Vegans, Avert Your Eyes

Top to bottom: Broccolini fried in lard, pork chops,
rib-eye steak, lamb chops, goat, tri-tip, Italian sausage

The Belcampo Meat Company is "a farm, a processing plant, a butcher shop, and a restaurant [that manages] the entire production chain to bring you delicious, safe, healthy, organic, and humane meat."

We visited the butcher shop in Larkspur and gawked at the prices--$10 to $20 a pound--of the various meats on display. Raising animals without the use of hormones and enriched feed is apparently a costly undertaking.

After getting over the sticker shock, we sat down to dinner at the adjacent restaurant and ordered the Meat Board for $85. In for a pound (or pounds), as the saying goes.

The chops and roasts were prepared skillfully. The beef centers were medium rare, while the other meats were cooked thoroughly without being dry. None of the cuts had thick marbling, but all were tender. Aging and light seasoning brought out complex flavors; a glass of house pinot complemented the dishes perfectly.

Our party of four had no trouble finishing the entire spread, which included bread and lard(!) in place of butter. When one is on vacation--even a stay-cation--calories and cholesterol don't count. © 2013 Stephen Yuen