wagyu

#999: Slo-Mo Schnauzers, Stop Motion Autobots, and UFOs? Oh My! (Video)

RECORD STORE TALES #999:
Slo-Mo Schnauzers, Stop Motion Autobots, and UFOs? Oh My!

Nothing really went as planned when the internet went out. So, we did what we could. We pretended it was 1989 and had fun in old fashioned ways. Good thing no LeBrain Train show was planned! And boy, did we take advantage of the break. Fortunately music was not an issue, so I warmed up the laptop and dug into the hard drive for some albums that reminded me of the old days.

To a soundtrack of Kiss, Kim Mitchell, Max Webster, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, and many more, I grabbed the comic books and the Yahtzee. It was too cold to swim (weird for July) so we had to do other things. Jen worked on her adult colouring books. I made food. I also took plenty of video.

The wildlife this weekend was captured for your viewing pleasure. Plenty of gulls, eating multitudes of beach insects (which were so plentiful you can clearly see them on camera). We had a brave little chipmunk who seemed to enjoy the sounds of Aerosmith. I think I’ll name him Joe Perry. There were two cute doggos (one Schnauzer and one Miscellaneous), which I filmed in slow motion. The visuals this weekend were unrivalled! A pretty epic night fire, and sunsets that kill any you have seen yourself. All captured and carefully edited to a soundtrack of unreleased Max the Axe music, and classic Tee Bone Erickson tunes. Although the finished video is on the long-ish side, your reward is unreleased Max tuneage (one live, and a preview of a coming remix of “Randy”) and plenty of stunning visuals in HD slow motion.

We talked last time of being bored at the lake as a teenager. If I had this kind of technology as a kid, I’d never had been bored. That’s the truth. There’s always something worth documenting. The fact that I can have it finished and edited at the end of the weekend is actually pretty mind blowing.

The weirdest thing that happened (besides hearing a coyote calling at 11:30 at night, and then screaming at 5:00 AM), was the UFO.

Now, I’m not saying “aliens” when I say “UFO”. Let’s be clear on that. However the object was flying and none of us could identify it. There were minimum three witnesses each time. On the first night, the UFO appeared at sunset as a quickly brightening star, which eventually faded or was hidden by clouds. It didn’t move. My camera didn’t reveal much, although it looked like a blocky shape. Our working theory was the International Space Station.

The second time, the object appeared in the same place at the same time, still motionless. It looked like a flame in the sky, a frozen flame. That’s the best way I can describe it. It stayed in the sky until we eventually left the beach about half an hour later. When I returned later at night, it was too cloudy to be seen. Two examples below, and you can see more in the full video.

Internet outage aside, the only crappy thing about the weekend was that I did not get to visit Sausagefest as I’d hoped. The internet outage disrupted Jen’s routines a bit and I elected to stay home and make sure she was OK. As it stands I’m glad I made that decision, as she needed a little help doing a few things.

Otherwise, it was a delightful weekend of music and doing things differently. I wish I had written down all the albums we listened to, but with no movies and no TV, music was the obvious dominant force. A lot of Kiss this weekend, folks. A lot of Kiss.

The video may be long but it’s worth it. Slo-mo Schnauzer is your payoff!

#994: An A5 Canada Day

RECORD STORE TALES #994: An A5 Canada Day

From Jen and I here at LeBrain HQ, we hope you had an excellent Canada Day. For us, we did things a little differently this time, and it turned out aces!

First, I awoke early and began work at 6:00 AM on two separate projects. Musically: the hinted-at, overdue Kiss project that I have been working on and must be finished! This is a collaboration with new contributor Jonathan Lee. We have taken on the challenge of ranking all 24 Kiss albums, and we (coincidentally!) wrote about 3650 words each. We were in synch with verbosity, but not rankings! The final lists will be dropped simultaneously in two posts on July 5, next week! It was Jonathan who challenged me to take him up on this project and I think you will like what we both came up with. It took a few hours to format everything right, but by the end of the morning, I had the lists ready to rock.

In conjunction with this, I was seasoning my new cast iron pan. This had to be done in preparation for our Canada Day dinner’s main course: a genuine Japanese A5 wagyu steak from the Miyazaki prefecture. This expensive piece of meat is unlike I have ever cooked before, and I had something of a sleepless, anxious night overthinking it.

By morning, I had a plan. The wagyu was going in the cast iron pan with some butter, garlic, onions, peppers, portobello mushrooms, and asparagus. Therefore I needed to season the pan in the oven beforehand, and I spent several hours on that while also working on the Kiss lists. For never having done it before, I think it turned out pretty well. Its surface became smoother, and water beaded off.

In the afternoon we headed over to my parents house to use their new barbecue. You see, having never cooked wagyu before, we decided to bring some backup steaks. I was going to cook them on the barbecue the normal way, while doing the wagyu in the pan. Meanwhile, Jen was roasting veggies in the oven with enormous amounts of butter and hand-diced garlic. The garlic was intense, but to die for. Her potatoes, carrots and asparagus were amazing.

Timing was everything. We started at 4:00 PM with the veggies. By 4:35 the barbecue was warming up for the backup steaks. Meanwhile, the cast iron pan was warming up in the oven.

Finally, the moment I had been waiting for all week. The moment that kept me up the previous night. The moment of truth! The wagyu was, as all the Youtube videos promised, delicate to the touch. The fat began melting as soon as I touched it. Although everyone seems to have different rules about it, I elected to keep the wagyu in the fridge as long as possible to minimise the premature melting of fat. Then I seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. In hindsight I could have gone a teeny tiny bit heavier on the salt and pepper, but you can always add that after the fact as well.

The cast iron came out of the oven and onto a hot burner. Into the pan went a generous amount of butter and my veggies including several cloves of garlic. A few minutes later, things were smelling wonderful and I flipped the steak – not before touching the handle of the pan with my bare hands though! Fortunately it had cooled enough that I didn’t burn myself. These new cooking techniques take some getting used to. After a couple more minutes I removed the wagyu from the pan, and let it rest. When sliced, it was somewhere between rare and medium rare, which was what I was aiming for. Meanwhile our backup steaks were also ready at a perfect medium rare. It was 5:00 by the time everything was done and rested.

A wagyu steak is a sharing steak. It is simply too rich to eat like a normal steak. I served up some portions for each of us, and we delighted in eat bite. Some went with carrots – Jen’s favourite combination. I enjoyed the wagyu with the portobello mushrooms, or a clove of garlic. Because it is so rich, we tended to pair it with other things on the plate. The cast iron did a nice job of creating a beautiful caramelizing on the vegetables. The wagyu had a great sear. The pan also cleaned up easily afterwards. No stick. I must have seasoned it right?

We barely touched the backup steaks (they will go into another meal) and we finished just over half of the wagyu. This is what I expected. I wonder what that wagyu will become tomorrow? A stir fry, most likely. Wagyu stir fry. Looking forward to it — and many more meals with my new cast iron pan.

Having enjoyed wagyu at one of the best steakhouses in Toronto, my own steak stacked up well. I would rank them just about equally. Theirs had more seasoning, but our side dishes surpassed theirs by far. Miles. No comparison. Our sides were incredible. Modesty? This is me being modest! And all told, our meal was about a third of the price of the steakhouse. With more steak and more leftovers. Jen and I both worked hard Canada Day, and it paid off. Best meal we ever made, and we did it as a team! She picked up all the meat, veggies, and even the pan. We timed everything perfectly. It went so well that we determined we don’t need backup steaks next time.

With the Kiss project, Stranger Things, and a massive dinner taking up my time, it was the end of the Canada Day before I realized, “Hey, I haven’t listened to any Canadian music today”. So my friends, here’s some Max the Axe. Turn it up.

Getting Ready for Canada Day

This my friends is a Japanese A5 wagyu. The most highly prized steak in the world. This will be going on the plate July 1. It will be my first time cooking it. Wish me luck! I definitely will not be overcooking it. Chefs recommend rare or medium rare. I’ll aim for medium. Chefs also tend to season simply with salt and pepper and little else, to let the beef flavour dominate.

So now that we have the food settled, we just need some fireworks and music. What Canadian songs are your favourites? Comment below.

#776: (Wag)yu Shook Me All Night Long [Reblog]

Today is our anniversary! In this throwback post from 2019, enjoy some wicked looking steaks.

RECORD STORE TALES #776: (Wag)yu Shook Me All Night Long

For highway driving, nothing quite hits the spot like AC/DC. It feels right. Who Made Who works as a quickie “greatest hits” selection for a quick spin down Highway 401. Mrs. LeBrain and I were heading to the GTA to celebrate 11 years as a married couple. We rocked to “You Shook Me All Night Long” on the dance floor that night, and we were returning to the very same location once more.

Highway 401 is in a perpetual state of construction, but good music helps take the edge off. This was my first drive that way in the new vehicle, and also the first with my latest gadget, a nifty dash cam that is sure to provide lots of content for my YouTube channel in the coming months.

Sorry, quick tangent: Phil Rudd is the “man”, but Simon Wright doesn’t get enough credit for his time on the AC/DC drum stool. AC/DC isn’t an easy beat to get the feel for, and every AC/DC drummer has their own approach. The 1980s were a period of hard-hitters and Simon Wright was the perfect drummer for that era. His precision is absolute on “Who Made Who” and it just sounds right. Compare the original to Chris Slade’s interpretation on AC/DC Live. That’s all I have to say about that.

We arrived at the hotel mid-afternoon and I settled into the jacuzzi pretty quickly. I wanted to do a funny gangsta style photo in the hot tub with me holding a couple of American dollar bills. I was thinking about when Floyd Mayweather threw the $1s at Conor McGregor. And holy shit did Facebook react.

“Dude you look like if Kuato from Total Recall was successfully removed from his twin, grew up, lived a long and depressing life and got really excited when someone gave him 2 bucks to sh!t in the local YMCA jacuzzi.”

Two things: Yes, I had pants on. And yes, that “gang sign” is the Vulcan salute. Relax. Let a man enjoy his jacuzzi, publicly on social media like damn 20 year old. Are you not entertained?!

We did some shopping. Because, like an idiot, I forgot to bring a nice pair of shoes for dinner, I had to get a new pair just for this one night. Then we met up with Jen’s best friend Lara for lunch. Did some more shopping. I wanted to go to stores that we don’t have at home. There isn’t much of that, just the same old chains. We did hit one up cool store, where I bought something called “Jean Guy”, but we couldn’t find any cool music or toy stores. At least I got my shoes!

So where were we headed? In ’08 when we got married it was the Pavilion Royale, but now it is a high end restaurant called 17 Steakhouse & Bar. It’s very different on the inside, but recognizable. There was the dance floor, where I once spun to “You Shook Me All Night Long”. But we chose 17 for more than sentimental reasons. The main draw was the real Japanese A5 wagyu. And that’s what this chapter is really about.

I’ve never had real wagyu in my life and American wagyu was not going to do it. You only live once. Carpe diem. Go big or go home. It’s only money. All that bullshit. I’d done my research, I knew what I was getting my wallet into. I’d been planning it over a year.

We started with a simple but delicious field green salad, with incredible goat cheese. The smoothest goat cheese I’ve ever tasted. Only when we finished the salads did they began firing our steaks. None of that “here comes your main dish before you’ve finished your starter” nonsense. Jennifer chose the US prime T-bone, medium rare, and let me tell you, that alone could have been the best steak I’ve ever tasted. It was 25 oz, so more than enough to share. So tender! With cripsy, tasty fat.

Jen’s steak could easily have been the most tender I’ve ever tried, if not for my Japanese A5 wagyu. Market price was $30 per oz. I chose an 8 oz striploin, medium rare. You should always get a wagyu steak cooked to medium rare. I was electric with tense anticipation. The steaks arrived, cooked precisely to order.

I gently cut a thin slice, which came off like butter. There was a lovely char on the outside, a crisp splash of flat, and then the most tender meat you can imagine. It was seasoned simply and perfectly, the saltiness enhancing that beefy umami. On the tongue, it was like butter with only the slightest sensation of a meaty texture. I probably didn’t even have to chew.

It’s a very rich piece of meat, far more than I anticipated. I’d estimate that I finished about 3/4 of my meal, leaving a $60 chunk of wagyu in my takeout bag. And that chunk of leftover wagyu was the best lunch I ever had the following day.

For sides, we ordered the fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat and thyme, the asparagus with hollandaise, and the scalloped potatoes au gratin. Of those three, the asparagus was the clear winner, with the potatoes au gratin in second place. Only I liked the fingerling potatoes; Jen didn’t care for them, leaving her batting average with any form of duck to be zero.

We had an incredible dessert of cheesecake, Crème brûlée and whipped cream which was supernaturally good. Everything was.

Having had probably the most expensive steak I’ll ever buy, was it worth it? If you are a steak lover, then yes, it is worth it. And I love steaks. A little goes a long way, but every steak lover should try real Japanese wagyu once. It’s unlike anything I’ve had before and it is easily categorised as a true delicacy. Having said that, should we return to 17 Steakhouse in a year, I don’t know that I would order it again, and that is only because there are other interesting features on their menu that I would like to try. The 36 oz tomahawk would be a sight to behold, though I couldn’t eat it all myself. I would also like to try the Porterhouse, the lobster bisque, and beef tartare.

Yes, the wagyu was worth it, and I can still taste and feel its texture on my palette. It won’t be for everyone except in small doses. They have a 4 oz minimum order, and I suggest that may the perfect size to experiment with.

17 Steakhouse & Bar gets 5/5, and so does the wagyu.

We started with AC/DC so we’ll finish with AC/DC. Who made wagyu? 17 Steakhouse did, and it was hell’s bells! I couldn’t wait to sink the pink steak in my mouth. It’ll shake your foundations just like it shook mine. It’s a little bit of a ride on, down the 401, but worth the drive. Hell ain’t a bad place to be(ef)!* For those about to rock, I wagyu.

* Courtesy 1537

#776: (Wag)yu Shook Me All Night Long

GETTING MORE TALE #776: (Wag)yu Shook Me All Night Long

Two things: Yes, I had pants on. And yes, that “gang sign” is the Vulcan salute. Relax. Let a man enjoy his jacuzzi, publicly on social media like damn 20 year old. Are you not entertained?!