I Love Steak

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.

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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.