My friend Panda Chew buzzed me and invited me for a gathering of a small group of cycling buddies for some chit-chat over some good food. Come over to SS 2/103, he casually mentioned. It's been a while since I have gone to that corner of PJ; it's a short street tucked in the quieter corner of SS2. But don't get me wrong, that single short street set amidst residential houses has a few good eateries, among them is the Butcher's Table where we will be headed. But why go there? Come, come... Panda said, we are going to try their Tomahawk Steak! I must confess that although I have been adventurous when it comes to eating, I have not tried this before. So off I went, after all it's going to be good food with good friends.
We kicked off with an appetizer of Chinese-style Roast Pork. Hmmmm..... meat as an appetizer, that's interesting. But it was quiet appropriate, we each had a few small chunky pork-belly cuts of these. The lean meat was tasty and not to dry and was well balance by a thick layer of fat at the top, sweet and slurpy fat! And to top it all, the crackling skin was very bite-able crunchy, that's always the best part of this roast pork. These few bites did work up our palate for the next appetizer.....
..... the Deluxe Cheese Ring, a foot plus long sausage which came presented in a whirl like one of those taken-a back, dizzy exclamation marks - 😵. Hey this is going to be fun, more meaty starters for the nine of us, more things to try out for a next outing here. I have tried many cheesy sausages and like the ones here best for an odd reason - it's not too cheesy. Many cheese sausages have too much cheese and it overwhelms the meat flavour, this one here has just enough to give just slightly more than a hint of cheese without being overpowering.
The Nürnberger Sausage, one that not so easily available in the Klang Valley. This pork-based bratwurst originated from the Nürnberger region and is seasoned with marjoram to give it a distinctive pine and citrus flavour. A point of note: most of the sausages here are self-made using pig's intestine lining for casing and with no preservatives added to the meat (meaning healthy NO NITRATES production). The benefits of this natural casing are flavor and visual appeal. Because the natural casing breathes, it results in a deeper flavor and richness in the sausage - the smoking and cooking flavors can permeate the casing and infuse the meat. And because the casings are all natural, the sausages are very natural looking, being somewhat irregular in shape and size.
Next something more beefy (not beefy as in beef, but as in more filling) - Smoked Pork Knuckles. Instead of the usual uneven, hard crunchy skin, this had a soft, easy to bite skin. I suspect that instead of the usual strong-heat roasting, they had slowly roasted this over a slow wood fire to give it that smoky aroma and also a more juicy meat.
Look at THE SKIN! It's just calling out "Eat me! Eat me!"
Okay... okay..... no more dilly-dallying; let's come to our pièce de résistance - the Tomahawk Steak. Here's a nice song to get you into a Tomahawk eating mood! Click on the play button to start the mood.
Ours was a huge 1.6 kg. slab with a long bone on one side. It came served on a large wooden platter with sides of greens and chunky chips. What is a Tomahawk Steak? You are forgiven if you ask that, not many have heard about it as it is not easily available at eateries or even from the deli. It's basically a rib-eye steak still attached to the long bone, but it's more than that as it's a cut from the fore-rib nearer the front. The rib-eye is a prime cut with luscious marbling, so one can consider the Tomahawk as a prime rib-eye - a prime of the prime! It's get the name, as with the long rib-bone still attached, it looks like a tomahawk, a Native American axe.
Our cut was more meaty, i.e. with meat almost all the way down the bone. Sometimes for presentation, the meat at the narrower end is cut of for a more tomahawk look (... see photos).
Ok... another photo to show the size of our Tomahawk, with us happily eager to sink our teeth in. It's a well marbled Black Angus, so all the more reason for our teeth to be impatient!
A closer look at the steak, mouth drooling isn't it? Some granular sea salt had been sprinkled on and around it.
We left it to the expert (restaurant owner Ken) to cut the meat for us into manageable slices, nice slices of medium-rare juicy meat together with thicker cuts of slightly burnt chewy fatty ligaments.
Here's my share; love how the red meat had been beautifully done. I partake it, slowly biting into the firmer brown edges and working inwards to the red chewy part. But I did not miss out on the chewy well roasted fatty parts (the piece on the left); this although not that tasty had a good aroma. On bite of red meat and then a bite of fat was what I did to balance of the tastes.
All eaten up, the bare bone still did have a bit of tomahawk shape, with a smaller axe head formed by the spine bone.
Yipeee... Kai.... Yeah!
We had much to catch up on as our friends had just came back from a round Jeju Island cycling tour, we lingered on until their closing time. They had some unsold Porchetta; not having enough of their good food, we decided to get some of these to take-away.
Yet that was not enough to satisfy our craving; we took-away some Smoked Pork Knuckles too 👅👅! OR or if you feel like it, one could call them at +603-77282843 to pre-order take-aways, pricing is a bit cheaper than eating in.
They have a wide range of sausages, ham and other meats in their deli section for sale too. More take-aways for us.... Haha! Below are the Butcher's Table menu:
No comments:
Post a Comment