Matsusaka Beef Experience in Osaka

After reading the NY Times 36 Hours in Osaka article, we were convinced to spend a couple nights in Osaka.  The paragraph that reeled us in to Osaka wrote, "Kobe is not the only place in Japan pampering its cattle. In fact, an arguably more delectable steak comes from the massaged, beer-sipping, black-haired variety in Matsusaka, about two hours east of Osaka." It went on to talk about a yakiniku restaurant serving the beef where you can grill yourself at your table.

Matsusakagyu Yakiniku was one of the most memorable meals, ever.  We tasted 7 of the 12 cuts of beef.  Every cut of beef would melt so gently and so beautifully on my tongue.  This is seriously one of the best tasting cuts of beef I've ever tasted.  It was an epic night to savor.

If I were a cow, I'd love to be a Japanese cow.. A Matsusaka cow.  A life of massages and beer!  That is the life.

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If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Matsusakagyu Osaka

Better Steaks at Mamou

I really do love a great steak. I've been disappointed with the restaurants with "best steaks" according to bloggers and steak fans in Manila. Despite the disappointment, I had to try it again. I followed the hype. This time it wouldn't be about the fancy atmosphere. Let's just have a great steak, please?

Mamou - reputedly emulates the Peter Luger steak experience with the charred Porterhouse or T-Bone topped with melted butter and on a hot, hot plate. I've eaten at Peter Luger and its significant other, Wolfgang, in New York. Wolfgang is my standard for a great steakhouse all about the steak.

Does Mamou resemble these legendary New York establishments? It does a decent job.

The sides could use some work, but if you just focus on the steaks, I was happy. Medium, nicely charred, pretty well-marbled. I'd recommend this place to steak fans looking to eat out in Manila. The place is casual and gets crowded. Bring a good bottle of Cab, and that's going to be a pretty good night of eating.

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If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Mamou

Steaks at Cru

I love eating healthy. I love eating all my daily requirement of fruits and vegetables.

But every now and then, I NEED a good cut of grilled steak. High quality, marbled beef grilled to that perfect bright medium.

When it comes to steak, I'm a tough critic. My dad makes it every steak night memorable. So when I eat that well at home, I expect a high quality restaurant to make it just as good or even better. As a result, great steakhouses are hard to find.

But, it's always worth the effort trying to find out if and where these great steakhouses exist.

After disagreeing with fans of The Fireplace at the Hyatt Manila, I tried the next big craze, Cru at the Marriott Manila.

Disappointed again! For a place posing as a five-star steakhouse, the service does not match. The steaks are good, but not for what you pay for and for all that hype. However, if the service improved to the level of fine dining quality, I would have come out with a better experience and probably would recommend this place. Sadly, that is not the case now.

Fine dining, special occasion restaurants, or destination dining (however you choose to call it) is about that whole experience: food, atmosphere, AND service. If one lacks, it all falls apart.

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If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Cru

Wolfgang Steakhouse in NYC, A New Favorite Restaurant.

When my family buys high quality steaks and my dad has the ability to grill it up better than an average or above average restaurant, it's so hard to eat a steak outside of the house. It's a rare find for us to enjoy a quality steak in a restaurant. But, I think we finally found a place that makes it as good as home.

Wolfgang Steakhouse in Manhattan. (There are 5 locations in the city. We visited the Midtown East location.) Wolfgang Zwiener is the former maitre d' of the infamous Peter Luger Steakhouse. His steakhouse is very similar to Peter Luger, except you get a Manhattan steakhouse experience. At Peter Luger, you get Brooklyn service in a very casual and old setting. Here at Wolfgang, you get white table cloths with a pleasant surrounding and friendly service.

The whole experience was so memorable.. that we drove into the city from Connecticut the very next night to eat another steak dinner. Yes, it's that good.

And, on our 2nd night, Wolfgang, himself, came up to our table to greet us and take pictures! (I'm not posting the picture because it's a whole family shot - you know, privacy reasons.) He's quite the charming old man and is well dressed in a suit every night. What a fine job he's done with his steakhouses! I can't wait to go back.

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The slide show here runs of Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Wolfgang.

Steak Dinner

What can follow up a lobster dinner? And what's a great meal to cook at home before another long flight back to Manila?

Steak!

Place your cursor on "Notes" as a couple of the pictures have captions.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album.

Red at Makati Shangri-La

After our experience at The Fireplace (see post below), my parents and I decided to enjoy a meal at Red at the Shangri-La Hotel in Makati. Red is turning out to be one of my favorite occasion restaurants. And some occasions are simply a celebration of life.

When we got to the restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised to see a special 7-course menu specifically for Valentine's Day weekend. There were two menus: the black side for the men which had more meats and the red side for the women which had more seafood. So my mom and I selected the black side which sounded more appetizing and fulfilling because of the meat course.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

The Fireplace at the Hyatt in Manila

February is one of my favorite months of the year. Why? It's my birthday month! That's right, month. I like to milk the celebrations and use it as an excuse to eat out and enjoy life even more.

On my actual birthday, my family and I were adventurous for something new. So we tried out The Fireplace at the Hyatt Hotel along the Manila Bay. We also pass the restaurant when we go to Li Li, the Chinese restaurant. The Fireplace is well decorated and highlights their fireplace, in which they cook most of the proteins.

Overall, the food was pretty good, along with the service. But, the prices are steep especially compared to what you can get at other steak houses in this area. Also, at the end of the meal, we asked for a piece of bread to take home and the kitchen refused. Despite what we paid, they insisted we pay for a tiny piece of bread! More on that under the "Notes" on the bread picture on the slide show below. After an incident like that, we're not too inspired to ever go back. Repeat customers come back because of the overall experience.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

A Five-Star Steakhouse Meal at Home

Our local butcher in Las Vegas, The Butcher Block, is our go-to place for some of the best quality steaks. For one of our last meals at home in Vegas, my dad usually grills some steaks. At $50 per pound of New York Steak, we hesitated for a moment and considered going to a five star steak house on The Strip. But, we realized that the way we eat at home (the cooking, the wine, the table setting) is just as five star as in a restaurant out on The Strip. Plus, these steaks, if you know how to cook them, are so worth the price.

One of the greatest joys in life is savoring each bite of a melt-in-your-mouth quality steak. Pair it with a good sauce and a well-aged wine - happiness.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

Burgers & Steaks at Peter Luger

When I hear about "the best steaks" and "the best burgers", Peter Luger is usually a name that is mentioned. I tend to be skeptical when I hear something is "the best." What else and how many else have you tried in order to claim something is truly the best over all?

Plus, when it comes to steaks, the grilling and trimmings my family makes at home is pretty awesome. I don't wanna say it's "the best" because I feel I'd have to travel around the entire world and eat at every steak house to make that claim. So, what I normally say is, "It's the best of what I've eaten so far." It really is. The quality of the steaks and our onion sauce. Oh, man, it's awesome.

Going back to the hype over Peter Luger..I've been very skeptical for years. Skeptical and curious. So on our afternoon trip into Brooklyn, my family and I made a point to have lunch at Peter Luger. We made sure it was a lunch so we could also try their raved about burgers (which is a lunch time only item).

The hype over "the best steaks" and "The best burgers"? I don't want to say it's the best, but I will say it's really good. You can really taste the quality of the burger. The meat is freshly ground, and not overly ground. The char is crusted and delicious. Quality meat, well prepared, and well cooked. The steaks come out in a plate of sizzling butter. It's cooked perfectly medium and so nicely grilled. The taste of the meat itself is also really quality.

After our lunch, we watched how the women butchers of Peter Luger handpicked each of the meats. Seeing how they are so choosy about their steaks made me further appreciate the meat I just ate.

A note on service: You definitely feel like you're in Brooklyn when you dine there. The waiters all proudly hail from Brooklyn. They have that Brooklyn accent and that old-time Brooklyn demeanor. In one instance, my dad called the waiter to ask for something, and our waiter came to our table asking, "What do you want?!" Definitely won't get that kind of service in a steakhouse in Midtown.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Restaurant Week, Stop #4: Gustavus

For our last stop for Restaurant Week, we tried a new place which is walking distance from home. I love neighborhood restaurants because they are inviting, casual, and all about serving great, comfort foods. Gustavus can easily qualify as a good city neighborhood restaurant. Thanks to Restaurant Week, I'm curious to go back and try out more selections from the menu.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Restaurant Week, Stop #2: Sala Bistro

Reviewing the menus for Restaurant Week, we decided to try out Sala Bistro next. We have enjoyed our visits to this restaurant, so we knew the meal would be satisfactory. For the most part, the meal was pretty good, but overall the flavors of the meal lacked basic seasonings. I will go back to this restaurant in the future, though, because they have a fun menu selection with some really tasty offerings.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Eating In

To balance all my travels and eating out, I try my best to cook fresh meals at home whenever I can. Plus, cooking or eating my parents' home cooked meals is sometimes even better than going out.

Sukiyaki Night
New Beer Mug
Straight from Chiang Mai. My dad and I bought celadon mugs to enjoy our cold beers.

Sukiyaki
With thinly sliced beef, shitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, leeks, onions, tofu, and shirataki noodles.

The Plated Meal
With a bowl of steamed rice and a raw egg for dipping.

Vegetarian Night
Steamed Lapu Lapu
With mushrooms, leeks, ginger, and garlic.

Raw Vegetables
Fresh cucumbers, red peppers and green peppers.

Kamias Chutney
For this meal, we used it as our dipping sauce for the vegetables.

Breakfast for Dinner Night
We had two courses of breakfast for dinner. Longanisa and Steak. Yum!
Garlic Rice

Fried Egg

Longanisa
Filipino breakfast sausage. This particular batch of longanisa came from Santis Deli. It wasn't over-seasoned and had a clean taste.

The Plated Meal

Sauteed Corn
Fresh from the cob with onions, tomatoes, pancetta, and cilantro.

The Steak

Onion Sauce
The dipping sauce for the steak.

The Plated Meal
Garlic Rice, Fried Egg, Corn, and the perfectly cooked Steak.

More Family Meals

Before the end of our holiday vacations, my parents continued to make delicious dinners while the whole family was together.

Kare Kare
This is one of my favorite meals at home. Aside from oxtails, there are also shortribs. The vegetables include eggplant and Chinese longbeans. The dish is always better the next day when the sauce thickens and the flavors get more infused into the meat. Although, it's also great on the first day when you really taste the roasted meat taste.


Bagoong
The sauce for Kare Kare. It's basically shrimp paste with onions and pork bits.


Steak and Wine Night
To get my taste buds ready for the night, my dad and I sipped on some Maker's Mark. A nice pre-dinner drink.

The Pairing
Cabernet Sauvignon, Robert Mondavi, 1986

Vegetables
Bean Sprouts, Asparagus, Onions, and Mushrooms

Fried Rice with Steak Bits

Greg Norman Steaks - Grassfed and Ribeye Cuts
Both were tasty, but the New York cut is far tastier and buttery.

Tarte Tatin
Another batch of my mom's tarte tatin.

New Year's Eve Dinner

My dad grilled a surf and turf dinner for our last meal of 2009. This is him grilling under the blue moon.

Veggies
Brussel Sprouts and Mushrooms

Fried Rice
Using chunks of the fat and meat from the steak, my dad fried up some delicious rice.

Grilled Scallops

Grilled Steak
Allen Brothers steaks. It has a delicious beef taste, but we preferred the buttery taste and melt-in-your mouth quality of Greg Norman steaks.

Steak!

A few months ago I wrote about Greg Norman steaks. It's so delicious and buttery that we had to have it again.
The Steaks
Nicely Charred.

Kyoya Onion Sauce

Bean Sprouts, Snap Peas, Broccoli, and Onions

Kamameshi Rice with Mushrooms

Cut
Perfectly cooked medium. Mmm!

Plated

The Wine Pairing
Cabernet Merlot, Greg Norman, 2006. A delicious wine full of berries and spice notes.

Home Cookin'

I'm excited to announce that tomorrow I will be going to New Haven and New York City. I'm super excited to eat and share my food adventures from this trip!

But before that happens, I've been with my family eating some home cooked meals in preparation for a full week of eating out.

Scrambled Eggs with Mortadella Sausage
The eggs were cooked with Queso de Bola (Ball of Cheese, straight from the Philippines). The cheese was great because it's stronger than parmesan, melted nicely with the eggs, and was not oily.
The sausage was from Boccalone. It was made fresh the night before by Chef Cris Cosentino, according to his tweet.


Gazpacho
This is one of my brother's specialty. It has such a great deep taste, while staying nice and refreshing. My dad toasted up the home-made croutons the night before. This dish makes for a great lunch.


Rudd, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000
Smooth and full of fresh berries. This is perfect for pairing it with our steak dinner.

Greens sauteed with Miso

Fried Rice

Chimichurri Sauce

Onion Sauce
We learned this recipe from eating at our family's favorite Japanese restaurant in the Bay Area, Kyoya. It's the sauce we make every time we cook steak.

Steak!
My dad has grilled up plenty of steaks, plenty of the best steaks. We have incredibly high standards when we order steak in restaurants. We've had steaks from Lobel's, Snake River, and so on. Our premium steak at the moment: Greg Norman Wagyu Steaks.

Look at that marbling!

My brother's Plated Dinner


Side Vegetables that compliment our Adobo Dinner
Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Cilantro

Onions

Kurobuta Pork Adobo!

Every pot of adobo that my mom makes is the best, this particular pot bested the best. Soo delicious!


Fruit Salad with Custard
Custard mix with Bananas, Pineapples, Cantaloupe, and Avocado