Airman’s grandmother used to serve Omaha steaks at the annual family gathering each Memorial Day. They’re OK, but I found them to be a bit too tender for my taste. Strip steak shouldn’t melt in my mouth, y’know? Basically, I just found them too excessively tenderized. The steaks from the local butchers are much better. Hell, even the steaks from Wegman’s are much better.
That said, I think OS appeals to the same people who are easily impressed by places like Red Lobster and Olive Garden. It’s fair-to-middling food at best, but you’re eating at Red Lobster! (Joe Queenan did a great job of this in Red Lobster, White Trash, and The Blue Lagoon. Funny book.)
I would (and have) personally kill people for Harry & David’s Royal Rivera pears. I assume they’re laced with heroin, ‘cause nothing else explains how freakin’ good they are.
A friend of mine introduced her 18 month old to them and now she can’t eat any pear around him, he follows after her screaming for it. He eats the stem.
I’ve never heard of these pears. What’s so special about them? Is it the type of pear itself? Are they only available through this Harry & David place?
They’re really sweet n’ juicy. There’s nothing so good as a perfectly, perfectly ripe pear, you actually can eat everything but the stem, I swear, but if you have strong enough teeth…
Our neighbor got the fruit of the month/week? club from somebody once. Maybe he was fruited out. Maybe he felt like he need to regift due to use helping him out. He gave us some pear boxes a couple times. Contained I think 4 pears packed in a way that would make NASA engineers proud. In any case, those pears were dammmmmm good. I highly suspect anyone that can’t imagine how good a pear can be has NOT had one of those pears. Now whether they were WORTH the price might be legitimate question, but HOW damn good they were is not IMO.
Sure, I agree. But you can find some nice, perfectly ripe pears at the supermarket or farmer’s market at the right time of year. The ones that almost melt in your mouth they’re so bursting with juiciness, like a Bartlett. I was wondering how a Royal Riviera (which apparently are Comice pears) would compare.
What salinqmind said, with the addition that the texture of the Harry and David “brand” of Royal Riviera pear is so good. Most pears, even the best, have a bit of a grainy texture. Whatever they do to grow or ripen their pears leave it with a…almost custardy texture.
You can only get 'em about 3 months of the year too-(right around Christmas–say Nov-Jan). For about $24.00 you can get a box of 12 and at ~$2.00/per, it’s a bargain.
Well, as far as there being farmer’s markets, it assumes you live in a climate for fruit growing, which not everyone does.
And I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree that it is possible to find “nice perfectly ripe” prears ast the supermarket in my experience. Fruit at the supermarket is all shit, unless you happen to live in an area where the supermarket actually purchases local produce in season (extremely rare) and the local produce is exceptional.
BTW, even the pears I get from my farm share are delivered slightly underripe. People – even people who belong to an organic farm share! – bitch and moan if their fruit doesn’t last at least 2 weeks. (wah wah wah my peaches went bad UNFAIR. Hello? Organic? Picked ripe? dipsticks.)
I’m surprised. Growing up, we only got our pears at the local supermarket, and we had Bartletts that practically melted in your mouth they were so juicy and sweet. There are fruits I’ve never found good examples of at supermarkets–strawberries are the big ones for me–but the pears? Sometimes they’re rock-hard and underripe, other times, you’ll find nice ripe (and perhaps even overripe) examples.
I can’t imagine seeing ripe pears at the grocery store–they’d all be going bad by the time anyone got them. I’ve never seen a store that didn’t treat them like bananas or really, any other produce.
Hmm… I must never really had ripe pears, I guess. I mean, I’ve had them off the tree, but I’ve found supermarket ones that tasted just as good (to me.) Maybe I’m just not particularly picky about pears.
Y’know, last (only) time I went through there, they actually had a concession at the Omaha airport so you can take some Omaha steaks with you as carry-on.
Of course since some time before that I had seen that you could do that with &^%$# * lobsters* at Logan Airport in Boston, this now seemed perfectly mundane.
I’ll stick to my duty-free booze if you don’t mind…
