Category Archives: Meat

Prime Time at LB Steak in Menlo Park

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Meat isn't the only thing to indulge in at LB Steak. How about this beautiful veggie terrine?

You’d think there was a run on meat the way throngs are packing their way into LB Steak in downtown Menlo Park.

On a recent Saturday night, every table was nearly taken by 6:30 p.m., filled by retirees, young couples and families celebrating an occasion.

In the space that once housed the white tablecloth, French-inspired Marche, LB Steak opened in June. It joins its sister restaurant, LB Steak in San Jose’s Santana Row.

Both restaurants feature USDA Prime beef, the highest grade possible. But the menus differ slightly, with the Menlo Park one a bit smaller.

Chef Ryan Ellison, formerly of Oliveto in Oakland and A.P. Stump’s in San Jose, oversees the glass-enclosed exhibition kitchen.

I had a chance to sample some dishes when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.

Large windows flank two sides of the restaurant, allowing in a profusion of natural light on a summer evening.

The contemporary dining room, bathed in loads of natural light.

For your bread-dipping pleasure.

With bread comes a trifecta of spreads: butter, olive oil and a stonefruit chutney that’s sweet-tart like ketchup.

For a time, Ellison featured an Escoffier-like vegetable terrine on the menu ($10.50) that you rarely see these days outside of a cooking school restaurant. Featuring cucumbers, mushrooms and artichokes, it was beautiful to behold with its varied hues and layers. On a warm night, the chilled terrine was a wonderful way to get your veggie groove on.

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Beefy Burgers and A Food Gal Giveaway

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Juicy grilled burgers made from Piedmontese beef.

Nothing says summer backyard gatherings like a great grilled burger.

These are particularly flavorful, made from the Piedmontese breed of cattle, which originated in the foothills of Italy.

Raised on ranges, where they grow up eating grass and are finished on grains, these cows produce meat that is less marbled, and therefore lower in saturated fat and cholesterol. Because of their genetic makeup, the meat doesn’t have the usual stringy fibers of regular beef, making it naturally tender.

Recently, I had a chance to try samples of these burgers from Montana’s Ranch Brand Natural Meats, which contain no antibiotics or growth hormones. The sizable 8-ounce patties are dense, almost just shy of sausage-like in texture. They are very beefy tasty and despite being on the leaner side are quite juicy.

A package of 12 Piedmontese Steak Burgers is $38.54. They are shipped on ice packs to their destination.

They’re just one of many items available via FromtheFarm, a California company that bills itself as an online farmers market. It partners with growers and producers around the country to ship produce, meat, flowers, baked goods and jams directly from the farm to your house.

Through Aug. 27, Food Gal readers can get 10 percent off the purchase of Piedmontese beef. Just use the code: FOODGAL.

Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a dozen Piedmontese burgers, courtesy of FromtheFarm. Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST Aug. 18. Winner will be announced Aug. 20.

How to win?

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Two Chefs Plus Three Goats at One Market Restaurant

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My first taste of goat tartare -- and hopefully, not my last.

What do you get when you put two chefs together with three goats?

The makings of a deliriously delicious evening.

Such was the case last week at One Market restaurant in San Francisco, when resident Chef Mark Dommen invited Chef Staffan Terje of Perbacco in San Francisco to cook with him on a multi-course feast that was all about goat.

The event was part of the “Dinner Party Project,” a series of dinners throughout July hosted by SF Chefs, the food and wine extravaganza that officially takes place July 30-Aug. 5. The dinners bring together two or more chefs to collaborate on a themed dinner. A portion of proceeds of each dinner benefits the Center for Urban Education and Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), which operates the Ferry Building farmers market.

I was lucky enough to be invited as a guest to the dinner, which kicked off with Terje’s spectacular goat leg tartare. The mild red meat got a hit of crunch from diced celery heart, a pop of salinity from Cantabrian anchovy and floral acidity from preserved Meyer lemons.

Mark Dommen's goat charcuterie with apricots and pistachios.

Dommen lobbed with goat liver terrine and goat mortadella with fresh apricots and apricot mustardo. It was the type of food that made you wish you were on a picnic in the south of France.

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Bi-Rite’s Pork Cutlets with Sweet Bing Cherries

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Cherries for dinner? Oh, yes!

Why just bake galettes, pies and cobblers with fresh cherries when you can enjoy their snappy sweetness in savory sensations, too?

Case in point, “Pan-Fried Pork Cutlets with Bing Cherries.”

It’s a recipe from “Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy.

The cookbook, written by Bi-Rite Owner Sam Mogannam and food writers Dabney Gough, takes you through the history of San Francisco’s most celebrated grocery store, where you’ll find not only top-notch produce but hard-to-find ingredients that are the darling of chefs.

The book takes you through each store department, teaching you the low-down on how to read labels, discern ingredients and use them at their best in a myriad of recipes.

Fruit takes to pork like peanut butter to chocolate. Cherries are no exception. Yes, you’ll have to pit them, but you use only about 18 of them, which doesn’t take that much time at all.

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Chaya Brasserie’s “Duck & Foie Gras” Fest

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Duck breast caterpillar roll (front) and seared foie gras nigiri (back) at Chaya Brasserie in San Francisco.

California restaurants are getting their last hurrahs in for foie gras, as come July 1 the fatty duck liver will become contraband in the state.

Chaya Brasserie in San Francisco is joining in on the act with its “Au Revoir Foie Gras” menu, now available through the end of June.

Over the weekend, as an invited guest of the restaurant, I had a chance to sample many of the special a la carte foie gras and duck dishes that Executive Chef Yuko Kajino has created just for this blowout. Additionally, Chaya is inviting diners to add a dollop of foie gras to any dish on the regular menu — for an additional $10.

Foie gras sushi?

Oh, yeahhhh.

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