Chiu on This

Delicious simplicity

Salad and steak frites. That's it, that's all your options at Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte in midtown Manhattan. What wonderful simplicity. I don't know what makes the sauce that tops the slices of steak so good, all I know is that I've been thinking about it for days. Butter clearly plays a prominent role, and mustard must be in there, too; I've read that there's also blanched chicken livers and thyme in the mix.

For $25, it's an understatement to call this a bargain. Note that they serve your meat and frites up in two servings, keeping the second half on reserve 'til you finish your first plate. The total serving size left me feeling perfectly satisfied. I polished it off with a good coffee and the Vacherin du Relais (a tower of layers of ice cream - either hazelnut or vanilla - and meringue, topped with chocolate sauce and whipped), shared with four other folks.

No frills, no fuss, just flavor. What a tasty, tasty relief.

Vegetarians, avert your eyes

Peter Luger, the classic New York steakhouse, requires little by way of introduction, so I will stick to some of my favorite moments in the 8+ times I've had the privilege to dine here over the last decade:

• After my first visit - a birthday dinner for my roommate James - staggering from the restaurant to our decrepit and ridiculously overpriced Williamsburg apartment about 5 blocks north, where I Iie prone in a food coma, a pattern that I will frequently fall into after a visit to Luger's.
• My friend Anthony picking up a still well-fleshed T-bone and gnawing on it, to the deep admiration of our dining party.
• Leaving work for a long lunch to try out their famed hamburger ("it's not chopped ham, it's chopped steak").
• Hearing that the T-bones that were taken home in a doggie bag were actually given to a dog, a giant German shepherd named, honestly, "Beef."
• Learning from the not-at-all-surly-and-actually-quite-lovely waiter on this visit that the most he's ever seen any party eat was when two skinny Swedish guys polished off a steak for 8 along with an order of tomatoes and onions, bacon, and shrimp cocktail.

Given that last item, our menu for 6 people (4 of us are of the Chiu / Chang clan, so multiply the eating capability of the group by 1.75) was not so embarrassing after all:

Appetizers

• Tomatoes and onions
• Bacon, cut extra thick

Entree and sides

• Steak for three, medium
• Steak for four, medium rare
• French fries
• German fried potatoes
• Creamed spinach

Before

 

During

After

Coffee, yes. Dessert, no. The apple strudel, cheesecake, hot fudge Sundays, and (in)famous Schlag are fine, but not compelling enough to save room for, and, personally, I would rather leave with the taste of steak on my palate than with a satisfied sweet tooth.

Bliss. Call me if you want to go.

Dinner in Oklahoma City, August 6th, 2007

There's a long version to this blog that I may get to one day and that will most likely contain the following elements: the National Association of Sentencing Commission's annual conference, the newly refurbished Skirvin Hotel, visiting the Oklahoma City National Memorial, my guided tour of Bricktown with Sharon Neumann, Tapwerks, hearing Chief Deputy Attorney General Richard Gebelein's experiences in Afghanistan working to re-establish its court system in 2004 and 2005 and in Bosnia where he served as an international judge hearing war crimes cases for two years, and getting to see Cal Hobson. Add to the list our bus breaking down on the side of the highway on our way to dinner at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.*

But I'll cut to the chase and talk about the great food by Chef John Bennett and Chef Chip Sears (see the full menu below). I couldn't tell whether these guys actually work at the museum, which does have a restaurant, but if I'm back in the area, I will definitely try to find them. Anyhow, I was very happy to finally taste bison.** I'd only had bison burgers before and couldn't really discern the flavor of the meat.  The bison medallions, although very lean, were quite tender and sweet and tasted like a combination of duck and venison - hardly at all gamy.  Some folks said they couldn't taste any difference between bison and beef; I figured I'd keep my mouth shut instead of questioning their tastebuds (or judgment).  The other nice thing about the menu was its emphasis on using local ingredients.

Prime time

Just about one year ago, I was dining at Lawry's The Prime Rib in Chicago with a number of participants from the Youth Justice Learning Group.  It was freezing outside, so most participants wound up eating here, scurrying across the street from our restaurant-less hotel to this ornate eatery.  Our crew included my fabulous colleagues Paragini, Claire, and Clinton; Roscoe "when the rubber hits the road" Wilson; the incredible Juan Gomez and David True of Santa Cruz County's YCORP; and Tshaka Barrows, conspiracy theorist and powerhouse.

The food was as good as the company.  I can still remember the luscious prime rib, wheeled over in a contraption that looked like a larger, more somber version of R2D2, and carved tableside.  I got the English cut, a smaller portion than the regular Lawry cut but still quite filling.  The sides, too, were excellent - I got the classic creamed spinach, a juicy and toothy mix of mushrooms, and Yorkshire pudding.  I have zero recollection of whether we had dessert.  At that point, I was probably midway into a blissful food coma.  If we did, I'm sure large amounts of whipped cream were involved.

If you're a meat eater, go to Lawry's and wear loose pants.  It also helps if you stay nearby, so you can easily stagger back to your hotel in a blissful food coma.  [Lawry's is at 100 East  Ontario, (312) 787-5000.] 

Chewing on Churrasco

Here's another post from my globe-trotting friend Rob.

On our final day in Sao Paolo, our host took us to Churrascaria Gramado Grill, outside the city near the village of Embu das Artes. On a road chock full of churrascaria, this particular establishment was distinguished by the enormous yerba mate cup on the roof. If you are a gaucho, charcoal-grilled beef and yerba mate are irresistable lures.

Upon being seated, we were greeted by a man hefting an enormous platter of beer bottles and mixed drinks. Like a dessert cart, the drink platter is a menu: you pick your drink from the selection, and a fresh one is brought to your table. An added benefit of the drink platter is that the non-portuguese-speaking diner can easily order a beverage without saying a word. I ordered a passion fruit caipirinha; full of gelatinous passion fruit seeds, this drink resembled a boozy pearl ice tea. Ice-cold beer is also a popular accompaniment, particularly "chope"--the local style of draft pilsener.

Time to visit the salad buffet. It is understood that the salad buffet is merely for visual consumption--the burden of veggies in the tummy hinders the intake of grilled meats. Nevertheless, it was educational to examine what was on the buffet. In addition to leafy salads, there were some interesting items: hard-boiled quail eggs, fried pork rinds, and something involving bacalao (salt cod).

Gramado Grill also offered a separate buffet of traditional Brazilian dishes: a whole roasted piglet (leitao), feijoada, farofa (which reminds me of fried rice), whole fish... I could have lingered much longer over the buffet table, but it was time to head back--the meat was coming!