Flamin' Yun

When I was a kid I thought there was a kind of steak called flamin' yun. That's what it sounded like my mother was saying. What did I know? I didn't know from French steak names when I was seven years old.

I may have had a shitty childhood, but I had lots of good meat. My stepfather, Sy, was in the prime meats business for the hotel and restaurant trade, and he used to bring home the best of the best: loin lamb chops, South African lobster tails, N.Y. strip steaks and flamin' yun.

I was reminded of my good meat shitty childhood recently when I went for a Restaurant Week lunch at the Palm Too, the annex of the famous New York steakhouse (now an international franchise). Though it opened in 1973, the Palm Too looks like it's been there forever. The blasé, semi-grumpy old-school New York waiters with indeterminate accents also looked like they'd been there forever. I could have done without them, but the twin filets mignons were excellent, perfectly medium-rare, per my order, as one would expect from such an establishment.

And the cheesecake was both fantastic and humongous. I really shouldn't have eaten the whole thing. That slice must have toted at least 1500 calories, the accompanying whipped cream a cruel taunt. I sometimes go years without eating cheesecake, and this was my second in about a month. I had written about how good the coconut cheesecake at Beacon was, but this one made me forget it. I can't imagine a classic New York cheesecake better than this one; I can't remember ever having had one, even in the heyday of Junior's.