Amongst the many Jewish contributions to world culture, one stands out for me: Don Rickles. Oh, and the latke, the simple potato pancake upon which generations of eaters have found so much joy and clogged arteries. Any proper deli stocks them, but few Orange County places do latkes well, being there aren't enough old Jewish delis around to have fried a recipe into perfection decades ago. Instead, we're left with bad latkes like the ones at Arnie's Manhattan Deli, located somewhere amongst the John Wayne Airport office parks in Newport Beach.
The food at Arnie's isn't bad–their sandwiches fill, hot mustard and pickles sit at every table, and I still might return for the fried frankfurter the Food Frenzy boyos raved about last week. But the cost is prohibitive, and the latkes plain sucked. They came three to an order, big fried things, with applesauce and sour cream in little cups. Alas, those flavors were the most enjoyable feature of the latke. Too fried without any crispiness, no juiciness inside, a disappointment through and through. I'll stick to Katella Deli, thank you very mucho.
