animals don't often get fat here.
pigs are kept lean until months before slaughter
beef is sometimes milk cows that stop producing
the beef here has very very little fat in it.
Which sounds healthy, but the result is very tough meat.
Also it's rather gamey.
Burgers don't taste the same.
Hot dogs as known in the States, do not exist.
One of the bigger culture shocks here for folks from the States is that of the beef. Hamburger and hot dogs simply don't taste like they did.
And then, there is steak.
I wasn't a slouch in the grilling department before moving here.
But I have yet to make a decent steak.
I've attempted 3 times, on special occasions.
The first time, I didn't know about the toughness, and we got a gamey tasting super chewy plate of rubber. I only used a dry rub with spices we had brought from home.
Then I tried tenderizing and marinating. Back home, if you tenderize with a spice or a salt, you normally give it at max, 3 hours to soften the fibres. So I marinated then tenderized with some meat tenderizer spice from Costco.
Still super tough, but good taste.
This time, I decided (last weekend) to tenderize the tar out of it, and soaked it fo 2 days in tenderizer, vinegar, lemon.
But what I didn't realize was that my tenderizer had salt in it.
And I marinated in teriyaki.
So... I essentially made beef jerky.
Super dry, super salty but wow.. not so tough!
I think, try four (sometime in the next few months) will prove more favorable results.
I'm on the verge of giving up.
Your diet here is a challenge for variety. Chicken and rice constitute a large portion of our meals, but my wife is incredible and has flourished as a cook here.
We have been here long enough to adjust to most of the "odd" tasting meats.
One of our favorite breakfasts is spam and eggs now. (-;
