Eastside Road, August 9, 2013—
DINNER AT THE NEIGHBORS' this evening, and I repeat what I wrote day before yesterday: it's a pleasure people still invite us to dinner. They know what they're subject to…Tonight it was tri-tip and flatiron steak, grilled over oak in the fireplace. Neither cut existed in my youth. Well, technically, I guess tri-tip did, because according to Wikipedia it orignated in Oakland in the late 1950s, when I was in my early twenties, which must qualify as "youth." Not that I ate much steak in those days.
Bottom sirloin, Wikipedia says. Thing is, in my youth a steer (or "beef," if you prefer) was cut into a smaller number of pieces, larger pieces, than it seems to be today. The progression from then to now may have something to do with a finer sense of discrimination, probably of marketers rather than customers; or it may be related to the greater number of people able to buy beefsteak; or simply another byproduct of postmodernism, I don't know.
Again according to Wikipedia, flat iron steak is cut from the chuck, which of course had a special meaning to me in my youth — I won't go into that at the moment. Marbling, they say: not so apparent tonight.
In any case while I have liked tri-tips in the past I must say the flatiron seemed the tastier tonight: but there are many variables. The age: the breed: the source. In both cases it was local, "natural," probably organic beef; certainly not you garden variety feedlot cornfed antibiotic-raised stuff.
With it, tomato salad from the neighboring farm, and delicious green bell peppers, also grilled over the fire. Cave-men knew how to eat. Too bad so many of them never had green peppers or tomatoes…
Oh yes: and baked pears, our own, with almonds…
Picpoul de Pinet, Moulin de Gassac, 2011; cheap Italian red; cheap Spanish red
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