70-71/365 - Meat

I don't normally eat this much meat in a month, let alone in an entire meal. Grandpa Bernie would've been proud. Well, maybe not of my indigestion afterward, but certainly of the quality and quantity of meat consumed last night at Zingerman's "All American Meat" dinner.

Let's start off with the first course - a trio of meaty appetizers: hidden under that thinly sliced bagel chip is a tasty steak tartare, to the right we have super smooth pulled pork pate, and in the foreground is a miniature New Orleans favorite - dirty po' boy.

Prior to the meal, Chef Alex, gleefully regaled his guests with descriptions of what he had prepared for us to eat. When he got to the dirty po' boy, we all wondered in amazement at his declaration of eating 6-7 meals a day when he was in New Orleans, just so he could try all the restaurants while he was there. Perhaps that's where he got the idea to stuff us all full of so much meat.

Truthfully, after finishing the first course, I was concerned about how much more meat I would be expected to consume in that one sitting. It didn't take long to find out, as the soup came out just as they were clearing away our appetizer plates. The picture doesn't do justice to this course - shaved poached beef in a savory beef broth - which was, hands down, my favorite. The beef was shaved thinner than prosciutto and was every so lightly poached so that it was melt-in-your-mouth tender. The bonus was the bits of green things floating around the broth, which would serve as my salad.

On to the main course - you guessed it, more meat! Grilled goat, pork and beef, accompanied by some down home American potatoes, cooked carrots and another of my favorites: braised cabbage. I confess I ate all of my carrots and most of the cabbage and after trying a sample of each of the meats, asked for the remainder to be boxed up to go.

And lest you think we were sent on our way without dessert, the meal ended with a pretty little mincemeat pie, made up in a puffed pastry with plenty of whipped cream - Chef Alex assured us the pie even had bonafide bits of meat in it. Sadly, it also had raisins, which ruin every dessert as far as I'm concerned. My beau, who has an unnatural love of those disgusting shriveled things, heartily disagreed, and gladly took my mincemeat pie off my hands. My overstuffed belly did not object - which was wise, because I ended up belching for hours later as it was.

My stomach was still a bit heavy today, so I started off the day with yoga, followed by fruit and a giant carb-laden bowl of cereal to counterbalance the protein - and a still had enough stored up for a nice long run in the woods, complete with a few belches reminiscent of the steak tartare.