much to my fortuitous delight, there’s been a recent surge in the appearance of oxtail — a somewhat obscure ingredient that seldom makes cameos — on restaurant menus. anyone who’s suffered my friendship will tell you that oxtail is feverishly exciting for me. it embodies all the wonderful qualities of shortrib, amplified by 1,000. i can only thank my uber-talented chef grandma for introducing it to me in the form of oxtail stew when i was a wee lass. it’s still a true favorite, but sadly, she hasn’t made it in a long, long time.

i wish i could’ve taken photos of all the dishes i’ve had in the past few months showcasing this underrated meat (that’s what she said), but i was too dumbstruck with joy that i didn’t think to bust out my camera (hard to imagine, i know).

on a business lunch at bar jules a while ago, ami and i had a most memorable oxtail dish (with purple baby carrots). soooooo good. haunted by the memories of this special meal, we went back last friday, aware of their tendency to recycle the same ingredients in different reincarnations. this time we had oxtail with scrambled eggs and wild arugula, preceded by an embracing celery soup with sour cream.

to me, scrambled eggs should almost taste — and resemble — pillowy coddled, poached eggs. soft and moist, and a teeny bit yolky

i could’ve spent the rest of the afternoon staring at this, with a pen in hand for doodling. it’s a relaxing scene

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under food, yay area. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.