Over the weekend I went and grabbed 3 man sized steaks and some bits and pieces for the week. The upside of living in South Africa is you can eat like a king in comparison to most other countries around the world. I remember living back in the UK having a decent sized steak was a treat with meat like chicken and pork being the go to on most occasions due to budgets. Steak was never just an average meal and was always seen as a treat.
My old friend who happens to be injured at the moment after falling or rather being kicked off a horse is the one who is going to be supplying our family with meat moving forward and we have to wait for him to recover first so maybe another 3 weeks. Shopping at the butchers will not be required and the monthly meat spend will drop by around 60%.
The T Bone steak is the best of both worlds with the bone separating fillet steak and short loin which is also known as the New York strip. The bone helps keep the steak ultra juicy and why this has to be served medium rare. Not surprisingly this is my favorite steak and is kind of a treat when I buy this.
If you had to buy this in the UK today is would cost £17.27/kg at Tesco's which is roughly 2.1 X the price I paid for this in SA. I used to order one of these every week when the team visited the local steak house after we played Action Cricket. That was many years ago and this is not even an option on the menu anymore. if places do advertise this it is normally a dish to share and I Googles this locally and overseas to get an idea. In South Africa you would be rushed in the region of R500 - R600 ($40) today which is mental and in the UK between £70 and £120 so roughly double if it is available.
Many years ago we were travelling around Normandy in France where we found a restaurant sitting above a butchers shop. The restaurant was called the Boeuf & Cow and it was so good we visited this place twice in a 7 day period. When you are used to having meat in your diet it is hard to ignore and when travelling away from home you will miss a decent steak.
The menu at the Boeuf & Cow had what I would call ladies steaks being 200-250 grams and is the size of a hamburger patty. The good part was you could order a decent steak which was priced at SQ depending on the cut and size. I was shown a steak which looked about the right size and was told this was a two people steak and told the waiter that this was not the case and ordered this for myself.
The owner/butcher/chef came to see who was ordering the steak and we had a good chuckle and chat and was so happy to see someone ordering a decent sized steak. The owner gave me the butchery price and not the restaurant price which was unexpected but gratefully accepted. This was still not cheap by any means as very few restaurant meals ever are and through his generosity had us coming back for a second visit plus revealed his secret berry dipping sauce which is superb.
The only downside is the T Bone is apparently not good for cholesterol and these days I tend to avoid the fat which the dog graciously accepts along with the bone and tonight that is plural being bones.
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