Dayuan
Zhao
WRIT
1133-27 MWF 12-2
Eric
Leake
05/10/12
The Most Common
Luxury Food: Steak
The
habit of eating beef can be dated back to the early medieval Europe time, at
the time civilians usually eat pork and mutton and nobles usually eat beef.
Beef was cooked with pepper and spices at that time as a “blue blood” eating
material to reveal people’s social status, and it was normally served in
special occasions. In the 18th century, Britain became a famous beef-eating
country. The attitudes toward beef and the habit of eat steak are largely
varied in different countries, so there are various methods of eating beef
among the world.
Beef is rich in
protein and the amino acid composition is closer to human’s needs than pork’s.
It can improve human bodies’ resistance to disease, and it is especially
suitable for people’s growth and development; also, the postoperative aftercare
uses beef to add blood that has been lost. Moreover, beef benefits to human
especially in the winter. In 19th Century, steak had already become one of the
most popular foods in the U.S. However, in Asian countries, people’s reactions
to steak were completely different; for example, in Japan, beef is still an
indispensable dish today, but China is just getting to form the habit of eating
beef.
The curiosity
about the definition of steak in the official dictionary always switches me on; I
really want to know what the differences between steak and regular beef chunk
are. “Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z” is
a book I found in Penrose library. In this book, there are two definitions of
steak: First is the original meaning from France and England which is “A piece
or slice of meat or fish up to 2.5 cm thick usually cut across the muscle
fibers and sufficiently tender to be grilled or fried;” and the other is “A
general name for lean muscle from animals used for braising, stewing, grilling
or frying depending on the muscle concerned.” This second one is what we use
now.
While cooking, Steak’s
doneness
is very particular. Everybody has different choice. There are six level of
steak’s doneness. The rawest level of steak is “blue”, this kind of steak feels
soft and squishy, and you can taste the succulent and juicy of the meat; but in
my opinion, that is really bloody. The second rawest level is “rare;” rare
steak is soft to the touch, but it isn’t as juicy as the blue one – though,
that is still very bloody. Then it is the third rawest level; this type of
steak yields gently to the touch, and I use to order this kind of steak before.
The medium range steak is my favorite one. This sort of steak yields only
slightly to the touch, and it begins to firm up. Both Eastern and Western
eaters normally feel good about this one. The fifth is the second ripest level;
this kind of steak is firm to the touch, and you cannot see any blood in this
level. The ripest level is the well- done one; this level is hard to touch, and
I don’t like that feel actually.
I used to read a poem from our Penrose
library, and the title of this poem is just “Steak.” The whole poem is only 141
words; the primary coverage is praising the beauty of the steak and those messy
kits which are used for eat steak. My favorite sentence in this poem is the
first one which is “There's perfection in the sharp knife, handle thick and
satisfying to hold. It eases through the meat, parting it like the Red Sea.”
This sentence uses metaphor to describe the steak as the red sea. As for me, I
don’t like the well-done steak; I prefer to order the medium rare or rare one,
so I think the author uses a very good thing to describe the color of the rare
or medium rare steak.
There are some basic manners about eating
steak that everybody should respect. Such as using the right hand to hold
knife, and using the left hand to hold the fork; tableware’s locations cannot
be changed randomly. If you are a left-hander, you can change the position of
fork and knife, but you need to put them back when you finish. Setting the
knife and fork’s handle to right on the dish is also very important; the reason
why to do this action is on one want to cause troubles to servers.
All in all, steak used to be a luxury
food, but the condition has been improved largely through ages. Nowadays, most
people can cost twenty dollars to get a very nice steak dinner in lots of
restaurants. Steak has already become one of people’s favorite food styles in
the U.S. and almost all western countries. In China, an increasing number of
people choose to eat steak to experience Western culture in the weekends.
\
Work Cited
“steak.”
New Coin. Grahamstown: Vol. 45, Iss.
1pg. Study of English
in Africa Jun 2009 Arja Salafranca Jun
2009.
"steak."
Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z. London:
A&C Black, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 10 May 2012.
