Ever since I was a wee whippersnapper, my Mum always cooked steak "well done" because that's how Dad liked it. I think Dad gets freaked out at the sight of blood.
Over the last few years I've worked my way down to "medium". I did this because a few people said that you get more taste from a medium cooked steak and it's not as tough to cut. I tried it once and thought "yeah, I think I'm going to have it like this from now on".
Working in restaurants when I was younger, I often wondered how people could eat steak rare. It didn't make sense to me. I thought that the taste of the rawness of it would overpower the flavour of the steak.
I didn't think I would ever order a rare steak in a restaurant so I added "Try Beek Steak Rare" to my list in the hope that someone I ate out with would let me have a mouthful!
That day came on 22nd July 2014 (last week) on a lovely summer's evening at The Battle Axes pub in Elstree. I was joined by three lovely friends (Daniel, Rachel and Adam). Rachel kept saying she was hungry so, after some gentle persuasion from the rest of us, she finally decided to get food. She came back from ordering and said she'd ordered steak. I just happened to ask "how do you have your steak cooked?", to which she replied "rare". RESULT! Obviously, I asked if she would mind if I had a little bit to try because it's on my 40 List. She probably still thinks I'm insane!
The video below (thanks Dan) is evidence that this event did actually occur!
Apologies for speaking with my mouth full of steak but I didn't want Dan to just film me chewing - I needed to get across, in that moment, how it felt to try steak rare. I have to say it's not as bad as I thought it would be but I still think I will stick to "medium". However, if a steak ever arrives on a table in front of me slightly under, I probably won't make a big deal about it.
