Posts Tagged ‘Steak’

Red Wine & Beef – A Match made in Heaven

Monday, January 12th, 2009

Ahhh…I’m sure I have mentioned it countless times but such a pairing deserves to be fawned over time & time again.  Red wine & steak!

http://www.bennettlane.com/images/flanksteak.jpg

I bring this combo up today as part of a quickie post.  I stumbled upon a cool article “Beer and red wine marinade may cut cancer risk from beef”.  The title pretty much says it all, but in a nutshell, these marinades reduce the level of heterocyclic amines (formed during the frying or grilling of fish and meat – reported to promote carcinogenesis in humans) by up to 88 per cent.

Interestingly enough, the researcher then recruited people to taste beef marinated in wine, steak or not marinated at all.  Um hellooooo….I’m here and available any time you need another “test subject”…

In other news, the tough times we are experiencing is leading people to drink – but they are drinking more early & more cheaply.  People are hitting the bars at happy hour both to imbibe after a tough day and to do it at more reasonable prices.  I mean, can you blame us???!!!  This goes along with what I have heard about people drinking as much as during better times, just with the economy where it is people are drinking more at home than they are out at bars and restaurants.

Sorry for the grim news, but hey, go grab a bottle of fabulous Israeli wine, pop it open, marinate a steak for a few hours, and while you are savoring that bloody rare steak (I hope) try to forget all your troubles…

Happy marinated steak & wine Tasting!

WTG

kosher restaurant & kosherfest

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

I went out with some colleagues tonight to an upscale kosher restaurant.  This restaurant is very well regarded.  Sadly, kosher restaurants (whose certifying organization holds to the highest standards) in the US only allow kosher “mevushal” wines.  Without getting into the whats, whys, and hows of “mevushal”, simply put – mevushal wines are those that are put through a flash pasteurization process which then allows them to be handled by everyone (rather than just observant jews).

(A quick aside, most Israeli wines, considered by some [myself included] to be the best kosher wines in the world, are NOT put through this process.)

In any event, this fancy restaurant and its kosher certification meant that if we were to order wine it would have to be a mevushal wine.  Although I would never choose a mevushal wine over wine that had not gone through the flash pasteurization, when not given a choice I’d rather have wine with my dinner.  Especially since this restaurant is known for their steaks and I wanted to order a steak.  Can you imagine, a steak without some nice red wine.  Seemed sacrilege to me, but that is exactly what happened.  My colleagues felt strongly about not ordering a wine that was mevushal.  And not wanting to be the only one at the table with wine, I too had my steak with…a glass of water.

water

“A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine”.  It was a dark dreary day today.

I’m off to kosherfest for the next two days.  I’ll be working in the wine area, but i will do my best to walk around a bit and see if there are some standout items worth reporting back about.

Happy steak and WINE tasting!

WTG

Steak & wine – a match made in heaven

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Those who know me well know that there is little in this world that I enjoy more than a good rare steak and a fine bottle of red. As a matter of fact I have a bunch of friends I might never see if not for our steak & wine nights. Forget that, I have friends who might not actually be friends if not for the steaks I grill & the wine I bring (kidding fellas – I hope).

steak & wine But seriously, I was elated when I read an article recently in the Economist “Of Sommeliers and Stomachs”. Scientists from my beloved Israel have determined that compounds in red wine “thwart the formation of harmful chemicals that are released when meat is digested”. Is that unbelievable or what!?!! The research was led by Joseph Kanner of the Hebrew University (my new favorite person!). Not being scientifically inclined, I’d encourage you to read the article for yourselves. But in essence, toxins found in high fat foods (such as a nice rare steak) are combated by the polyphenols found in red wine at the moment that they meet in the stomach. This seemingly prevents the “toxic materials from getting any farther into the body” – he knows, he did some nasty experiments with rats that you can read about in the article.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Steak & red wine is good for you. Cheers & eat up!

Happy wine & steak tasting!

WTG