Carnegie Deli
854 Seventh Ave. (at 55th Street)
New York City, 10019

Yes, I've been lagging on the posts, and I'm ashamed of it. ASHAMED! But I have dragged back some decent photos to share from my vacation, if that makes any kind of amends. Don't be too hard on me - I've been busy fighting off nasty illness and getting back in the swing of things.

First off is our visit to the famous Carnegie Deli in New York, before we stepped onto our floating prison (also known as our cruise ship.) I have had a decent amount of Jewish deli food since living in Los Angeles, so I had high expectations for Carnegie Deli.

Stepping inside, the place was bustling with activity. Pictures of famous and not-so-famous anymore celebrities adorn the walls, from floor to ceiling. The table space is super tight, but they seated us quickly so I shouldn't complain too much. Our waiter was a no-nonsense, are you ready to order yet already??!-kinda guy.

Here are the pickles (any cornerstone to a good Jewish deli meal)...they gave us 2 kinds - old and new. The new ones weren't what I was used to - like eating a slightly off, brine dipped cucumber, and yeah I know that's what pickles ARE, but the 'old' pickles were tasty and soaked and aged and delicious. The new ones were just not my cuppa tea. And they were kinda bitter. Here's Owen's mom's turkey club sandwich. This monster of a sandwich was 20 dollars, which blew us all away (price wise) and then the sandwich arrived and it blew us away again (size wise.) All the components to this sandwich looked good and fresh, but there was just too much of everything. Basically she had to deconstruct, then reconstruct a smaller sandwich from these honking huge slabs of ingredients to eat this.
This is my corned beef sandwich - one of the more famous things the Carnegie Deli is known for. They did not disappoint - this sandwich was top notch. Nothing but meat and rye bread, the corned beef was luscious...can I use that to describe meat?? So flavorful, so tender, each piece was perfect with a dab of mustard. I didn't finish this, but it was great to try.
This is Peter's Chicken Liver Omelette and fries. The fries were super tasty - crispy potato-ey, but I didn't try the chicken liver...uh...it's not something I would choose to eat. Peter liked it a lot though. If only they made chicken feet omelette...I would eat that...
Here's Owen's Matzo Ball Soup. Two huge softball sized soft matzo balls, soaked up VERY yellow chicken noodle soup. This was very comforting for a cold New York morning. I'm not as much of a fan of matzo ball soup as Owen is, but he slurped up the whole thing so I'm assuming it was tasty.
Here's Caitlynn's eggs and fries. Back to basics!! She only wanted the eggs so I ate some of her fries...YES. So good.
Here's Toots's 2 hot dog special, with a knish peeking out from the corner of the picture, I should have taken a more clear picture of that knish because it was delicious. Potato-ey mash mess, but dang it was good - the little taste I had (I was STUFFED by the time I was done...but I HAD to try the knish...) The hot dogs were good...good casing, good snap. I would expect no less...

Carnegie Deli was a decent deli, but I have to say that a lot of places out here in LA are comparable (the consensus was that Nate and Al's in Beverly Hills was better, I wouldn't know as I have not been there yet...), but the place was good to soak up the scene. If only we had more time to go to Tavern on the Green or Big Nick's...well I'm sure I'll go on another trip to New York..someday.