Pre-holiday FUK day 3: American ro ro

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After two days of having no meat, Ro Ro was dying for some ro ro.  Thankfully DaRC had arranged lunch at Authentic Living Butcher NYC - a place where they serve dry-aged beef.

Being a fan of Japanese Hamburg steak, I chose the Aging Humberg and Hanging Tender Steak Course.  It's been a while since I had Hamburg steak in Japan...

We started with a few amuses bouches:

Spiced popcorn

Pork liver gougères

Chiffon cake with Marscapone

Salad with anchovy sauce - all the veggies came from Kumamoto Prefecture (熊本県).

The hors d'oeuvre was mackerel from Nagasaki marinated in French vinegar, with a blue cheese sauce and olive oil.  The eggplant purée underneath the mackerel came with cumin.

Jerusalem artichoke soup with milk foam

Rosemary foccacia - this was pretty damn good, especially that crust.  I did discover Ro Ro hollowing out the insides while leaving the crust intact, all the while pretending that she hadn't touched her foccacia...

Aging Humburg steak and hanging tender steak - finally the main event!  The US Black Angus has been aged for 3 weeks.

The hanging tender was not bad.  Definitely had stronger meaty flavors.

The hamburg steak had deep flavors with the marinade, and had surprising acidity.

Chocolate and pistachio mousse with cassis sorbet and red fruits

We took it easy with alcohol since it was only lunch, and shared a bottle of red among the 6 of us.

2008 Lassègue - smoky, a little bit of fruit, with some woodsy notes.  Relatively soft and smooth.

While this was by no means a fantastic meal, the fact that it only cost JPY 2,900 was pretty incredible.  What would we have gotten for our money in Hong Kong?  Nothing close to this, that's for sure.  I only wish I had known about the beef curry before coming and pre-ordered those instead.  Next time...

We had some time to explore the city before dinner, so we strolled around the Tenjin area and did some shopping.  Towards early evening, we moved over to the Tenjin Christmas Market.  There were a bunch of stands selling food and drinks of European origins...

One of the stalls was selling currywurst, so I decided to get some.  Honestly, this wasn't bad at all!  We didn't add any ketchup, though...

There was also another stall selling kürtőskalács - a type of cake originating from Transylvania.

I've never tasted it before, but was curious enough to try.  Not bad at all, but I could only take a few bites without ruining my appetite for dinner...