Steak restaurant Loetje launches plant-based steak: Loetje’s Steak Bali 0.0
Big news from steak restaurant Loetje. As of today, there is a plant-based steak on the menu: Loetje’s Steak Bali 0.0. And just like all of Loetje’s steaks, the Steak Bali 0.0 is served with the famous sambal gravy and white bread.
This fake meat comes from a printer, by the way. Yes, you read that correctly. Meat 2.0: a steak from the printer. The Israeli company Redefine Meat has spent endless amounts of time delving into the finest details of meat and understanding which interactions take place.
Layers of fake muscle, fake fat and fake blood
Based on this, hypermodern printers are now used to build fake meat from layers of fake muscle, fake fat and fake blood made from soy, chickpeas and flavourings. This is how a steak, T-bone or entrecôte is recreated fibre by fibre, until it is indistinguishable from the real thing.
Recently, I tried the ‘Lamb’ Wellington and Redefine Beef with pan de cristal at Ron’s Gastrobar in Amsterdam. And it has to be said: I was overwhelmed by the texture and the cuisson (the doneness seemed exactly like real meat!) It has the bite of meat, the juiciness of meat and, bizarrely, it is even bloody.
Meat juices
It is not only the texture and mouthfeel of the new Loetje’s Steak Bali 0.0 that are bizarre. It sizzles in the pan, ‘meat juices’ run out, it is caramelised on the outside and pink inside. It even smells like steak and combines perfectly with the famous sambal gravy. And it needs that gravy, too, because aside from the almost frightening resemblance to real meat, the flavour is, in my opinion, somewhat cardboard-like.
Across the Netherlands
Loetje’s Steak Bali 0.0 costs €26.50 – yes, that is quite expensive – and is available at the locations in Amsterdam (Zuidas), Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, Nijmegen, Rotterdam (city centre) and Eindhoven. The new dish is expected to be on the menu throughout the Netherlands by the end of this year.
