Dude.....

First post about another person's food. It's Sunday night after a very long weekend with a friend I haven't seen in more than a year. I'm currently couch crashing for 5 weeks with my best friend and his girlfriend in a SF 1 BR apt. Last Sunday when we saw that fabulous piece of chuck, John and I decided that we were going to eat the counter. Similar to our Sunday brunch with Danny Miller in Denver, we saw too many items to simply order 1.

I range back into John and Taria's place expecting criticism and heckling galore. However, I walk into a room filled with sound of Sam Cook and the aroma of braised beef. John found some amazing short ribs at our "meat counter" and was in the midst of creating sandwiches that people dream of. On the cover of Bon Apetit this month, there is a photo of short rib grilled cheese sandwiches... You see where I'm going here.

When I walked in the door, John had already dusted the meat with flour, browned it and had been braising for about 2 hours. As dictated by the short ribs, John pulled the braizer from the oven. When the bones of the short ribs fall out or slide away from the ribs, it's a signal that the meat is done cooking. John then shredded the ribs with a fork and layered them on freshly cut sourdough bread. On top of the shredded short ribs, John layered pickled red onions (which I could not stop eating before the beef was done).

The first version of the sandwich came with Monterey Jack cheese and a layer of arugula. Friggin great sandwich..... but missing something. We all agreed that the beef was fantastic but that the other ingredients were unnecessary and definitely back seat. When the second sandwich was made, John added about double the arugula and the flavor was enourmously improved. The bitter greens actually brought out the vinegary flavor of the pickled onions, without taking away from the strength of the beef ribs.

Well done sir.

--Rees