I could down in a cow...

On Saturday, we went shopping for a bit from morning till late afternoon. We were at the market and went to this butcher where my friends bought some seasoned chinese chicken and I was tempted to get something from there as well.

"16oz of T-bone steak, please"

The butcher unhung the meat and lay it on the table. He estimated how much he should cut for 16oz then saw right in.

"that's £7.50, please! It's a little over 16oz though."
"Really? It's not 16oz? what does it weigh?"
"18oz"
"But I asked for 16oz"
"It's hard to estimate from cutting up a fresh meat like that...", that's the best I could remember what he was trying to explain to me.
"OK. But that's too much for me..."
"Tell, you what. give me six quits and I'll give you this."

Hmm... he's giving me a discount of £1.50. Not bad. hehe
"Aight! I'll take it", after thinking about it for a minute.

The last time I had such a huge steak was with the Malaysian people back in Saskatoon at The Keg. It was super! Michelle had a 10oz New York and I had the keg size 16oz New York. The rest of them, Ee Lynn, Erlina, Ivy, Wayman, and Vincent had something else.

After the meal, my tummy bulges out and it was so obvious that I just had to be teased by Eelynn.

So, coming back to Leeds, there I was just staring at the huge piece of steak in my kitchen wondering how I should prepare it. It's steak night for me on Saturday damm right; and the thought of it is already making me hungry. Here's what I did.

Brushed some extra virgin olive oil on both sides of the steak and sprinkled some black peppers and chinese peppers on it with 8 cloves (to be removed later). Let it sit for an hour or two.

It's not that difficult to make a steak really as I recall the day when we had our last steak with Charmei and Benson (and I, when I had so much less hair). I need to make the sauce for it and I used white wine as much as a can of Coca-Cola. In in added 2 teaspoon of chicken stock and sugar. Set aside.

Next, minced up a shallot (2 if you would, mine was a huge one) and stir-fry until brown with butter. Gawd, smells heavenly already! Okay, poured in the wine mixture and let it simmer for another 3-5 minutes until it looks thick. Alcohol evaporates but leaves its aroma behind so don't worry because you're not going to be making soup.

When it looks just right, set it out and set it aside to allow it to cool down, but not in the fridge.

Back to the piece of meat. Make sure your frying pan is smoking hot. Slide the steak down and press its surfaces just to make sure all sides are evenly cooked. I like medium-rare for all my steaks so I have to watch out NOT to over cook it. For those of you who likes it well-done, it's really a cinch.

Dished it out with 3 brocolli's, 3 cauliflowers, 5 english sprouts, 1 baked potato, and 1 sweet corn. That's a REAL meal!

I'll put up the picture of it when it's ready.

After the meal, hehe, i looked at my tummy... and remembered being teased by Eelynn. It's too much. I have shared the 18oz of meat with Bjorn, from Norway who is our roommate.

I treated myself to a movie in which I have just borrowed from a friend. It's called "The Emperor and The Assassin (荆柯刺秦王)". Anyone who wants to know the history of China or what the Terra-Cotta warriors are all about in Xian (西安), this is the movie to watch! It's 3 hours long but every minute of it is worthwhile!

"荆柯" (Jingke) is the Assassin's name
"刺" (ci) means 'to kill' as in assassinate.
"秦王" (qin wang) means the Qin's King or the Emperor during Qin Dynasty when China was unified for the first time.

Sunday, Oct 17.
Nothing much happened today. Just stay home and did some reading.


Later...