I was really blown away by some of the designs Clint was making. There are some really intricate patterns and genuine artistry in these beautiful cutting boards and chopping blocks.
A few weeks later, he messaged me and asked if I would like one. FUCK YES I WOULD! I love how Instagram brings people together.
He made me one of his really amazing brick designs that made my jaw drop, and shipped it out to me.
Each block comes ready to rock, and with a nice letter from Clint and simple instructions for how to care of the piece.
I love the metal emblem of his brand on the side too. Really classy, nice looking stuff.
I was so excited to tell you guys about this gorgeous craftsmanship that I haven’t even used it yet. I can’t wait. I’m sure you’ll be seeing it in tons of my home cooked steak pics in the future.
This joint was PACKED on a Friday evening when my wife and I came in for a quick bite. There’s another joint named Excellent Dumpling House in Chinatown. It has yet to be determined whether this is owned by the same folks.
Anyway, I was fighting off a cold, so I ordered a bowl of chicken dumpling noodle soup. It was pretty great, especially with some of their spicy chili oil.
I also tasted some of my wife’s soup dumplings, which were.. shall I say… excellent? Ha! Maybe. I mean they were constructed properly, cooked nicely… no ripping… But perhaps I haven’t had enough XLBs to really say what is excellent or just above average.
EXCELLENT DUMPLING HOUSE
165 W 23rd St
New York, NY 10011
Me and the butchers put together a nice bundle just in time for the big game. Five pounds of wagyu burgers (ten individual half-pound patties) and three one-pound packs of thick cut Duroc bacon for just $74.99 (discounted from $94.92 for you damn animals).
This wagyu is ground fresh from whole muscle meat and sourced from a top shelf domestic Wagyu/Angus breeding program. This is not “Kobe-style” grocery store BS!
And of course, if you’ve had my Duroc bacon in the past, you know just how sick it is.
Get on it, guys! Your eight pounds of heaven is RIGHT HERE! Order now so you can impress your friends on game day.
Chouchou (pronounced “shoe-shoe”) is a relatively new (eight months old) Moroccon restaurant in Alphabet City. The name is a French term of endearment; a word that you might use to refer to your spouse, like “babe,” “doll face,” or “sweet tits.” Actually I think it translates more easily to “little love” or something. But I wanted to use the word “tits” there somehow, because I talk about breasts quite a bit in this review.
In any case, the restaurant is cozy inside, and decorated in such a way that it transports you to the middle east. With cavernous archways on the ceiling and faux-ancient stone walls, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped off the streets of NYC and into a quaint, rustic and romantic dining space in Morocco. Even the sweet mint tea that they serve in small glass cups smacks of authenticity.
The place boasts a very impressive wine menu, which can be seen via PDF HERE. They also have a small selection of really deliciously described craft beers.
The first thing that struck me about this joint, aside from the amazing decor, was the simplicity and focus of the food menu. There are a handful of couscous dishes and a handful of tagine dishes, utilizing largely the same set of proteins: chicken, lamb chops, kefta (seasoned meatballs), merguez (spicy lamb sausage), lobster, a veggie option, etc.
I came to learn that this is how Moroccans traditionally eat: a basic array of starters; some sort of meat item, either with couscous or slow cooked in a tagine; and simple desserts. I like it.
Each entree comes with a collection of starters or mezes included in the price.
Warm pita bread with baba ganoush, hummus, shakshuka, and harissa-spiced almonds, to be precise. Of these, my favorite was the hummus (left of the pita).
While I don’t believe the tagine dishes are actually cooked in tagines (health department and fire codes likely prevent this in NYC), they are presented in beautiful decorative tagines.
I tried the savory lemon and olive chicken tagine, as well as the sweeter prune and lamb tagine. Both were great. The chicken tagine came with a generous half chicken, bone-in. The skin was crisp, and the meat was tender and juicy – with the exception of the breast meat, which was slightly dry in parts. It happens.
I think if tagine cooking were happening in NYC, dry knockers would be a less likely outcome. Tented, closed-vessel cooking preserves juiciness and airborne vapors, while oven cooking involves a dry heat. That being the case, perhaps a Dutch oven technique would be better for these dishes.
While I enjoyed the savory flavors of the chicken tagine better than the sweet-ish flavors of the lamb tagine, I liked the juiciness and succulence of the lamb better. It was almost like a braise, perfectly cooked to fall-off-the-bone tenderness. No dryness whatsoever.
The couscous dishes come with a beautiful plate of couscous, your desired choice of protein, and a bowl of stew juice that contains potatoes, beef, lamb and peppers.
I tried the mixed protein option, called “royal.” This came with chicken, lamb chop, kefta and merguez.
All of the meats were good and juicy, again with the exception of the chicken being a bit dry in the jugs. But when you mix the meats together with the stew juice and couscous, there’s not much to worry about in terms of dry mammaries. It was delicious.
Desserts here are made in house, and consist of a variety of traditional Moroccan pastries and cookies. I was only able to try two – an almond pastry and an orange flavored cookie – but both were excellent.
Dry chicken hooters aside, I would definitely come back here again, and I highly recommend this place for a romantic date night. And again only parts of the chicken (boobs) were dry. The rest was perfect.
NOTE: A public relations professional invited me and a group of food writers to Chouchou to taste the food and review the place.
After having a discussion with some food pals about beef marbling scores for Japanese beef, I realized that there’s a lot of confusion surrounding the subject. As such, I figured it was time for a more detailed article about this shit. Here goes…
There are three things to understand when it comes to marbling scores:
In many ways quality and marbling overlap each other, since it usually follows that highly marbled beef is also high quality beef. But lets break it down here one at a time.
(1) The A-B-C’s of Yield
I like to think of this as the quantity component, as opposed to quality. A yield rating is a percentage figure that objectively describes the cutability of an animal, or the amount of the animal that can be harvested from a particular area of the carcass.
In particular, this score is determined by carefully measuring shit once a cut is made between the 6th and 7th rib, on the rib eye. The score is assigned after plugging four measurements taken at that cut into a “multiple regression equation.”
The four measurements are: rib eye area; rib thickness; cold left side weight; and subcutaneous fat thickness.
Raters score wagyu as either A, B or C in Japan. A has the highest yield, at 72% or more. B is 69-71%, and this is the most common yield. C is under 69%.
From a business and sales standpoint, it’s better to have higher yields on your animal. So A is better than C in many ways on that angle. For example, a carcass can get knocked down from A to B if the band of outer fat (not the marbling) is too thick, because it lowers the cutability yield (makes the actual rib eye meat smaller). Farmers and ranchers who raise the animals will want to select and breed for good yield traits.
From a consumer’s or diner’s standpoint, however, the yield isn’t, or shouldn’t really be, much of a concern. While a rating of A, B or C makes us instinctively think A is better than C, that would kinda be wrong in this case.
The C grade really just means that, before the meat got to our plate, more of the extrenal fat had to be trimmed away, the rib eye was small, or there was less of that particular cut of meat to harvest from the animal. Or something like that…
Wagyu.org
(2) Quality
Quality grades describe the meat’s marbling, color, brightness, firmness and texture. It also describes fat quality, color and luster. This score is assigned as a value of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest quality and 5 being the highest. A lot of detailed analysis goes into this score.
Wagyu.orgWagyu.org
As you can see, marbling, meat color and brightness, meat firmness and texture, and fat quality, color and luster are all evaluated on separate scales before being plugged into the overall quality score of 1-5. Pretty intense.
Some of the measurements are now starting to be done with cameras and digital image analysis software (like in the US), to more objectively determine the quality scores.
(3) Beef Marbling Standard (BMS)
The beef marbling stardard assigns a score to the meat based on how much intramuscular fat (IMF, or marbling) it has. It is scored from 1-12, with 1 being the least marbling and 12 being the most. Here is what that looks like:
Wagyu.orgWagyu.org
There is definitely some interplay and overlap here with the quality score, as marbling is a factor one must consider when assigning a quality score of 1-5 up above. But the BMS score is much a more specific look at the intramuscular fat. Here is the relationship between quality and BMS:
As you can see, a score of 5 covers a wide range when it comes to the BMS scale. BMS 8 is very different from BMS 12, yet they are both a 5 for quality.
You may be thinking, why the redundancy? Well, as I mentioned in the previous section, the quality also takes meat color, fat color, texture and other variables into account. BMS, again, is purely about the marbling.
But when I see “A5” on a menu, I want to know the BMS as well. I sell BMS 9 domestic wagyu strip for $75 a pound, whereas I sell BMS 12 Kobe for $200 a pound. Both would be considered a quality of 5. See how the BMS score just within the quality rating of 5 can drastically alter the price? Crazy.
Putting It All Together
Basically the best quality available is A5 BMS 12. The A means that there was very little junk on the animal, and it had a good-sized rib eye. The 5 means it’s the best when assessing all the variables relevant to quality, like color, texture and fat. And the 12 means that it has the most marbling.
But I wouldn’t shy away from B5 or C5 BMS 12 either. Remember the letter grade is more about quantity, at least it seems so to me, anyway. Actually, my sweet spot seems to be around BMS 8 or 9. Anything more than that is like foie gras. It tastes like a completely different protein.
Zeppelin Hall is a massive biergarten in Jersey City. They’re currently (through 2/4/18) celebrating BACONFEST, a glorious time when they roll out a special menu that features various preparations of bacon with influences from all over the world.
As you can see, there are a lot of bacon dishes. Here are the ones we tried:
Bacon Wrapped Tomahawk Steak
I mean let’s get right to it. This thing is fucking insane. It’s a three-pound of beef lollipop, wrapped in delicious maple bacon.
The bacon adds a nice sweetness to the dry-aged meat and compliments is in an unexpectedly nice way.
This is a must-try for any meat lover.
China
This braised pork belly dish still managed to have a really crispy skin on it. Excellent.
Mexico
Can’t go wrong with bacon tacos. These were perfect.
Argentina
Bacon Empanadas. These were fantastic, filled with bacon and cheese.
Australia
Bacon wrapped shrimp – always a crowd pleaser.
Canada
A country known only for it’s poutine, and no other significant contributions of society besides Jim Carrey, must be represented with strength and resolve. Excellent fries.
USA
A 100% bacon patty burger? Yes please. Just add sauce, as the patty can get dry when the bacon must be cooked completely through.
And of course, bacon mac and cheese. Our pride and joy.
Germany
Bacon and kraut. A nice combo.
Lebanon
Bacon wrapped pork skewers. Yes.
Other honorable mentions: Italy’s bacon bolognese sauce, and Venezuela’s bacon arepas. Both excellent.
That about does it. Get over here before February 4th and indulge.
ZEPPELIN HALL
88 Liberty View Dr.
Jersey City, NJ 07302
I discovered Perdinci Meats at a food show in the Javitz center. I contacted their representative because I was really blown away by the quality of their meats, especially the dried, cured pork loin, or lonza. They sent me a variety pack of sample meats, including salami, guanciale (pork cheek), pork belly, that delicious lonza, and some softer spreadables like nduja and finocchiola.
These babies were tucked away in my fridge for quite a while, and I was happy to see that they held up just fine and didn’t spoil with proper storage.
The lonza is still my favorite, but all of the other products are excellent. I highly recommend this stuff.
Domenica Fiore reached out to me to try their olive oil. I can always use an extra bottle of olive oil around the food lab, so I jumped at the opportunity. Here’s what they sent to me:
We used it for some sautéed broccolini and mixed it into a truffle sauce to eat with some black truffle stringozzi pasta. The result was awesome.
My wife really nailed it with that dish, and we were both very happy with the quality of the oil.
Grass Roots represents a nice, new and refreshing take on custom delivery meat boxes. They’re a farmers cooperative – meaning they’re a group of small, local, family-run farms who have pooled their products together in a sort of “virtual farmers market,” so to speak, where they sell their proteins. I know, I know… My more avid and beef-educated readers are pounding their fists into their desks in protest, shouting “but Johnny, you told us already that 97% of the 619,000 beef farms in this country are small, family owned operations with an average of 50 head of cattle!” True!
But here’s how Grass Roots is different: They’ve set themselves up as a very niche virtual farmers market, catering to the increasing market demand for grass-fed beef, pastured chicken and turkey, and forested pork. I only tried their beef (with the exception of the jowl bacon and deli ham), so I’ll speak directly to that for a moment.
While all beef is technically “grass-fed” (which can be a confusing turn of phrase), all of Grass Roots’ beef is 100% grass-FINISHED as well. That means no grains are in their diet. They also state on their website that their beef is GMO free, which would make sense, since no grass contains GMO that I know of. Grass Roots cattle are also never given antibiotics or growth hormones. One interesting thing I noticed is that when you order their ground beef, it is sourced from a single animal.
So Grass Roots contacted me and asked if I’d feature their products in exchange for a $100 credit to make my own box. I accepted! Here’s what I ordered:
Everything arrived vacuum sealed and frozen, packed in a really nice box that even contained a tote bag and some dry ice.
Here’s everything nicely labeled for you:
My order went over the $100 credit by about $12 or so, but I figured it was worth it to try everything that looked interesting to me. The first thing I cooked was their jowl bacon.
I loved it. It had a nice texture and a great flavor. Naturally, it went well with a cheeseburger.
But I did preserve the jowl fat for a later date, and even used some to fry up the onions for the top of the burger.
Waste nothing!
I threw the jowl bacon on some hot dogs too. Amazing. I split griddled them in some of that jowl fat first, as you might’ve imagined.
“Garnished with jowl bacon.”
I used some of that jowl fat to cook up a pair of their steaks too – a strip and a rib eye. I have to say, I was really impressed with the quality. If healthy, grass-finished lean beef is what you’re after, then this is definitely the place to get it.
I simply seasoned with salt and pepper, and seared these babies off in a pan with fresh garlic and rosemary.
Since the beef is lean and grass-finished, it cooks faster than usual, and you can go safely under, to somewhere between rare and medium rare.
I ate this with some wasabi, and it was perfect. I’m really looking forward to trying their sirloin, roasts, ribs, skirt and shanks. It’ll give me good reason to use my new Instant Pot.
Okay so the GIVEAWAY! Well, the giveaway is over now, but you can use code NEWYOU50 to get $50 off your first box!!!
And feel free to jump out to my Instagram post, like the photo, tag a friend in the comments, and follow both me and @GrassRootsCoop on Instagram!
Allen Brothers sent me a nice package of steaks to try out here at the Food Lab.
That’s their Exclusive Prime 16-Pack, which will run you about $230. It contains four of each for a total of 16 items: (1) 6oz prime burgers; (2) jumbo steak dogs; (3) 5oz boneless rib eyes; and (4) 6oz filets mignon.
They also offer some massive, real deal steakhouse style cuts like these from their Instagram ads:
I tried their porterhouse:
From what I understand they even supply some of these to well-known steakhouses and restaurants here in the city, so they’re not just home delivery.
Anyway let’s get down to business. You want to know if this shit is good! Okay so here we go – a review of each of the four items in the box.
The Rib Eye
While these are small at 5oz, they pack a nice amount of flavor from the intense prime-grade marbling. The best part is that you don’t have to mess around with any fancy cooking techniques to really nail them. Just sear in a hot pan with some butter or olive oil, maybe some garlic and herbs too for good measure.
The Filet Mignon
Same deal here. Small at 6oz, but really simple to cook and tons of great lean beefy flavor.
The Steak Dogs
Wow. These are amazing. When I first learned about Allen Brothers while hearing their radio ads, I immediately looked them up online and the first thing that jumped out to me were the images of these massive, juicy hot dogs. I wanted them so badly. Well here they are in all their glory, and I’m so glad I got to try them.
I decided to split griddle them, and add some pickles, jowl bacon, and jalapeños. Unbelievable!
The Burgers
At 6oz these are the perfect size for a really nice single patty burger.
I griddled with pepper.
Flipped and added three slices of American cheese.
Topped with jowl bacon and griddled jowl fat onions.
Assembled with pickled and jalapeños. Amazing
I really loved the burgers and dogs the most. I will be getting more of these babies for sure.
