Not just the deli king, but also a mensch

Mensch: A "mensch" is a particularly good person, like "a stand-up guy," a person with the qualities one would hope for in a dear friend or trusted colleague. According to author and Yiddish popularist Leo Rosten, [A] mensch is someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being "a real mensch" is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous.

Additional references here, here and here.

Karma being what it is, I'd like to think you can't do one without the other. But what do I know?

Zane Caplansky: Still king of the deli

Sunday afternoon at the Wychwood Barns.  Caplansky's, Goldin's and The Stockyards. Not optimum conditions, I grant you, but this is where we separate the delimeisters from the dilettantes.  This is where you get to show us what you've got.

Gentlemen ... start your smokers

For all his Zen-inspired approach to the competition, Caplansky still rules -- in this observer's view at least.  Tender, moist, fatty ... melts in your mouth.

Goldin's might be worth a couple more tries, though.  A little chewier than Caplansky's.  Leaves an interesting afterburn from the spice.  Not unpleasant. Until recently they didn't do retail but apparently they're now supplying the Free Times Cafe.

Naturally, the scientific method requires rigorous analysis and a devotion to the most rational and comprehensive forms of data collection.  Proof, yet again, of why any effort to do away with the long-form approach is misguided.  This is very demanding research, after all.