Sunday, January 11, 2009

Extremes: Disgusting Stuff and El Gaucho

I often get great ideas for a blog post on the middle of the night. I will think to myself that I am sure to remember what it was in the morning, only to forget it. Sometimes when I read others blogs I remember some of these former ideas. The only thing is I usually don't act on them because I don't like to appear to knock off someone's idea.

For instance, today I read Fish's blog regarding boogers. It was fairly disgusting. I have several grosser than gross stories too but I don't think I will reveal them here at this time. But, they sure are funny...well at least they are to me. And none of them have to do with ingesting semi-solidified snot, thankfully. Maybe mine are worse though. I will write down three things and leave it at that: College dorms, poop, toes. That event came shortly after another event that involved these three things: a plugged bathtub, around 30 college guys, and way too much Coke and Pepsi to drink. Yeah, gross stuff.

Anyway, on to other matters. Worst to first here my friends, enough of the base things. I am going to relate a tale of wonder. It is the tale of my visit to El Gaucho in Portland.

It was my father's-in-law and my brother's-in-law birthdays last week. The result was that the birthday dinner was going to be held at El Gaucho's in Portland. I had never been there. I had heard that the steaks were among the very best. I was very happy to be invited. As many of you know, we are pretty much on the very low end of the income spectrum, and so to be invited (and not have to pay a dime) was a happy thing. I mean, we didn't expect to be invited at all, it wasn't either of our birthdays after all.

It was a little nerve racking to leave 4 month old Colin at home with our niece, but the call of the prime beef was too strong. We arrived there and sat at the bar until our table was ready. I knew that the bill was going to be steep, so I resisted having anything other than water, while others had miscellaneous drinks. Soon our table was ready and we ordered. I had a salad with crab and shrimp. I expected perfection, but it was merely good. Bridget had the french onion soup and that was pretty amazing.

We waited for for the main course. I was having a 16 ounce New York cut. Cooked medium. They cook the meat over Kingsford charcoal. This is, personally, my favorite way to cook a steak. The waiter told us the temperature that steak is cooked over is 1500 degrees. Awesome. I was told to expect a nice crust with a juicy inside. Yeah. Juicy and crusty meat. You may not be excited reading those two words together to describe a steak, but it turned out to have been beyond my expectation.

The steak was rather large. It seemed like it was bigger than 16 ounces, but not big enough for my appetite at that point. I cut through the mantle and then through the soft molten core. I gently salted the slice and gently put it on my mouth...perfection. It really doesn't any better than the first bite. But it wasn't any worse either. I ate it all and thought I probably could have could have pounded the 24 ounce New York. Gluttony at its finest.

3 comments:

Fish said...

I've always wanted to try that place. It's supposed to be one of the best steak places anywhere, and it sounds like it was. It does pain me to think that at least one person at your table probably had a medium-well/well done steak.

Mr. Flynn said...

...that would have been Bridget. I am not sure if anyone else did. Medium well, but she really enjoyed it she said. They cut the medium well to well done steaks differently. Hers was about a 1/3 less thick than mine.

Medium was really wonderful. Perfect balance of crust and the red inside. I didn't even bother to write about the bit of lobster that came with my steak or the desserts. Because really, it is all about the steak. It was better than the Ringside and better than Mortons. More expensive too.

Brianero said...

Your food posts are the best. Forget cycling and give us more chow. Chow Chow Chow!!