David Sax knew the Rascal House was dying.

``The pastrami was cut the wrong way and it was cold,'' he said. ``The matzo ball soup was flavorless.''

Soon, the deli would indeed be dead, shuttered by owners looking to put something else on their land. And with it, a once-thriving piece of South Florida culture would die, too.

As a lifelong lover of Jewish delicatessens, Sax set out on a three-year journey to chronicle the state of corned beef, chopped liver and chicken fat across the United States and beyond.

The author will be in South Florida on Sunday to read from and speak about his new book, Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen (Houghton Mifflin, $24).

He'll make a stop at 11 a.m. at 3G's Gourmet Deli, 5869 W. Atlantic Ave. in Delray Beach before his 6 p.m. appearance at Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave. in Coral Gables.

What Sax found during his deli-go-round wasn't good news for corned beef on rye. Demographic shifts and the cost of doing business have put delis on the endangered list -- even in New York.

And in South Florida, many of the best-known delis have bitten the dust: Pumpernik's, Corky's, Wolfie's, Arnie and Richie's -- and last year, ``Florida's grandest deli,'' the Rascal House in Sunny Isles Beach, which opened in 1954.

What's left? A handful of genuine Jewish delis in New York and mostly combo bagel bakery-delis dotting the strip malls of South Florida.

Yet Sax remains hopeful that the bastions of brisket will rise once again.

The deli sandwich, he said, is part comfort food, part `work of art'' -- and plays into the slow-food movement with its spicing and steaming and slicing and scent.

``People still want to eat this,'' Sax said. ``A world without deli is a world I don't want to live in.''

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