Smoked meat -- also available at Nate's Delicatessen in Ottawa -- is beef brisket that is slow-cooked in a cooling bread oven (hence its traditional association with delicatessens that also produce bagels and rye bread) and then marinated in brine containing a complex (and generally secret) spice mix. A smoked meat sandwich is a thick stack of thinly sliced meat wedged between slices of light rye bread spread with mustard, served with a large kosher dill pickle and perhaps a paper cup of coleslaw with vinegar dressing. And a beer -- Molson's.

The smoked meat sandwich is a great work of proletarian art.