[Sca-cooks] OT: on a tangential note -- "Chili Sauce"

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Michael Gunter:
>>I'm a Tabasco man, myself... I suppose so.
>
>Never cared for Tabasco. Too vinegary for my taste. Have you
>tried Cholula? Comes in a bottle like Tabasco but with a round
>wooden top. Amazing stuff. Made from smoked peppers. Not
>too hot but a good bite. Far superior to Tabasco.

Haven't seen it; will look for it. Lately I've been involved in a 
flirtation with Tapatio Salsa Picante. It's like the slightly thicker 
Louisiana hot sauces, with garlic, and maybe other spices as well. It 
reminds me of Sriracha without the sugar.

>>It is. Putting it on a perfectly aged porterhouse steak the size of 
>>your neighbor's child that was slathered in sweet butter before 
>>broiling (the steak, not the child), doesn't hurt it much, either.
>
>Sonds wonderful. I'm going to have to do the "smearing butter then
>broiling" trick. I usually just add a mustard topping when I broil a
>steak. Of course the meat I get don't go near the quality of
>that one.
>
>(measuring the neighbor kid...)

I suspect the Peter Luger buttering trick is both very old, and 
possibly very German, but they also probably have broilers hotter 
than the circle of Hell reserved for your favorite politician. As 
best as I can determine, if that phrase carries any meaning, they 
butter the steak, then broil it on a heavy (somewhat charred by years 
of use) ceramic platter, then carve the steak and return it, 
steak-shaped and with all its collected juices, to a similar but 
uncharred patter. The waiter serves it, calls you a few nasty names 
(for which you thank him), first remembering to baste the steak with 
the melted-butter-steak-juice. You also get a little pitcher of their 
house steak sauce. Take a bite and die, either from a heart attack or 
overstimulation of the pleasure center of your brain. Who cares, at 
that point?

Your typical meal might begin with the aforementioned tomato and 
onion slices, or perhaps a slightly-too cold but gigantic shrimp 
cocktail. Or, for real sleazy nuances, a lettuce salad which consists 
of a quarter head of iceberg lettuce (I've only seen this once, I 
think), with that red steak sauce on the side. With your steak (they 
do monstrous lamb chops similarly, and I hear elusive rumors of both 
broiled chicken and burgers, but don't recall seeing either) you 
generally end up with German-type home fries, broiled to set a crust 
on top in the same broiler your steak was in, and perhaps some rather 
uninspired creamed spinach. Again: who cares? When in Rome...

As for their aging practices, I seem to recall they use American 
prime beef (with the waiters saving all their best verbal abuse for 
customers who ask if the beef is from Argentina), aged in the house 
for at least 21-24 days.

A typical dinner for four might run you something like the annual 
Gross National Product of Brazil... since I've never paid one of 
these bills, I'm a little fuzzy on the details.

>>Interesting. A little surprising, given the trend, natural 
>>selection being what it is, to decrease variety. I wonder if this 
>>is specifically a Heinz-ism originally, when they only had 56 
>>varieties ;-).
>
>Probably. It seems to date from the 50's far as I can tell.

Maybe. I'm sitting here giggling like an idiot, remembering the 
corresponding scene in "Blazing Saddles", and thinking, "Heinz 
Johnson -- 1 Variety!"

Adamantius

-- 




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la 
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them 
eat cake!"
	-- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques 
Rousseau, "Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04