March 6, 2010

Organic Meat Delivery

I was a vegetarian for about four years when I was a teenager; the result of an ill advised (or surprisingly progressive?) school trip to a battery chicken farm. I think about half the class went veggie for at least a while after that one.

Slowly I started to realise that it wasn’t the eating of meat that bothered me, but rather the journey that the meat took in order to reach my plate. I don’t mind killing animals (even personally) in order to eat them, but I don’t see why that means they have to suffer before, or excessively during, slaughter.

I’m not going to pontificate about the treatment of animals during factory farming; there are hundreds of books out there all about it. I recommend Not On The Label by Felicity Lawrence and Meat by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall if you want to read a bit about it. Weepix recommends The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Suffice to say that most animals raised in factory farms have unnaturally short, brutal and undignified lives.

I don’t want to eat something that has been rushed to my plate as fast as possible with profit topping the list of producer concerns.

The upshot of me wanting to ensure the provenance of what is on my plate was this week’s inaugural meat order with Feather and Bone. They provide a fine seasonal range of carefully sourced meat and meat products. Is it more expensive than the supermarket? Of course, but not by as much as you’d think and I’m happy to eat less meat in order to pay more for what I do have.

The first order comprised:

A 2.2kg chicken
500g of aged chuck steak
500g of pork mince
750g of chicken Marylands (legs and thighs)
1kg minute steaks (can’t beat a quick steak sandwich)
1.4kg of goat shoulder
500ml of chicken stock

The whole lot was about $110 which is not too shabby considering the volume. It’ll last two weeks without breaking a sweat.

We cooked the chicken on the barbecue last night and I’m happy to say it was fantastic. The meat is rich and intensely flavoured and a leg and thigh each is more than enough for dinner, which leaves us with enough for chicken sandwiches and a chicken and feta salad for later (recipes to follow!). Deglaze the pan with some white wine, add in a bit of Dijon and sour cream and it also provides a fantastic gravy.

The chicken sandwiches were incredible. Spread some of the left over gravy across the bread, slice up one of the chicken breasts (still running with juice after a night in the fridge) and pile on some left over lettuce with peas and avocado. Bit of homemade coleslaw on the side. Sandwiches can be wonderful things.

The bird may have cost $30 but it’s giving us six generous serves and providing stock for another. I can live with paying $6 a serve for my chicken, especially when it tastes this good.

Up next is Jamaican curry goat (never goat curry!).

January 15, 2010

Sashimi at Masuya

Some eating experiences have to be written about no matter how busy work, no matter what is distracting you on tv and no matter how lazy you are.

Just another Friday yesterday; busy end to the week, quick beer at work and then off home to some chili crab linguine and a glass of wine. Weepix had other ideas however and decided that some sashimi was the order of the day. Why not? It was a lovely evening after a cloudy day and you gotta embrace these things when you have the chance. That's why we headed for Masuya........which is in a basement.....with no windows. Ah well, sometimes it's worth missing a beautiful sunset for promises of culinary treats to come.

I'm not much of an authority on sashimi and sushi. I know the stuff I used to buy from the supermarket in the UK is to sushi waht a pot noodle is to ramen. That's a damn shame when you consider how much incredible fish is caught in the UK, but there you go. I know fresh is obviously good, mandatory in fact. Could I tell one day old tuna from 12 hour old tuna though? Could I tell you when the lobster is sliced incorrectly? Nope, not a chance. What I am certain of is that the sashimi and sushi I had last night was the best I've ever eaten.

We wandered into Masuya at about 6.30pm as we had no reservation but a real hankering for fish. Apologies were offered as the only seat available was at the sushi counter. Oh no! The opportunity to sit in front of beautiful, artful stacks of freshly sliced fish and watch as the chef expertly and amazingly quickly rolls, presses and stacks them into an incredible range of tasty treats. Damn. I'd pay extra for that.

After ordering a bottle of saki we sat looking at dozens of mouth watering options, including fantastic looking crab hot pots and beautiful bento boxes, and at length decided upon the chef's tasting plate, a sashimi selection plate and Wagyu in miso.

While waiting Weepix realised that we could just ask the chef directly for whatever we fancied from the vast array of fish in front of us. Oh dear. You have to understand I'm a total fool in situations like this. Unless I have somebody to control me I'll keep ordering just to watch the chef making the food. I don't usually stuff myself but when the food is truly good and has that 'hook' that makes me grin from ear to ear I'm like a man possessed.

First out the gate was some stunningly fresh mackerel with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion stalks. I adore mackerel and this is light, clean and wonderfully fresh. Following this was some swordfish sushi that was blasted with a blowtorch for about a second and finished with a dab of curry mayonnaise. Delicious also but the curry was a little overwhelming.

I never thought I'd be indifferent to Wagyu, but when our sashimi plate arrived I barely even glanced at the beef. We got a mix of tuna, salmon, kingfish, deep sea bream, scampi, john dory, scallop and snapper.

Tuna, salmon and kingfish are all staple sashimi dishes but they were still extremely welcome. The salmon in particular was glorious; meltingly tender, robust but fresh and wonderfully familiar. I actually prefer the flavour of fresh salmon sashimi to the smoked salmon I grew up with.

Thin slices of scallop with salmon roe was fantastic, nice and sweet and then a little blast of fishy goodness as you squeeze the roe against the roof of your mouth until it bursts.

The real champion was the fresh scampi though. Simply put it's one of the finest things I've ever tasted; soft and silky with a stunning sweet prawn flavour. Two more of these were immediately ordered and scoffed in double quick time.

It does have to be said that the wagyu was also fantastic, but after all that sashimi it seemed....crude? It was like listening to Metallica after Leonard Cohen. Both wonderful but not not necessarily the best of companions.

Sitting there, fully stuffed and ready to waddle home the chef presented us with a couple of complimentary bonito nigiri. Well it's be rude not to accept. I've never had fresh bonito before and it was intensely flavoured, very fishy and highly tasty.

As far as I know this could have been totally run of the mill sashimi and sushi but it's the best I've ever had without doubt. If the much lauded otoro, uni and ankimo are as good as I've been led believe then I could be in big trouble. Moving country for food this good is not as crazy as it sounds.