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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Omaha
Hot rye bread sandwich with slices of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing, grilled on a griddle until the cheese melts. Omaha claims its creation at a city hotel in the 1920s.
Traditional dish from Omaha, Nebraska
Also known as: Reuben
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Reuben sandwich — Omaha, the United States
The Reuben is a layered rye bread sandwich: thin slices of corned beef, the cured and cooked beef, Swiss cheese, drained sauerkraut and Russian dressing, a creamy mix of mayonnaise with ketchup or a hot sauce. The sandwich is grilled with butter until the bread is crispy and the cheese melts.
Omaha, Nebraska, claims the creation. The story told there says the sandwich was born in the 1920s at an elegant Omaha hotel during a weekly poker game: one of the players, merchant Reuben Kulakofsky, asked for something different, and the kitchen combined corned beef, sauerkraut and cheese on rye. The hotel owner reportedly put the sandwich on the menu under the customer’s name.
New York has another version that credits a delicatessen in the city, and the dispute was never settled. In Omaha, the Reuben is treated as a local dish and appears on the menus of bars, pubs and restaurants, many in Midtown near the old hotel building.
There are known variations: with pastrami instead of corned beef, with turkey, or with coleslaw instead of sauerkraut.
Omaha , Nebraska
Rye bread, thin-sliced corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and butter for grilling.
Hot, cut in half, with French fries or chips and a pickle on the side.
Year-round, at lunch or dinner.
Your questions
Omaha claims it was created at a city hotel in the 1920s. New York has another version, and the dispute continues.
Rye bread, corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing, grilled on a griddle.
The Reuben has corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing and is grilled; the pastrami on rye is just pastrami on rye bread with mustard.
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Thick stew of chicken, lima beans, corn and tomato, cooked for hours in iron pots. The Virginia General Assembly points to Brunswick County as the place of origin, in a long-standing dispute with Georgia.
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