Gear Patrol which is a manly website for manly men who like manly male stuff, is running a series of articles this month called “Be A Better Man In 30 Days”. Yesterday’s article was a piece called “Know How To Properly Order A Steak”, which is actually a pretty useful bit of information to have if you are a carnivore.
The article starts off with a quick lesson in the different cuts of beef, which isn’t really all that helpful in ordering a steak anywhere except in an honest-to-goodness steakhouse. Most typical restaurants really only give you a couple of cuts to choose from — some type of sirloin (most commonly New York Strip), ribeye, and filet mignon. A steakhouse will obviously have more variety, but knowing about the primal cuts of beef won’t help much there, either. At an average restaurant, I almost always order a ribeye steak because they’re usually more marbled than sirloin. On the few occasions I have been to a proper steakhouse, it’s a Porterhouse or nothing.
I agree with the writer that you should always order steak medium-rare in a restaurant, and I also always cook steak to medium-rare when I make it at home. You never know who is going to cook your steak in a restaurant, so don’t give them a chance to ruin your meal by overcooking the meat trying to get it medium. Medium doneness (officially defined as pink all the way through) is the most difficult level to get just right and you will invariably get a steak that is pink in the middle and gray on both ends. Medium-rare is much easier to get right because it gives the grillman leeway with the middle of the steak. Blue and rare are just not safe to order in restaurants, and anything beyond medium is equivalent to setting your money on fire.
I’m also with him on the baked potato as the right starch to go with. French fries are for children, not men. Mashed potato is not a manly side dish either, and potatoes au gratin is too good to be squandered as a side to a first-rate steak. My preference for a green veg with steak is broiled or grilled asparagus that has been marinated in lemon with garlic. I know a lot of people don’t like asparagus because of the odor it lends to one’s urine, but personally I think there’s something kinda manly about stinky pee.
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1st, I think that baked potatoes should be eaten on their own. if I’m going for the big bucks, and calories, it’s all dauphinoise all the time.
2nd, I loves me some asparagus, pee be damned, but at a steak house it is all about the CREAMED SPINACH. Yes, please, I’ll have some iron with an iron on the side…thanks! Liver appetizer? Sure!
3rd, Rib eye is my go to simply because there is no way in HELL i could ever eat a porterhouse solo. Good god they are huge. And really, why waste your time on the lean filet when you got that nice marbled side over there…
I love grilled asparagus, stinky pee be damned! But I also love creamed spinach, so I’m easy to please there. I also agree with the author about keeping the sides simple and few. Definitely focus on the steak.
I’d also go for the ribeye if I was the only one dining, but I wouldn’t be above sharing a thick porterhouse. Got a couple of 2-inch thick Porterhouses for some family feast occasion two or three years ago and grilled them – medium rare, of course – over a good hot charcoal fire. Every time I go by the butcher shop I want to do it again!
Bridget and I split a Porterhouse at the Morton’s Steak House in New York a few years ago, and I managed to eat most of it myself (Bridget is not a big eater of beef but will eat a little steak now and again.). It’s not an easy feat, and there was meat left over, but it was SO worth it.
I don’t care for creamed vegetables in general, so I’ll stick to the asparagus. A basic baked potato, not one loaded with stuff, isn’t too much for me as a side, but I do agree that potatoes dauphinoise are quite nice.
gnawwww, Real Men©® eat people. afterall, people are people too.
seriously, I guess I’ve never swallowed a big enough dose of asparagus to obtain the pee effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asparagus#Urine
Really? Almost any amount of asparagus has “The Effect” on me.
afterall, people are people too.
Well, you are what you eat, after all.