Eye of round causes tears of joy
Sometimes, I crave me a steak. A juicy beef steak.
That's not an easy thing to find in LA. I have yet to stumble across a butcher. There are carnicerias, but they don't seem to sell beef steaks. There are supermarkets, but they don't hang their meat. So we don't often have steak, unless it's buffalo1.
So I was somewhat surprised when P came home with some eye of round in steak form, marinated in something and crusted with coarsely ground pepper. Meat from the hind tends to be roasted or braised or some-such. It can be stringy if not well-marinated and slowly cooked. At least in my limited experience. And so we usually stick with the safe tenderloins and sirloins. Or the British frying steak.
The eye of round steaks were under an inch in thickness, and a mere 2-3 minutes per side left them closer to medium-well done than our preferred nearly-medium juiciness. And it could have done with being hung for a fortnight or so. Still, it was steak. And it was juicy. So juicy we were reluctant to give the dog a bite. Served with crisp asparagus spears2 and steamed thin-skinned red potatoes (variety unknown), it was just what I needed.
A glass of Geyser Peak Meritage 2003 on the side made it a small meal of perfection.
1 Speaking of buffalo, I miss ostrich meat and venison.
2 How can tender asparagus still be found at this time of year? I suspect P has broken the "local-veg wherever possible" guideline. But I'm not complaining. Much.
posted by akatsukira at 01:18
4 Comments:
marconda's and huntington's are both at the farmer's market @ third and fairfax. marconda's seems to have more beefsteaks though, and the korean grill (la korean) next to it will grill anything you buy from there. there's also doheny's kosher meats on pico--i've never been there, but it has been there forever. the only place i can thing of that hangs their meat is alexander's in howie's market in san gabriel.
i'm pretty sure you can special order venison from either farmer's market vendor, or gelson's or bristol farms. or if you want to take a field trip there's always broadleaf game in vernon. that's also where the farmer john's meat processing plant is, you can take a look at the somewhat disturbing murals.
Thanks santos! I knew you'd have the low-down on the meaty stuff.
We're just lazy westsiders who can't get out of our neighbourhood to third and fairfax. If I'd thought it through, I'd have lived over there and been able to get REAL food.
As for those murals, what's with the last one of the buxom lady? I guess we'll have to go to have our curiosity satisfied...
i think she's walking a pig....i've only seen the murals once, late at night. v. creepy place after sundown, btw. why hasn't anyone done a horror flick based on this?
oh, bristol farms will dry age any steaks for you, if you ask nicely. they sell a dry aged prime, which i like, but it's really pricy. apparently you get a better product with "custom orders"
i totally spaced out on owen's on pico. they actually had sides of beef hanging in the window up until...recently? i'm sure someone eventually noticed and freaked out. and i think the market was sold last year so i'm not sure if they still cut meat there. also in the not-sure-if-it's-still-there dept: bel air prime meats in beverly glen.
ooh. vicente foods in brentwood. that's sort of near you....
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