A Fist-full of Dollars

I have a confession to make. I have never had a steak as good as what I can get at Texas Roadhouse. Not even close. The quality of meat they get is far beyond what I can buy as a consumer at even the highest rated butcher within my area. That gap is even more concerning when I visit Ireland and sit down to a Guinness Stew and discover the cut of meat is beyond what I could afford at the same price back here in the states.

It is why pining for that childhood Hot Chicken Soup, with Korean Ramen noodles and American broth, still surpasses anything I can get in a Korean Restaurant in the states today. It is something we don't usually talk about, but the truth is that food quality, particularly based on standard grocery products, has not improved in the USA in the past decade or two.

But tonight, as I write this, and as I finish my supper, I had intended to compose a recipe for Appalachian Guinness Stew, a hybrid of the finest you can get in Dublin with the humble composition of a Mountain recipe. By Appalachian standards it did not taste bad, but it sure did not compare to the "Cowboy Restaurant" in Killarney.

I started with a cut of meat I purchased from the boys at the highest rated country grocery store within 100 miles. Instead of ribeye swimming in the bowl, like it would probably be in Killarney, the best I could purchase was an "English Roast," which is not a superlative. 

The stores, inundated with shoppers, their minds on finding everything on their Thanksgiving list, had purchased all of the potatoes. I picked the best organic sweet potatoes (yams) and actually found leeks (which I prefer to onion), and wartime-quality carrots, which had probably seen a lot of action in storage somewhere. I skipped the genetically modified parsnips...

I already had quality Beef Broth from Walnut Creek Foods, and the customary can of Guinness.

It should have been a decent meal. But a meal is only as good as the quality of the meat used. The latter tasted grain-finished, or, in other words, average quality at best. 

There is a huge difference in the taste of grass-fed beef compared to grain-finished beef. As strange as it may sound, none of the farmers at our farmer's market have decided to finish their beef cattle on grass, which boggles my mind. If they would just finish the cattle on grass, I, and many others, would happily pay a higher price, knowing we purchased a higher quality meat. 

As long as we can get a better product in a restaurant, including grass-finished beef, the trip to the grocery store will be less lucrative for those who run them. Tis a sad story, but one that continues to grow as the divide between the pantry and the fresh meal made to order moves in opposite directions.