REVIEW: Moscow Deli, Costa Mesa
What do you think of when you think "sausage sandwich"?
Do you think of a fennel-scented sweet Italian sausage lovingly dolloped with marinara sauce, sauteed onions and peppers?
Do you think of a choripan, with spicy chorizo stuffed into a bolillo roll and topped with garlicky chimichurri?
Do you think of a kielbasa link, smothered in sauerkraut, with hot mustard?
I don't.
All I can think about right now when I think "sausage sandwich" is the Odessa sandwich at Moscow Deli in Costa Mesa. I didn't really know what to expect. I mean, the place is a market (here we go again with the best sandwiches from markets!) and the description is very obviously translated directly from the Russian ("Odessa sausage, salad leafs, tomatoes, Odessa sauce, onions"). I was expecting a whole hot (temperature hot) sausage on a roll with lettuce, tomatoes, some kind of sauce and onions. For the price -- $5.99, all the sandwiches are $5.99, $7.99 if you add a tub of one of their delectable-looking Russian-style salads -- I expected one link and the dreaded empty-bun problem.
Ohhhhhhhh no. Oh no no no no no no, my friends, as sandwich value goes this is second in Central OC only to the ubiquitous banh mi.
First of all, it took her ten minutes to make. I felt badly because a couple in front of me had a basket of purchases (I did mention it's a market, didn't I?) but had to wait because there was only one employee in the store and she was busy making me...
...the biggest sausage sandwich I've ever seen. Odessa sausage is apparently a slightly spicy sort of hard salami, very obviously mixed meat (beef and pork), with lots of little chunks of fat in it. The reason it took her 10 minutes to make it was because the sandwich was 5 inches tall, 3 inches of which was very thinly sliced, cold Odessa sausage. The other two inches were marinated leaves (cabbage? lettuce?), tomatoes, very thinly Frenched onions and "Odessa sauce" on spongy Polish rye bread.
I don't know what Odessa sauce is. I don't CARE what Odessa sauce is as long as I can have more of it. (I think it was a mustard-mayonnaise mixture but I don't know). The sandwich was absolutely enormous and it knocked my socks off. It somehow managed to scratch my pastrami nerve and my kielbasa nerve and my salami nerve, ALL AT ONCE. It was ABSOLUTELY F***ING AMAZING and if I thought I could manage another 35 miles on my bike to work it off I'd be out the door to go get another one, right now.
And the BREAD! The bread is right! It's crusty and spongy and slightly sour but not as sour as Jewish rye and it holds together and best of all it's for sale right as you walk in the place!
The one thing that weirded me out was the service. She's so NICE! I've BEEN to Russia. I know what Russian service is like. This is NOT Russian service, it's far too helpful, even after I started speaking Russian to her.
There are other sandwiches -- a bacon sandwich, a ham sandwich, a beef liver pate sandwich. The menu includes pelmeniki (little dumplings), it includes vareniki (little steamed, um, pies is the best way to describe them), it includes zrazy (that's stuffed latkes to the Jewish world), it includes some absolutely scrumptious-looking cabbage rolls. There's a series of homemade-looking Russian cakes in a display, and poppy-seed rullyet (sort of a jelly roll with sweet butter dough and poppy-seed filling), and of course the market has everything you need to make a Russian meal or even a truly impressive set of zakuski ("things you eat when drinking vodka"), smoked fish and pickled vegetables and frozen pelmeni or khinkali and fifty kinds of charcuterie and ten kinds of cheese and...
...you NEED to go get this Odessa sandwich because it will blow your SOCKS off. Ignore "Empanada's Place" on the visible end of the strip mall (the empanadas at El Gaucho #2 are better) but seek this place out. I'm throwing this review up having eaten exactly three things at the place but just on the basis of the Odessa sandwich, the zrazy and the pelmeni, GO already.
By Das Ubergeek
on Jul 6, 2009 04:33 PM
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Four items: a makomskii pierog (also known as a makomskii rullyet), which is sort of a flat sweet bread rolled with poppy seed filling. It's dry (it's supposed to be dry, you're supposed to eat it with tea or coffee), and it is one of the tastes of my youth.
They have several... this one was in front of the cash register, displaying its coffeecakey love right in front of everyone. YUM.
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I never tried the sandwiches, but next time you go try the frozen chocolate covered "cheesecake" bars in the freezer section. There's one brand that stands heads and shoulders above the rest, but I can't remember which one it is (so I always by one of each). Quite good.
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Hi Das,
You're on a roll. :) Thanks for another great review. So would you say the Odessa Sandwich should be shared by 2 people? (You said it's 5 inches high??) :)
Also, would you recommend the pelmeniki there? Thanks.
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Went to the Deli the other day. The beef chopped liver is very good. It must be n=made from calves liver, because there is no bitterness to it. The side serving of chopped liver is enough for 3-4 people. It is served with some very nice browned onions on top. The toasted rye bread is dense and perfect for. the liver.
The beet borscht is tasty but there is a huge amount of dill in it. Not like grandma used to make.
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Das, I posted this a while back - what took you so long to go? ;-)
Did you ever get to the Great Dane Bakery?
Moscow Deli:
This is a great little OC secret! It's a lot of fun just to go in and wander about! This place has more than just Russian food - you'll find teas, and vegetables (in jars) you've never seen before, plus grain products, hot "Comrade" style mustard, frozen pierogies that you boil (Russian housewive's favorite quick dinner meal) and lots of unique cakes, and fresh breads. The deli counter runs along 2 walls and behind the counter at the back of the store are samovars (Russian tea makers) and those unique Russian guitars on display. Lots of different deli meats to try you're unlikely to find elsewhere. One of those few unique places along a boulevard of mostly cookie-cutter (franchise) eateries.
By the way, it's easier than finding a place to eat in Moscow, Russia. Where coffee can cost $7 a cup and might still be stirred Nescafe . . .
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I know you did -- but my flirtations with Costa Mesa are typically just going to Marukai for fish or seafood and leaving again, especially now that Kean is open in Tustin. I happened to be down there dropping off my entries in the Fair and I had to go to Target anyway, so I stopped for a sandwich. I did remember your post though!
I still haven't been to the Great Dane, though I did go to Hygge downtown.
And those Russian guitars are called balalaikas (the triangular ones) and domras (the oval ones).
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Thanks, Das, for your input. I found, and walked around the place about a year ago, and didn't buy anything. They were fairly busy, so I couldn't strike up conversation--and left. I wanted to have a reason to return--now I will. My kids never know what I'll bring home for dinner. Wait till they get Borscht and Sausage Sandwich. Cheers to your health, kids!!! It's good to enjoy it while you have it. An occasional Russian treat sounds good. Again, thanks.
--TheBC
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I was happy to see that they carry Adamba brand soup mixes. When I was doing two-a-days in high school I used to carry a bunch of those packets with me, mix with hot water between classes, and drink a litre or so of borshch or krupnik to keep me going. (Ah, youth.)
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Good Lord!
Two lunch buddies & myself ensconced ourselves inside the Moscow Deli today for a meal fit for a King...a VERY hungry King with like15 mouths to feed. O M G ! We asked about a couple of the side salads & moments later, the nice lady behind the counter set up an amazing tasting plate of about 6 different ones, all of them fresh & abso killer. I got the Odessa on dark rye, with the mixed veg side salad, consisting of small dice tomatoes, beets, potato, and peas in a tasty astringent dressing.
But ..the Odessa.....sliced kielbasa, tomato, kind of a coleslaw, and......and..Odessa Sauce! (Eggplant & garlic), all on that lovely russian rye. The thing is humongous, yet I cannot stop eating...and eating. My friend had the same on the white bread, & the thing was even bigger than mine (although I had a bite, and prefer the "tooth" & flavor of the firmer dark bread.)
This place is a treasure...we will be back again soon! Thanks for posting the review.
Did I mention Odessa Sauce?
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After reading your review, I persuaded a colleague to pick up some sandwiches for us when I heard she had an errand nearby. She and I split an Odessa and a German (essentially Wiener sausages sliced long), both on the rye. The German was good but the Odessa was every bit as wonderful as you claimed! Both sandwiches were messy as hell to eat, though--we probably went through more napkins than was environmentally friendly--particularly the German.
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LOL...it was the same way with me. By the time I was done, my pile of used napkins approached Embarassment Level. They really need a roll of paper towels on the tables.
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Went again yesterday as a foursome and tried the sandwiches this time. Had everything packed to go home, where we heated up the borscht. Enjoyed the Odessa sandwich, very good but not quite the Nirvana experience I was expecting - maybe I'm missing some tastebuds? Not sure why it took 15 minutes to make (we ordered 2, and 2 other sandwiches for friends; theirs arrived at the counter in about half the time, but were ordered first) but they are definitely belly-busters! Very tasty and moist.
Divided up the pint of borscht (REALLY GOOD! No dill detected today, Slowfoodie!) - and we all enjoyed the touch of meat. Enjoyed it more than the borscht we had in Russia. Asked for some sour cream as we did not have any at home and it was carefully added to the bag in its own small container. The deli tray marked "potato salad" is really a minced vegetable salad with hard cooked egg and tiny cubed potato - we got a pint which was plenty for four, and a smaller container of the eggplant and mushroom salad. Despite its rather dismal appearance (brown with black flecks) it was quite tasty - pretty zippy, somewhat like the zing you get from horseradish, though not that potent. Enjoyed the leftover (eggplant and mushroom) salad this morning along side a red pepper and sausage and egg scramble - perfect accompaniment!
Our friends insisted on buying a 2 liter bottle of "Russian soda" - tempted by the Deli's clerk who told him it was made from wheat. It's called Pohmilny Kvas (those are the nearest English letters to the Cyrillic ones on the "English" side). The brown plastic bottle has an intriguing label, with a blue-eyed man with beard and mustache, and a band across his forehead, looking much more ancient Scandinavian or perhaps Druid than Russian. On closer inspection, the bottle reads "Product of Ukraine" - which makes perfect sense - Ukraine being the "bread basket of Eastern Europe." This beverage turned out to be quite a nice surprise. Though non-alkaholic (but made with malt) it is not overly sweet, rather quite similar to the old Vernor's soda.
Das mentioned the cabbage rolls - didn't try them - looked less than perky. Decided to stick with the wonderful cabbage rolls at Katella Deli for the time being. Enjoyed everything else though, and our friends were fascinated by all the different things to look at. Recommendation: order sandwhiches first thing, then stroll around while you're waiting. You'll probably find several other things to add to your shopping bag.
We were there around 5:30 p.m. on a Saturday and had the entire staff at our service for most of the time.
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I went there yesterday as well. I had the Odessa, Borscht and an order of Vereniki with the cheese and sour cream. Everything as delicious. The bread could have been a bit fresher and I am not sure if I would have them put the iceberg lettuce next time. All in all a fun experience.
FYI. Russian seltzer water is a very different product then American. Yikes...it was like drinking flat Alka Seltzer.
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Glad you enjoyed the deli!
BTW, the soda didn't taste like seltzer water to me. Have you ever had Vernor's? It reminded me of that. Sort of like a less sweet more potent ginger ale or even a Dr. Pepper's. I just re-opened the bottle and it still had a fizz.
I will have to try the Vereniki next. Thanks for the tip. I know they have Stollen before the Christmas holidays. What other holiday foods do they have seasonally, and when? Anyone know?
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