I want to move to NYC simply to experience the vast array of culinary experiences you can find there.
That very thought crossed my mind recently. Last week I visited an elderly aunt there and unfortunately, one of the visits conflicted with a reservation another aunt had made for Peter Luger Steak House, which has been on my list of places to eat for a long while. I love my aunts and as the one was recovering from a recent surgery, the choice was a no brainer. I'll admit though, that the dinner we ate at her place had me thinking thoughts of what might have been. Oh well, life is longer than ever and so there are more opportunities than ever before. Someday.
They have dry aged steak there omg I've wanted to try that for the longest time. Ugh but it looks like you can't choose how long the steak has been aged? I want to try the FUNKIEST. (Well like, a mid-range funky.) Hey, aren't we doing a meetup in NYC in 2014? ;)
Most beef sold as steak is dry aged for at least three weeks, but the dry-aging room at Peter Luger is especially well-known. I have a friend from South Africa who told me to take a whole Scotch fillet (or what I'd call a rib-eye) and hang it in my fridge for a few weeks until the outside turns black, then to slice it and cook it for the best steak. I guess that's the basic dry-aging right there. I didn't do it though, as I had a really small fridge, but I do wonder.
I have a large fridge, and it's mostly for show (when I bought the place I live there was a spot built in for a certain size fridge, so that's what I bought). However, if you were to open it, you'd find various sorts of mustard, some sparkling water, beer and sake, and literally nothing else but a whole lot of emptiness. Recently I went to a restaurant that served duck prosciutto, a dish I'd never heard of but that blew me away. It got me thinking about trying to age my own meats, since I have the space. I think it might be a really fun hobby. From what I've read, it doesn't seem that difficult. I might give it a whirl.
I've heard that duck prosciutto is supposed to be really great. I've also wondered about aging or curing my own meats, in particular, salamis. There are a whole lot of great European cured meats that are not allowed into the U.S. because of the FDA, so I think it would be a good way to make use of one's free time. Do you have a good source for duck?
I live close to a couple reputable butchers, so I'm assuming that they would be able to get whatever I requested. I'm not certain, though. From what I've read, the key to transforming an ordinary fridge into a curing fridge is a humidity regulator and humidifier. Apparently, the humidity needs to be kept around 50%, give or take. I have no idea what the humidity of my refrigerator normally is. Also, I've read different things about nitrates and nitrites, some saying they're perfectly safe in the quantities that are needed for curing, while others say you can cure fine without them, so why risk it.
I'd heard that humidity was key too. A good butcher is hard to find (near me anyway) but the one I do go to has some truly amazing stuff. For example, tomahawk rib steak. Here's a visual of a chef cooking one. Interested as I am in my health and the welfare of animals, I simply will not give up eating meat unless I absolutely have to.
Holy hell that looks amazing. I've never even heard of a rib steak. I must have one. I'm going on a mission. Finishing a steak in the oven is interesting. What temperature do you set the oven to? And for how long to bring it to temp? I'm a rare steak eater. I see anything else as ruining an otherwise delicious meal.
I'm with you on the rare. In this article there is another slideshow where a different chef also cooks one. On one of the slides it says that it's finished in a 350F oven. I have yet to cook one myself, so if you do complete your mission, I really hope you'll snap a few pictures and do a little write up!
From what I have read there is a big difference between wet-aged and dry-aged steak. Wet aging does not do anything for texture or flavor - but a lot of steak advertised as "aged" is wet-aged as opposed to dry-aged. Dry aging (ageing?) takes two commodities: devoted space and time. It will rack up the price of a steak. I have read about dry-aging steak at home, and was daunted by the suggestions the articles I read made. Things like having a mini-fridge devoted just to dry aging - putting a fan in the fridge to ensure proper circulation of air - and so on. It seemed like a bigger investment than I was willing to put into it. Perhaps your friend's suggestion is the down-and-dirty method. Maybe it is quite effective. I do know that you should start with a cut of steak that is bigger than what you'd like to end up eating, as you'll lose some meat to dessication, and that steak with bones is better than steak without (you'll lose less meat, I think). I don't think the steak you get at chains like Texas Roadhouse or Outback or similar places is dry-aged. It's more of a high-end, Peter Luger's sort of thing.
I read that those places got in trouble for fabricating filet mignon. As in, they'd take lesser cuts of meat and use meat glue and molds to create filet mignon. So, yeah I think you're right that they don't serve dry-aged steak!I don't think the steak you get at chains like Texas Roadhouse or Outback or similar places is dry-aged.
Oh my god that's awful. Going to look into it. Maybe that's what my roommate last year meant when he was talking about places that would slap together different slices of meat using "meat glue" and sell you them under different labels. I was quite confused because anything you buy at the supermarket, you can clearly see what cut it is and you'd be able to tell if that had happened!
It's difficult though, because how do you get away from this: to something authentic but not pure firewater? Is there a way you can ask for dishes to be "less sweet"? I know I am sick of Thai sauces being like a sort of sugary mild chilli syrup (here in Australia).if I don't ask for my grub Thai spicy they'll shower it in sweet sauce and peanuts, or even worse—pineapples.
I don't know. If there's a Thai place you tend to go most often, you might get to know the servers or owners a bit and see if they can recommend something that you'd really enjoy. There's a whole lot of Thai food that doesn't make it to restaurants outside of the country. It's too bad that there is such a narrow selection of cuisines in many countries. In the US, we have Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai predominantly for Asian (or most often, Asian-esque) food. I'd love to see more Khmer or Lao food, or restaurants representing different regions of countries, rather than the pan-Chinese or pan-Thai restaurants I see most often.
The idea that, by ordering things as hot as I could get it, I would get the most authentic experience was always a circumspect argument to me. That being said, I still fell for that line of thinking on occasion, especially when I went out with one of my mexican or asian friends who would tell me I didn't know what spicy was. It kind of becomes a dick measuring contest, and sometimes our inner competitive nature gets the best of us.
Yeah, I hear that. To be fair though, as far as heat goes, I have seen lots of local people measuring dicks in this fashion in several countries too. "Authenticity" is a weird thing to lust after and I would count myself as someone that has perhaps lusted after the authentic more than some. Cuisines are often adapted to local tastes for good reason. If a particular locale's foodways don't include a lot of fish, then those funky, fishy flavors probably won't go over too well. Thus, we get things like sushi rolls (think Dragon Roll, Spider Roll, etc.), which are delicious, but not exactly traditional Japanese-in-Japan fare. That's not to say that it's "inauthentic". It very well may be that it's something a population of Japanese have developed and eat in a country of residence. That said, a lot of people eat food from far-flung cuisines to have a little adventure and of course, a little fun. What really resonated with me was when the writer mentioned the tray of seasonings to adjust dishes. Eating out is all about personal preference and finding ways to adjust dishes to one's personal preferences is very much part of an authentic experience, in my opinion.It kind of becomes a dick measuring contest, and sometimes our inner competitive nature gets the best of us.
This article definitely resonated with me, too. I wasn't disparaging the author (didn't want it to sound that way).