The Great Burbank Deli Hunt - Part 1

Greetings Readers!

I am very excited to start this week's blog because it is part one in a series of entires that will focus on sandwiches in the town of Burbank, CA.

For those of you who don't live in the area, Burbank is home to studios like NBC and Warner Bros. as well as many other production companies. Despite being a hub of the industry in the Valley, it is also a quiet suburban town with a tight-knit community.

I've visited a few places in Burbank for this blog in the past, but this trip was going to be different. It began when I was contacted by Bryan Mahoney (@818newguy on Twitter) who writes the column Burb's Eye View for the Burbank Leader. We decided that we join forces and take on various delis and their sandwiches in Burbank, giving us insight not only into what sandwiches are popular there, but also giving us a chance to meet some of the colorful characters that make up this great part of Los Angeles.

For our first stop, we visited a well known mom-and-pop deli called Otto's Hungarian Import Store and Deli tucked away on a quiet street corner.

Besides a wide variety of meats, cheeses, import beers and other deli offerings, Otto's also stocks a number of European sweets that tempted me during our visit. Most notable Kinder Happy Hippos. It was hard not to buy a box of them, but then that would ruin the first leg of our trip.

On suggestion from the owner, we ordered the Otto's Special. This sandwich is a true meat lovers sandwich. Ham, bologna, forest ham and three different types of salami all packed in a long Italian roll with Swiss cheese and Hungarian peppers.

Wow.

All of the meat was very fresh and bursting with flavor. Despite all of the competing flavors though, you could easily tell each of the meats apart from the other, and without the combination becoming overpowering. It was amazing, as I had half expected it to just be a singular combined flavor. Even with all of the filling, the roll stayed intact until the end, never once yielding to the massive amount of meat inside.

It was great.

While the sandwich was delicious, the owner added to the enjoyment of this stop. He talked to us about the history of Otto's, suggested numerous options for our sandwich, and even presented us with slices of Hungarian sausage to sample and a lotto ticket for each.

Otto's is known in the neighborhood as Otto's Lotto because of the large number of people who have won after buying their tickets from them. I was not so lucky with my ticket.

So, if you love Hungarian food, or are just looking for a superb deli in the Burbank area, you would be best served to head to Otto's whenever you can (they're closed on Sundays though). The delicious sandwiches, fresh deli meats, world beers and European sweets will appeal to everyone with good taste.

That's all for this week, dearest Readers. Join me again next week as Bryan and I take on another local deli in Burbank!

(For Bryan's article on our Burbank sandwiching, click here.)


Otto's Special
**** Stars
Otto's Hungarian Import Store and Deli (closed on Sundays)
2320 West Clark Avenue
Burbank, CA 91506
http://www.hungariandeli.com/