Red Meat - - Page 14

by ES Guest

Hunt, Gather, Avoid Grains: The Caveman Diet

Ed Note: Our friend Amcstang is a caveman. Or at least eats like one. The Paleo diet receives much praise, and even more criticism, recently ranking “unsafe” at #18 on list of popular weight loss programs. Here’s his pitch on forgoing carbs, living CrossFit and going ancestral.

Only a year ago walking down Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach, DE at 8 AM, I would have chosen Dave & Skippy’s Gourmet Bagel and Sandwich Shop ten out of ten times for breakfast—promising whole grain bagels, gourmet cereals and fresh wraps—over Gus-N-Gus next door selling fried eggs, sausage and bacon off a flat-iron griddle on the boardwalk. I mean, Skippy’s was clearly the healthy alternative based on years of ‘advice’ from the USDA, FDA, and multi-national food companies.

Fast forward one year and I don’t even think twice about my breakfast choice: Gus-N-Gus with their greasy spoon approach, hands-down. No, I haven’t given up “eating healthy” and no, I don’t weigh 300 pounds and do my dishes in my own bathtub. In fact, I am pretty confident in saying that I am the healthiest and in the best shape of my life at age 29.

Without trying to attach a trendy label to my eating habit, I went Paleo.

by Emily

The Meatiest Benedict Ever

Spokane is the second largest city in the state of Washington, yet feels worlds away from Seattle. It is much smaller and less cosmopolitan (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). While Spokane might not be teeming with trendy sushi restaurants and farm-to-table concepts, they do have some memorable food finds. For instance, let’s talk about Frank’s Diner. Located in an old traincar and founded in 1931, Frank’s has been churning out huge breakfasts for much longer than I’ve been eating my way through God’s green earth. I expected large portions and a down-home atmosphere, but what I did not expect was this:

MEATLOAF eggs benedict. Country biscuit topped with sage meatloaf, a large poached egg, and tons of rich brown gravy. Please note that this is a half order. I figured the full-size dish would kill me. Not only was this crazy enough that I had to order the dish, it was also delicious. The meatloaf was moist (ugh, I hate that word), fragrant and flavorful, very herby, and not greasy. As for the biscuit, it was the perfect combination of sturdy — it could hold its own against the heavy egg and abundance of gravy — but at the same time, light and crumbly.

The problem with many eggs benedicts, and poached eggs in general, is that restaurants overpoach their eggs! There is no worse travesty than hopefully cutting into a yolk, anticipation rising, only to find that it has been carelessly cooked through. Womp womp. So how did Frank’s fare?

by Borracho

Gridiron Grub: Can’t Get Much Wurst

Anyone with internet access or two ears has undoubtedly heard of the recent travesty that occurred at Penn State University. I will not waste much time discussing the issue on ES. but suffice it to say, it has been an extremely difficult week to spend much time paying attention to football, and particularly being a PSU fan. It’s even harder to add the typical fart jokes you’ve come to expect from ES. Come Saturday though, we’re still looking forward to watching some football.

Trying to think of a relatively simple dish for this week’s football get-together, I remembered I had a voucher for a package of The Original Brat Hans. I don’t normally shill for any specific products but their brats are a tasty guilt-free option for meat-eaters like myself. No antiobiotics, added hormones, preservatives, MSG or nitrates; even the chickens and hogs used are 100% vegetarian-fed. After seeing that voucher I ran to the store to pick some up and had the beginnings of an idea. I pulled out some of my homemade canned chili sauce to make a very typical German food truck dish: Currywurst.

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by Russell Warnick

The Perfect Rack — Lamb Ribs

At The Farm and Fisherman in Philadelphia last week, it wasn’t just the bloody beet steaks that were a hit. I especially enjoyed the lamb ribs. I don’t recall ever seeing lamb ribs on a grocery shelf before, let alone a restaurant menu, but it makes sense: lambs must have ribs, which could only mean we are meant to eat them.

I decided I had to cook this myself for Sunday night dinner. But where to find the lamb ribs? I tracked them down at Whole Foods, where I had to speak with the butcher as they weren’t on the shelf. The Farm and Fisherman served their ribs sumac crusted, but I was unable to find sumac and was only offered moderate encouragement, so I decided to go a different route. I found this New York Times recipe, which I used as a base, straying somewhat for creative ownership.

Recipe after the jump.

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by Emily

Everything’s Bigger in Texas (Including the Tacos)

Texas. Land of Shiner Bock, queso, beef, dry rub BBQ, and Mexican (okay, Tex-Mex) food. Truly one of my favorite places to chow down. I visited Austin and San Antonio at the end of September, partially to join the 10th Anniversary celebration of Austin City Limits, but let’s be honest, also partially to eat everything I set my eyes on.

I’ll go ahead and admit it, authentic Mexican is great but my heart truly belongs to Tex-Mex, something of which my hometown of Seattle has very little. I knew I had to take advantage of Texas while I could, so one day we headed to the Hildebrand area of San Antonio to a little…establishment…well.. fast food-ish shack imaginatively called Taco Taco.

Quite the luxurious digs, eh? No matter, everyone knows that some of the best food comes from some of the most unassuming exteriors. I took it as a good sign. Speaking of signs, inside Taco Taco there are multiple signs and banners proclaiming that they were named “Best Tacos in America” by Bon Appetit (a bit of internet research informs me this honor was bestowed in 2007). It has also garnered a fair amount of recognition from various Texas publications over the years, so I had to see if it could live up to the hype. Plus I just have a very tacky propensity for needing to try anything proclaimed the biggest, best, most famous, etc…. So I knew I had to go for it and order the taco that made Taco Taco famous: the El Taco Norteño.

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by BS

Sandwiches in the City

New Yorkers are obnoxiously proud of our lunchtime options. We don’t do chains because we don’t have to. Not when you can find everything from banh mi hot dogs to Brussels sprouts sandwiches for under $10. That’s exactly why I’ve been so bothered by the rapid proliferation of Cosi, Pret a Manger and the like across Manhattan in recent years. Are New Yorkers really lunching at these places now? Sure, these semi-upscale sandwich chains are better than Subway or Quiznos, but I’d still take a Boar’s Head bodega roll any day of the week.

Recently entering the midtown sandwich contest and blowing the chains out of the water is City Sandwich, a Portuguese-style sandwich shop from chef Michael Guerrieri. Now, you foodies may be noting that there’s not really any such thing as a Portuguese-style sandwich. This is true. Like most refined Europeans, the Portuguese prefer to sit down and eat their meals with knives and forks. So Guerrieri, who was born in Naples, raised in New York and spent 13 years cooking in Lisbon, has taken traditional Portuguese meals and turned them into an array of newly-invented sandwiches.

The crispy bread is brought in twice daily from a Portuguese bakery in New Jersey; the insides scooped out to make room for fillings and to ensure the sandwiches aren’t too heavy. Each one is spread with high-quality olive oil and built using unique ingredients you’d be hard-pressed to find in any other sandwich shop in the world. For example, the Bench Girl, pictured above, contains alheira, a smoky, spicy sausage that was pioneered by Portuguese Jews during the Inquisition. In an effort not to stand out among their pork-eating compatriots, the Jews invented this chorizo-like link that is actually made from chicken, but looks enough like the real deal that no one could guess they weren’t dining on swine. Apparently, back in the day on the Iberian peninsula, not eating pork was enough to get you burned at the stake. Today, a little bit of pork has managed to sneak into most versions of alheira currently produced in Portugal, but it’s still a superbly rich and flavorful sausage that’s not quite like any other. It’s paired here with an omelet, grilled onions, spinach, and melted mozzarella, for a savory breakfast-y sandwich that is appropriate any time of day.

For a look at City Sandwich’s other inventive, Portuguese-influenced sandwich creations, keep reading after the jump.

in Cheese / Desserts / Eggs / Featured / Fish / Pig / Red Meat / Restaurants / Sandwich 0 comments

by Borracho

Gridiron Grub: Getting Sloppy

It’s official! As I sit down to write this post, summer has ended and by the time you read this, fall will have begin. To be honest, this part of fall is my favorite time of the year. Baseball pennant races are heating up and there is the promise of playoffs fast approaching. College football has been going on for 3 weeks and half the people are already knocked out of my last man standing NFL pools. Every weekend, the morning chill starts warming, right as the tailgate grills begin doing the same.

Those tailgates and house parties call for heartier comfort food, but it is hard to resist the temptation of the last summer produce. That temptation grabbed me when I visited the farmer’s market last weekend and saw some late tomatoes piled high. The tomatoes, and the fact that we are having a bunch of people over to see the Eagles beat the injury-plagued Giants this weekend, made me decide to whip up a batch of Sloppy Joes.

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