By the way:

Why is everyone so fixated on tenderness? Do they all have problems chewing?

Surely it's the taste that matters. I mean, no one fetishises sogginess in an apple - or in squid, or venison or pigeon. Or even in a pork chop.

So why this fear of getting your teeth into a bit of beef?

I guess those denture glue products don't work as well as the commercials claim that they do.

fels - it is "one" of the ways

Kobe beef is tender because the special breed is kept immobile from birth, fed beer, and massaged with sake. Are hormones involved? Don't know.
Had Kobe beef in Osaka and the meal was over $150 and the piece was about 3oz. (I wasn't impressed)

How about cheval - horsemeat that in olden days males especially would eat raw, feeling that it was the Viagara of its day and a general reinvigorating meal.

Still have some horsemeat shops today - few but look for neon picture of horse lit up.

It's easier to find a FORMER horsemeat butcher. Many have been turned into trendy shops selling shoes or what have you. If there's a bust of a horse's head over the entry, that's what used to be there.

fnarf - i assume that then there are nearly no cheval meat sellers anymore or do folks still eat it?

hopefully no IMO

People still eat horse. I was at Carrefour yesterday and the horsemeat section was much larger than I remembered.

i remember my ex-wife telling that her father, in the 60s, thought he had to eat horsemeat, i think raw, a few times a week for vigor.

i'm surprised that it's still being sold - didn't dream Carrefour would be selling it - i'll have to look next time i'm in France at the local one i go to.

Since it was more of a leisure visit to Carrefour, I wandered everywhere to check out products I had never seen before -- such as duckburgers or the new flavors of Perrier Fluo.

Looks like this has been answered a million times - but had same experience at Michel Ange in Lourmarin last month. Beautiful little restaurant with great food. My mom always insists on having her steak done Med Well (ugh!) - and she loves steak! So, she gave it a try here on this special night out for dinner...tried to convince her to have something else her last night before leaving France - but.......no surprise - came to table rare. So, she asked waiter to pls cook more - well done this time. It came back rare... So she had about 1/2 - and I ate the rest!! (in addition to my lamb!)

I know people who will not eat meat if it looks as if it was ever part of an animal. I suppose everybody here knows such people, and some participants in this discussion are that sort of person.

In general, the French do not have such compunctions. The word "saignant", for "rare" literally translates as "bleeding". Consider how you would feel if a waiter asked you at your local restaurant if you wanted your meat bleeding. If the thought bothers you, then I suggest that you don't order steak in France.

I think horsemeat is actually becoming trendy again (it's low in fat), but the number of small dedicated butchers of it has dwindled.

Here's a picture of a "boucherie chevaline" (not mine):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the43rddj/373766692/

The waiter will ask you how you want it done. Answering "aw-pwoh" will get you a medium rare inside, sizzling on the outside.

For uncooked you order tartare, but I would only do that again in a very good restaurant.

" think horsemeat is actually becoming trendy again"

But it won't be furlong.

((H))

It does not behoove me to answer that one.

Hay! No one's going to gallop away with this? I guess I'll have to rein it in.

the mane point is that horse meat is becoming trendy again and soon every Parisian will be stampeding to their local boucherie chevaline - take it from the horse's mouth.

Robjame, I'm not saying additives are desirable. Far from it, I agree with those of you who find fault with the whole feedlot/pharmaceutical animal breeding and fattening system. I don't eat a lot of beef (cholesterol kills) and usually buy a brand of chicken that is this side of organic: not free-range, but without hormones or antibiotics. Even health experts began warning against too much chicken as a "healthy" alternative to meat because of the antibiotics - so it's well worth going for the "drugless" birds.

Ciao (down) - glad we're none of us here going hungry.

In response to your question about height and Ira's answer, I heard a report just the other day that the tallest men in the world are from ...
The Netherlands. (Sweden a close 2nd) I believe this was "tallest average height" = And the analysis indicated that it is indeed because of the best and most consistently available pre- and para-natal care in the world.

In a small nice Paris restaurant, my wife asked for a steak medium-rare. Out came a steak red as a beet. I asked that it be cooked just a little more. It came back split, very well done. I don't know if he misunderstood me, or was just being mean and contemptuous. ((*))

"In a small nice Paris restaurant, my wife asked for a steak medium-rare. Out came a steak red as a beet. I asked that it be cooked just a little more. It came back split, very well done. I don't know if he misunderstood me, or was just being mean and contemptuous".


Maybe he was a Fodorite well versed into the finesse of cooking steaks à l'américaine.