Cuisine / Grill Restaurant
Grill restaurants serve mainly steaks. But beef is less indigenous to Thailand than pork, and if beef is prepared in native Thai cuisine it is not in the form of steaks. Therefore, there is only a limited number of restaurants specializing in steaks in Bangkok.
Many five-star hotels have steak restaurants and in quality they can compete with steak restaurants anywhere in the world. Anyway, they commonly do not sell local beef but the same meat that is served in first-class grill restaurants around the world: prime US beef.
As local cattle are not of the US hybrid kind (which wasn’t bred for tropical climates), and as less grain is fed to the cattle, Thai beef commonly is leaner than US beef and the meat has thinner fibers. As it is leaner, local beef also is less tender than US beef. How tender a steak is going to be can be judged from the appearance of the piece. If it is well marbled it will most probably be more tender than less marbled cuts. A number of first-class grill restaurants therefore show the cuts to the guest before cooking.
Beef is imported to Thailand not only from the US but also from Australia and New Zealand. US beef, however, is considered the best quality. It is also more expensive than beef from Australia and New Zealand.
Eating out for steaks in Bangkok’s first-class restaurants requires some more knowledge on terminology than eating out for steaks in the US or continental Europe. This situation results from the fact that the cuisine (and terminology) of the first-class restaurants in the Thai capital is oriented to the diverse nationalities of the foreign co-owners who might be European or American. American as well as French and other continental designations for steaks are found on menus.
Prime cut is an American designation that has nothing to do with the place a steak has been cut from the carcass of the cattle but with the quality of meat in general. Prime cut is best quality, and in the case of beef it mainly means that it contains enough fat. Prime cut steaks are well marbled with fat. Second choice quality is called choice cut and third quality is utility cut which is generally not used for steaks.
A New York cut on the contrary has nothing to do with the quality of the meat but with the location of the meat on the carcass. A New York cut is a slice of meat from above the ribs without the bone but with an edge of fat. In French, such cuts are called entrecote, and in England and Germany they are named rump steak. If the New York cut comes rather from the back section of the animal, and if it is prepared with the rib bone, it’s called a sirloin steak.
The name sirloin has a funny origin. It dates back to England of the seventeenth century. There, King Charles II (1630 to 1685) once was served such a delicious piece of beef loin that he immediately conferred the title "Sir" on that piece of meat. Allegedly it was a cut that today is called sirloin.
The meat below the ribs is called tenderloin in American terminology, and filet in continental Europe. The tenderloin is the most tender part of the beef, and unlike the parts from above the ribs and spinal cord, it is mostly served cleaned (stripped of fat edges).
Chateaubriand is a special French way of serving tenderloin for two persons. In that case, a double portion of the tenderloin is prepared in one piece and only then cut in rather thin slices at the table of the guest.
Characteristic of US cuisine are steaks that are served with the bone. The above mentioned sirloin steak is such a cut. More common, however, than the sirloin are the T-bone steak and the Porterhouse steak. Between the last two, there is only a small difference. In both cases the entrecote and the filet are not separated from the spinal cord and ribs. T-bone and Porterhouse cuts therefore always include a piece of entrecote and filet, or in American terminology, of the New York cut meat and the tenderloin.
Some local restaurants serve sizzling steaks. In that case, the steak is served on a very hot iron plate, mounted an a board. There is some sense to it (or there was, originally): if a steak is grilled over fierce heat the meat fibers contract and the juice is extracted into the space between the fibers. If the steak is served directly after being grilled over fierce heat, the meat juice that still is in between the fibers appears as blood leaking from the steak as if the meat wasn’t aged at all. But if the steak is granted a rest of some five minutes after being grilled over fierce heat the juice goes back inside the fibers and there is no more "blood" leaking. But as the steak cools down while resting it makes sense to serve it on a hot plate.
This consideration, however, seems of no importance to the local steak houses that serve the meat on hot plates. The steaks are not given a rest before being served, and they wouldn’t need it in most cases anyway as they are grilled well-done (the rest is only needed for rare or medium steaks, mostly for the rare).
Whereas sauce with steaks is uncommon in the US, filet steaks are served with a sauce in French cuisine. Most famous with filet steaks is the French pepper sauce; other sauces are Bernaise (butter sauce) or Cafe de Paris sauce (with herbs).
Some restaurants that serve their steaks sizzling pour a sauce or gravy over the steak and onto the hot plate; the sauce then not only starts to boil but also to splatter. The most expensive part of the dinner may then be the lady’s blouse and not the meat.
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