Favorite Meal?

There’s nothing I like to eat more that a good steak dinner.

<yummy>

Heheheh, that = than.

Oh, why must you tease me so . . .

Hamburger Helper!
Hamburger Helper!
Hamburger Helper!

Yum.

Howdy Silo.

For me, I suppose it depends on the kind of mood I’m in or day I’ve had.

Somedays it’s barbeque, some days it’s steak, some days (like today) it’s Kraft Mac and Cheese (comfort food), and yesterday, I would have killed for one of those Red Lobster salads with the Shrimp Vinaigrette Dressing. Yes, I’m sure I mangled the spelling of that.

So, tell me, rare, medium or not-fit-to-eat?

It changes.
Right now it’s Taco’s.

Silo:

You talking about a meal out at a restaurant, or a meal you prepare for yourself? (Or your spouse or Mom or whomever prepares for you.)

I have never had a steak in a restaurant that’s as satisfying as one I grill for myself (Peter Luger’s excepted). I’ve found that the best steak joints have an attitude of “Our meat is SO GOOD that we don’t need to USE ANY SEASONING.” Which is horseshit, in my opinion.

Ever mash anchovies with fresh garlic, and combine with good olive oil and freshly ground black pepper into a paste, and smear it all over a big three inch-thick porterhouse an hour before you fling it onto a good smoky charcoal/hickory fire? Now that’s how you grill a steak…

three and 1/3 words:
bagels 'n lox.

that’s been on my last meal list as long as i can remember.
with a lobster tail on the side. and some melted butter for dippin’.

Whatever goes. I’m just saying, in general, what is your favorite meal.

Ike, have you ever been to Ruth Chris Steak House [OMG!]. Best steak bar none!

Real Fettuccini Alfredo. With tons of heavy cream and Butter, prepared by a 450 pound guy with a name like Giovanni.

First off a tossed green salad with tomatoes, green onion, broccoli and avocado slices sprinkled with shredded parmesan cheese and an Italian dressing. Of course a freshly baked sweet tasting bread with butter (not margarine.)

A filet minion cooked medium rare covered with fresh pepper, Major Grey’s Chutney and flamed with Drambuie.

On the side a few steamed fresh vegies and garlic mashed potatoes.

To drink with that (since I don’t drink wine) a bottle of Frambrozen, a raspberry wheat ale that is brewed only once a year.

No desert though, I am not big on sweet foods.

A nice big fattening pastrami sandwich with loads of pickles and dijon mustard.

I am hungry now…oh and that’s not desert, that dessert.

EEEK

Yeah, Ruth Chris is very good (their NYC branch is just downstairs from my office), but damn, man, they put BUTTER on the steak!

That’s CHEATING! EVERYTHING tastes better when you put butter on it. Ever had buttered strawberry cheesecake?

Nothing like a fresh stick of butter sauteed in butter with drawn butter poured over it. Mmmmmmmmmm.

This is a hard question.

I thought about what meal I would choose if I was forced to eat the same thing every night for a week. It turned out to be a meal my mom used to make:

A steak, seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne, pan-fried in salted butter, rare, but well-browned.
Betty Crocker Hash Brown Potatoes (mmm, yes, the dehydrated ones that come in the box, with little dehydrated onion pieces)
Asparagus, boiled in salty water til quite soft.

There go all my pretensions of being a gourmet cook, with sophisticated tastes!
Where are the sun-dried tomatoes and exotic spices?

Re: the steak-at-home vs steak-in-a-restaurant debate, I have to say I get better steaks in restaurants. Ruth’s Chris serves up a wonderful filet mignon, and when in Chicago recently I had a very nice aged steak with roquefort cheese at the Capitol Grille.
For me, though, at home it’s the combination of foods with the steak that makes the meal, not just the steak iteslf.

It’s has to be steak, and the best cut is the Rib-eye. The tenderloin is incredibly tender, but has less flavor. The secret marbleized fat. A nicely marbleized Rib-eye, grilled with high heat. (Pretty rare with most of today’s propane grills. The cooking surface is to far from the heat. Anyway, fresh corn on the cob, onion rings, and a garden salad. The salad would have fresh cucumber, tomato, broccoli, green onion, radish, sprouts, jicima (sp), green pepper, & real blue cheese dressing. To bad I am having leftovers!

Hard to say, but it generally falls on three different meals.

  1. Gnoochi with either Alfredo and Ham or tomato and meatballs, a small salad, and very fresh baked bread.

  2. Quiche with broccoli, potatoe, bacon and cheddar. Don’t need any sides

  3. A good meat pie, either shepperds, toque’(sp) (A pork pie from canada.) or beef pasty. That needs a salad and greenbeans on the side.

Yah, it don’t get much better than steak.

My favorite “comfort food” meal is a can of Progresso chicken noodle soup with a side of Snyder’s sourdough pretzels and some cheddar cheese.

Lobster!
With or without steak.

Actually, the best meal in my life was, interestingly enough, egg salad. Made by someone who (at the time) I was passionately in love with, which we ate together for a picnic lunch in a roadside park.

But barring that kind of “seasoning,” I have to go with the cooked crustacean.

Cocktail: Big dry martini with olives.

Starters: Bluepoint oysters, fresh and cold, with lemon. Accompanying drink: French chablis.

Main dish: Surf & Turf: Big, fat, butterflied prawns, well coated with fine crumbs, deep-fried until crispy, served with lemon wedges and fresh, horseradishy cocktail sauce. Thick ribeye steak, salt & pepper, rubbed with garlic, grilled medium rare. Giant baked potato with sour cream and cracked black pepper. Real garlic toast. Accompanying drink: Cote du Rhone.

Dessert: Dense, creamy creme brulee. Accompanying drink: Tawny port.

burp