The Pastrami Dilemma  Problem number one: To make old-timey
pastrami, the way the original preindustrial New Yorkers did it,
you have to use the navel: a fatty belly cut akin to bacon on a
hog. It's got thick streaks of fat that ensure the meat stays
moist.  At Saul's, a New York–style Jewish deli in Berkeley,
California, co-owner Peter Levitt learned it's nearly impossible
to use navel without going broke. Levitt, a former Chez Panisse
chef, makes some essential deli products in-house: sodas,
pickles, kreplach. But when it came to pastrami, the traditional
ingredients were out of reach. The navel used to be a cheap cut
of meat. Nowadays it's expensive, thanks to demand from Asia.
(In China and South Korea, the navel is prized.) Adding to his
problems was Levitt's desire to find sustainably raised
navel—after all, Michael Pollan is a regular at Saul's.  For a
few weeks, while he was trying to locate the right navel, Levitt
took pastrami off the menu. A Jewish deli without pastrami? You
can imagine how well th