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done with steak from restaurants

#21
Here's one for you - one of the top ten steaks I've ever had in the unlikeliest of places.

Waiting for flight to leave for six month deployment to Afghanistan back in 2011. Hunkered down in Hilton Garden Inn near the Trenton air base (Canada). Ordered the steak for dinner (hey, I was on travel status!). It was a damned good steak. Perhaps it was fresh meat, perhaps the cook gave more than two craps for what he was serving, perhaps it was a function of me perceiving this was my last decent meal for half a year*. Either way, it was damned good!

*being on a US base for this deployment, it was anything BUT the last good meal I'd have while deployed. We were fed really well.
 
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#23
I never have steak at a restaurant. Now, if I went to a place that aged the steaks for 45 days and did something special and charged like $100 maybe. It should be outstanding. But as for a run of the mill chain place...I make a steak as good or probably better at home.

Now, as for something like sushi, I'll go out and pay for that. You need special items (and often small amounts) when preparing that kind of cuisine, so I'll pay the experts and enjoy.

Honestly, my wife and I can make most food better at home than we get in a restaurant. Curry, Thai, Italian, bbq, etc. I'm guessing if we lived somewhere not in the middle of the continent where we could get ingrediants more easily, we'd probably do our own sushi as well.

That said, sometimes you just want to go out. One of our favorite things is to go to "pairing" dinners at a local place. They do them about every other month. They pair wine (once it was bourbon) with "of the menu" foods made for just that evening. It's so fun and pretty inexpensive considering what you get.
 
#24
Last steak I had about killed me. Got caught in my throat and luckily there a was cop having dinner there also that knew how to give me the Heimlich maneuver. Took him 5 tries before it was dislodged. I thought I was going to die right there and haven't had a steak since. That was this past February. I have since learned that steak is the #1 food to cause choking deaths.
 
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#26
Low Class said:
Last steak I had about killed me. Got caught in my throat and luckily there a was cop having dinner there also that knew how to give me the Heimlich maneuver. Took him 5 tries before it was dislodged. I thought I was going to die right there and haven't had a steak since. That was this past February. I have since learned that steak is the #1 food to cause choking deaths.
Click to expand...

I think not chewing thoroughly may be the #1 cause of food chocking deaths ;)
:drool:
 
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#27
DirtDog said:
Here's one for you - one of the top ten steaks I've ever had in the unlikeliest of places.

Waiting for flight to leave for six month deployment to Afghanistan back in 2011. Hunkered down in Hilton Garden Inn near the Trenton air base (Canada). Ordered the steak for dinner (hey, I was on travel status!). It was a damned good steak. Perhaps it was fresh meat, perhaps the cook gave more than two craps for what he was serving, perhaps it was a function of me perceiving this was my last decent meal for half a year*. Either way, it was damned good!

*being on a US base for this deployment, it was anything BUT the last good meal I'd have while deployed. We were fed really well.
Click to expand...

I've been told that the food is significantly better on air force and navy bases, that's got to have something to do with it.

What were you doing out in Afghanistan?
 
#31
There are actual steakhouses that serve great steak. There are ethnic restaurants, mostly South American in my experience, that serve great steak. But chains like Applebee's and Outback and Texas Roadhouse are corporate food dispensaries carefully crafted for a fun family night out or a place to watch sports. They buy steak by the frozen palette full, thaw them and cook them to precise corporate approved specifications. These aren't steakhouses. Every restaurant is overpriced. That's the nature of the business. Of course it's cheaper and often better at home if you know what you're doing but an actual steak from an actual steakhouse is a nice treat from time to time.
 
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#32
The best deal I ever got was in Newport RI, where I was the host bassist for a weekly open jam that was on steak night.
$12 grill your own ribeye, cut on site,with salad, baked spud and veg.
After gas And food it was only a $50 gig but a yummy one
That was my one good meal for the week.
 
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#33
pie_man_25 said:
I've been told that the food is significantly better on air force and navy bases, that's got to have something to do with it.

What were you doing out in Afghanistan?
Click to expand...

The base and mission I deployed to was combined/joint, so perhaps the best of Army/Navy/Air Force and Marines!

I was one of a small group of Canadian advisors on the largely US training mission (CSTC-A/NTM-A) in Kabul. We were on Camp Eggers (aka "Camp Cupcake") and we didn't have it too hard. But we did hear the French base across town had nightly wine and cheese offerings at their chow hall. Never managed to get an invite over there, although I spent some time at the US Embassy and ISAF HQ compounds. Also Kandahar airfield, where EVERTHING sucked!

Although, now that I recall, the Aussies hosted a BBQ at their compound at KAF one scorching July night. They had a patch of grass, a volleyball court and a firepit with a bonfire going. Fresh steaks off the grill - not the best steak - but pretty good under the circumstances. Good party!
 
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#34
Just cooked some flank steak on the grill last night. Took me 20 minutes (not counting marinating time) and they were delicious. I have to say it was better than I get at most restaurants.

I used to have a buddy who was a bit of a foodie and his basic premise about paying for a restaurant was that he wanted to be served something he could NOT prepare on his own. So, for me, steak typically falls in this category.

That being said, I travel and dine quite a bit on the corporate dime and every once in awhile you get a pretty awesome steak at a dining establishment. One such experience occurred last summer when I was at a corporate event in Montana. We were all served Tomahawk Ribeyes that had to be close to three pounds each along with shrimp, beans and other additions. It was cooked over an open fire and one of the best steaks I've ever had. See below...

IMG_0638.jpg
 
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#35
Gorn said:
Texas road house? That's like ordering a steak from Applebee's and being disappointed. It's low quality meat thrown on the griddle by miserable line cooks. Cooking a steak at home is easy and great, but so is an $80 bone in rib eye from a quality establishment.
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This. We're very picky, we only get steak out at one of the select great steakhouses in Chicago (maybe 2X a year). We aren't able to have a grill at our current place; my wife does a great job with it on the stove top, but the grill imparts its own magic.

I went to Texas Roadhouse with the in-laws a couple years ago, and yeah, it was meh. After that, we sought out a place in their area (Charlottesville) that was known for quality steak. It wasn't great, but it was still pretty damn good and exponentially better than TR.
 
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#38
I'm mostly with you on this KBD, most restaurants I go to can't cook as steak nearly as well as I can. But....there is one place in town, The Lake Grill, where Chef Jose can cook me a steak anytime! The man is an absolute master, he was on Chopped on the Food Network a while back. The only drawback is you can not really call it an affordable dinner....but like they say, you get what you pay for!
 
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#39
Low Class said:
Last steak I had about killed me. Got caught in my throat and luckily there a was cop having dinner there also that knew how to give me the Heimlich maneuver. Took him 5 tries before it was dislodged. I thought I was going to die right there and haven't had a steak since. That was this past February. I have since learned that steak is the #1 food to cause choking deaths.
Click to expand...

Glad you're still here to tell the story @Low Class - but you know you're supposed to chew your food before you swallow, right? ;-)

(I kind of jest, I had the same thing happen with fried chicken one time - partially swallowed, didn't choke me but it was lodged in there pretty good. Wasn't able to wash it down with liquids. Had to go to ER for an emergency procedure. This started about ten years of GI treatments with multiple 'scopes top and bottom. At least I know nothing is wrong with me now - but I take small bites and chew thoroughly these days).
 

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