Steak and Grape - Lunch with a Friend

Steak & Grape – Lunch with a friend

I was 26 years old when I went to work for Betz.  I was hired as the sole pioneer to go after the accounts in the Midway Sunset field by Taft, Fellows and McKittrick.  Troy worked with a team of technical sales guys handling the lucrative Kern River account.  They seemed to have a lot of fun together as I heard them talk on the 2 way radios we used back then.  I was struggling in a remote area with customers that didn’t really like our company much, with products that didn’t perform all the time.  Either the cobalt catalyst in the sodium sulfite didn’t react fast enough to reduce the oxygen in the steam generator feed water or the emulsion breakers couldn’t produce dry oil in the heater treaters like my competitors.  One time a Unocal Foreman told me, as I was starting my oil treatment chemicals, “if your chemical makes my treaters reject, you better be able to eat crude oil and shit dollar bills, God damn it”.  Those old foremen were a tough breed.  And it made me rough around the edges at a time when I should have been mellowing as I raised 2 daughters. 

I got one of them back one day when a demonstration backfired.  I tried to get the water treatment business in one particular plant for years.  I felt I was close and wanted to go in for the kill with a demonstration of my desire to do a good job.  I got a jar of oysters at the store, the big Pacific oysters.  I trimmed one up so that it resembled a round fleshy ball.  I put it in a sample jar with alcohol, but the oyster dissolved.  So I got another one, trimmed it up and put it in a jar of tap water.  I sealed it up and took it out on a Friday to one crotchety old foreman that took my cocktails and lunches for years, but never gave me any business.  I put the jar, with the oyster in it, on his desk and said, “I want your business so bad that I’ll give you my left nut”.  And it really looked like a testicle that was just cut out of a scrotum.   He thought that was the funniest this he ever saw.  He put it up on the window sill behind his desk.  But when I saw him in the field on Monday, he was mad as hell and wanted to kill me.

“What the Hell was that fuckin’ thing you put in that jar?” 

“ I told you it was my left nut”.

“You son-of –a –bitch, it exploded over the weekend and my office smells like shit”.

It was a good thing that the housekeeper cleaned up the mess, because we both ended up getting a good laugh out of it.  Funny thing is that he did award me the account after years of trying.  And the day that I went to the office to tell my manager the good news, he gave me my notice and fired me.  It was not related to the stunt I pulled, we all thought that was great.  “The numbers don’t work out”, he said.  8 weeks later, I was back out at Unocal selling Pall filters.

Troy and I talk and laugh about such stories from our young selling days.  We need to do it more often. 

The new Steak and Grape restaurant on Coffee and Hageman in Bakersfield was a very nice surprise when I met my friend Troy there for lunch today.  The last restaurant in that location was the Basque Café, formerly Maitia’s Basque.  The interior has been tastefully redone with nice carpet in the dining room, which makes it quiet for visiting, unlike so many new restaurants with concrete or tile floors that are so noisy that you can’t even enjoy a conversation. 

http://www.steakandgrape.com/

I had a rare occasion to meet “Troyski” because I made a wine delivery to him.  Along with my club shipment of Brochelle 2010 Zinfandel, I brought back some extra.  I first discovered Brochelle Zinfandel in 2006 when I was perusing the wine at my favorite wine cellar at Luigi’s.  I read the back of the label which describes Brochelle as… “ tucked away on a steep hillside on the west side of Paso Robles, CA… warm days and cool nights… head pruned and dry farmed vines, produce low yields and intensely flavored fruit… neither fined nor filtered and opens up beautifully when decanted…”

That sounds like how Le Cuvier is made.  I tried it then and found it to be a rare wine that hit me with a “WOW” When I tasted it.  I recommended it to Troy and I remember him telling me it was the best wine he ever had. 

http://www.brochelle.com/

Café Med used to carry it also when their wine selection was more extensive.  Betty and I had the Brochelle 2010 Zinfandel at Valentien Café and Wine Bar recently.  It was $50 at the restaurant, which is a bargain compared to rest of the wine list.  It was the perfect accompaniment to our filet mignon’s that night.  The Brochelle 2010 Zinfandel was the highlight of the meal.  Brochelle also produces a Ridge Top Reserve Zinfandel which is extremely limited and only available to the wine club members – like me.

With our modest transaction out of the way, we ordered lunch at Steak and Grape.  Troy ordered the steak sandwich ($13.95), which was served with lovely sautéed vegetables and a small bunch of grapes.  The steak looked delicious cooked medium rare.  I had the salmon salad ($12.95).  I ordered it with spinach instead of greens.  The salmon was a generous 6 oz portion, pan seared perfectly, almost crispy on the outside and just done in the middle which left it moist and tender.  The spinach was tossed in Champaign vinaigrette and the vegetables were sautéed.  The salad was also topped with artichoke hearts and sliced avocado.   Both the steak sandwich and the salmon salad were large meals that neither of us could finish.  I highly recommend Steak and Grape for lunch and I look forward to a dinner experience.

The Biggest Loser

It’s official.  I broke the 30 Lb. barrier, my total weight loss since January is 31.8 Lbs.  To coin a phrase from a friend of mine, I made Weight Watchers my Bitch.  It is simply a mental commitment to eat less and exercise more.  And tracking points works for me. 

During the winter I had cabbage & vegetable stew either for lunch or dinner almost every day.  And when I went out for lunch, I usually had a salad and most times only eat half of it.  And I switched from blue cheese dressing to vinaigrette and cut out the bread and butter.  Now that it’s getting into summer, I eat a spinach salad almost every day.  I think Popeye had the right idea.  I’m looking forward to our summer tomato pie, only this summer, I’ll have to make it without the crust.  And the topping, shredded cheddar cheese and mayonnaise will have to be light and sparse.

My favorite summer dinner is a generously seasoned and grilled steak with tomato pie and a bottle of Le Cuvier Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel.  The tomato pie is only worth cooking in the summer when tomatoes are vine ripened.  I have found that the summer fruit stands and farmers markets are the best places to find good tomatoes if you can’t grow your own.  And the vine ripened Roma’s are excellent because there is less juice and more flesh with richer flavor for the tomato pie.  Here is our receipe:

Tomato Pie

Start with a pie crust in a pie dish.  Brush it with egg yolk and bake until the crust is partially cooked, about 15 minutes at 350.  The egg yolk will be fully cooked.  This seals the crust from getting soggy with the tomatoes. 

Meanwhile, par boil the tomatoes (usually 5-6 medium) enough so that the skins can be removed (you’ll know when the skins crack).  When the tomatoes have cooled, remove the skins and squeeze out as much juice as you can.

Take the crust out of the oven and sprinkle with fresh chopped basil and green onion tops.    Slice the tomatoes into the pie shell and fill the pie crust.  Add additional basil, green onion, salt and pepper (a little oregano is good also) on top of the tomatoes.

 In a separate bowl, shred a ½ Lb. of cheddar cheese and mix in a ¾ cup of mayonnaise.  (This mixture also makes a great dip for crackers and makes killer baked cheesy bread on a French roll)  Cover the top of the tomatoes with the cheese mixture.  Press with your fingers to seal the top of the pie to the crust.  Bake for about an hour until the top is browned and bubbly.  It’s best to let it sit for a while to cool as the melted cheese and tomatoes hold the heat and can cause 3^rd degree burns in the mouth.  Blistered skin in the mouth takes away from the enjoyment of the steak and the wine.  The Tomato pie is actually better the next day.  Reheat it in the oven not the microwave.  I like to reheat it on the top level in the barbeque. 

One of my favorite places for lunch is Tahoe Joe’s.  They have killer salads for $10 that includes lean steak or chicken and a nice light vinaigrette dressing.  The last lunch I had at Tahoe Joe’s I tried the seared Ahi tuna appetizer.  It had a generous portion of tuna and a small bit of greens.  It costs $10 and is a delicious plate of protein.  I tried the same thing at The Padre Hotel in the bar at happy hour.  The portion of tuna is half the size, but the salad portion is larger.  The price at the Padre is $13.  And at happy hour we had that, 3 slider burgers 2 glasses of wine and a margarita.  It wasn’t much to eat and cost $46.  However, we made up for it at the Fox Theater for Flicks at the Fox and had a large bag of popcorn.  The bar at the Padre was really noisy that Friday night and was not a great happy hour experience for me.  I much prefer Café Med for happy hour.  The Padre has the 2^nd floor rooftop lounge that is open at 6 PM and during the week has good deals for drinks and food,  And if you can catch a night when they feature Jazz singer Candace Freeman, that is a real treat worth attending. 

http://www.thepadrehotel.com/?gclid=CIH97uz_4a8CFQF7hwodpGIR-Q