Medium rare steak flank with habanero paste

i-e2030b65ec5cb7b1994f3a35fd4dfa00-main.jpgI went to a Thai restaurant I frequent regularly today. The wait & kitchen staff know me, I called ahead to make sure they prepped "the usual," a medium rare steak served with onion, tomatoes and spicy lime sauce. In my case I like the lime sauce "4-stars spicy," that is, mixed together with a rich habanero paste. The first time I asked for this they gave me long lecture to make sure I could "handle it." No more. The chef is kind enough to rub the meat with the sauce before it's brought out me. When we showed up the server, who was new, told us the specials and took our wine orders. When she came back to take the entree order she asked my girlfriend what she wanted, and then looked at me and smiled, "I was already told what you'd want by the kitchen." When she brought the plate out the server said some of the guys in the kitchen had tried to have some of the steak and their mouths were on fire. I could only say, "If they could taste what I taste!" Unlike most servers she didn't seem that impressed, nor did she hover and comment admiringly. In any case, the emulsion of thai chili peppers within the habanero paste, as well as the dash of lime, really makes for a delicious condiment. 8.5 out of 10.

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Hi Razib. Just for your information, some of your readers out here in cyberland are poor, starving college students, and posts like these are just evil. I mean, just look at that plate! *drool*

Like I said, make your own sauce and sell it. Be entrepreneurial like a stereotypical immigrant. "Flavor + heat" isn't a revolutionary idea, but apparently there's an empty niche.

Maybe you could even sell it binary, with flavor packs plus a heat pack, so buyers could calibrate the heat from 1 to 5 according to their own capacity.

Unlike most servers she didn't seem that impressed, nor did she hover and comment admiringly.

She did, however, return when you weren't there, and ask your girlfriend with evident pain "do YOU ever eat that?"

Boy, you people who like pain with your food. I jes don' get it. Sort of like enjoying frostbite with your skiing or sunburn with your tan or carpet burn with your sex. Yeesh!

I live by a simple rule where food is concerned: food should not hurt. (I credit this to my apparent Scandinavian heritage. Go to a smorgasbord in Minnesota and see what I mean.) You can have your hot peppers, your habanero paste, your tabasco sauce; I'll take my ketchup thankyouverymuch.

you people

what does "you people" mean??? " Ketchup has natural mellowing agents...." but a spicy soul like myself doesn't need such agents. boo-yah!!!

"If they could taste what I taste!"

Surely you mean: if they could not taste what I do not taste.

;-)

Looks good (albeit overcooked- medium rare, pfeh!), although it doesn't really look Thai. I go into beef deprivation on my trips to Thailand and periodically have to drop into a good, Western-style steakhouse, and even there it is a little hard to find a good, thick American-style steak.

By MJ Memphis (not verified) on 09 Apr 2007 #permalink

You just cant take the Bong out of the Bong

And I am not referring to "bong hits for jesus"

You frequent it regularly?

'... and took our wine orders.'

What kinda wine pairs well with habanero paste?