Tag Archives: beef

Midtown East, NY Strip, Other Cuts, Porterhouse, Press Reviews, Restaurant Week, Steakhouse Reviews

Michael Jordan’s

July 25, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Michael Jordan’s overall score: 84

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

My wife and I grabbed a quick lunch here for NYC restaurant week, summer 2016. The menu was pretty good for three courses at $29. Here were the selections:

Flavor: 7 (now 8)
I went with the strip steak for $10 additional.

It had a nice peppery crust, but was missing something in the flavor department. I’d guess this was likely a prime cut, or at the very least high choice, but definitely not aged. It was cooked nicely to medium rare from end to end, and it was juicy as well.

The corn salsa that came with it was a bit too heavily dressed with red wine vinegar or something. I wasn’t a fan.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8
They offer all four main cuts here. They also offer several selections with a bone, and without a bone. It would be good to see some aged selections, but they at least have some large format items. All of the beef is either prime or high choice, as far as I can tell.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions are good here. My steak was probably around the 14oz mark, boneless. So this is a good amount of food for the money. Plating is basic, with a touch of elegance. Not too much, though, as the tables are all covered in white paper. It’s not overboard.

Price: 8
We did the restaurant week lunch special, which I thought was a good deal. However, the regular prices here are pretty fair as well. If the cuts served on the standard menu are superior, this might have a better score, as everything is under $50 per person, per cut.

Bar: 8
The bar seemed to be split away from the dining area. As this joint is situated in Grand Central, they are constrained by where they can set up and what they can do. But since this spot is across from Cipriani Dolci, it is definitely a nice place to drink.

Specials and Other Meats: 7
Chicken and veal are your only non-beef, non-fish options here, as far as I can tell. Our waiter didn’t read any special cuts for us.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 7 (now 8)
We were limited here for what we could try on the restaurant week menu, but here’s a breakdown of what we had:

Caesar Salad: Nothing too amazing, and nothing bad. There was a generous amount of shredded cheese on this, which I liked.

Tomato & Mozzarella Salad: A bit skimpy on the mozzarella, but the balsamic on the tomatoes was excellent. I liked the addition of cucumbers to this salad, and the onions weren’t too potent in their raw form.

Cheesecake: Unfortunately, the strawberry shortcake listed on the menu above was replaced with cheesecake. However, the cheesecake wasn’t bad at all. It was creamy, without being overly sweet. It had a pop of lemon brightness to it as well.

Raspberry Sorbet: This was tasty and tart. I actually enjoyed it better when combined with a sliver of the cheesecake.

Seafood Selection: 7 (now 9)
There’s branzino, lobster, tuna, salmon and swordfish here. That’s a good showing. My wife picked the salmon from the restaurant week menu. She ordered it medium, but it came back more like medium well. It had a nice char-grilled flavor to it, but it was otherwise a bit dry. The flavor was nice, it just needed some moisture.

Service: 8 (now 10)
Our waiter spoke pretty fast and it was tough to hear him at times, but luckily it was formality kind of speak that we were missing out on. Waters were filled up often, and service wasn’t slow or poor in any way. The table breads were nice little miniature loaves that were warm, and went nicely with the flake salt and butter.

Ambiance: 10
Dining while overlooking the hustle and bustle of Grand Central is definitely an amazing experience. You’d be hard-pressed to find a place in NYC with a better view that is so readily accessible to people of all means, whether you’re out for a nice steak meal for a special occasion, or power-lunching with the bankers of midtown.

UPDATE 6/26/17

I had the porterhouse on my second visit. Very nice, and one of their only cuts that is actually dry-aged as opposed to wet-aged (the other is their prime rib). 8/10; this was good enough to move the flavor score up a point from the earlier review.

Good to the last bite.

Service was much better this time around as well. Full points, moving up to a 10/10. And I love the basket of fried onions that comes with every steak.

The apps, sides and desserts score has improved by a point as well (8/10). In that lunch review I was pretty limited. This visit, I had the seafood tower, which is jammed with great quality stuff for $85. A whole lobster, a few king crab legs, six oysters, four shrimp, lump crab meat, and tuna tartare were on this baby. This also ended up bumping the seafood score to a 9/10 as well.

The bacon was okay. I’ve had better, but I thought it was cool that it came out with grilled Romaine, grape tomatoes and dressing. Essentially this is a salad.

Truffle cream spinach? Really flavorful. A bit heavy on the cream but I don’t mind.

Mac and cheese was delicious. Can’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch in an hour.

Desserts were on point too. The chocolate fudge brownie with ice cream was slightly more cake-textured than brownie-textured, but the baked Alaska was awesome with the pecan and chocolate ice cream inside, with pistachios as garnish.

UPDATE 8/10/17 – PRIME RIB

I came back again once I learned that this joint serves roasted, dry-aged prime rib every Wednesday and Thursday. It’s limited quantity, so you really need to get there early and order quickly. I ate at 6pm, and by 7pm they were out.

Although it’s not quite on par with Burger & Barrel or Keens, it is a delicious meal. Bone in versions are thicker, for $52, while boneless versions are a little more slim, at $42.

Clearly I went with the big boy. 7/10.

MICHAEL JORDAN’S “THE STEAK HOUSE” NYC
Grand Central Terminal
23 Vanderbilt Ave
New York, NY 10017

Flash Deals, Rib Eye, Steakhouse Reviews, West Village

STK (Meatpacking)

July 24, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

STK (Meatpacking) overall score: 87

My wife and I picked up a flash deal for this place that gave us a $150 credit to spend, which we purchased at a discounted price. Check out how the deal turned out:

Flavor: 9
We shared a 36oz bone-in rib eye.

This thing had a lot of nice flavor for a non-aged steak. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare from end to end, with the exception of the expected slight over-cooking that often happens to the fat cap portion of a large rib eye.

There were no scraps left on the plate when we were finished with it. We even cleaned off all the bits that were still clinging to the bone.

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8
All the steaks on the menu are prime quality beef, but they didn’t offer anything that was aged.

The good news is they have several sizes of steaks to suit whatever kind of pussy appetite you might have, and two people can share the large steaks.

Portion Size & Plating: 8
Portions are pretty good here. While two of the large cuts seemed a bit pricey, I felt the porterhouse was fair and that all the other cuts were correctly priced as well. Side items and apps were also good. Plating was basic but with a touch of attention to beauty.

Price: 9
With the flash deal in hand, this was a great experience. I might feel the prices were a bit steep otherwise, but we left completely happy.

Bar: 8
The bar here is quite different from the upstairs rooftop version of this restaurant. This bar is more spacious, with lounge seating and a fireplace right there.

They did a nice job mixing up our cocktails, and I can see this place getting pretty crowded on nights and weekends.

Specials and Other Meats: 10
There is chicken, lamb, duck and beef short rib for those who don’t want a real cut of steak. On special this time was a 16oz boneless rib eye from Niman Ranch. But they also have some wagyu selections available as well, for those with fatter wallets. I was glad to see that they changed up the specials from last time I was here, up on the rooftop. That means they’re constantly pushing the envelope.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 9
My wife and I tried two apps, one side and a dessert. All of them were fantastic. Here’s how it went down:

Beef Tartare: This was really delicious, and quite possibly one of the best in town. It was well dressed, nicely salted and chock full of nice, high quality beef.

Fois Gras: This was slightly on the small side, but the candied orange and mini pancakes made for a fun and different take on the dish.

Broccolini: Simple and well executed, these tasty stalk were sauteed with garlic, oil and seasonings. They came away with a really nice texture and tons of flavor.

Apple Crumble: This tart with ice cream was very tasty. The apple pie portion was warm and fresh, with lots of Autums flavors.

Seafood Selection: 8
There are at least three or four fish items on the entree menu to choose if you have a snatch and don’t eat meat, but we certainly didn’t try any. The appetizer fare is chock full of shellfish and other seafood items, however, and some of those are pretty good, based on my experience on the rooftop.

Service: 10
Jerome, our waiter, was great, and the manager came around to ask how everything was during the meal. They sent out complimentary glasses of Prosecco when we started the meal, too, because my wife told them we were celebrating our anniversary when she made the OpenTable reservation. In addition, we really enjoyed the table bread here, which was a sort of “monkey bread” with garlic butter on top and an herb butter dipping sauce on the side.

Ambiance: 8
This is really the only difference between the rooftop and down in the regular restaurant. Upstairs offers something really unique, and downstairs seems to match the decor and vibe of their other locations, like the one in midtown.

STK (MEATPACKING)
26 Little W 12th St
New York, NY 10014

Filet Mignon, Full Points for Flavor, Other Cuts, Steakhouse Reviews, West Village

STK Rooftop

July 11, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

STK Rooftop overall score: 87

I came here with a group of friends for a steak night. I have to be honest; I wasn’t expecting much from a scene-heavy location on a rooftop in the meat packing district, but this place delivered. Everyone seemed happy at the end of the meal, especially me, which is all that really fucking matters anyway.

Flavor: 10
I ordered their off-menu special cut, which was an 8-10oz spinalis (the fat cap of the rib eye). It was topped with pickled mushrooms, pickled jalapenos and chimichurri sauce.

This fucker was perfect. Unlike Bowery Meat Company, which ties together several slivers of trimmed cap to form one round cap steak, this seemed to be one full hunk of the same spinalis. I was impressed with the flavor and cook quality of the meat, and the pickled items added a nice pop of brightness and flavor to the meat. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare / medium temperature, it was juicy and I could taste the dry-aged flavors come though (this was the only dry-aged offering). 10/10. Also note that this is the only other place in the city aside from BMC that offers a version of this cut, so go get it.

I also had a taste of a bone-in tenderloin that a friend ate, and it was very tasty as well (9/10). To clarify, he actually ordered a rib eye but they delivered a filet. He was a little bummed about it but decided to keep his filet. In the end I think he was happy with the steak.

I noticed that all the steaks had a good charred crust on them, and they all seemed to be seasoned generously. I snapped a few photos to demonstrate:

I didn’t get to try the rib eye this time, but here’s a shot of it:

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 8
All the steaks on the menu are prime quality beef, but they didn’t offer anything that was aged aside from the special that I got (which was not on their menu).

The good news is they have several sizes of steaks to suit whatever kind of pussy appetite you might have, and two people can probably share the large steaks.

Price: 9
We were eating with nine people and the bill came to $187 per person, with tax and tip included and two of the diners not paying (they won credit card roulette). There were lots of cocktails and wine involved too, so I thought this was pretty fair, though we did skip dessert. For the quality you get, this is a good deal.

Bar: 8
The main bar here is a bit small, but you’re up on a rooftop that looks out across the Hudson. It’s a nice spot, and there is also a lounge on the other side of the dining room if the bar area is too crowded. I think it just would have been better planning to have the bar and the lounge adjacent to each other rather than split by the dining room. In any case, the drinks were made well, and the cocktail menu was pretty interesting.

Specials and Other Meats: 9
There is chicken, lamb, duck and beef short rib for those who don’t want a real cut of steak. As I mentioned above, they had a great spinalis special. But they also have some wagyu selections available as well, for those with fatter wallets.

Apps, Sides & Desserts: 8
We started with some oysters for the table. They were small, which I don’t mind, but some people do. They were west coast fuckers too, so a bit more fish and brine flavors involved.

I had the octopus appetizer, which is done two ways; grilled and braised. They’re served together on the plate with nice purple potatoes and roasted, skinless grape tomatoes. While some bites had a bit more snap to them than others, overall this was a tasty dish and the octopus was tender.

I also tried two other sides that we ordered for the table: truffle fries, and mac and cheese. The truffle fries had a good truffle flavor but they weren’t crispy enough. That was a bummer, and it made me think that the truffle flavor was just an oil-based add-on that was poured on top before serving, which could have been why they weren’t crispy. But the mac and cheese was awesome. It was topped with a nice baked bread crumb crust, and the cheese was top notch quality. Apologies for not getting a pic of either.

Service: 10
Our waitress, Sue Ann, was great. Not only did she properly explain each cut of steak on the menu, but she was forthcoming with her opinions on which steaks were better than others. She was also looking out for us, because when we first arrived, three of us were not yet there. They wouldn’t seat us at our table for nine until all guests arrived. The table for six, at which we were originally sitting while waiting for the final three, was really just comfortable enough for four people. There’s no way we could have eaten there, even if the last three didn’t make it. She told us to start ordering and when the others arrived, it’d be timed right as another large group would be finishing up their meal, so we would swap tables. It worked out nicely.

Ambiance: 9
The rooftop is beautiful. I’m only taking a point off because I thought the space could have been laid out and organized a bit better. I think it’s great that they have cover in the event of rain. Also some areas are still uncovered so if the day is nice, you can get some sunlight. They even have temperature control, at least near the bar. It was a muggy night but we were still very comfortable while eating dinner up there. Nicely done.

STK ROOFTOP
26 Little W 12th St
New York, NY 10014

Flash Deals, Greek, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Upper West Side

Kefi

July 6, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

UPDATE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

One of the very first flash deals my wife and I ever tried was here at Kefi, many years ago. We seem to recall liking it. Occasionally they still offer the same deal: one appetizer, two entrees, a side and a dessert. So we picked up the deal and went there this past weekend.

I sampled a pair of Greek brews over the course of the meal. Both were good. The first was a lager and the second was an unfiltered wheat beer. The wheat beer, $3 more at $10, was the better of the two in my opinion, but the Keo was refreshing, like a Yuengling.

We started the meal with a classic Mediterranean and Greek staple: grilled octopus on a bed of beans (chic peas and black eyed peas).

This was fantastic. The char added a great crisp for texture and a lightly ashed flavor to the outer edges of the ‘pus. The meat was tender with no chewiness to it. Coated with a generous to borderline over-the-top amount of lemon juice, parsley and scallions, it was bright with flavor.

My entree was a complete let down, unfortunately. I went with the hanger steak.

It looks good enough, but the meat was so fucking tough that I had to actually spit several bites out onto the plate. Gnawing at steak is not cool. On top of that, the steak actually had a bitter flavor, from the copious amounts of lemon and the soaking contact with the broccoli rabe beneath.

I managed to get a good amount of the steak down my gullet by sawing at the hard grain across the bias, furiously shaking the table in the process, and focusing mostly on the overcooked bits that were on either end of the steak (they were easier to cut). Very disappointing. In sum, it was under-seasoned, bitter, over-cooked in some parts, under-cooked in other parts, and tough as fuck. This was actually the worst steak I’ve eaten in all my years of dining in NYC, and I’ve even had steaks at Tad’s! I’m giving it 3/10.

On the plus side, the steak did come with a split and grilled sausage, which was pretty decent, and sort of fulfilled my desire for meat.

My wife had the better entree: braised lamb shank with orzo.

The meat was super tender and had a rich stew-like flavor to it. Luckily, she wasn’t able to finish, so I had a good amount of this to tide me over from that lame steak.

On the side, we shared this order of roasted cauliflower. Nothing to get too excited about, and nothing to complain about either.

For dessert we shared this chocolate mousse with sesame ice cream.

Eventually, the chocolate flavors overpowered the light sesame flavors in the ice cream, which was unfortunate because I really enjoyed that sesame ice cream. The first few bites, when combined, reminded me of halvah. This dessert could be a huge hit if they pump up the sesame flavors or tone down the chocolate flavors to strike a better balance.

So, in conclusion, I suggest sticking with the staple Greek proteins – octopus and lamb – if you dine here. Those two dishes were great.

KEFI
505 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10024

Education

Steaks Around the World Infographic

July 6, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Meat Minions:

Check out this awesome info-graphic from Pettitts:

Commentary, Education

B.A.M. Episode 1: Beef Industry History

July 4, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Happy Birthday America! What better day to start a new series of articles than the one celebrating our independence from tyranny?

This is the first installment of my B.A.M. posts. No, it’s not a damn sound, like Emeril’s ridiculous catch phrase. In these hallowed halls of meat, B.A.M. stands for Beef Advocacy Monday. My goal is to share something positive or educational about beef on each Monday, or at least once a month if I get lazy. Let’s see how long I can go before I run out of crap to talk about. I love beef, so I’m sure this will continue for quite some time. I’m a beef pusher! You all know I’m passionate about meat; so that’s the main reason I’m doing this.

But another reason I’m doing this is to combat the horrible “Meatless Monday” trend going on in the food world lately. I’m sorry, but the phrase “Meatless Monday” should have no place in the American lexicon. Why? Because we Americans pretty much revolutionized the beef industry to make it what it is today. We run the biz when it comes to beef. Yeah, yeah, yeah… we all know that Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Japan are responsible for some great beef as well. But come on, people. It’s the 4th of July, so I’m going to briefly talk about the USA and our vibrant beef history.

We have a rich beef history here, considering our relatively short time in existence as a nation. At first, beef was generally just slaughtered as needed. Most if not all beef was very fresh and hyper local. I’m talking 1600’s days here, and lots of the animals were really bred for dairy and milk rather than protein consumption.

Pork was different. Salting and smoking were common “packing” techniques that allowed pork to be preserved so that it could be transported away from localities and moved around as a commodity for sale. Cincinnati became a pork epicenter for this packing biz.

Beef never took off like pork did during those days, because cattlemen would have to drive their herd literally across the country to these packing and slaughtering hubs in order to get their product to the market. Not only was this a dangerous endeavor given our relations with Native Americans at the time, and given cattle thieves who would kill and steal for a herd, but the harsh weather conditions at various times of the year were also an issue. Cattle would die very often on these drives. This meant that ranchers were breeding their cattle to be able to survive the cattle drive rather than for flavor quality or meat grade.

It’s no wonder the industry wasn’t taking off. The market was not responding favorably to the product and there were too many obstacles in the way for farmers to make a good return on their investment.

It wasn’t really until the advent of the railroad system and the Industrial Revolution that the beef industry really began to flourish as a major part of the US economy. With the advent of railroads, cattle from the mid-west and Texas could reach the northeast and other major cities with ease. There were no more worries about whether the herd could survive the long journey by hoof. The animals were simply loaded into train cars and transported to places like Chicago, where, in 1865, the Union Stockyards overtook Cincinnati as the epicenter of the meat packing industry. Beef was, in turn, becoming a much larger piece of the American diet. The beef industry actually saw a 61% increase in beef consumption from 1850 to 1860. That’s huge.

Refrigerated train cars even began popping up as early as the 1850’s, allowing for slaughter facilities to be built and maintained closer to the farms, rather than near the packing centers in Cincinnati and Chicago. This eliminated the need for crowded animal transport, and allowed farmers to stay involved with the process from calving to carving.

By 1888, most farmers were breeding and feeding cattle to produce the best quality beef for taste rather than to survive the cattle drive north and east. As you can imagine, this made for much happier meat eaters.

The men who built America and the railroads – those mega-capitalist captains of industry like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt – were really the ultimate reason for this explosion in the beef industry. I thank them for their efforts.

But that’s not the end of it. We all remember learning about Upton Sinclair’s 1906 book The Jungle, which exposed nasty conditions within the meat packing industry. This eye-opening expose led to Congress passing the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which prevents adulterated or mis-branded meat and meat products from being sold as food. It also ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions.

Then, in 1967, the Wholesome Meat Act extended those federal regulations into the states. It requires that states have inspection programs equal to that of the federal government. These programs are administered by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In 1978, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act amended the 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act and created standards for the humane treatment of animals prior to slaughter.

Since then, various amendments and add-on regulations have honed the guidelines further and allowed for new information and scientific breakthroughs to better inform the whole process. In 1997, in response to a 1993 E. coli outbreak, many best practices guidelines came down the pike for reducing the incidence of food-borne pathogens in meat products. The Beef industry was the only industry to meet the goals of reducing food borne pathogens by half by 2010, and it intends to reduce that number by half yet again for 2020. And we are talking about a decrease in food borne incidents from 2.1% to 0.6%. These figures are much lower than other industries, like poultry.

In addition, in 2004 there were more guidelines and regulations introduced to address things like Mad Cow Disease. Now, inspections happen at every point in the cycle of the beef industry, from calving to animal nutrition on the pastures and in feed yards, to transportation requirements as the animals move to slaughter facilities, and even beyond, to the post-slaughter workplace conditions at packing plants, shipping facilities and grocery stores.

Taken together, the history of the beef industry and these important safety improvements have really created an atmosphere where the American beef consumer can feel confident that the product he or she is buying is safe, nutritious and delicious.

So go forth and heat thy grills for thy July 4th BBQ’s. Slap some burgers and steaks on there and enjoy! Then go blow shtuff up in the sky (safely, of course), because America rules.

Happy “Beefday” to “US.”

American, Burgers, Chelsea, Flash Deals, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

The Ainsworth

June 26, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife paid a little under $50 for a Gilt City flash deal that got us two drinks each, an app to share, two entrees and a side to share at The Ainsworth. Pretty great deal if you ask me.

We started with these crab tacos. These are $21 regular price, so I thought that was a bit high considering that these are small and the plate comes with four pieces. Do these look like they’re worth $5.25 each (before tax and tip)? I don’t think so.

They were tasty – good crunch on the shell, though I wasn’t sure if the crab meat was actual lump crab or some kind of crab substitute. Either way, I wouldn’t pay that kind of money for them.

For a nominal upcharge ($12), I went with the 20oz bone-in, 28-day dry-aged rib eye.

This was spectacular. The aged flavor really popped for just a 28-day stint in the aging box. I could taste the nutty and funky qualities with ease. While it was grilled instead of seared, didn’t have much of a spinalis (fat cap), and there was a bit of hard gristle in the meat, the cook temperature was a perfect medium rare and the flavor in the eye was excellent. 8/10.

As you can see, the steak was topped with some crispy fried shallots. Nice touch!

At $42, this is a great deal, especially considering that the flavors of this thing can easily rival some of the best steakhouses in town. I guess it was just a bummer that I got a cut with little fat cap and a few bites of gristle.

My wife went with the famous mac and cheese burger.

That’s a fried mac and cheese patty on the bottom, a cheeseburger patty on top of that, and then mac and cheese on top of the burger.

While that is all totally unnecessary and probably only done for Instagram fodder, it was indeed a fun item to eat. Here’s a little animated image for you to ogle:

It didn’t taste that special to me, but it sure did make for some handsome photos.

French fries came with that burger, as if there wasn’t enough to fill you up with the burger itself.

These could use some work. Some were a little bit un-crisped and heavy, but otherwise decent.

On the side, we shared the asparagus with a fried egg on top. Both the asparagus and the egg were cooked perfectly and had good flavor. Look – it was either this or more fries, so give me a break.

THE AINSWORTH
122 W 26th St
New York, NY 10001

Commentary, Education

Get Your MBA: Masters of Beef Advocacy

June 20, 2016 Johnny Prime 2 Comments

The generous folks at Beef.org offer a free set of five online course modules, after the taking of which you become an official Master of Beef Advocacy. I discovered this by poking around their website one day. After reading more about it, I decided to fill out the application.

This was an ideal opportunity for someone like me, who spends so much time thinking about, writing about, photographing and eating beef. I mean, I have the “CC” after my name for “Carnivore Connoisseur,” which is completely made up, so I figured I might as well try for the official Beef.org certification as well! It would lend a bit more legitimacy to my screeds on here, no?

Anyway, a few days later I received my acceptance letter! Soon after, I began taking the module courses. The courses are as follows:

The Beef Community: an overview of how to talk to consumers about the way beef is raised from pasture to plate. It focuses on the community of people involved throughout the beef life-cycle.

Raising Cattle on Grass: this introduces the student to the first step in the beef life-cycle and the benefits of raising cattle on America’s vast grass pasture resources.

Life in the Feed-Yard: this course is a discussion of the role of feed-yards, including animal care, nutrition and environmental stewardship or sustainability.

From Cattle to Beef: this is an in-depth look at the slaughter process and the humane handling and safety measures that are in place today at beef processing facilities.

Beef – It’s What’s for Dinner: this module is a primer on choosing and cooking the right cuts of beef, and the important role that beef plays in a healthy diet.

What you come away with from these courses is a ton of valuable information about how to address consumer concerns regarding issues like hormones, antibiotics, grass and grain finishing, GMO feed, choosing cuts of beef and cooking.

Anyone who is a big fan of steak, like me, should think about investing some time into these free courses. I’m a big proponent of knowing a lot about what you are eating. And not only are you getting a ton of info here, but you are also having various health myths dispelled in the process.

Beef most certainly IS what’s for dinner. At least in my gut anyway. And knowing what I know now, after taking these courses, I’m going to keep it that way.

American, Brooklyn, French, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Sauvage

June 17, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

This French and American joint just opened up about three weeks ago in the Williamsburg / Greenpoint area. A preview write-up that I saw recently showed some very promising menu items (I’ll get to those soon), and it just so happened that a friend of ours secured a reservation for us to give it a try.

The first thing my wife and I did was try cocktails at the bar. Both of these were pretty damn good.

Since these are the same folks behind Maison Premiere, the starter menu is here raw bar -forward, with offerings like uni, oysters and crab. We went with the uni and “queen crab” items.

The uni was very nice, but one of our four pieces was a bit lame in size and lacked flavor – it even had a funky smell to it. In the photo below, that one is on the upper right, slightly out of focus. When we asked about it, the waitress pretty much said that this is how it came out of the shell, and not much they could do about it. Bummer.

The bigger disappointment was the “queen crab,” which was essentially just a few very overpriced, chilled snow crab legs. Bummer II: The Return of Bummer. Skip this item, as you’re probably better off getting snow crab legs as some kind of cheap-ass, all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

We were excited to see sunchokes on the menu, as these are some of my favorite root veggies around. They weren’t as great as I’d hoped, but I was happy to chow down on some anyway. Son of Bummer: The Vendetta Begins.

Okay so now that the negative bummers are out of the way, let’s get to the outstanding and overwhelming positives. First, this squid ink garganelli pasta dish:

This shit was expertly crafted and cooked perfectly. It was dressed deftly with a light, slightly chunky tomato and squid sauce and garnished with celery leaves. Absolutely delicious.

But as a meat fanatic, these next two dishes will have me pining for an inconvenient journey on both the M and G trains back into parts of Brooklyn that I barely knew existed and to which I have no real desire to ever go.

First, this pig’s head confit.

There are only a handful of places doing this here in the city (one of which is Marc Forgione). This version was completely de-boned, so you can just fork and knife the shit out of this and eat everything you see on the plate. Let no part of the face go to waste! It’s super crispy all over, and underneath the crackly pig skin face lies a soft, tender meat that’s abundantly entwined with a savory and succulent fatty pig jelly. Fuck yeah, you should order this when you come here. It comes with grilled peach and sweet beans.

Just when I thought I couldn’t be happier about the meat product offerings here, out comes the tomahawk rib eye for two.

This fucker hails from Niman Ranch and is processed and aged by DeBragga on the east coast. It’s a 52-day dry aged and 32+ ounce hunk of tender, juicy and beefily flavorful steak, the likes of which are nearly unrivaled in all of Brooklyn.

Now, I do think it is a bit small, being listed on the menu “for two” at $135, however the quality here is definitely worth at least some kinf of upcharge (unlike the steak at Pasquale Jones). For that reason, and for the reason that this is grilled rather than seared in a pan for a better crust, I have to take one point away and give it a 9/10.

We almost had a massive disappointment, however. When the steak first came out it was overcooked. I almost never do this, but as a group we decided to send it back, considering how much we were about to drop on this meal. We were happy to be met with a very understanding staff who agreed with our assessment and went above and beyond to make it right. What came back to us was perfect rare plus or medium rare. I very special thanks to the GM, Julian, for taking care of us on this. He was a fantastic host.

I didn’t take pics of the overcooked steak, so all the shit you see here is from the actual steak that we ate. I hope the staff got to eat our overcooked steak, or a homeless bum or something. It would suck if it got thrown out. They offered it to us for free, but we didn’t want to taint the experience with a mistakenly overdone steak.

The shameful part was that the table next to us ordered their tomahawk well done on purpose. WELL DONE! What a colossal waste of good, expertly raised and brilliantly aged beef. Too bad we couldn’t have coordinated with them ahead of time. They could have taken our overcooked steak and ruined it a little more so it was to the other table’s liking.

Anyway, the steak comes with a fire roasted onion and some nice woods mushrooms on the side.

They also gave us a little asparagus salad on the house when the corrected steak came out to the table:

For dessert, we tried this kind of small “floating island” traditional French dessert. It was very flavorful – just small. Luckily we were pretty full at that point. The best were the little crunchy bits of French toast flavored croutons in there. I want a bag of those to go!

All in this meal came to $100 a head. My recommendations for you at this joint is to skip the shellfish, get a pasta, and pick a shared entree like the pig face or steak. I did notice some other nice items on the solo entree menu, like a pork porterhouse and a strip steak. Maybe next time.

SAUVAGE
905 Lorimer St
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Commentary, Product Reviews

Walbridge Farm Tour

June 8, 2016 Johnny Prime 1 Comment

My wife found this awesome series of “Meat Your Beef” / “Farm to Fork” tours that the New York Beef Council (@newyorkbeefcouncil) hosts at various local farms in the area. The national outfit is known by the popular moniker: “Beef; It’s What’s for Dinner,” with the accompanying website as well. I sometimes link to their butchery videos here, actually. It is an extremely helpful organization!

So the closest farm tour to NYC that they set up was in Millbrook, at a place called Walbridge Farm (@walbridgefarmmarket). Millbrook is a rural community in the heart of the Hudson Valley, just about two hours north of NYC. Walbridge Farm is an Angus beef farm.

The best part about this, aside from the wealth of knowledge we come away with, is the fact that these tours are completely FREE and we were even treated to a steak lunch. I was sold on “free beef farm tour,” but “free steak” was icing on the cake. We immediately RSVP’d and rented a car for the day, and Jeff from Foodmento and his wife Victoria came with us.

So we pulled off the Taconic to a nice country road that was dotted with awesome creepy and abandoned structures. I have a soft spot for these in my photography, so I snapped a bunch of shots. We were about 30 minutes early for the tour anyway.

First was this banged up looking shed at a Mobil station:

Then we spotted this monster of a mansion along the north side of the road. Upon further examination, we learned that it was the Halcyon House. Once a luxury hotel, it was later transformed into the Bennett School for Girls, a boarding school and college. Unfortunately it has since been abandoned and has fallen into a severe state of disrepair. It is slated for demolition at any time, as the land was split into eight parcels and sold off.

This ragged looking Walking Dead structure is, I believe, an annex to the school property.

So we pulled up to Walbridge Farm and took in the grounds:

A few minutes later the tour began and the farm manager, Doug Giles, took us around to explain what happens at each structure on the farm.

The first thing we did was to “meet the meat.”

Walbridge is a sustainable Registered Black Angus farm. Their pasture raised Angus is grass fed and then grain finished. Their diet consists of corn, sunflower meal and hay – all grown on Walbridge Farm’s 900 acres plus the additional 700 acres that they lease and farm nearby. The large blue silos you see here store all that food.

They don’t spray the fields with pesticides or insecticides, and their soils and water are tested yearly. That means the meat is pesticide free and non–GMO grain finished. In addition, their crops are rotated in order to care for the nutrients in the soils, and the cattle are moved throughout their fields in order to preserve the pastures.

Doug then showed us how they monitor and control the cattle, in the event they have to tag them, inseminate them for calving, treat them for illness or get them ready to ship elsewhere.

In this barn, they can get corralled and directed into a single-file chute, where the animal can’t move away or hurt itself while being inspected or treated with vaccinations.

This beauty was off to a county fair to win some prizes.

An animal specialist from SUNY Cobleskill, Assistant Professor Lynn Geoffroy, spoke next about antibiotics, animal nutrition and how animals are treated for illness.

If an animal is treated with antibiotics, by law the farm must wait a minimum of 28 days before it can be sent off and slaughtered for consumption. That’s how long it takes for the antibiotic to work its way out of the animal’s system. Vitamin hormones and ionophores are given to some cattle to aid in digestion and to prevent illness. These supplements are safe in terms of later human consumption, as they get completely metabolized by the animals. As such the ionophores are not as heavily regulated and don’t require rigorous documentation and paperwork like the use of antibiotics does.

After the tour we had a few minutes to ourselves before lunch. We visited a trio of friendly goats, and checked out the farm stand store.

Walbridge also has over a hundred free-range egg-laying hens that eat an organic feed. Further, ten beehives are located throughout the acreage. Rich Honey Farm collects the honey harvest. Walbridge also works with Snowy Pass Farm to tap all of the maple trees on the property for syrup production. That’s total sustainability, and taking advantage of everything the land has to offer.

We sat down at our lunch table to a nice pile of swag for us to take home. Inside the oven mitt/pot holder was a plethora of info about beef, including recipes and even a knife sharpener.

And something that immediately interested me: a chart for taste testing notes and a scale for ranking various meat characteristics.

We sampled two meats, both were NY strip loin cuts. Jean O’Toole from the Beef Council didn’t tell us what we were looking for at first. She just asked which we liked better: A or B.

I preferred A. It was more tender, flavorful and juicy. Based on those characteristics, and that the texture of B was a bit more grainy and tough, I was guessing that A was grain-finished and B was grass-finished. It turns out I was correct (thank God – would have felt like an asshole if I didn’t get that right). Selection A was exactly the kind of beef that Walbridge produces: Certified Angus and grain-finished. Here are my notes from before the reveal:

After Jean announced the reveal, she passed around a plate of the steaks to show the difference in appearance and marbling between the two steaks.

Grass finished animals are generally older when they go to slaughter, as it takes longer for those animals to pack on the fat and weight in order to get to a marketable production age. Grain finished animals fatten up faster and can go to market sooner. Older animals have darker red muscle flesh. So the left piece is grass-finished and the right piece is grain finished.

We also sampled some of this delicious cold-pressed sunflower oil by Hudson Valley. This stuff is actually made from the same sunflower seeds that the cows eventually eat at Walbridge Farm.

No chemicals are used when creating the oil, and the flavor is incredibly rich as a result of the more natural process. It even has a higher smoking point than olive oil, so better for certain types of frying. We actually picked up a bottle from the farm store. $15.

With that, we had all wet our appetites for a full lunch. Very simple and delicious: grilled strip loin, veggies, fruit and a cookie for dessert. I was a happy man.

After lunch we were treated to a few lectures and presentations. The first was by nutritionist Cindy Phillips from the New York Beef Council. We learned about the differences in fat content between various types of beef produced from various types of feed finishing and farming techniques. She also discussed the many benefits from a diet that includes beef, dispelling many misconceptions in popular culture about beef being somehow bad for you.

The next presentation was about GMOs. Cornell Professor Dr. Margaret Smith gave a very unbiased and truthful look at the history of plant and animal selective breeding and the introduction of modern genetics into that field. While there is a lot of bad press on the subject of late, and lots of unknowns, many GMO products are completely benign. The industry shows great potential for helping farmers overcome the massive challenges they face in their business relating to crop/product yields, longevity and quality, as well as pest and weed control. However we did learn, essentially, that we are still learning a lot in this field of study, and that tests must be performed and caution must be taken each step of the way.

We also heard from SUNY Cobleskill Assistant Professor Dr. Jason Evans about the economics of the cattle industry. Growing up on a farm, he was able to discuss, with personal experience, the various hurdles and challenges within the field. With his educational background in economics, he also discussed possible ways that the industry can improve operations, going forward, given certain cycles and trends that he monitors.

The whole experience was very eye opening and informative. It dispelled many myths that you see floating around, and provided us with a lot of information to take away, with which we could continue researching and learning.

WALBRIDGE FARM MARKET
538 Route 343
Millbrook, NY 12545

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carnivore connoisseur