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Upon announcing I was going to Portland, several people told me to eat at Beast, a (wait for it) meat-worshipping eatery on a northeastern residential side street. Beast unapologetically offers a 6-course prix fixe dinner with two seatings per night at two communal tables, with “substitutions politely declined.” Vegetarians, you’re obviously out of luck. (Though someone at my table said Beast offers a vegetarian menu on certain days. Straying from its brand or giving the people what they want?) Overall, our menu—which changes weekly—was not overwhelmingly carnivorous and utilized an array of vegetables (though the charcuterie plate doesn’t mess around).

After hearing raves about the $42 Bone-In New York Strip and the (sorry, not going to pay it) $104 Dry Aged Côte de Boeuf with roasted marrow bones, and after finally wrangling a reservation at the über-trendy Keith McNally joint (at 5:30pm on a Sunday, mind you), I am left disappointed. I’m starting to think that hype is just hype, and magazine editors simply need something new to talk about on Twitter.

Did you know that many ground beef producers treat the meat with ammonia to kill bacteria? In the documentary film Food Inc., a farmer (who employs traditional and natural practices) comments that by putting corn in the cattle feed, and creating problems like the proliferation of E. coli, and now an experimental vaccine to kill the E. coli, producers are too obsessed with the “how” and not the “why”…