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Steaks, Trains, and Basketball?

chandelier in Grand Central Terminal

Another business trip, this time to Manhattan. My in-laws really wanted to meet me for dinner, an apparently my father in law has been talking about trying Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse for over a decade. Located inside of Grand Central Terminal, this picturesque location occupies the balcony opposite of the Apple Store.

Being a steakhouse, it has a fairly simple menu. 10 steak offerings, 5 of which are bone-in, a couple of basic chicken, fish, and pasta offerings. Naturally we skipped most of these and targeted the steak. My father-in-law and I both went for the Filet Mignon. I was looking for a smaller cut as I’m overeating on these business dinners. The steak was cooked absolutely perfectly at medium rare, although I think it had cooled off some while waiting on the other dishes. The filet had a beautiful thick crust of cracked pepper and just the right amount of salt, a simple preparation that really let the natural beef flavor shine through. The portion was much smaller than I expected though. Even though filets are smaller than other cuts, this seemed to be in the 5-6 ounce territory.  The pepper was especially pungent, spicier than I can recall having on a steak, but not overpowering. On the side, we had sweet potato fries (soft and cool) with a horseradish sauce (no spice) and sautéed brocoli. I would skip the fries, but the broccoli was unusual with a slight crisp and a really nice buttery smokey flavor.

filet mignon filet mignon

As I mentioned, the food was on the cold side, and service was really slow, perhaps partially because my mother-in-law ordered the rack of lamb. If I had known what would come out of the kitchen, I probably would have gone for this instead. A 4 rib rack, roasted, cut in half and then pan-finished, the result was basically 2 double-thick bone-in lamb rib chops. This dish dwarfed the filets, and was served on a bed of asparagus. Lamb’s usual gamey flavor was downplayed, and the low-temperature roasting meant that the fats had nicely broken down, leaving extremely flavorful and tender meat.

single chop from rack of lamb

Overall, the prices were reasonable, the service extremely slow, and the food slightly sub-par for what a steakhouse like this should be delivering. The waitstaff seemed like tired typical New Yorkers, and it looked like the manager (or concierge, not sure which) took off promptly at 9pm. The saving grace for this place is the location, and if you can get a seat at the edge of the balcony, you can use your extra time people-watching over nightly commuters.

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Surprising find in a generic bar & grill

Mojito Skirt Steak

Billy Berks in downtown San Jose is your typical contemporary casual pub fare. Undoubtedly a popular pre-game destination, we walked in just after everyone had left to see the Sharks play.

Along with the usual macrobrews, we dug into chips + guac, buffalo wings, and calamari. All pretty typical fare although the calamari was served with two sauces, a sweet and sour, and a creamy cilantro instead of the usual cocktail/marinara combo, and the guacamole had mangoes in it. The buffalo wings were boneless, but had a really nice crisp that probably used a two-step corn starch and batter dredge that’s common in Asian cooking.

Blue Moon

Upon seeing the standard-fare menu, I decided to pick something that looked a little different, the Mojito Skirt Steak.

This was a great choice. A generous helping of nicely marinated and grilled flank steak was prepared with a wine reduction and topped with jalapeños cut lengthwise and fried, garnished with an diced red onion chutney and half a lime. For me this dish set Billy Berks well above the typical sports bar. The beef was perfectly cooked, and the fried jalapeños were spicy without being overwhelmingly hot. The frying technique also blistered the skin on the peppers a bit, which releases a lot of great flavors reminiscent of roasted green chiles from New Mexico. The lime juice perfectly offset the sweetness from the wine glaze, and the onions were mild and added a nice flavorful crunch.

Mojito Skirt Steak

On the side I had a mushroom polenta. The polenta was nice and creamy, and not dense or gelatinous at all. It had a texture like a risotto, where the cooking liquid plus the soaked up starches create a sauce. Clearly they didn’t use the mushroom braising liquids in the polenta cooking, so the mushrooms tasted like they were added at the last minute, rather than an integral part of it.

Mushroom Polenta

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Silicon Valley Sushi

Sushi

A business trip to San Jose left me with few dining options at our hotel out by the airport. A coworker from the local downtown office recommended Izakaya, which was right across the street from our hotel.

First item, my coworker had to try the coquettes since she fell in love with them in Spain. I was surprised to find them on a Japanese menu. A simple savory potato filling was lightly breaded with panko crumbs and then fried. It resulted in a piping hot, moist interior, with a thin crispy exterior. The panko crumb gave a nice light and crispy texture that very different from tempura or western batters.

Japanese Croquettes

Normally I hate seafood (long story that I’ll go into another time) but suffice it to say sushi is one of the forms I seafood that I’ll eat, primarily because it lacks that fishy flavor. I didn’t get too adventurous, ordering fairly items. I was surprised to see they allowed you to order off the dinner menu at the sushi bar.

Tamago, Spicy Yellowtail Roll, Caterpillar Roll

The tamago had the usual nice texture, was still warm which meant it was fresh, and had some other flavor I couldn’t place that worked well with the sweetness. I think that mystery flavor I what added the discoloration to the dish. It was a nice take on what can often be a generic dish.

The second dish is a spicy yellowtail roll. Wonderful texture with perfectly balanced amounts of rice and fish. I didn’t think it had enough kick to be considered spicy, but delicious nonetheless.

Last up is one of my favorites, the classic BBQ eel roll with avocado, frequently called a caterpillar roll. The sauce was flavorful but light, the avocados were perfectly ripe, soft, but not yet mushy, and again the rices due a perfect backbone for the roll.

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Yet Another Modern Pancake Breafast

Blueberry cornmeal pancakes

Billing itself as “Conscientious Cuisine”, The Mission in downtown San Diego focuses on healthy dining. I assume that means the ingredients, as I’m not sure roast-beef hash and eggs could be considered healthy! Perhaps the profusion of yoga studios surrounding it (including one upstairs) is the explanation. With tons of positive reviews, a line a mile long, and 40 minute wait, this seemed like a great find.

I selected Chicken Apple Sausage with eggs. Served with classic rosemary roasted potatoes, which included a generous helping of crispy, savory pan scrapings, a few tomatoes mixed in, an the surprise Hatch green chile for good measure. The sausage is Aidells, commonly found in any grocery store, and while better than Hilshire Farms, I found it a bit uninspiring and salty. The eggs are watered down to keep them fluffy when scrambled (instead of using milk or cream), while the thick toast is barely crisper than bread, and served without butter or jams.

apple chicken sausage and eggs

Pearl, a sucker for corn, went with the blueberry cornmeal pancakes. While beautiful in presentation, the cornmeal was completely uncooked and added an unpleasant gritty crunch, and there were far too few blueberries. We expected more cornbread-like fluff and texture, but clearly they add the cornmeal to regular pancake batter at the last moment, and it doesn’t get time to soak and soften, leaving unpleasant grit.

Really, the only thing here we would order again is the potatoes, but they certainly weren’t worth the wait.

cornmeal blueberry pancakes

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Berto’s Birthday Beer Bash, Brewery 3

Green Flash Barleywine

Our last stop of the day was Green Flash Brewing Company. By this point I was getting tired of beer, especially the west-coast extra-hoppy types. But we endeavored on, trying two more beers, even though they had about 20 available for tasting.

I went for the Barleywine, as I’ve never actually seen one on in the bottle, let alone on tap. At 10.7% ABV, I was expecting something very different than what arrived in my glass. Light, but rich in complex flavors, this had the texture of a lager, but not the crispness. Honestly I was expecting more fruit flavors and depth, but I mostly didn’t enjoy this because it was extremely hoppy.

Barleywine

The other beer we tasted was their Trippel. Again, expectations didn’t match experience, but this time the result was much more enjoyable, as my wife had asked for their least-hoppy offering. This had all the wonderful smoothness and flavor of a good Belgian, but light in tone and color made for a nice way to top off the end of a long day bussing around San Diego County with no food.

Belgian Trippel