PrintThe Carnegie Deli Pastrami Sandwich Mitosis
A little while back, Ed came into the office with a Carnegie Deli pastrami sandwich and a plan. He wanted to see how many normal-sized sandwiches (still healthy portions) he could make from the usual serving size. At $14.95 a pop, the meaty monster is five inches tall. It's the snake jaw of sandwiches, to steal Adam's line for a hamburger so fat, you need a snake's hinged jaw to take a bite.
We pretended this sandwich was a mother cell to be divvied into daughter cells, full of pastrami chromosomes. The results of the edible mitotic cycle, after the jump.
The mother cell.
Four daughter cells—we thought it was over. Oh, but it wasn't.
If you guessed five normal-sized sandwiches, you win. Each was one-inch tall—still plenty enough meat for an individual meal. And one that won't end in severe intestinal pains.
So, the next time you want a meal for five, try one pastrami sandwich at Carnegie Deli with an extra loaf of rye.
Carnegie Deli
854 7th Ave, New York NY 10019 (at 55th Street; map)
212-757-2245
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26 Comments:
The Truth Hammer comes down on the Carnegie Deli!
JudgeFudge at 4:24PM on 12/01/08
ok, but the sad truth is that i could {and have been known to} easily demolish one by myself, along with a few half sours, some cole slaw, and most of a liter of dr brown's black cherry.
cybercita at 5:48PM on 12/01/08
I loved that.
Okay, now do Katz's.
norman at 5:54PM on 12/01/08
Brilliant! I have often wondered how many wee sammies you could get out of the big one.
lawman at 7:45PM on 12/01/08
Ed, I would kill for your hair
bessfour at 7:52PM on 12/01/08
would you rather have 5 of those child size sandwiches or 1 monster wich? thats a question.
jeffsayyes at 9:50PM on 12/01/08
Is that Jenna Fischer?
BigAl72 at 11:51PM on 12/01/08
Yeah do Katz's which is the pastrami mothership. Plus if you cheap bastards tip the counterman right he'll throw in the extra slices. Ergo, you don't have to buy a loaf of rye bread.
Plus if you ate in at Katz's no $3 plate fee
No matter how you slice it Katz's is the better deal
And get the Cel-Ray not that black cherry bullshit
gaffer at 10:00AM on 12/02/08
I don't know why you would want one or five Carnegie sandwiches. They are terrible.
aaronlewis at 10:03AM on 12/02/08
I use my leftovers to make hash....yummy...and katz's is better and so is cel-ray but black cherry goes better with the bourbon in my flask...
ginagolfs at 2:43PM on 12/02/08
It's not mitosis, it's meiosis. Mitosis only happens once you've replicated your pastrami.
Luther at 4:58PM on 12/02/08
Why on earth would you want to clutter up all that pastrami with 8 extra slices of bread? That's CRAZY talk.
klg19 at 7:38PM on 12/02/08
I love the pastrami sandwiches at Carnegie's Deli. I just can't eat them too often or I would gain lots of weight.
Panda444 at 7:54PM on 12/02/08
Mitosis? No. Desecration. Yes.
bobbob at 3:29PM on 12/04/08
I've been trying to collect photos for this kind of thing on Flickr:
The Campaign for a Sensible Sandwich
dunstan at 3:58PM on 12/04/08
But I hate sandwiches at New York deli's, too much fuckin' meat on the sandwich. It's like a cow with a cracker on either side. "What would you like sir?" "A pastrami sandwich." "Anything else?" "Yeah, a loaf of bread and some other people." — Mitch Hedberg.
tonystl at 6:35PM on 12/04/08
I love the sandwiches at the Carnegie along with two or three half-cooked pickles. The amazing thing though is that you can get, mostly in European cities like Nice or Rome, a single slice of meat and very little else on a very fresh bagette that fills the need just as well. The best thing around here in that regard is the Bahn Mi with roast beef served at a place in Falls Church, Virginia called DC Sandwiches. They add some thin sliced veggies and cilantro and you get instant happiness without the post-Carnegie guilt... which I know all too well.
steveTV at 8:05PM on 12/15/08
On one fateful day, I ate a monster pastrami sandwich at Stage Deli for lunch and a monster pastrami sandwich at Katz's for dinner. Mmmm...
shoneyjoe at 7:19AM on 12/16/08
i feel you shoneyjoy. i proudly devoured a pastrami sandwhich at Katz and then Carnegies in one day...wasn't feel so proud the next day....
katz is WAY better. less meat, but thicker, juicier slices
alexeatsworld at 11:23AM on 12/18/08
steveTV, yar... just got back from 3 wks in VN and my partner just reminded me she got us some bahn mi for our bus trip from SaiGon to Mui Ne. she corrects, tho; "Bahn mi pate," is what people should ask for. less than u$1, and with extra meat or pate half that again.
that said, altho none in the city have i tried, but in carroll gardens a fave is the sammich just off of bergen st F/G stop. YUM. its a different mood thing; i take guests to katz. bahn mi is for me, but sometimes with others.
justinKaisse at 10:00PM on 12/30/08
still the great place to gorge!!!
Best, Neal NY NY
nealhugh at 10:59PM on 01/03/09
THIS IS ON MY BUCKET LIST !
shipwreck at 2:46PM on 01/06/09
Hello Pam from The Office.
Prairie at 3:16PM on 01/14/09
@people who think I look like Pam: This isn't the first time this has come up. I hope people are going up to Jenna Fischer and telling her she looks like Erin Zimmer.
Erin Zimmer at 3:20PM on 01/14/09
; )
Prairie at 4:13PM on 01/14/09
@Luthor: Meiosis also requires replication of chomosomes. Mitosis is a replication (2n->4n) and split into two daughter cells (2n x2). Meiosis is a replication (2n->4n) and spliting into 4 cells (1n x4) eventually. It is not simply dividing a cell (2n) into two where each receives one set (1n x2).
If you really care to be precise, this process is more like budding probably. Where a bigger organism buds off smaller organisms that are genetically identical. Budding happens for unicellular and multicellular organisms. In this case, the big sandwich could of course be multicellular thus explaining the large amount of DNA (ie. pastrami) it contains as the collective DNA of many cells. It doesn't need to replicate the pastrami before the process starts...a bunch of it is just there. Then some of the cells bud off to start the new organism/sandwich thus taking some of the DNA/pastrami with it.
Sure, I was a biology major and now a medical student, but this information could easily have been found on Wikipedia and/or a high school biology text.
wunami at 2:14PM on 01/26/09