The Beef Tendon at Beaver Sailor Diner in Halifax was a little different than other versions but was very good and got a 4 out of 5 Rating.
The curiously named ‘Beaver Sailor Diner’ didn’t manage to survive Covid-19 but, before it closed its doors in Halifax, I was able to sample the Beef Tendon dish you see pictured above. Tendon is not one of those animal parts that are consumed widely in the west, but they are well worth trying, if you haven’t had the opportunity before, and the Beaver Sailor version was very enjoyable indeed.
The English wording on the menu described it as ‘Beef Tendons stewed in special sauce’ while the Chinese characters (红烧牛筋/羊筋羊肉), specified that the tendons are ‘red-cooked’ (红烧), or stewed in a seasoned, soy sauce based medium.
I have had beef tendon number of times in dim sum restaurants and, in each case, it has consisted simply of translucent, yellowish squares of stewed or steamed cow tendon. I actually quite like them but a whole plate of just tendon can sometimes be a ‘much of a muchness’, and so, accordingly, this dish, with bits of tendon still attached to chunks of meat was quite welcome. There were actually a number of chunks of pure tendon as well, one of which may be visible in the above picture.
Anyway, if you haven’t had it, beef tendon is prized chiefly for its texture which is quite a bit like the skin on pork belly that has been stewed, or otherwise cooked so that it softens and becomes unctuous and chewy with a firmly gelatinous mouth-feel. The sauce here was not bad… it had a slightly harsh aftertaste and used Star Anise, which I always omit as I don’t care for much… but it was otherwise very pleasant and I have to say that this probably the nicest beef tendon dish I have had as yet.
By the way, for those who are interested, the Chinese name on the menu caused just a little bit of difficulty for me. I mis-read the (羊) character (which appears twice) as being the word for sheep, and so, when I asked the waiter ‘Oh does this come with lamb as well?’ he was suitably confused. I pointed to the last two characters, saying ‘Yang Rou?’ and then he started to laugh before pointing out that the character in question is (bàn), meaning ‘half’. He did have the grace, however, to say that the two characters do indeed look very much alike and I was then able to make sense of the last four characters, which actually read ‘half-tendon, half-meat).
I love beef tendon and always add it on to beef noodles I order (usually with other beef parts like tripe etc). That’s interesting what you said about 羊 and 半, you’re absolutely right they look like twins except for the extra line!
LOL Yes. It caused me some confusion.
Kudos for getting as far as you do; for me the characters are too much alike to remember them well.
I wonder if the name of the diner had anything to do with it closing down — if the owner was Chinese he probably didn’t realize the slang meaning.
It was open for quite a few years. It did close down right after the Covid lockdown so I am suspecting that was the cause.