What is good to eat in Amsterdam?! EVERYTHING!! And what is good to eat that’s also in abundance?! ARGENTINIAN food!! Amsterdam, Netherlands is like the city of LA. It’s like all the ethnic cultures flocked to this one European city to set up restaurants and share their food. But the Argentinians definately dominate! Almost everywhere you walk and every corner you turn, you will see an Argentinian restaurant. So of course, during my stay in Amsterdam, I just had to try Argentinian meat and see what the fuss is all about! There’s this one place right in the heart of the city called CAU Carne Argentina Unica. They are known for their steaks and who doesn’t love a good slab of meat?! I know I do!! So let’s see what these people have in them to serve up some good cow meat! 🙂
belly of pork tempura – melt in the mouth pork in a light batter alongside their special CAUchup. Okay, I know it’s not about meat yet, but when I saw that there is pork belly and tempura together in the menu, I just had to give it a try! Talk about the fusion of different asian cultures into one yummy, crispy bite!! The pork belly was definately juicy, fatty, savory, and soft inside that crispy tempura. Just the perfect mix and warm-up to get my belly ready for Argentinian steak!
truffled mac & cheese – I normally like my steak with mashed potatoes, but hey, some mac-n-cheese is just as good for a change! With sprinkled bread crumbs on top, it was a good cheesy mix to eat with the steak!
CAU Classic Selection – this platter has all 4 classic cuts: rump, rib-eye, sirloin, and fillet. Served with chimichurri. Now it’s not just one piece, it’s four!!! And each slab of meat is a different part of the cow! Now I’m gonna be honest, I actually forgot which piece was what.. I swore I memorized it on the spot so that I could tell you guys, but here we are, weeks later and my memory failed me 😀 But I remember the third piece being my favorite?? They were all good though!!!
But here is some trivial information on these 4 pieces:
Rump steak: They call it rump steak in Argentina and in Europe; we call it sirloin steak in America. It’s a cut from the top-half and rear end part of the cow!
Rib-eye steak: Rib-eye is located in the top-half and front end part of the cow! It is cut from the rib section of the beef. This slab of meat is usually span from rib #6 to rib #12. Since this piece of beef is located in the top half of the cow, it’s muscles are “used” less, hence more fatty and more tender. From my personal experience, men and I love eating rib-eye. It is so savory and juicy! Why?! Steak pieces closer to the head, like this one, has more fat marbling. During the cooking process, the fat melts within the meat and marinates it 😀 Yumm
Sirloin steak: Wait? Isn’t this the same as rump steak? What they call rump steak, we call sirloin steak. What they call sirloin steak, we call short loin. So what is short loin? Well, it’s anterior to the sirloin steak. Beef short loin contains the rib #13 of the cow. This is where you see the T-shaped bones in this area of meat; hence, Porterhouse and T-bone steak 😀
Fillet: Or otherwise known as filet mignon to us! Ladies love this small cut! This slab of meat is taken from the smaller end of the tenderloin and is run along the cow’s spine.
Hope you learned something today! 😀 Happy Friday YAY!
