Chicken or Beef?

When it comes to selecting my entree for a wedding reception, I have a strategy. It is necessary to choose carefully because names can be deceiving. New York Strip Steak rolled in Cracked Pepper? Sounds delicious! Halibut in a Lemon Butter Sauce? Yum! But one cannot decide based on description alone. Other factors need to be considered before checking one box over another.

It is important to remember that your entree is one of one hundred or more. This means that, unlike at In-N-Out, your food will be sitting under a heat lamp. If you like your steak medium-rare like I do, be prepared for medium-well or rubber. Chicken will most likely be dry and produce that sound from your your teeth stick together for a brief moment. Fish won't be flaky, but instead, chewy, only palatable when washed down with your drink of choice.

But all of the above gets thrown out when dealing with certain cuts of beef or types of fish. Filot Mignon medium-well is still decently tender and more stomachable than dry chicken. Sea Bass over cooked is less strenuous on the jaw than well-done beef. It's like choosing the lesser of two evils.

This weekend I attended a wedding where the choices were Chicken in Cheese Sauce or Vegetarian Pasta. In my imagination, that meant chicken with Velveeta or boiled pasta with steamed frozen vegetables. I opted for the chicken and surprisingly, it was pretty decent and along with a side of buttery green beans, made for a satisying meal.

In the end, it really just depends on what your choices are and which option would be palatable when cooked beyond recognition. My general rule of thumb is to choose fish over beef and beef over chicken. But just in case, pack some "snacks" in the car.