LA EATS: CANTER'S DELICATESSEN

Canter's is the best deli in LA for a nibble and nosh. No matter the occasion or freeway status, we've wound up here for a pastrami sandwich, matzoh ball soup and rugelah for the road since I was a kid. It's the closest thing we have to Katz's out here on the West Coast. It's a very large restaurant and what's best about these near-sacred grounds is that they've remained pretty untouched. Time has moved forward and Canter's has been on hold since some 1960s renovations (It opened in 1931).

The food is always hot, fast and delicious. My dining companions can never seem to pause to put their fork down or lick their fingers clean of all the cured meat juices. I stick with the matzoh ball soup, which seems to expand in my stomach triple fold every time I eat it, but it's so worth it! We always get the chocolate chip rugelah cookies, one of the more perfect pastries ever invented . . . My dad confessed he's been known to quarantine these puppies in the trunk and be forced to pull over on the highway to get at them during the drive home -- that's how good they are! TROUBLE.

If you're in Los Angeles and need some quality Jew food, step back in time through the hand-lettered painted glass doors of Canter's.

If you go:
Canter's Deli
419 N Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036