Tuesday, July 05, 2005

A Hereford Beefstouw

Beefstouw

Wow - this was thoroughly impressive and a definite surprise. I'd seen this place at HK airport many times and was always intrigued, but never actually went there. Today, I finally did, and I was blown away by it.

It appears to be a Danish steak restaurant, with most locations in Denmark, with the one strange exception in Hong Kong. I had the chopped sirloin steak ("best quality chopped beef, grilled to a crisp and juicy steak"), which was basically hamburger steak, and it was juicy and nicely grilled. The taste was a bit leaner than other hamburger steaks that I've had (like the grease bombs at the Pantry in downtown LA, or Original Joe's in San Jose), but they had some Bernaise butter melting on top to help. They offered mustard to complement the meat (must be a Scandinavian thing?), although I ended up using their table salt, which - this will sound weird - was the most amazing salt I've ever tasted. Of course, salt is just salt, but this salt was flaked to the point that it was "crispy," which created a taste and texture that I was not expecting and completely blown away. Wow.

Add to that a nice baked potato with meticulously prepared chive and bacon toppings...and even the bread was very airy and light (but I do miss sourdough after leaving San Francisco). Don't forget the cool decor with napkins hanging by the legs of the table. And yes, that is a Shirley Temple in the picture - I got nostalgic.

I would go to HK airport just for this place alone. Wow was I suprised. I'm disappointed that I hadn't discovered this place earlier. For those travellers in a rush, they want you to "enjoy any 200 gr of steak within 20 minutes. The time for your meal is guaranteed." I'm definitely coming back - screw the meal on the airplane!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for this extremely outdated reply - hope you manage to see this comment anyway! Not sure if you cook, but the salt is very likely Maldon salt, from England. It's one of the best flaky salts around.