STEAKHOUSE REVIEW: Salza (Stavanger, Norway)

Built toward the end of the 18^th century, a quaint neighborhood of 173 white, wooden houses comprises what is known as “Gamle Stavanger” or “Old Stavanger” – definitely a nice place for a summer stroll before an evening meal in Norway.  On the outskirts of Old Town, especially toward the harbor (Vagen), you can find several very nice restaurants including Salza, one of the top-rated steakhouses in the city. 

THE FOOD: C-  

As with most meals, we started with the bread.  Bread rarely makes much of a difference in the overall meal for me, but at Salza they served the bread with a tomato and cheddar spread which made it a little more of an experience. 

For the main course, I ordered a personal favorite of mine – the rib eye.  It was a good thing it's a favorite of mine too - because on this particular night it was one of only two cuts on the menu (NY Strip was the other cut).  Both cuts were sourced locally, which was great, but the lack of variety was bad news for my girlfriend who very strictly sticks to the filet mignon.  

One important thing to keep in mind when ordering steak outside of the U.S. is that they measure weight in grams, not ounces.  I had to choose between 180 grams or 300 grams of rib eye, and while I didn’t know exactly what the conversion was I had a feeling that I could handle the 300 gram steak – it had been a full day of hiking earlier up Pulpit Rock so I figured I had earned it… it turns out the 300 grams equates to about 10 and a half ounces – certainly manageable when you have a good appetite.  For my steak the cut was good and it had little fat that needed to be trimmed, but the steak was a little overcooked to be considered medium-rare. 

The potatoes that came with my steak were unlike any I have encountered at other steakhouses, and were quite good.  It was almost as if they mashed the potato, pressed it into a flat sheet, and layered the sheets into a nice cubed shape.  

My girlfriend ordered the breast of ox glazed with brown sugar and Jack Daniels sauce – which turned out to be a big mistake.  It was her first time trying ox, and maybe ox in general is a dryer, more bland meat, but the cut that she was served was not at all worthy of being served in a nice restaurant.  If you can imagine smoking a beef brisket for about twice as long as you need to until all the moisture and flavor is zapped out of it – that’s about what this ox tasted like. 

THE ATMOSPHERE: B

Despite being both a restaurant and a nightclub, the atmosphere at Salza was very nice – crowds can gather later in the evening as the nightclub picks up, but if you’re there during a normal dinner hour you’ll find it to be a rather quiet and low-key environment.   Our table was cozy and had a nice view of the street and harbor outside and the window looked to be an original (or at least antique) frame which added to the character of the place and made it feel like it belonged so close to the “Old Town” neighborhood. 

THE SERVICE: C

The wait staff was courteous, as you would expect.  They got a few bonus points when they continued to bring out bread even after the meal so we had something to munch on while we finished our wine, but lost a few points because they couldn’t tell me much about how the steak was prepared.  Overall there wasn’t very much from a service perspective that set Salza apart from any other restaurant. 

Overall I would give Salsa a C+ rating.  Perhaps I’m just biased toward domestic steakhouses in the U.S., but if you're visiting Stavanger I would recommend trying another restaurant near Old Town instead.

Grilling in Sweden

I just returned from an amazing vacation/visit with some friends in Stockholm, Sweden.  In addition to bringing back the usual souvenirs, I brought home some serious lessons in cooking that I’m excited to put into use!  While we tried to follow the typical “you’re on vacation, eat out as much as you want” rule… there was an opportunity to prepare some home-cooked steaks and I’d go so far as to say it was the best meal of the vacation!

It started with a trip to the butcher shop to buy the steaks – inch and a half thick, 21 day dry-aged porterhouses that were cut to order.  Clearly this was a good butcher shop, but what made it really interesting was the various other meats that you might not expect to encounter at a butcher shop in the States… horse meat, snake meat, and even zebra meat!   Perhaps those would have been fun to try if the regular beef porterhouses didn’t look so delicious, we’ll save the zebra for the next trip. 

To create that traditional steakhouse flavor, all that’s needed is a little salt and pepper.  I’m certainly open to using a more complex (more spices) steak seasoning when it’s a lesser cut or when following a recipe, especially around the holidays, but sometimes it’s best just to keep things simple. 

When eating steak, I used to care very little about the sides and complements to the meal – heck I’d even joke that when it was somebody’s birthday instead of a cake for dessert they should be served another petit filet with some candles instead.  However, as I continue to experience more and more delicious food I’m finding that sides can really make a substantial difference to the meal.  The first tip I learned dealt with preparing home-made garlic butter.  Of course it’s easy enough to mix a few crushed cloves of garlic with butter, here I am doing the mixing - the trick is making it presentable afterwards. 

If you wrap the butter in plastic wrap you can shape the butter into a nice cylindrical shape and place it in the freezer for just a few minutes to let the butter firm up again – which will help it retain this new shape.  Unwrap the butter and lightly sprinkle it with a spice to really make it look nice – basil, oregano, whatever you like!  It might be hard to see but here's the finished garlic butter.

The next epiphany I had was how easy (and delicious) roasted garlic can be!  We were cooking potatoes and sweet potatoes in the oven anyway, and my friend cut apart a clove of garlic, drizzled olive oil over it, and placed it right in the center of the baking sheet with the potatoes.  Over the course of the next half hour the kitchen filled with a delicious aroma and the roasting really tamed the flavor because you could eat the cloves whole they were done in the oven!

The final lesson was in the grilling itself.  I’ve long used a propane Weber grill, however it simply doesn’t reach the same temperatures that a charcoal grill can reach.  Having higher temperatures that can sear the steak and seal in the flavor really does make a remarkable difference. 

It was the meal that made the trip – great food, great wine, and great friends.