RESTAURANT REVIEW : Deli’s Good Name Sealed With a Knish

You wouldn’t go to Scranton for a good Philadelphia cheese steak, any more than you’d go to Staten Island for a Coney Island hot dog. But you might get lucky and find one in those places, anyway. Similarly, it’s a joy to find Brent’s, a gem of a deli far away from the center of Los Angeles’ Jewish community--in the confines of the northwest Valley yet.

To paraphrase a Yiddish expression, “Excuse me, but she doesn’t look like much.” It’s not an especially attractive place. For one thing, the counter is one of the homeliest ever designed--a glittery, blue-green monstrosity made even less attractive by the placement of enormous plastic cake holders. Light green vinyl banquettes await you beneath garish coffee-shop lighting, with those swap meet fans twirling just overhead. It’s not exactly quiet in here, either. You should have a headache like mine.

But go at any peak deli time--Friday lunch, Saturday dinner or Sunday breakfast--and you’d better be prepared to put your name on a list, cram yourself into the narrow space between the cash register and the takeout counter and be patient. People come here to eat, and that’s something you do in style at Brent’s.

I found that out even before I got seated. The counterman must have thought I looked hungry, so he let me put an unheated meat knish on my check and I promptly divided the food among four standees. I’ve been eating knishes since I was 4, but the one at Brent’s has to be the meatiest I’ve ever tasted. It’s super dense and heavy, with a red-colored filling that I’d swear is about 50% corned beef. The standees agreed that it was a knish’s knish.

Try one of the homemade soups and you’ll be equally convinced. There’s a sweet-and-sour cabbage soup with chunks of beef that tastes like a liquefied version of a Yiddishe momma’s cabbage roll, and a kreplach soup that could choke a horse. Its giant matzo ball looks like a bowling ball, but it’s reasonably light and fluffy, with a delicious eggy aftertaste.

Order a sandwich and it comes on good rye bread with a side of fresh, snappy pickles loaded up with garlic and dill. There are squeeze bottles of Beaver’s Hot and Sweet mustard.

The corned beef is the star performer--sliced a bit thin for a real aficionado, but magically lean and crumbly. The meat has the subtle taste of clove and cracked pepper, and the counterman piles it obscenely high. The pastrami, on the other hand, I find a bit on the greasy side. Maybe I’m getting old. As to the roast turkey, it’s kind of dry, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say, “feh.”

Now, if you’re really serious about your deli encounter, you can order one of Brent’s complete dinners, served, like everything else on the menu, all day. Now you’re talking appetizers on the order of wonderful marinated herring, unctuous chopped chicken liver, a choice of soup or salad, an enormous plateful of meat and side dishes, and finally bread pudding, Jell-O or the like for dessert.

Even my mother would have put up her hands at the sight of Brent’s hot brisket of beef plate. The brisket is tasty, but otherwise dryish and unremarkable, again sliced on the thin side. It’s the accompaniments that get you.

The kishka --or stuffed derma, as many menu writers feel compelled to say--has the specific density of molten lead: a sausage casing filled with flour, carrot meal, chopped onion and chicken grease. (Yes, it is an acquired taste.) On the same plate come farfel--tiny dumplings made from ground unleavened bread--and Brent’s delicious potato pancake. Rich with onion and fried crisp, it affects you pretty much as an anchor affects a battleship. Finally comes cherry-flavored applesauce.

There aren’t a whole lot of lighter dinners, either. The half roast chicken must use bionic chickens; this is about the biggest half chicken you’ll ever see, cooked moist and juicy. The description “stuffed cabbages” ought to be taken literally--it looks as if they use whole ones. Only the cheese blintzes, though no spa cuisine dish, show a little compassion . . . and lightness.

If you go for dessert and coffee in midafternoon, mountainous layer cakes and slices of bundt cake await you. I actually tasted the 15-layer coconut cake, with alternating layers of strawberry and apricot jam and a butter cream, egg white frosting, plus the dense pistachio bundt cake, after my brisket plate one evening.

Whew!

Suggested dishes: meat knish, $2.25; matzo ball soup, $2.75; stuffed kishka and farfel, $4.95; hot corned beef sandwich, $6.50.

Brent’s, 19565 Parthenia St., Northridge, (818) 886-5679. Breakfast, lunch and dinner 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. No alcoholic beverages. Parking lot. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $15-$30.