Order a modest 10-ouncer (regular New York Strip is offered at 16-ounces in a portion for one) and you've spent over a quarter of a 1,000-dollar bill on your main course alone.

Of course, at this price you get startlingly fine beef. And to be fair you can find more palatable pricing in other sections of the menu, under appetizers and salads. But the balance of the entrees lies above that new defining $40 line. Doubtless other Washington restaurants will follow suit.

What is interesting about the menu, given that it is predominantly focused upon meat and that the chef behind it is French, is that it only offers the external cuts.

There is no mention of the more acceptable offal choices -- liver or kidney or sweetbreads, for instance. These are all items you would find on a French bistro or brasserie menu, their closest equivalent to a steakhouse.

What, one wonders, happens here to those parts? Given that BLT Steak prides itself on using only the finest meats, the various unmentionables of the carcass will be of particularly good quality, and highly desirable to those who respect these parts of animals.

It's a crying shame Americans for the most part don't.

Take a cow. It eats roughly 80 pounds of food a day in up to eight meals. It drinks 30 to 40 gallons of water daily. Wouldn't you think we would not want to waste an atom of a creature that consumes so much of our resources?

Fergus Henderson doesn't. He is the English owner chef of St. John's, a restaurant based in central London's Smithfield meat market. He calls his food "nose-to-tail eating."

Those who want to plunge into it will discover it isn't frightening. Venison Offal and Chicory gives you a perfectly cooked kidney and two slices of liver. Warm Pig's Head with Butterbeans is no different from a tepid terrine of meat. Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad is one of the most delectable "crostini" or takes on "bruschetta" you will ever eat. And there's plenty on the menu, like Braised Lamb and Watercress, for those whose eyes guide how their stomachs respond to suggestions of those cuts so nastily named "organ meats" or "offal."

None of it comes anywhere near that $40 main-course price. The most expensive dishes are Grey Partridge at $50, followed by Pot Roast Veal Breast, Shallots and Anchovy at $37.

Of course with the dollar low against the pound at the present, at almost $2 to the pound, eating anything in London is expensive. But if you apply the standards of Purchasing Power Parity (a means of allowing for exchange rate drifts and differences in local market prices) this is good food at low cost.

We are increasingly alarmed about the sustainability of our current environment. We should include in our concern for melting glaciers, greenhouse gases, pollution and diminishing fuel supplies the detrimental effect upon nature of wasting any valuable part of our food supply. Learn to love offal. Different organ meats are high in iron, potassium and other minerals.

-- Devilled Lambs Kidneys

-- 12 lamb kidneys, sliced � inch thick

-- 6 canned tomatoes, chopped small

-- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced

-- �-� cayenne pepper

-- juice � large lemon

-- 3 tablespoons whipping cream

-- handful flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

-- 3 tablespoons butter

-- olive oil

-- sea salt (preferably Maldon) to taste

-- Thinly coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil, heat and gently saute the garlic, cayenne pepper and the tomatoes with their juices together over low heat until you produce a thick sauce, then set aside.

-- In a fresh pan, melt the butter, then raise the heat till it sizzles, add the kidneys and fry until browned both sides, about 3-4 minutes each.

-- Remove to a warmed plate, pour the cream into the pan and over low heat scrape up the gunk on the bottom then pour in the tomato sauce and incorporate well.

-- Return the kidneys and their juices to the pan, squeeze over the lemon juice and pour into a warmed serving dish.

-- Serve with a sprinkling of Maldon salt over the kidney slices and a scattering of parsley, over a sliced of grilled country bread or with pureed potatoes.

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