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Dining Guide
/ Grill Restaurants
Grill restaurants
serve mainly steaks. But beef is less indigenous to Thailand
than pork, and if beef is prepared in native Thai cuisine it is
not in the form of steaks. Therefore, there is only a limited
number of restaurants specializing in steaks in Bangkok.
Many five-star
hotels have steak restaurants and in quality they can compete with
steak restaurants anywhere in the world. Anyway, they commonly do
not sell local beef but the same meat that is served in first-class
grill restaurants around the world: prime US beef.
As local cattle
are not of the US hybrid kind (which wasn't bred for tropical climates),
and as less grain is fed to the cattle, Thai beef commonly
is leaner than US beef and the meat has thinner fibers. As it is
leaner, local beef also is less tender than US beef. How
tender a steak is going to be can be judged from the appearance
of the piece. If it is well marbled it will most probably
be more tender than less marbled cuts. A number of first-class grill
restaurants therefore show the cuts to the guest before cooking.
Beef is imported
to Thailand not only from the US but also from Australia
and New Zealand. US beef, however, is considered the best
quality. It is also more expensive than beef from Australia and
New Zealand.
Eating out
for steaks in Bangkok's first-class restaurants requires some more
knowledge on terminology than eating out for steaks in the
US or continental Europe. This situation results from the fact that
the cuisine (and terminology) of the first-class restaurants in
the Thai capital is oriented to the diverse nationalities of the
foreign co-owners or managers who might be European or American.
American as well as French and other continental designations for
steaks are found on menus.
Prime cut
is an American designation that has nothing to do with the place
a steak has been cut from the carcass of the cattle but with the
quality of meat in general. Prime cut is best quality, and
in the case of beef it mainly means that it contains enough fat.
Prime cut steaks are well marbled with fat. Second choice quality
is called choice cut and third quality is utility cut
which is generally not used for steaks.
A New York
cut on the contrary has nothing to do with the quality of the
meat but with the location of the meat on the carcass. A New York
cut is a slice of meat from above the ribs without the bone but
with an edge of fat. In French, such cuts are called entrecote,
and in England and Germany they are named rump steak. If
the New York cut comes rather from the back section of the animal,
and if it is prepared with the rib bone, it's called a sirloin
steak.
The name sirloin
has a funny origin. It dates back to England of the seventeenth
century. There, King Charles II (1630 to 1685) once was served
such a delicious piece of beef loin that he immediately conferred
the title "Sir" on that piece of meat. Allegedly it was
a cut that today is called sirloin.
The meat below
the ribs is called tenderloin in American terminology, and
filet in continental Europe. The tenderloin is the most tender
part of the beef, and unlike the parts from above the ribs and spinal
cord, it is mostly served cleaned (stripped of fat edges).
Chateaubriand
is a special French way of serving tenderloin for two persons. In
that case, a double portion of the tenderloin is prepared in one
piece and only then cut in rather thin slices at the table
of the guest.
Characteristic
of US cuisine are steaks that are served with the bone. The above
mentioned sirloin steak is such a cut. More common, however,
than the sirloin are the T-bone steak and the Porterhouse
steak. Between the last two, there is only a small difference.
In both cases the entrecote and the filet are not
separated from the spinal cord and ribs. T-bone and Porterhouse
cuts therefore always include a piece of entrecote and filet, or
in American terminology, of the New York cut meat and the tenderloin.
Some local
restaurants serve sizzling steaks. In that case, the steak
is served on a very hot iron plate, mounted an a board. There is
some sense to it (or there was, originally): if a steak is grilled
over fierce heat the meat fibers contract and the juice
is extracted into the space between the fibers. If the steak
is served directly after being grilled over fierce heat, the meat
juice that still is in between the fibers appears as blood
leaking from the steak as if the meat wasn't aged at all. But if
the steak is granted a rest of some five minutes after being
grilled over fierce heat the juice goes back inside the fibers and
there is no more "blood" leaking. But as the steak cools
down while resting it makes sense to serve it on a hot plate.
This consideration,
however, seems of no importance to the local steak houses that serve
the meat on hot plates. The steaks are not given a rest before
being served, and they wouldn't need it in most cases anyway as
they are grilled well-done (the rest is only needed for rare
or medium steaks, mostly for the rare).
Whereas sauce
with steaks is uncommon in the US, filet steaks are served with
a sauce in French cuisine. Most famous with filet steaks is the
French pepper sauce; other sauces are Bernaise (butter sauce)
or Cafe de Paris sauce (with herbs).
Some restaurants
that serve their steaks sizzling pour a sauce or gravy over
the steak and onto the hot plate; the sauce then not only starts
to boil but also to splatter. The most expensive part of the dinner
may then be the lady's blouse and not the meat.
Other descriptions:
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