Grubtrotters

I tasted steaks at both extremes of the tenderness scale at Boa Steakhouse in Santa Monica tonight. I started with the 2-oz. premium Japanese Wagyu appetizer. It’s a cashmere sweater of a steak — soft, smooth, expensive and wonderful. For the main course, I ordered the certified organic, grass-fed New York strip, the yogi of steaks, if most yogis were not, uh, vegetarians. (I’m a carnivorous yogi myself. The guilty but happy kind.) Decidedly leaner and firmer, the steak was still full of juicy flavor, seasoned perfectly, and you get to feel good knowing it’s better for your health and the earth.

Rounding out the meal were asparagus and fresh yellow and red beets bought this morning at the Santa Monica’s Farmer’s Market. This was my fourth trip to Boa, and I can never skip my favorite dish on the menu, the goat cheese baklava with pistachios, black truffles and frisee. It’s just so rich and divine.

I enjoyed my grub with a nice glass of Spanish Tempranillo, a 2005 Dominio De Eguren Protocolo. On Sundays, all bottles and half bottles are half price. While super-chic Boa is one of LA’s hipper steakhouses, it’s situated right across the street from the beach, and you might just find a few grains of sand on your leather seat.

Boa Steakhouse, 101 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; 310-899-4466.