BCS Rankings and Bowls...

[Brian Roastbeef]

I agree on the Haddock. It is my favorite Codfish. New York Pizza is the only way to make Pizza. The tomato sauce cake with cheese in the bottom they make in Chicago just isn't my thing. Crabcakes - again when done right - are some of the best eating around.

What you didn't mention about NY food is the Pastrami. You can't visit NY without hitting a deli for some giant Pastrami sandwiches. No I'm just hungry.

Only reason I didn't think to mention it is because we're swimming in good Pastrami up here. All over the place. We use it as currency (because erm... nobody Upstate has actual money anymore.) Indeed we have plenty to brag about with our pastrami sandwiches. A nice thick hoagie with a big fat pickle and maybe some salt & vinegar chips....

I think that may have just decided my lunch today...

[donovan]

Like T Bone...misnamed by some Eastern Illuminati Group, Porterhouse because big is not always better. This works with other cuts...I like Rib-eye, not too much on sirloin or filet Mignon

Put Cast Iron Skillet in oven and heat to 500 degrees. Steak at room temperature. Coat steak with canola oil salt pepper. When skillet heated, place skillet on burner on high heat. ....Put steak in dry skillet each side 30 seconds. Then place in 500 degree oven, skillet and all for two minutes,, flip for two minutes...let rest for two minutes and eat. Medium Rare on 1 1/2 cut.

Or..just wait till Mr. Billybud or Spence invites you to their house...OR...go to dinner with Derek...

[billybud]

Derek is 6-5 and has a tapeworm....dinner with Derek might be guarding your plate with vigilance.

[donovan]

Derek is 6-5 and has a tapeworm....dinner with Derek might be guarding your plate with vigilance.

I never kiss and tell.

[Spence]

Like T Bone...misnamed by some Eastern Illuminati Group, Porterhouse because big is not always better. This works with other cuts...I like Rib-eye, not too much on sirloin or filet Mignon

Put Cast Iron Skillet in oven and heat to 500 degrees. Steak at room temperature. Coat steak with canola oil salt pepper. When skillet heated, place skillet on burner on high heat. ....Put steak in dry skillet each side 30 seconds. Then place in 500 degree oven, skillet and all for two minutes,, flip for two minutes...let rest for two minutes and eat. Medium Rare on 1 1/2 cut.

Or..just wait till Mr. Billybud or Spence invites you to their house...OR...go to dinner with Derek...

Lots of people don't like the sirloin. The flat bone - that you can't buy at the store anymore is good. The top sirloin is ok. The NY or sirloin strip like all sirloin cuts is one you must cook rare to medium rare - no more or it is shoe leather tough. The sirloin that is well marbled has a rich beef flavor different from the ribeye that has more overall flavor but not that rich flavor.

I rub them with salt and pepper and let them get to room temperature. Then coat them in oil - usually olive but that doesn't matter - and press some garlic and rub into the oil. The oil makes the good crust to seal in the juices. When you take them off let them rest 4 or 5 minutes so the juice can return from the center through the steak and that is the only way to cook steak.

Prime is the best and generally never bad, even the vein steaks are good, but aged CAB choice is good and half the price. If you get prime though the only way it will be bad is if the cook fails to cook it right. Between 1" and 2" is the only way to get a steak that can be cooked completely rare clear through.

[Spence]

I agree on the Haddock. It is my favorite Codfish. New York Pizza is the only way to make Pizza. The tomato sauce cake with cheese in the bottom they make in Chicago just isn't my thing. Crabcakes - again when done right - are some of the best eating around.

What you didn't mention about NY food is the Pastrami. You can't visit NY without hitting a deli for some giant Pastrami sandwiches. No I'm just hungry.

Only reason I didn't think to mention it is because we're swimming in good Pastrami up here. All over the place. We use it as currency (because erm... nobody Upstate has actual money anymore.) Indeed we have plenty to brag about with our pastrami sandwiches. A nice thick hoagie with a big fat pickle and maybe some salt & vinegar chips....

I think that may have just decided my lunch today...

I was right with you, thought about it all night. I have pastrami for lunch today too with the big crisp kosher pickle, but no chips. It probably wasn't anything like yours, certainally no where near as good as Katz's, but it filled the bill.

[billybud]

Pastrami is a Nawthern thing. Not that I don't like a hot pastrami...but they ddin't have such in the south of my youth...nor pizza's until I was a teenager.

In the south of the 1950s and early 60s, before the mass migrations south, we were still very rural and had a very region specific cuisine.

We didn't have urban areas that featured "deli's" so we didn't have that deli culture. Now, we had country store culture. Yesterday, a couple of my buds and I rode the bikes out the country road by my house to Bradley's Country store and had sausage (made on premises) dogs.

link to our "deli"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Talla ... tore01.jpg

[Spence]

We have more places like Bradley's here than like Katz's. They are similar in their direction, they just differ in what they process. The old general store type places are going away here. It is a shame. They give way to the one stop fits all gas station type places. I miss the old stores.

Pizza is my favorite pigout food. I don't eat it very often anymore because they are so bad for you and high blood pressure and such run in my family. I don't have hypertension yet, but I look for the diagnosis on every DR. visit. Probably because of my love for pastrami.

[Grayghost]

Sorry...I should have clarified on beef and sauce. The only beef that gets sauce is beef spare ribs. That is it. Sorry if I offended anyones beef sensibilities by implying that all beef BBQ gets sauce.

[billybud]

Beef ribs? Y'all eat those?

In the south through mid Texas (at least Texas east of Abilene) ribs are pork. I did once eat beef ribs in Abilene cause I didn't know better when I ordered. I couldn't believe folks ate those bones with tough shreds of meat barely covering them.

I learned that the only way to eat those things was to pick them up and knaw on them like a wolf trying to break through to the marrow. It helped to make snarling noises as I struggled to get some meat off, although some patrons got up and changed tables.

Pork ribs have sufficient meat that one could, if they desired, easily eat them with a knife a fork.

[Spence]

Beef ribs? Y'all eat those?

In the south through mid Texas (at least Texas east of Abilene) ribs are pork. I did once eat beef ribs in Abilene cause I didn't know better when I ordered. I couldn't believe folks ate those bones with tough shreds of meat barely covering them.

I learned that the only way to eat those things was to pick them up and knaw on them like a wolf trying to break through to the marrow. It helped to make snarling noises as I struggled to get some meat off, although some patrons got up and changed tables.

Pork ribs have sufficient meat that one could, if they desired, easily eat them with a knife a fork.

I'm not a beef rib guy either. I have known some who say they make them great, but I have never eaten any I thought were great. I believe any meat you need to put sauce on doesn't need to be eaten. That doesn't mean that I am opposed to eating some meats with sauce on them. Just that if they need sauce. I don't eat them unless they are on some kind of baguette. Ribs and pulled pork are good enough to eat without sauce, sauce makes them better.

[donovan]

Here in the Northwest...there is this penchant to think that food preparation from elsewhere is better. We have pizza parlors that are Chicago Style and New York Style. New York Bagels and Delis. We have Southern BBQ and Southern fried chicken. We have California Pizza and Texas Steak houses. We even have places that say Home Cooking...though I know that is not true because I never got a check after my wife or mother cooked a meal... We have Kansas City Steak houses and Texas Chilli, Kosher hot dogs from Chicago. Scandinavian Restaurants. Thanks be that we have no Waffle Houses..ugh

So is there anything original in the Northwest, unique...no...just a bunch of coffee drinking, granola wide eyed liberals wishing they were somewhere else. Heck...we even use napkins when we eat.

But if you ever want real Salmon, cooked in a myriad of ways...or just smoked in a real smoke house made just for salmon. Dungeness Crabs, Gooey Duck Clams, Flounder, cold water Rainbow or Brook trout, Razor Clams, Mussels fresh from the rocks, Marionberry pie, You want apple pandowdy...well..make it with Washington apples, from the tree, or better yet, just plain apple pie from fresh apples. And cheeses...well...find a better cheddar than Tillamook, right from Tillamook Oregon...

[billybud]

I see that we have imported the planked salmon thing in our restaurants....I don't order it when I can get grouper, snapper, or other gulf fish. I like it fried of course, or greek style, or stuffed....anything but grilled since restaurant grilled fish is aways dry.

I do cook salmon at home regularly..a la Billybud. Sometimes I poach it in a little italian dressing with cherry tomatoes, sometimes I grill it with asparagus, sometimes I glaze it...and when I get bored, I bring out the plank. So much of our salmon is farmed...I prefer wild salmon for the taste but it is getting more difficult to find down here.

We don't have mussels...but our fancy stores import them. I use indigenous oysters and clams. I have only had mussels in a bouillabaise.

[donovan]

So I read Mrs Donovan about all of this and she comes and tells me we are having Bouillabaisse for dinner tonight. I am excited and the next thing I know she says..but our reservations are not until 7:00...I say..how can I sound macho to these guys when all I can talk about is fish when they are talking Steak, Pork and BBQ..deep fried and everything is lard covered, cooking it on their Model 5788 High Speed Ultra Infra Red Grill and all I have reservations. She says, "Well, dear, I hate to break this to you, but you are not Macho."

[billybud]

lOL...

Going out is great. We do it too often. You must get out of the house...Go find a great blues club to hit after dinners. I know you lefties love jazz, but blues is so mellow after a good meal.