This Month’s Film: YiYi
Cuisine: Taiwanese

Last January, I placed an order for five pounds of yak meat from an online purveyor called DelYaks for my Travellers and Magicians Bhutanese menu. Through no fault of DelYaks, my order spent nine days on the road with FedEx shipping and arrived on my doorstep just barely cool to the touch. And although I was skeptical of its safety, at the reassurance of the yak purveyor, I put the yak in my freezer and kept it through the spring and summer. I finally got it out last month to prepare for my ‘Cave of the Yellow Dog’ Mongolian menu. Just as a precaution, I discarded the ground meat, marinated some of the meat in pungent spices for stir-fry, and cooked the steaks well done. The yak turned out to be perfectly safe, and was quite tender and delicious.

The next day, I e-mailed Bob, the yak purveyor, to let him know all’s well that ends well, so he went and read my original account of the yak debacle. A businessman of true integrity who was grateful that I hadn’t disparaged his good name, he offered to send a replacement shipment for me to prepare and enjoy the way it was meant to be. Because I marinated it so heavily and over-cooked it, the subtleties of the meat were lost. According to Bob, its superior quality can only be discerned at the north end of medium rare. So he’s sworn me to the promise that I will use only salt and pepper, and that the meat will still be mooing when I try it.

So…I’m off to the kitchen to do all the prep for tomorrow’s yak dinner. The menu includes Yak-Filled Buuz Dumplings with Spicy Dipping Sauce, Mongolian Yak Soup with Rustic Handmade Dumplings, Quick-Fried Yak Liver, Grilled Yak Steaks, Potato Latkes, and a Wild Mushroom Medley over Braised Kale.

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