When beef is scarce, a Christmas tenderloin is a delicacy beyond belief.
Growing up, I never saw my mother let a bite of barley pass her lips. She grew up poor in post–World War II Japan, when polished white rice was scarce and therefore expensive, so barley was often served in its place. It wasn't the taste so much as the texture that put her off, that reminded her of her once-miserable existence—the ratty clothes, the run-down house, the hopeless prospects for a bookish girl in a sleepy seaside town in a culture she believed devalued women.
"small herds of cattle walked the city streets by day, often gumming up traffic, and bedded down in parks at night, making all of us feel a little bit like castaways dying of thirst" While beef was inaccessible to us, many other expatriates could get their hands on it—those who, through some affiliation with the various diplomatic missions in the city, had gained the privilege of shopping at the missions' commissaries. This led to some moments of envy that seem odd in retrospect.
One of the last times I saw my Japanese grandfather, I was visiting alone. When we sat down to dinner, my grandmother proudly set down a thin ribeye steak in front of me, barely browned on its exterior, raw on the inside. "You all always wanted to eat beef when you came," she said to me, even as she acknowledged that cooking beef, particularly steaks, wasn't her forte.
And we did, enjoying every last bite of what I think was sirloin, cooked rare over charcoal, dressed with cilantro, lime, fish sauce, red onion, possibly mint, and an abundance of fresh red Thai chiles. When we got the call that told us our flight had been delayed another couple hours, we ordered a third.
One of the benefits of having to buy beef in this way was that, from a very young age, I was able to watch as my father cleaned up the untrimmed muscles, a task he would've been entirely unqualified for were it not for the fact that we owned the first volume of Jacques Pépin's. Aside from being one of the most beautiful cookbooks ever published, it shows in clear step-by-step photographs every bit of butchery a cook could ever need, including how to skin a lamb.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Watch Kristin Chenoweth perform ‘Merry Christmas, Darling’This Christmas Day, legendary entertainer Kristin Chenoweth shares a performance of “Merry Christmas, Darling,” a track off her holiday album, “Happiness is… Christmas!”
Read more »
All Scrambled Up: An Expat's Christmas BreakfastEvery year, our Christmas breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, and a virgin Mary, made with some Bloody Mary cocktail mix, specifically brought home for the occasion from the most recent trip abroad. But the bacon available to us wasn't the belly bacon available here in the US; it was loin bacon, or Canadian bacon, and, to boot, it was bad—it was badly cured ham. And yet, I now remember those breakfasts fondly, and it's mostly because of those scrambled eggs.
Read more »
What's on TV Friday: 'A Christmas Story' on TBS, TNT; 'White Christmas' on AMC, SundanceWhat to watch Friday, December 24: 'A Christmas Story' on TBS and TNT; 'White Christmas' on AMC and Sundance; 'L.A. County Holiday Celebration,' KOCE
Read more »
11 Striking Photos You Missed This WeekPakistani Christians celebrate Christmas, a flood in Malaysia and floating Christmas trees in California are featured in some of this week's most compelling images.
Read more »