Comments on: Eat. Drink. Blog. Dinner at Kingsley’s Steak and Crab House, Woolloomooloo – 5 November 2011

By: Lolly

Lolly — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:26:28 +0000

Oh that carpaccio was the bomb!! I’ve been craving another just as good… but I am with you.. I’m not for fancy dinners either, I find they can be over-priced and very disappointing.. give me a funky and fresh cafe anyday !!

By: Lau

Lau — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:11:34 +0000

I think you’re spot on about this separation we have between animal and plate. It’s one of the reasons I went vego for 10 years – I just couldn’t know all there was to know about meat production so I had to opt out. Then I went to Argentina for a month and everything changed…

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 06:50:09 +0000

Er… I am most definitely not a food blogger. Notwithstanding that a recent post of mine was mostly about food.

The breeding & raising of beef in Australia is done in circumstances that should be well known.

Alas there has been little critical thinking by reporters & those who write about beef production or meat. This is not helped by these scribes seeming to have little understanding or interest in the product while it still had hair on. (pre-slaughter, if you like).

Historically most of what one reads about beef has been from the USA, or based upon research/studies done in the USA.
So much is different there, they don’t even manufacture barbeques the same way (they make them with a cover, would you believe?), never mind cook meat in a fashion that remotely resembles how it has been done here.

It has been a lifelong frustration to see misinformation about beef in Australia. The pork & poultry producers are not innocent in this. I’m not for ONE SECOND suggesting they have been up to no good, but it is certainly parallel to their interests for red meat to be smeared, in the manner that it has been for 30 years or more, smeared to journalists, publicists & to the general public.

Every day it becomes less relevant, as the grain feeding in feedlots, & killing of younger cattle, brings Australian butcher shop beef slowly into line with what the public perception of it has been for 30 years or so.

By: Lau

Lau — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:31:21 +0000

I agree Argentina definitely know’s what it’s doing when it comes to beef. I always thought it had to do with their cattle roaming free on the pampas, I never knew that there was an aging aspect to it as well.

I’ll take your tips and add the one thing I do know about cooking steak – do like the Brazillians do with their picanhas – salt it well. I’ve seen them do the same in Argentina, coating the larger cuts with rock salt before cooking.

I think you should write a post on this sutff, Steve. I’d love to learn more…

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:13:05 +0000

Differences in cooking aside, Argentine steak is largely grass fed, and better aged.
As was Australian beef before consumer demand from urban areas was for “young” beef, in preference to aged, flavoured & tenderised meat.

Now of course, you’ll do well in an urban area to get a steak that isn’t grain-fed, in a feedlot. (Both of these change the meat flavour so much that they should be criminal offences)

I’ll take my beef 7 years old, preferably a British breed, that has fattened quickly after a long drought, then hung in a coldroom for several weeks after slaughter, until the meat begins to turn green.

THEN cook it on an open hotplate (or the Argentine way – which for all the world looks like “fresh smoking” of meat) either way, it’ll melt in your mouth.

Whoever taught the Australian consumer that meat has to be young to be tender, well they ought to be shot.