The BBQ Bible: Scotch Fillet?

A lot of people in my small living room

Finding decent beef in Indonesia is an interesting adventure.

This weekend it was my birthday and what does every red-blooded man want on his birthday? Steak. Sorry ladies, but sides-dishes are just a waste of time at this point, and what we're really after is some rare, bloody, delicious, succulent side of cow. However, on an island that is predominantly Hindu - finding good cow proves to be quite the challenge. I found excellent pork at Hardy's, good chicken and decent seafood at Lotte Mart... but beef?

Does that look like a proper Rib Eye to you?

In the end, I was directed to Raja Meats (thank you John and Matt!) which specializes in frozen imported beef from Australia, but they also carry a lot of interesting stuff from the island itself. Seems like everything is butchered and packaged in Denpasar and then shipped frozen for sale at various locations. This has caused a bit of concern for ol' Ted because my freezer is roughly the size of a Kleenex box - which doesn't give me much room for frozen meats (more on this later). What caught my eye is something local called a "Scotch Fillet," which is one of the most interesting things about talking BBQ across various cultures - everyone seems to have different names for certain cuts. They looked kind of like a tenderloin, but with a lot less marble to them. Wikipedia tells me that they are equivalent to a Rib Eye - so I figured I'd give'm a whirl.

I wish I could say I prepared some kind of fantastic new recipe - but I was feeding a lot of mouths last night and so I kept it basic. Pretty standard marinade, take it off once the meat is at room temperature and then prepped it for the grill with some olive oil and the classic Montreal Steak Spice (yes, you can get it here and it is still all you really need). For more info on this, just refer back to one of my earliest postings about Steak Basics.

I had some sirloins, some tenderloins and of course the Scotch Fillet going. Then we finished things off with some Satay and some fresh prawns (which I burned...bleah). The local Scotch Fillet turned out to be an interesting cut - it was tender enough, but light, almost like a good pork chop. I took pictures to compare:

On the left is an imported (read Aussie) tenderloin, in the middle is a local tenderloin, and on the right is the Scotch Fillet. The local meat is so much leaner than the imported stuff, maybe even different types of steer (wow, now we're getting REAL specific). I'm guessing a Scotch Fillet cut from an Aussie animal would taste very different - but for now, I'm going to have to be more choosy about the cuts I get of local beef.

But all in all it was a great night - many thanks go to Heather, who hooked the Raifu Villa crew up with some quality mixers for drinking (remember kids! It ain't what you know, it's who you know!) so we were all in top shape for a fabulous meal and some great company. Cheers!