disneymike: Jocko’s Steak House
We were amazed how large the steak was. Our waitress told me the Filet Mignon is even larger than the New York Steak. I can’t wait to go back on our next trip to try that one.
If you find yourself traveling near Santa Maria on the 101 and are craving a great steak, please give Jocko’s a try. Just make sure you bring your family or friends to help you finish your meal or a very healthy appetite.
brushing with thyme sweep, oil, garlic
If you love your weekly steak, here’s a great way to take it up a few notches. The combination of thyme, beef and mushrooms with the salsa verde is so so good and can’t be beaten.
Best chargrilled steak recipe | Beef recipes & main courses | Jamie Oliver recipe
I’ve tried this and it’s magnif!
Tags : bacon, Jamie Oliver, steak
Here’s what I made last night:
Two grilled NY Strip steaks, with a bit too much Montreal Seasoning. Grilled for 9 minutes total, perfection. They were at room temp before starting, such a simple step for perfect steaks. The montreal was rubbed in about 45 min before grilling. Couple of brushes to get rid of some of it rigth before grilling would have been ideal.
Then, inside the house, I was roughing up some pea tendrils, and sugar snap peas from our CSA box in the sautee pan. I’d done some 30 second minced garlic in butter/olive oil first. Toss toss toss. Pew pew pew!! Finish with a splash of white wine and some chiffonade of my own fresh mint!
And mojitos with the same mint!
Wonderful spring/summertime meal!
I’m studying a WSJ Online article today about Wagyu beef. It’s quite interesting. I think it was way easier figuring out another very esoteric and expensive proposition: buiding diamonds. Get this:
…finding good Wagyu can be a complicated proposition. Cross-breeding among the cattle is common, and most products on the market are actually half-Wagyu, half-Angus, says American Wagyu Association spokesman Charles Gaskins. Some ranchers and retailers aim for a higher percentage — Morgan Ranch says its cows are mostly 75% to 80% Wagyu, while Lobel’s says it requires a minimum of 87.5%. There are no federal rating systems for Wagyu — unlike most steak sold in supermarkets, labeled by quality from “select” to “prime,” it’s not graded by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Finally, almost every ranch has a proprietary blend of grain and roughage for the cattle’s diet, and cows that are raised longer can yield more marbled steak
Apparently there is even some fair degree of deceptive marketing involved, with online retailers claiming to sell American-raised “Kobe beef” (you can only call it Kobe if it’s been raised, by hand most likely, in Kobe, Japan).
I doubt you’ll see us taste-testing them… until of course the paid sponsorships begin, and we can shell out for five hundred bucks worth of steaks.
 A cool blogger reviews a new steak place in Atlanta GA. Let’s do the bullet points:
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From Metroblogging Atlanta:: Via :: Technorati.
So, it had been a while since Charlie and I had added to our list of Minneapolis-St. Paul steak experiences so we decided to go classic at Jensen’s Supper Club.
How can you go wrong at a place that claims supper club status. It just evokes ladies in pantsuits and “relish trays”. We were not disappointed. In fact, besides it’s far away location in far flung Eagan, MN. (Truthfully, it’s not that far from the center of Minneapolis but I start to feel uneasy any time I leave the city limits.)
After being ushered to our table by the teenage hostess, we were greeted by Judy, our waitress, who surely has worked at Jensen’s for most of her adult life. Judy provided us with the obligatory relish tray.
Jensen’s only got a C grade on the Big Beer Test–an A grade requires beer by the liter, a failing grade a dry restaurant. Jensen’s had only pints.
I chose the Filet Medallions–2 little filets, wrapped in bacon. They were $14 less than the real filet but I was poor that week. Here’s the menu.
True to supper club form, salad, choice of potato and “rolls” were included with the meal.
So, the meat:
my medallions were superb–almost tender enough to cut with the fork, grilled to absolute perfection. Somebody in the kitchen knows how to make a tenderloin. Charlie got the New Your Strip and was extremely happy as well–he said the fat was succulent. I say that’s gross but each to their own.
The other thing to note: the roasted garlic mashed were amazing–served in a ramekin, they’d been toasted under the broiler before being served so they had that tasty little crust that makes any food item taste better.
As we were eating, the “band” started playing. The band gets quotes because they consisted of a dude on a guitar, a drummer with what looked to be a toy drum set and a keyboard player. They played mostly waltzes and polkas and even let a drunk lady from the bar sing along on one number. Oddly, no one danced while we were there.
We skipped dessert in favor of the ice cream shop near my house but, after paying the bill, I was treated to a classic supper club moment, when, outside in the parking lot, I was treated to the sight of a mint condition Trans Am with personalized plates: Itza 92. You couldn’t end the supper club vibe any better way.
Eat Out Dubai: Royal Steak: The Rib Room
If you’re ever in the UAE, you’ll want to try The Rib Room. Right next to the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel lobby.
MyFiancee and I have been trying to get HerMom out to dinner for a really long time, because we believe that everyone needs to try our Favorite Little Italian Place Down the Street. So, it was her birthday on Friday, and she consented to join us for what we like to call “the best” Italian (in town). They had lovely crab + asparagus + five cheeses handmade ravioli.
I had a NY Strip with port wine sauce, topped with gorgonzola, sauteed shallots.
I new there was going to be a problem as soon as Franco took more than 20 minutes to visit our table to recite the speciales. He was very distracted, and kept looking over his shoulder, watching the service staff, and the kitchen. Franco, a real Italian guy with tons of energy looked weary. We were to learn soon that this was the first night of service with doubled seating capacity. The worst possible night maybe, to bring HerMom for her first time.
The raviolis were lovely, the ladies said. The service was, although agonizingly drawn out, basically accurate. When we asked Franco politely if we could pay and leave, we’d been there almost three hours. Thank god the chianti was kept filled.
I think I’m going to have to go down there, or call down there or something though, because what I was served as a NY Strip was almost unrecognizable as that cut of beef. I have no idea what was going on in that kitchen, but it must have been difficult enough that the kid at the grill wasn’t able to see my steak. There’s no way this thing would have passed a visual “is this a New York” test. It came apart in three weird sections with barely any meat between great tangles of other tissue. It was almost like chuck steak, cut 3/4 inch thick. Oh, and there weren’t any shallots, anywhere.
The thing is, with all their difficulty that night, it would have taken an additional forty-five minutes for me to try and get a better cut of New York. If I’d had the heart to mention it… If I wasn’t a Minnesota-no-send-back’er.
I hate to think I’m not able to order a good steak at my favorite Italian joint. I’m left puzzled. What happened to the real NY Strip that night?
Sorry Mom.
From @llie’s @ttic a really sweet review of Morton’s of Chicago, The Steakhouse
I haven’t been to a Morton’s, but now at least I know it’ll cost me 3 C’s without wine. I think we have one in Seattle.
So Saturday was my birthday, and the Fiancee is one million percent excellent so she took me out to dinner at a new favorite little Italian place in Lacey (98503) called Ricardo’s (I’m not sure if it’s ‘ristorante’ or ‘restaurant’, it depends on where you look). Her boss, Dr. Mike, had hosted their office Christmas party there, and it was really really good, so we chose to go back and do some free-choice dining, cause we were stuck with the ‘beef or chicken’ drill at the party.
So, after reading the PDF menu Ricardo’s put up on the internet, I really had my heart set on this bastard :
Big Momma’s Steak $29.95
Nebraska Beef at its best… ” USDA PRIME ” Thick cut rib-eye seasond & char broiled to perfection
(Medium Rare) then topped with a fresh mediterranean salsa & finished with roasted red potatoes,
( This will be the best Thrity bucks you’ve ever spent )
On the one hand, I was really disappointed because it wasn’t on Saturday’s menu. On the other hand, it gives us a needless excuse to go back to Ricardo’s for more steak. And on the third hand, I got to have the Surf And Turf from the specials menu. Our server said that the prime rib special was filling in for the Big Momma, and recommended it, but I’m not yet recovered from a really awful prime rib from years ago. We’d both had excellent little filets at the Christmas party, so I chose to extend that a bit with the S-n-T. My lovely companion chose some “do the truffle” ( or something? ) special of a 5oz filet with black truffled mashed potatoes. We was not disappoint! (Although, are truffles known for being, erm, gassy??)
Both (little tiny) steaks were perfectly medium, with a lovely outside — seared and carmelized — and practically fork-tender inside. ‘Course it’s a cliche , but the words “like buttah” were said at least twice.
The surf part of my dinner was way above average: crab cakes done absolutely correct with TONS of crab, and great flavor; and some wild Mexican white prawns that were slightly over cooked but had great flavor. All this was sauced nicely with a white truffle Bernaise sauce, and great big roasted red potato wedges, with some barely noticeable field greens or basil or something. Who cares? The truffle-bernaisey filet was heavenly. I didn’t miss having “the veg” at all.
We didn’t spend much time looking at the wine list, because it’s way over our heads (especially budget-wise). And we already knew from the office party that the house pours a great chianti for six bucks. I had a 6 buck primitivo, and it was great too.
Bottom line, GO HERE!!! Ricardo’s is a winner on every point except one: the decor. Which I won’t really pick on, because it’s adorable, and you know, A for effort and all that. But, who cares? You really can’t go wrong with this place. I haven’t had a better steak anywhere within about 300 miles of here, except that Argentine place in Seattle which I keep forgetting to write about.
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