is so weird because these meats came about in an effort to make the cheap cuts palatable. Full circle yo.

Yes, lots of meat cuts or other food items are like that. El D and others already referenced hanger, flatiron, etc.

Also, sometimes ethnic populations made certain cuts/items tasty, and then once the masses caught on, prices rose drastically. For example, oxtail and others.

I don't count them because that's hipster foodie bull****. Not poor people just tryna eat.

Lobster used to be poor people food.

Tuma channelling his inner Kioshk in the ATF self ban thread...

I’m in the “****ty packaged Swiss, kraut, and thousand island take away from the greatness of good meat, good bread, and good mustard” camp.

An average cheesesteak is definitely better than an average pastrami. The final should be a blowout win for cheesesteak. A good pastrami sandwich>>>>>>> A good cheesesteak though.

Txdome,

If you were really in the mood for a cheesesteak tomorrow, would you get an average cheesesteak or a good cheesesteak?

If you were really in the mood for a pastrami sandwich, would you get an average pastrami or a good pastrami sandwich?

Average cheesesteak and good pastrami because I won't bother eating pastrami unless it is good. I'm in an area with 2 million people and there are fewer than 5 places to get good pastrami and no good jewish delis, even with all the VC firms in town. I think that is probably the case with most cities south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Nice display of thinly veiled antisemitism sootface

Is it offensive if I say that the best Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Austin are near the huge tech campuses too?
The delicatessen thing was partially a joke, but I'll stand by it and take the ban.