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.
