My Little Dinner

Today is, if you haven't noticed with all the red hearts and roses everywhere, the florist's favorite holiday, Valentine's Day. Now, unlike a lot of other singles out there, I don't hate this holiday; but it is the one day of the year that I refrain from eating out -- instead of eating out alone and taking a table that could be used by a couple (whether that couple is man and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend or a man and his mistress), I end up cooking a course meal for myself; it is one of the few times in the year that I do, as on any other day, one-dish/one-pot meals are the norm. Last year I was too busy leveling my WoW characters to 70, however, this year makes up for it.
Today's course meal:

• Organic Tomato Soup with Roasted Peppers
• Homemade Potato salad
• Fred's Marinated Kobe Beef
• BV 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Panna Cotta with Fruit and Cherry Ice Cream

According to the Lunar calendar, yesterday happened to be mankind's birthday -- for Buddhists like me, it's another holiday that has to do with refraining from consuming meat; these vegetarian holidays are hard for me, and I usually end up the following day craving meat. There is some truth in that eating more fruits and vegetables and less meat will aid in your longevity, but so will not smoking and more exercise.

One of the things that I've wanted to try for a while now, is Kobe Beef. While most of the Kobe Beef you'll find in America is American-raised Kobe Beef, American-raised Wagyu are actually more humanely treated than their Japanese counterparts. As readers of this blog know, I do not eat beef, unless it is organic or Fred Steak. This quirk of mine is not for humane or ethical reasons, but for the silly reason of trying to minimize the chances of contracting Mad Cow. But, because of these self-imposed restrictions, the number of times that I actually consume beef a year can actually be counted on one hand.

The last time I had Fred Steak was sometime last October; eating my fill of Fred's Kobe Beef tonight feels most gluttonous, and having leftovers will raise the beef consumption count in the days ahead.

What makes the Kobe Beef different from the regular sirloin is the amount of fat in the steak, which makes the steak a bit more tender, and a bit fattier than the normal Fred Steak. Because Fred's Steaks are from cows that have been raised naturally without antibiotics, hormones and animal by-products, the taste is similar, but the Kobe variety tastes a bit richer, and the fat just oozes out of the steak.