"In online dream interpretation circles, a place where I spend a lot of time, the symbol of steak is a bit of a duh: It represents dominance, power, and your brutish animal instincts. Consider that the next time you feast on a large-format meat, something we devoured at a handful of new restaurants this year.Majordomo, David Chang’s bumpin’ Los Angeles debut, offers a whole short rib that’s outgrown a plate and arrives on a cutting board with three protruding bones like the dental work of a saber-toothed tiger.Maydanin D.C. presents a lamb shoulder with a giant knife pierced through the center, the sword in the stone. Have at it, beasties. AtCote, a smash-hit Korean steakhouse in New York, you can eyeball the gangster 110-day-aged porterhouse via a windowed dry-aging room. It’s like dillydallying in front of Red Lobster’s fish tank—but for Wags onBillions.The big meat movement might—and I saidmight—also reflect this unique American moment we’re in.On the one hand, the meat could be an assertion of power by a patriarchy threatened (let me show you who’s boss, vegans); on the other, it’s a reason to gather and loosen up after too many months on edge. Permission to tuck a napkin into your collar and order the big boy granted. Tomorrow you’ll wonder if it was all a dream.—Alex Beggs, senior editor" - ByThe Bon Appétit Staff
