the great pastrami pick-up

Yesterday a friend of ours from Cleveland, “F,” was in town for business meetings. J’s mom lives in Cleveland, and we asked her send the friend to Omaha with a stash of pastrami and corned beef, two deli meats you just can’t find out here. Shortly before 2pm I received a call from F letting me know that he was heading to his first meeting and would be about 5 minutes West of where I live. He gave me the make and model of his rental car and told me he would leave the car unlocked so that I could go into the backseat for the goods. My instructions were to lock the doors when I was finished.

Feeling as though I was about to take part in a covert drug sale, I pulled up next to the silver PT Cruiser and climbed into the empty car. I took the brown bag of food, leaving the canvas tote it was in and the ice pack that was keeping it cold. Mission accomplished. I locked the car and made my way back home, only to discover in my kitchen that the brown bag contained bagels and rye bread. Where was the beef? It was then that I realized the ice pack was not actually an ice pack but a hot/cold bag keeping the meat fresh. Dang it! I had already locked the car; there was no going back. F was already in his meeting; there was no way to get in touch with him. What to do, what to do?

J’s mom and I both called F’s cell phone knowing that he wouldn’t answer but hoping that he’d at least see our missed calls. Sure enough, when F was out of his meeting, he called me back to give me the location of his next appointment, this time 5 minutes South East of my house. By now it was thunderstorming in Omaha, but I jumped back into the SUV and drove to pick-up location number 2. At this point I was feeling a bit ridiculous. I was chasing after 2lbs of meat in the pouring rain. But once I had the precious cargo in my hands, I realized it was so worth it. Dinner was delicious. We even had Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda and Black Cherry soda to compliment our traditional Jewish deli sandwiches. 

What type of food would you go out of your way to get? 

(via flickr)