February 2021 – William Dare

New York strip is the perfect combination of Tender, fatty, yet lean. And the grain of meat fiber is consistent throughout, so if you carve up a steak properly, it cooks very evenly, ensuring each bite is perfectly moist and tender and caramelized.

Begin with a 1.5” steak at room temperature. Preheat the cast iron on low to medium low, add a slice of butter, season accordingly with coarse salt and cracked pepper, then cook for 5 min on each face.

Don’t touch it while it’s cooking. Just let it fry in that butter.

Time it and flip it like clockwork.

After each face is cooked for 5 min and properly caramelized, you can do the sides for 15-30sec.

Then let rest for another 5 min before eating.

It’s critical you begin with a steak at least 1” and at most 2” thick.

Under 1” and you risk overcooking the inside and undercooking the caramelized outside.

2” and you risk undercooking the inside and overcooking the caramelized outside.

I received a prophecy last night.

A vision.

I woke in a barren desert, surrounded by a sea of sand.

My lips were dry and my mouth was parched.

The sun levitated above at high noon.

I began to climb through the sand and up a rising dune.

At the top of the dune a cool wind whipped my face and I squinted into the distance to inspect the skyline.

On the eastern horizon I could make out an assemblage of tall pine that amassed into a thick forest. There I will find shade and respite.

I descended the dune and trudged through the sands heavy grip and made my way into the wood.

I hacked through the pine until I came to another sand clearing that sunk toward a center.

I collapsed at its edge.

And began to dream.

The ground began to rumble and shake, but I lay still, too parched and weak to move.

Branches broke and rocks fell all around me. But all the while my eyes fixated on the center of this sandy clearing as it rose from the earth higher and higher, as if a stone mass was growing from the earth

I closed my eyes to guard them from the whirling wind and sand.

Then there was stillness, followed by a large aching roar that bellowed and echoed all around and an intense heat that singed the pine needles all around me.

I lifted my head and opened my eyes and shifted my gaze up this cracked column of stone, until I was face to face with a large penetrating eye attached to the face of a hulking dragon

My body trembled and my mouth hung open as I struggled form a reaction.

Where this dragon once laid, sunken beneath the sand, was now a deep pit that encircled his cracked and plated body

A series of faint trickles began to form followed by the sound of rushing water, and my eyes watched as the most brilliant waters began to rise and froth from the earth, filling the pit where he once laid with the brightest blue, more brilliant than lapis lazuli.

I yearned to quench my thirst

The dragon looked at me with an inquiring eye as I crawled towards this simmering pool

As I was about to reach the edge the dragon brought his mouth to the water and proceeded to drink, and soon emptied the entire contents of the liquid pool.

The dragon then coiled his body, extended his wings, and leapt into the air.

I lay prostrate in disbelief and grief as I contemplated terms of my impending demise.

I then rolled and collapsed on my back. Above the barren landscape, soaring above the pine, I could see the outline of the dragon making his way higher and higher, when suddenly, a large gaseous fireball enveloped his outline and continued to rapidly expand outward as a massive growing cloud of steam. This was followed by the roar of a shock wave, and soon the thick cloud blotted the suns rays, and the sky began to dim.

For the first time a cool breeze passed over my chapped exhausted body.

I closed my eyes and began to lose my grip on awareness, and slowly I slid off the edge of consciousness, towards the dark afterlife that was beckoning me from below.

And then I felt it.

One.

Then two.

I clawed myself back to awareness and touched my face.

Moisture.

I brought it to my lips.

Nothing tasted so sweet, nothing quenched so deeply.

My eyes opened and soon a deluge of this sweet nectar began to pour from the sky, saturating the barren landscape, pooling all around.

I plunged my face into the accumulating pools and streams and drank and drank.

It was not rainwater.

It was from the Dragon, liquid infused with the barren pine lands, imbued with the Dragon’s magic, brewed right in the depths of his belly.

Vigor and vitality coursed through my veins, and joy erupted through my lungs as I proclaimed this newfound elixir of life: “Hail the Dragon’s Brew Pine Barren Beer!!”

Then I woke up.

My senses adjusted. My body was wrapped in blankets and nested in the comfort of a familiar bed.

I opened one eye then reached for my phone. 6:03am.

I unlock my phone to reveal Instagram.

The newsfeed auto populates, and my eyes are met with the most astonishing sight. My jaw drops and my eyes widen.

Before my very eyes I see a Dragon. Brewing beer.

The prophecy has been ordained.

The Dragon is destined for greatness.

There it’s finished

I dedicate this story to you Jeff.

All I ask is that you fulfill your destiny.

Month: February 2021

Ocean Sol

The Perfect Steak

Dragon’s Brew Pine Barren Beer