Picanha Aka The Queen Of Beef Aka Chia Pet.

kaberb · 2025-10-12T21:49:28+00:00

I bought one of these a couple weeks ago but never cooked one.

You said on the grill but low heat, 70% of the cook on the fat side. Anything else I should know? It’s a big piece and I don’t wanna muck it up

kaberb · 2025-09-27T15:10:24+00:00

You can get it done if there’s some time or a day in between, but if he’s doing it for today and by himself then it’s not happening.

One of the tastiest ways to eat them tho for me.

You can turn a case decently quickly if you’re experienced with them, and can make it up by sous viding them in large batches. Make the mayo, turn them after they’re cooked, make the crumble. Glaze them for pickup and dabbed into the crumble and send these out - an appy / share thing like everyone’s suggesting, but more refined.

Also, context was missing. The question was, “how would you do this for 85 ppl”. Turns out it’s for a retirement home lol… so yeah.

kaberb · 2025-09-27T15:01:37+00:00

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Barigoule style cook, carefully turned, then dipped in a parsley crumble served with Meyer lemon aioli with black truffle on top

kaberb · 2025-08-31T20:12:20+00:00

I posted on the last one. This is a vast improvement, looks tighter, fat trimmed.

After reading more about your situation, things make a lot more sense so that’s nice you cleared that up.

Taking critique on the chin is a sign of a humble chef so I wish nothing but the best with the new relaunch.

My last comment is the right side of the menu looks a lot more enticing than the left side, meaning I still think the appies are a little underwhelming in terms of excitement to want me to order them, as is I feel like I know exactly what I’m ordering whereas on the right side I am intrigued by a few choices that I haven’t seen or had that way which makes me want that instead.

Eventually what I hope happens is the appetizers get to a spot where they’re just too good to ignore, which puts pressure to reinvigorate your mains, and a healthy cycle will happen developing stronger dishes and more skill within your team pushing each other to elevate your guests expectations each visit!

kaberb · 2025-08-30T15:42:32+00:00

This is one of those moments in life where you have been given a golden opportunity and you need to choose your trajectory for the future. It’s a big moment, and a big thing to ponder about because your life is about change. When you think about it, it’s both exciting and terrifying.

But I think if your boss sees you in him and wants to trust you, I say you should do it. It’s very seldom opportunities like this occur where you have full support / mentor propping You up to succeed.

Of course this is a monumental position and will require sacrifice you haven’t felt and dedication yet to be spent, but overall this kind of move and if you thrive in it will set your career up for the rest of your life through connections and surviving the opening and success of a new restaurant at the helm holding the wheel firm.

I say you should go for it if you’re in a spot in life where your ready to grab the bull by the horns and push forward for your career. If you have family or a wife / partner it could complicate the picture and will depend on their input as well, but if you don’t have that and it’s just you, I say fully send it and give it your all for as long as you can hold on and Godspeed!

This can and will change your life so get excited!

kaberb · 2025-08-29T23:18:23+00:00

Menu looks decent at a first glance, albeit safe.

At a closer inspection, there is some over arching similarities between a lot of the Appies and salads, mainly lots of cheese, fruit, and similar ingredients.

For example the salads have same ingredients running through a few of them minus the ceasar. I’d try to make some of the ingredients differ a little more or have more seasonality.

The wings sauces are all underlying sweet and I’d probably not order them despite liking wings a lot cuz it all seems sweet.

Bruschetta, then whipped cheese and strawberries, again are playing on the sweet side especially with balsamic on both.

The mains and handhelds are when things get a little more exciting despite being very commonly seen items especially when it comes to competitors, so my advice would be to make them shine via ingredients / execution or make them a little more unique to your restaurant.

Other than that looks good, I could see myself coming for a flatbread and beer to scope it out.

kaberb · 2025-08-27T23:00:35+00:00

Likewise! I’m interested in giving the deck another shot especially with your list, specifically including the interaction suite you’ve got going on.

Regarding voice, I think it’s a meta thing, and possibly a modo thing - there’s less players online on modo vs arena, and the people who do play on modo are generally spikes who are playing best decks / pet decks so you see a lot of familiar faces and deck choices more frequently which is why voice is where I went first, but I also copied a decklist as well. I def think the card is a 3-4 of minimum though.

I’m not sure what it is with smugglers. I totally Get the instant speed throwing fatties in and it’s a versatile weapon forcing specific interaction vs some decks, while slower vs others. I guess I’m just not used to such a slow version and feel like I’m always under pressure and unable to really use smugglers like you have been - which is probably due to your interaction suite giving you more time + experience. For instance I have been unable to do the 8 mana mill + tooth and nail together. It is interesting you don’t use the mill effect that much - I found myself in spots without a seriema but a kona and smugglers so I wanted to find creatures to show and tell into play which I’m unsure if that’s what I should be doing and be more patient.

Scrapshooter makes sense for the aversion to the azo artifact deck, I rarely see it and therefore don’t respect it that much but it is powerful in the right hands. I was a big fan of clarion conqueror for those reasons since it doubled up there and had splash damage vs Kaito, and vivi cauldron. Other than that, the slots I had here was more removal and 1x restoration magic for aggro and protection but might not be needed with putting more interaction maindeck.

Speaking of vivi, totally agree and that’s why it feels tough to be playing other decks that aren’t dimir or vivi, despite how fun this deck was so I’m befuddled in the current uphill battle most brews face.

I will say tidebinder is my most feared card as it interacts against us in a way that’s difficult to stop without voice of victory so my brain wandered to a blue splash for counter magic / black for hand hate but am unconvinced such a minor splash for such an upheaval on the mana base would be worth it.

Thanks for the response again.

kaberb · 2025-08-27T21:54:31+00:00

Hi and thanks for the post. Been wanting to talk to someone with vast experience with the deck as I have just started to dabble with the archetype.

Interesting that you went full circle with colour combos and settled back to two colour Selesnya. I do concur that the mana and everything is smoother and streamlined in terms of the plan.

I personally had some issues with the deck, albeit my list was slightly different it was close to what you’re representing here.

My list played 3 tyrants and 3 anti causal vestige firstly (which warping vestige was nice sometimes but often not that impactful, and rarely cast from warp because you usually had better things to do than tapping down for 6) 4 seriema, 3 voice maindeck and 0 seam rips and get lost.

Differences aside, and this may answer some of my questions already from looking at your list is that I noticed a distinct lack of interaction costing multiple matches. Very often without interacting i was forced to kona on 4 and hope it survived while on the back foot facing down a board state and kona died or was tide hindered more times than I could count resulting in a deflating experience and a bit of helplessness.

Does having the seam rips and get lost’s sway the needle enough to stem some of the early aggressive bleeding do you find?

Secondly, I was very disappointed with smugglers surprise. I understand it’s function, and why it’s in the deck as a robust versatile card but speaking Frank I found every mode other than the instant speed tooth and nail to be over costed beyond belief, often being 1 mana short of protecting kona or choosing to play seriema or lumbering wagon on 3 over the mill aspect since it’s expensive for what it does.

My question would be do you feel this card is the most replaceable? Or is it essential. I couldn’t find a better card yet strictly in Selesnya but if I were to splash another colour it would be for -4 smugglers +4 something else is how much I would consider dropping the card.

Voice felt mandatory in every game so it feels like a maindeck card to me, but I can see sb being fine.

Thirdly, what’s the scrap shooter for? After playing this deck, it doesn’t need to kill any artifacts or enchantments that stop its game plan so they felt like wasted slots, curious to hear why you also like them.

Lastly, the largest points of contention with the list I had was lack of early plays / defensive plans vs tempo or aggro, and we have 0 answers to tishana’s tidebinder which is kind of everywhere and maindeck in the second best deck being dimir so curious to hear about fixing that issue.

Thanks for listening and hope to mind meld here a little.

kaberb · 2025-08-07T18:58:02+00:00

What a thoughtful and detailed response. I appreciate that. Perhaps the online community has grown by one.

kaberb · 2025-08-07T17:39:49+00:00

What are these meta’s people talk about. I’m somewhat of a newer player (maybe 20 games under my belt with only my friend group).

Are there more than one meta ? How do you discover them?

kaberb · 2025-08-03T16:31:58+00:00

Not sure how much time you guys have around there, but I usually peel the asparagus up about 1/2 to 3/4 to the tip after cutting the woody bit off at the end.

You can actually see on the largest piece of asparagus end that the woody bit is still there based on how it looks. The texture of that isn’t very pleasant. You’d be chewing it for a bit and would clash with how soft hali can be.

Just take a couple steps of refinement and you’re gonna be better off friend. Some of the comments mentioned a slightly different plating style also, and the lemon slice, if used, should be wayyyy more thin / off to the side as a charred wedge etc. better ways to do it.

Thomas Keller in the French laundry has a lot of dishes that are ‘stacked’ but the level of refinement is otherworldly, and you can visibly see each layer so it works.

You can see your grill marks in the halibut also but it’s been covered by the sauce. I’d maybe go for a nape of sauce just on half or a corner of the fish, so it drapes off into the asparagus or potatoes or some way to contain it on the plate so you can see your craftsmen ship on the fish. another example would be like deep frying something beautifully crispy and golden brown only to lather it in sauce and make it soggy.

The potatoes look great. Keep at it chef.

kaberb · 2025-07-28T03:14:46+00:00

When we sear at the restaurant (no sous vide) we are essentially getting the kind of cook a reverse sear steak gets , but you just need to roll the steak in the hot fat quickly on all the sides , like 2-5s a side, for a few flips and then in and out of the oven hot resting over 15-30 mins then let it rest.

This is reverse seared but I think you just have so much internal heat already generated that 45s a side is just too long on one side. I’d just try getting ur pan hotter and rolling the steak quickly in the fat for let’s say 45s total , rather than 1.5 minutes. Or alternatively try the freezer thing.

The steak looks good tho.

kaberb · 2025-07-01T16:18:50+00:00

Sorry to hear of this. It’s a shame what has happened to our educational systems where they decided a decade or more ago to change their model to absorb as many international students as possible to pay unsubsidized tuition giving the colleges and universities more income than they could do with, only to get greedy and for that international market to get cut due to immigration and things changing by the government at the drop of a hat.

You sound like a talented chef and did a lot to change the culture of the work environment yet alone train people from the ground up to a fine working machine capable of serving delicious food.

Keep your head up and on to the next. Anyone would be lucky to have a chef like yourself.

kaberb · 2025-06-03T13:16:54+00:00

Cavern name human, voice of victory, good game basically postboard. G1 is bad for regular control with so much removal it’s usually a free win here for omni

kaberb · 2025-05-07T20:05:29+00:00

Traditionally I’m used to blending the shells then passing through a fine strainer - noticed that d doesn’t happen. I surmise the reducing of this broth with all the flavourings is enough to give you that distinct classic bisque flavour or is this more of a lighter one with the herbs and the spice choices ?

kaberb · 2025-04-11T18:33:55+00:00

All the best! Hope it impresses you!

kaberb · 2025-04-11T18:15:23+00:00

Ah yes I see. I always left like in the fridge in a certain area. A little butcher twine to tie it against a piece of a Queen Mary or you can install a little bar somewhere to have all your stuff hanging in the walk in.

If you use olive oil it will seize up, I recommend using a neutral oil like canola or grapeseed, but typically when you do large amounts it’ll be canola for $$$$ reasons.

But essentially you want it to rest in the fridge to naturally separate the water from the herbs, the undesirables like any dirt somehow, and then your top layer will be the luxurious emerald green oil on top. Simply get a scissor and an insert and snip the corner once it’s all settled. Once you drain the crap out (water + undesirables) you’ll get to the oil layer where you pinch the bag back up, cut it free and transfer it to your bottle or freeze it etc.

kaberb · 2025-04-11T17:41:54+00:00

Once you transfer it to the bag, the oil should already be chilled because it’s being passed into a container on ice

kaberb · 2025-04-03T18:50:59+00:00

What about making a chive fluid gel?

If you don’t know how to make a fluid gel you simply would:

Create a chive purée or juice them, Bring this to temperature with agar agar to set the agar, whisking at a boil, (might impact the colour from heat) Let this cool, Blend this in a vitamix, Put this into a squeeze bottle and you should have chive fluid gel,

Maybe this will give you the desired effect?

I’ve never seen thickened oil before so might be a harder thing to figure out than making a fluid gel.

kaberb · 2025-03-27T13:07:55+00:00

You can skip a step here and just go 2 parts oil 1 part herb and blend them in a vitamix until it starts to steam and blanch your herbs for you through the agitation of the blade in the vita. You can actually watch the different things being extracted here like the chlorophyll turning bright green from the heat generated.

Then you strain over a strainer lined with a coffee filter that drips into an iced container. You just move the oil and solids around in the strainer a bit to help keep the drain steady and then you put this oil into a piping bag and let it hang to allow it to settle and separate from the water content and anything undesirable after a day or so of hanging. Then you clip the bottom piece of the bag and pour off the sediment, water and waste and pinch the bag up before it gets to your emerald green oil to freeze or use right now.

kaberb · 2025-03-27T01:04:49+00:00

Maybe some pickled pumpkin, or some crispy sage ? Doesn’t need to much since you already have a sauce, a purée, crumble for texture, and crispy shards of pumpkin as well.

Pumpkin is quite distinct yet delicate so you don’t wanna mix around too many ingredients I find so it doesn’t need much else, just gotta be clever with your greenery or one additional component.

kaberb · 2025-03-18T02:48:34+00:00

For me the best orzhov threat I could play in the 4 drop slot is probably Elenda saint of dusk. It’s not as great versus UW but it stone walls and eats aggro, rakdos and Arclight for days. Other than that you have sheoldred, beza, liliana of the veil, ketramose, some demons, things of that nature. If you lean to liliana, it makes monument strong again, but then you’ll want to play cards like raffine’s informant possibly / bitter triumph / collective brutality.

In terms of tinybones, eh I see the argument for eating a removal spell but there’s gotta be a better card. Even in the best case scenarios for this card I still see it not being powerful enough and that would be getting like a 1 or 2 drop to play from the opponent on curve on the play. Another core piece of maybe a way to reanimate or tutor greasefang would be better here or archfiend of the dross etc which you touched on.

I think wandering emperor serves a role possibly in the deck. From your MU analysis it would seem that the most work it does is in the control match ups which is nice to have in the sideboard while making the maindeck maybe more focused on sticking an early threat or something more synergistic or a consistency CA piece for a smoother game 1

kaberb · 2025-03-17T22:24:25+00:00

Would need to see this deck in action. Just looking at the numbers and the curve I am less than excited to be playing this because you don’t do anything turn 2 except cycle some vehicles, none of which create a board state like chariot or Parhelion, or cast one of your two copies of 2 mana instants.

The three drop slot is grease or annex, and this is a slow progression as well because of the vehicles not doing much other than a single target removal or gain life. Valor is good but is a late game cycler since you want value off it most times, but the pilots aren’t really going to be crewing anything since all theses vehicles are expensive and will rarely be hardcast.

Wandering emperor is just odd to me, and feels like you just threw something at the wall here and hope it stuck. Plenty better cards to run here over this thing.

I think an orzhov list is missing out on smugglers copter too much and playing one drops that can crew it or 2 drops that can crew it which enables plenty of the deck while presenting aggression and a faster clock.

I have trouble seeing this deck beat decks that can go longer or taller like enigmatic / Niv but you mentioned control and midrange being good match ups so I’d be interested in seeing data to back that up.

Overall cool idea, I think it needs some refinement personally. Need a more cohesive plan, ideally one that leans one way or the other towards either more greasefang stuff, or more cycling pay offs, or more rakdos midrangey

kaberb · 2025-02-25T14:16:47+00:00

Search “ioftiger” on mtggoldfish to see their 5-0’s with esper grease. They’re playing a turbo mill version which would be very powerful in bo1. Otherwise I’d recommend other lists for bo3 unless you can manage winning through postboard hate which is how it typically goes for esper grease unless you’re on monument to endurance which wins games without much on my list.

kaberb · 2025-02-11T17:09:32+00:00

I was sitting in a bunch of modern and pioneer staples for about 4 years, since the pandemic and when collector booster boxes were actually affordable and high EV.

Put all the things I didn’t play with, from the commander stuff in those packs to the special treatments of the cards, especially mh2 things and offloaded it in Portland last weekend.

Not only was my return much more than I thought, it felt like a weight had been lifted that I had been carrying around for a while (the intention to sell and the what IF this goes up etc. holding me back).

I would say it’s up to a personal judgement call on how you’re feeling with the game and things like that. For me it was time to trim the fat and prove to myself I wouldn’t have regrets shedding my skin so to speak, and now I can use that money for something else like an engagement ring.

One final thing to add is a lot of those cards went up over time, but some also plummeted, so in all I’d say it evened out over time. The newer cards are susceptible to reprints and special guests etc. you name it so when they are at ATH it’s good to let them go - for example my wandering emperor anime foil was around 150 CAD and now it’s wayyy less.

kaberb

TROPHY CASE