Happy Father’s Day and first guest product review: Meal Mart Corned Beef

I’ve mentioned many times that part of my family (mom’ side) is from New York. Not being from the Boston area, my dad did not grow up with high-quality New York deli. Because he loved it so much, when I was younger, it was always a “known” within our family that, if we really wanted to treat my dad, we would eat deli. Once in awhile we would make the trip into the city to go to the Second Avenue Deli (where I once tried to smuggle out a sour green tomato, only to have it fall out of my–then quite smelly–jacket pocket), but there were also good places in New Jersey. My dad was always very excited to eat corned beef (and then he added pastrami to his list of favorites) and the rest of us enjoyed it too (although for a few years my brother refused after he realized that the “meat” he had been enjoying was actually tongue…I’m just glad I never tried it!) I remember his excitement upon being given a platter with a huge, overstuffed (why do they give such small pieces of rye bread for so much meat?) sandwich and then adding some cole slaw and pickles to the plate (those pickle bars are such fun).  Because we do not visit New York as often anymore (and when we do, do not always get deli), my dad was excited to find another source of corned beef…Costco. So…on this Father’s Day, my dad will provide the blogs’ first guest post with his review of Costco’s Meal Mart kosher corned beef.

Happy Father’s Day (and corned beef-eating) dad!

Dad’s review:

I love corned beef. More specifically, I love New York style corned beef.  When I visited my in-laws in New York, despite all of the outstanding restaurant options and possibilities, I always requested a corned beef sandwich. Our  deli of choice was the 2

^nd

Avenue Deli.  What could be better?  Unfortunately (from a corned beef lover’s perspective), I live in Boston, where great corned beef is unavailable and decent corned beef is rare.  Costco to the rescue. They sell Meal Mart  kosher corned beef , vacuum packed in Cryovac.  To be certain,  no one will think it just came from a NY Deli, but’s it’s good.  It has a very good meat to fat ratio and is sliced to the right thickness. So it’s not too lean, not too fat, not too thin, and not too thick.  And, consistent with Costco, it’s a deal. It is sold in 20 oz packages for $10.99, about $9.00 per pound—roughly ½ the price of Boston deli’s.  It’s makes four  “healthy” sandwiches or three “over-stuffed” ones.  (That raises another issue, where to find real rye bread in Boston—but that’s another story.)  The trick to maximizing its taste is to warm it before eating it. The easy way is to microwave it at a very low setting for about one minute. Careful, you don’t want to cook it. The alternative, slightly better, slightly more work—is to warm it by steaming it. In summary, Costco’s  corned beef is a budget friendly, imperfect, but good substitute for authentic NY Deli corned beef.  Pickles anyone?