Take a moment to picture that perfect steak in your mind. The sizzle and crackle when it comes to your table. The first salty bite. The buttery texture of marbled steak. The second when you tell yourself you're not going to eat everything on your plate and the guilty pleasure of doing exactly that.
My perfect steak is at Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn. And although it can be topped with the restaurant's signature sauce -- a spicy, brown horseradish sauce -- the real juice is in the cholesterol sauce spooned on top by an ageless waiter in a white apron.
Today is a day for steak, just as there are times when I wake up craving a hot dog or pizza. Whether I'm iron deficient or simply hoping to top another food blogger with inspired posts, a la the protagonist in Jack London's "A Piece of Steak," is up for debate.
But what is not in question is the allure of cholesterol sauce. It's essentially rendered beef fat, the drippings from the steak, that are offered table side by your server. It's why God invented gravy. Salty and overloaded with beef flavor, cholesterol sauce transforms a well-cooked steak into a symphony.
I'm thinking about trying out this Momofuku recipe for pan-roasted, dry-aged steak, tonight. It calls for half-a-stick of butter. So if that doesn't raise my cholesterol count, I don't know what will. It likely won't be the perfect meal, but it will help pass the time until I can be reunited with the one steak that I'd gladly let stop my heart.
So, Kansas City transplants, what's the food you miss from your previous hometown?
[Image via Flickr: casers jean]
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