Friday, October 2, 2009

The 7 Degrees of Bone Meat



So, already, people are running from the bone meat dishes (pepperpot, oxtail pho, etc). This is to be expected in America. Ever since I was a kid, people packed their own dinners when comin over to the crib cause they knew, "If you eat at the Huangs', there is gonna be bones in your soup, bones on your chicken, and you damn right there's feet in your stew."

Warren was hands down the most adventurous white boy of all-time (hereinafter referred to as "MAWBAT". And he was rewarded for it. Warren, tell the people how you feel in the comments. Justin got down too, but he stopped at feet, fair enough. Feet are for freaks like me and Too Short.

Look, I can understand the fear. Bone meat looks weird at first and the flavor is deep. Heads aint ready for the essence! It is the most flavorful, you get your soups, your stews, your best braised dishes, etc. all from bone meat. Even if you don't think bone meat is involved, you're tasting it. Bone meat makes the world go round.

Instead of appeasing people's irrational fears of bone meat, "chefs" should stand their ground and serve the damn bones because everyone knows that's where the flavor is at. If you take an oxtail, eat the meat clean, you'll see two little holes on each side. Suck on em like a Hooker @ the Point and enjoy.

Here is a step-by-step guide to bone meats and where you should start:

1) Go for Osso Bucco - its a veal shank. I recommend Osso Bucco because it is an Italian dish and for most Americans, its a gateway bone meat. The real crack is a few steps down, but this is your dutch.

2) Try the Veal Bones - If you want to try bone meat at home and don't want to spend money on Osso Bucco, try veal tails. They are like ox tails but from veal so its younger, fattier meat. Veal has less "flavor/essence" than mature beef in my opinion and should be less "offensive" to bone meat rookies.

3) Bone-in Short Ribs - In my opinion, no one does short ribs like Korean stew. I love it. Spicy Kalbi Tang is great and easy to make. I'll try to whip some up next week. If I don't remind me! But, if you don't have a good Korean place by you, its very easy to braise short rib with some onions, garlic, carrots, brown sugar, etc. make a nice sweet gravy, serve over rice. Err.... potatoes? I dunno. I eat everything on rice cause Mao told me to.

4) Ox Tails - This is my favorite cut of meat on the planet. My mom makes an Ox Tail Vegetable Stew that is the shit. Again, remind me, and I'll make it. Its got celery, carrots, onions, rice wine, ox tails. I cook a lil rice and put it in the soup. Its what we eat instead of Chicken Noodle Soup. You'll be hooked.

5) Pork Neck - So, you've graduated from the tails and realized, it wasn't that funky! Just good straight forward marrow flavor. Now, go back to your Korean spot and get some Gam Ja Tang. I really love the bone meat stews Korean restaurants do. Everyone thinks, "Oh, Korean, I should get BBQ, no son, the stew is where its at."

6) Lamb Neck - Yea, now you're really in deep. Go straight to Court St. in Brooklyn. Yemen cafe, get the Yaneez and ask specifically for the Neck pieces. You won't be disappointed. Side Note: ARAB ED, you owe me $800 you bum mofugger, PAY ME!!!!! (Arab Ed's uncle owns Yaneez, tell him his nephew is a nappy headed deadbeat)

7) Beef Necks - I don't know any places that serve beef neck. This is Strictly for Live Men. It is the shit. But you gotta do it yourself at home. I barbecue neck bones, I stew beef necks. Any dish that uses bone meat like pho, whatever, sub in beef neck and let it rock.

There it is 7 degrees of Bone Meat....Suck it.

6 comments:

  1. if you want to take it further..... Chicken Feet at Dim Sum and Pig Feet at any Dominican or Puerto Rican joint. I also do a Pig Feet and Beef Noodle Soup.

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  2. speaking of bone meats- you'll love Jamaica. Yea yea yea, ya'll heard of ox-tail stew yada yada, but seriously, everything in Jamaica is stewed wit bones. Sharp, jagged edges, protruding from tiny morsels of actual flesh, with "gravy" of all sorts. Their cooking's evident of Jamaica's long and mixed history of different cultures, from African slaves, the Chinese, the Indians that came with the Brits to colonize, and of course, the original islanders, they all add to it's cooking geneology. But man, bones bones bones. Chicken bones, beef bones, ox-tail, even the fish are cooked whole, with head, tail and of course bones!
    At one point, we ate and saw so much ox-tail, and so little of the actual beef meat, I had to wonder, where the hell is the rest of the cow? I mean, compared to the rest of the cow, their tail is rather small, and only one per cow. Are these just imported from American and argentine slaughter houses?

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  3. Eddie's house put together some insane dishes. I ate corn, potatoes, and chicken at my house walked down the road and ate fish eyes, bones, and chicken feet at Eddies. His mom's cooking is so sharp it will cut you. Thats were Eddie gets his food instincts. Infact Eddie is so into food his first line of defense in most situations is the "Egg Roll". I have laid witness to the "Egg Roll" in many a situation. I have seen it take out 15-20 people in one semi fluid motion. I would hate to see the day Eddie has to lay down some "Ox Bone" on someone.

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  4. hahaha. i love jamaican. the egg roll is deadly.

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  5. Just don't ask him to do the egg roll with females...

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