Burn my meat!

 
I haven't been to a steakhouse for many years, except for Korean BBQ places since I live in China. 
 
I like my meat well done. I want to see a bit of black on the outside and have it throughly cooked on the inside. I do not want to see any red on my steak. I also prefer the flavor more, not to mention the smoky flavor.
 
I have read that there are cooks in steakhouses like Ruth Chris and places of that type that when someone orders a well done steak will break out an inferior cut of meat. In their thinking, I am ruining the meat (with statements like shoe leather), and by cooking it well done, I don't know what I am missing and I dont know any better. If I was ever in one of those joints, I would ask for it medium, and hope the guy cooks it long enough and I dont end up with too much red inside that I will have to take back.
 
To the cooks, steak is pretty easy to cook. Make fire, put on me. Flip it a few times (it's hamburger's older and better looking cousin) and then serve it. It takes no brains to make it. So STFU when I want it well cooked and burn it.

I have read that there are cooks in steakhouses like Ruth Chris and places of that type that when someone orders a well done steak will break out an inferior cut of meat.

 
So, in your thinking...
 
These top notch steak houses buy and store inferior cuts of meat just for that time when people want it well done?
 
I think not.

Like Marlene said, the high-end steak houses charge enough for the steak that you can have it any way you want it. The difference in their cost to serve you a crap steak is minimal and would be lost to the duplicate stocking costs. There is even a bigger risk as this practice would damage their reputation and have possible legal ramifications.
 
I know Ruth Chris offers a description of doneness for their steaks which includes well-done.  They don't cop an attitude no matter how you choose to have your steak prepared.

Years ago, there was a restaurant downtown Milwaukee called Grenadiers. The owner and chef was known to me beacause his daughter worked for me. He invited us all to dine in his restaurant one day, and my boss ordered a steak well done. I was skeptical, as the only tender steaks I had ever had were medium rare. Well, was I surprised!This was a wonderfully, tender fully cooked piece of meat!!
In addition, the 5 O'clock steakhouse in Milwaukee, my bil ordered his filet well done. Again, really excellent.
I doubt a good place uses inferior cuts because people want the meat well done.

My advice is to find the darkest table in the restaurant.  If the table has a candle on it, blow it out.  Order your steak, medium.  Enjoy.

JRPfeff

I know Ruth Chris offers a description of doneness for their steaks which includes well-done.  They don't cop an attitude no matter how you choose to have your steak prepared.

 
Or, they cop an attitude no matter how you choose to have your steak prepared, in my experience.

why eat steak then?

Do you live in China because of work?

I am more or less in China for work. I married a local woman here and I live in a nice city near Shanghai called Hangzhou.
I have been craving a good steak for awhile. Problem is that good cuts of steak are difficult to find and are expensive. I live in an apartment, so there is no real place to grill, and my pan fry methods doesn't do the meat justice.
 
There are "Western restaurants" and hotels, but they are ridiculously expensive for what one gets. There is one place that has a steak dinner for about $30. I also had one in a 4 star hotel, but their prices are outrageous, and the only reason I had one there was because I had vouchers. Probably $40-50 USD.
 
There is a third option, various domestic Chinese chain coffee places sell steak. I dont know how it is prepared, but it comes out on a skillet sizzling with onions and brown gravy on top. Not bad. Not good either. Korean BBQ is always a great idea, but it is more fun with a party of people instead of dining alone or takeaway. Korean food is the best Asian food anyway.
 
One steak place I liked in Memphis was "The Butcher Shop" on Front Street where one can cook their own steak. I just miss sitting outside on a fall night with my father, cooking a steak from a wood fire, and that incredible smoky flavor that got on your clothes, in the house and in our stomachs. Those days are gone forever. I am over here, and my father cannot eat steak anymore because of throat cancer.
 
I would not eat at Ponderosa, Bonanza or any of those places back home because for those prices, I can go to the supermarket and buy my own, alcohol and make a fire and do it as I want. Not that Ponderosa or Bonanza are that bad, for the price it really isn't. But steak is, again, so easy to make, made by me rather than some dude who doesn't wash his hands after he urinates.
 
I think people who pay Ruth Chriss prices are morons anyway. I think on this board, I read that when someone orders water, the waitress asks "Tap?", which implies selling water. That would annoy me. "Just get me some damn water!". Of course, I would not order water. Red wine please. And not that old ****e. Fresh wine! I think on second thought that having an "inferior meat" locker for us "well done" people, probably not.
 
Lastly, back in the early 1990's I was a route driver for Ryder Trucks, delivering newspapers in regional towns around Memphis. A black guy trained me on the route (I'm white). He would ask me things because I am white about weird things of a sexual nature, and then out of the blue asked me how I liked my steak done. He told me that the blacks like it well done also. Uh huh, OK.

And you told all of this... why?

mar52, my thoughts exactly.
you do have a way with words mar. almost like Michael Hoffman.

mar52


And you told all of this... why?

Sounds like he'a Homesick. It happens to Expats.
You can travel the world and eat great food but there's no substitute for a quality steak cooked while relaxing with a beverage in the backyard of Hometown USA!

I'll have that there yak ribeye, medium rare please.

Michael Who

SSSSHHHH.   I think he's back. we don't want him to find us.

What's great in China is to eat the lamb kabobs, grilled by Turkic people who are from Xinjiang in the Northwest. The best I had were in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, eating wonderful, thick meat on a stick, washing them down with 50 cent beers sitting on plastic chairs and tables.
 
I splurged and had a steak last night. Wanted it done, got it medium. Funny thing, it had grill marks on the meat, yet the meat was not hot. Made me wonder if they did not pre-grill the thing and then heated it up in the kitchen. But it was good none the less.

As a young man, I worked as a grillman at a couple of restaurants.
In order to cook steaks well done, the obvious challenge is how  to get thick steaks cooked through completely without charring/burning the outside.  One solution is to ask the chef to "butterfly" the steak, which means that the steak is cut through the center, leaving one edge connected.
The grillperson (ahem, PC!!) can grill the steak well done easier as the meat is thinner.

I guess, for me, the lesson is that of Jurassic Park, just because we can doesn't mean we should. But, I love it rare

Aren't there any McDonalds in China. All their burgers are well done.

mar52


And you told all of this... why?

 

Use a Jaccard http://www.amazon.com/Jaccard-200348-Supertendermatic-48-Blade-Tenderizer/dp/B001347JK6 this will leave the meat tender no matter how much you destroy it. I guess well done meat is an acquired taste.