Now, given that this is the Bay Area, a foodie mecca if I've ever seen one, and home to plenty of pricey eateries, this place was pretty reasonable. But it was up there, about as much as I'd be willing to spend on a dinner without a really good reason. (spoiler alert: we spent just over 100, tip included, for 2 meals, 2 decent glasses of wine, and after dinner drinks) I ordered the NY strip steak, and applied my rule of ordering steak rare if it's over 20 bucks - I don't trust chefs at any place less than that to do rare correctly, so I do mid rare normally. I should say in advance of this, I don't think I've ever sent back a meal at a restaurant before. I just don't do it, especially since I saw Waiting... - it made me a bit paranoid. We were waiting a bit too long for our meals, given both Erin and myself ordered rare/mid rare steaks, so I had a feeling something was up. Erin's came out fine, but mine was medium well - maybe medium being pretty generous. If I cooked it for myself, I'd have eaten it without complaint. I almost kept my mouth shut, but when our waitress came over to ask if everything was alright I decided couldn't let it go - Damnit I'm paying 25 bucks for this steak, it'd better be right!
An interlude here for a moment - I find I can't keep the venom out of my voice when I complain about something. Even if I try to control my tone and be up beat and what not, there's a tinge of malice at the end of the sentence. I must come off as really pissed off, which may or may not have worked in my favor this time.
She took my plate back without complaint, and someone (I'd assume the chef) came out to say it would be just a minute. The replacement was prompt, and just looking at it through the sauce before slicing into it I could tell this piece of meat had just barely been introduced to the flame, like a coworker's spouse at a party - an acquaintance made in passing and quickly forgotten about. Now, clearly, I enjoy rare steak. But this steak was rare in nearly the same way Sushi is rare. The center was literally cold to the touch. I'll repeat that for emphasis - the meat was cold! I really wasn't going to be the guy who sends his steak back twice, so I decided to live with it. I was fairly well rewarded; it wound up being a bit chewy, but it had a damn good flavor. By the time I finished it, the temp had evened out so I didn't even have that disturbing cold twinge with each bite.
I took this picture with my camera phone at the end of dinner - low quality for obvious reasons, I tried to clear it up a bit in Gimp. If anything, it was more red/purple in person. The pink you see here is deceptive, if I had seen it on someone else's plate I would have assumed it was seared tuna.
Oh, and Iron Man rocked. Tony Stark at the beginning reminds me of Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, which I think was about right for pre-redemption Stark. I'm really looking forward to the sequels, since I love Warmachine and I can't wait to see what Terrence Howard does with an action role. Oh, if you haven't seen it, stay till after the credits for some awesome Marvel universe movies foreshadowing as well. If they can pull off (warning: Iron Man post credits scene spoilers in link) this whole thing the way they're talking about it, it will without doubt be the crowning achievement of the whole Superhero movie thing that's been going on for the last 6 years or so.
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