Outback Steakhouse Philharmonic...??

[tubajoe]

I used to play in a youth orchestra when I was in high school that was mostly financed by Coors. We rehearsed around the corner from the brewery.

[tuba_bloke]

Outback Steakhouse!!!

Bloke, I'm assuming your an Aussie, wherabouts are you from???

[Joe Baker]

It has never occurred to me to eat at an "Outback Steakhouse". Should it?

Just one more way to tell that you, bloke, are smarter than I am! I've been once each to three locations around the country (once was on business, and I didn't pick it; on the other two occasions, I took my wife 'cuz she wanted to go). Lousy service, mediocre food (at best), $$$$$ prices -- when I want steak, I'd rather go by Kroger and pick up a couple a' good ribeyes, take 'em home and fire up the grill my own self. Twice as good for half as much! (Or considerably LESS than half as much if you throw in a few adult beverages)
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Joe Baker, who observes an inversely proportional relationship between restaurant advertising and quality.

[Rick Denney]

Lousy service, mediocre food (at best), $$$$$ prices -- when I want steak, I'd rather go by Kroger and pick up a couple a' good ribeyes, take 'em home and fire up the grill my own self.

I suppose I disagree. Keep the fried onion and all that crap. But I think the Outback has about the best sub-$20 steak you'll find in a restaurant. And, on client junkets, I've eaten at the best steakhouses in the land; Mortons, Ruth's Chris, Harris (San Francisco), Del Frisco's (Dallas), Shula's (Miami), etc., etc.

And it beats the stuffing out of fake-Texas restaurants like Lone Star and so on.

Better than what I cook at home? Yes, unless I go to the fancy steak store and get USDA Choice or Prime steaks, properly aged. I can't find any steaks nearly that good in grocery stores.

Rick "who'll take fake 'stralian over fake Texan any day" Denney

[Joe Baker]

That's okay, Rick. On matters of food, we're each entitled to our own opinions. I will say that, of the three locations I've tried, the BEST was in your neck of the woods, out in the Herndon/Reston area. It was actually pretty good, but SOOOO expensive. The other two -- Plano, TX and Knoxville, TN -- were so similar and so bad, I just figured that the good experience was a fluke.

But I also suspect we just have a different idea of what makes for a good steak. I like a smokey flavor, not a lot of hand-rubbed spices -- just a good hot charcoal fire, a decently marbled cut of ribeye, and a bit o' salt & pepper. I don't like really thick cuts, either; I prefer a thinner, broader steak to a thick, compact one. Mmmmm, is it lunch time yet?? (nope )

I guess if you and I ever go out for lunch, we better make it barbecue or Tex-Mex!
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Joe Baker, relieved to see that even with Doc being somewhat scarce these days we can STILL turn the topic to food!

[Joe Baker]

Oh, and as for the "Fake Texan" -- there's a chain with a couple of restaurants here in Knoxville, the "Texas Roadhouse". I don't know how widespread the chain is outside the area. Anyway, two years ago -- new to Knoxville, and homesick for Texas -- the kids and I took my wife to the Texas Roadhouse for Mother's Day.

My wife (giddy with excitement): "I'll have a chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes, and gravy over everything".

Waitress: "A what kind of steak?"

Wife (wondering why this was unclear): "Chicken fried steak."

Waitress: "Is that like a country-fried steak?"

Wife (becoming concerned): "Uh, yeah. With mashed potatoes, and gravy over everything"

Waitress: "So do you want brown gravy or white gravy on that?"

The steak was about as authentic as the waitress.
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Joe Baker, who thinks you should actually know SOMETHING about Texas food if your going to use the name "Texas" in the name of your restaurant!

[Bob Sadler]

the secret to grilled/bbq'ed chicken breast is brining. Check out cook's illustrated (america's test kitchen) or the food network website for brine recipes and timing. I bbq over low heat with smoking woodchips on gas grill (loh heat on side with chips, no heat on side with chicken like standard bbq ribs but 3 hours less cooking). takes about 30 - 45 minutes. tastes great, no flares - easy... then half hour of Arban exercises in syncopation and two octaves chromatic of cresc-decresc long tones

Bob "better cook than tuba player" Sadler
Edmonton, Alberta

[Joe Baker]

I haven't had chicken at the Outback, but I'll tell you what I do at home to make good moist chicken breasts. There are two ways:

Outside, I use the gas grill (not charcoal) for chicken. I set one side of the grill on medium heat, the other on high. Cook the chicken breasts ONLY on the side with medium heat (the hot side speeds the cooking -- less time cooking seems to mean less time losing moisture, at least up to a point). Baste every few minutes with barbecue sauce, lemon & butter or olive oil. DON'T SALT BEFORE THE OUTSIDE IS COOKED. Remove as soon as they're done, erring on the side of underdone. If you get them inside and they need a little more cooking, you can give 'em a minute in the microwave.

Inside, I use a skillet with a lid. Spray the pan with PAM or other cooking spray, get it med-hot, then add the chicken. IMMEDIATELY spray the CHICKEN ITSELF with PAM. Salt & pepper, reduce heat to low/low-med, and put the lid on. Come back in five minutes, flip the chicken, salt & pepper again, and replace the lid. Total time to cook -- about 15-20 minutes with thawed pieces, 20-25 with individually frozen breasts. I frequently drive home, cook a chicken breast, make and eat a sandwich with it, and get back to work in under an hour!

BTW, my boss (a total health nut) starts chicken breasts out the same way I do, but with olive oil instead of PAM, cooks about two minutes on each side, then transfers them to a baking pan and puts them in the oven. He swears by this, but it sounds like too much clean-up for me.
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Joe Baker, whose current lean diet has necessitated learning to make a juicy chicken breast.

[Chuck(G)]

A friend at one of the high-end bistros here told me their secret for grilling steak.

Butter. Lots of it, baste the durn thing in it while it's cooking.

Don't know if that's all that there is, since I'm not a big steak eater.

[tuba_bloke]

Wherabouts in Oz bloke???

[Joe Baker]

...Texas Roadhouse at least the ones I have been to have always had really great baby back ribs.

That may well be, but ribs aren't really a Texas specialty. Oh, sure, as long as we're killing the steer for the Brisket we'll eat the ribs too, but 'Texas barbecue' MEANS beef brisket.

It's kind of galling to those of us from Texas. It'd be like a restaurant that calls itself 'Chicago Pizzaria' that made a great New York style pizza. Or imagine a joint called 'Taste of Italy' that didn't serve spaghetti, but made killer Sushi.

Or how about the JCRaymo musicfest, featuring an all-bagpipe band ?

Texans just take a lot of pride in our identity, and it galls us -- well, me, anyway -- to have someone slap "Texas Roadhouse" on a restaurant that doesn't serve Texas-style food -- even if some of what they serve is tasty (our meal wasn't, but I'll take JCs word on it about their local franchise).
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Joe Baker, who may well live out his days in Tennessee, but will still die a Texan.

[Joe Baker]

Wherabouts in Oz bloke???

"Dogpatch", home of the ever-lovable Bloke, is Memphis, TN.
_____________________________________
Joe Baker, who is glad to have Bloke a mere 380 miles away when he needs some work done on his horns.

[TexTuba]

..who may well live out his days in Tennessee, but will still die a Texan.

Amen to that!!! I take for granted that many places outside of Texas don't have good BBQ. If they only knew what they were missing...better yet, keep what ya got. That way there's more for me.



Ralph

[Lew]

I haven't had chicken at the Outback, but I'll tell you what I do at home to make good moist chicken breasts. There are two ways:

Outside, I use the gas grill (not charcoal) for chicken. I set one side of the grill on medium heat, the other on high. Cook the chicken breasts ONLY on the side with medium heat (the hot side speeds the cooking -- less time cooking seems to mean less time losing moisture, at least up to a point). Baste every few minutes with barbecue sauce, lemon & butter or olive oil. DON'T SALT BEFORE THE OUTSIDE IS COOKED. Remove as soon as they're done, erring on the side of underdone. If you get them inside and they need a little more cooking, you can give 'em a minute in the microwave.

Inside, I use a skillet with a lid. Spray the pan with PAM or other cooking spray, get it med-hot, then add the chicken. IMMEDIATELY spray the CHICKEN ITSELF with PAM. Salt & pepper, reduce heat to low/low-med, and put the lid on. Come back in five minutes, flip the chicken, salt & pepper again, and replace the lid. Total time to cook -- about 15-20 minutes with thawed pieces, 20-25 with individually frozen breasts. I frequently drive home, cook a chicken breast, make and eat a sandwich with it, and get back to work in under an hour!

BTW, my boss (a total health nut) starts chicken breasts out the same way I do, but with olive oil instead of PAM, cooks about two minutes on each side, then transfers them to a baking pan and puts them in the oven. He swears by this, but it sounds like too much clean-up for me.
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Joe Baker, whose current lean diet has necessitated learning to make a juicy chicken breast.

This will work, but can easily be overdone. If you soak the breasts in brine first it will make it much more likely to come out moist, no matter how much you screw up the cooking. I just use a bowl of salt water, and soak overnight, but there are other recipes out there for this.

[Joe Baker]

Tex, don't get me wrong. I enjoy barbecue of other types as well. The regional specialty here in Knoxville is Carolina-style pulled pork. Very tasty! As are the Mississippi valley ribs. They just shouldn't have a "Texas" label on 'em.

You know, there was a place called "Dos Amigos" (I think that was it) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that I used to go to 10 or so years ago. The place sold "Tex-Mex" food, but all made with shredded pork instead of beef. They made no bones about the fact that they had found an interesting variation on the original, and that they WEREN'T authentic. By just being really out front with the fact that they were a variation on the theme, not the genuine article, it made all the difference. They weren't "pretenders". They were admirers and imitators and innovators, but they made no pretense at authenticity. That's what steamed me so much about the Texas Roadhouse -- it seemed to be claiming to be the genuine article.
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Joe Baker, who enjoys the original, and regional variations, of all kinds of food -- but has no patience for pretenders!

[Rick Denney]

Waitress: "So do you want brown gravy or white gravy on that?"

I stopped at a diner once in Austin with a group of friends. I asked for chicken-fried steak. The waitress said, "We're out of that." So, I asked her if she had sirloin steak. She said, "Yes, we have that. How do you want it cooked?"




....wait for it.....






"Chicken-fried."


Rick "who hasn't had a chicken-fried steak since 1994 out of self-preservation" Denney

[Joe Baker]

Sorry for any offense,

None taken, I assure you. The TX Roadhouse ticked me off, but nothing you said did. I was just explaining what my beef was (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!)
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Joe Baker, who, just to be obstinate, will somehow, some way, some day name a music fest "The JCRaymo MusicFest"!! (but if I'M organizing it, there WON'T be bagpipes)

[Joe Baker]

I stopped at a diner once in Austin ...

Yeah, yeah.... Any story from an Aggie that starts with these words is IMMEDIATELY suspect!
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Joe Baker, who WILL agree that there are a LOT more non-Texans in Austin than in Aggie-land.

[TMurphy]

It'd be like a restaurant that calls itself 'Chicago Pizzaria' that made a great New York style pizza.

Now THAT would be a true crime against all humanity.

Tim Murphy, who respects pizza of all kinds, but in his heart, knows the NY style is the real thing.

[Tubaryan12]

cktuba wrote:

... however I absolutely LOVE the Alice Springs Chicken

It's the ONLY thing I eat at Outback Steakhouse!