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Q: How would you like your steak?
Was at a steakhouse yesterday, famous amongst locals for their excellent steaks.
Menu looked really good, lots of different choices with some pathetic English making it impossible to really figure out what is what. Anyway, due to lack of any information as to size, I pick a steak that at least looks big on the picture. The waitress starts to take our orders and I am informed that the steak would take 30 mins to prepare. Having lived in China for some years I naturally ask "Why?", she doesn't have any other answer than "it is because of the way it is cooked". Despite being intrigued by this I chose to pick another steak that can be given to me faster. Then the question comes. "How would you like it cooked?" I answer "Medium"....... .... the waitress asks, "but how would you like it cooked?" and I say, I want it rare (in this conversation I also quickly bring my wife up to speed in the normal western steakhouse lingo as she is not a big fan of steaks she is a bit in the dark on this) The waitress then tells us that I have to specify a percentage. I, in the spirit of problem solving offer the solution that they could cook my steak until it is 65C in the core.
I had a fried rice instead. There was no way of getting a steak in that place.
hahaha, i like the ending of that story. They do it based on percentage. I think its rare - 50% medium rare- 60% medium 75% medium well 85% and well done 100%.
But just in the end, you will get a shitty piece of meat no matter how you like it cooked.
"I would like a 65.27% chance of being alive tomorrow please. Can the chef manage that?".
Had the same problems. I normally like my steaks medium rare, you know cooked on the outside with just a little red in the middle. When I was asked this question I figured about 65/70% so that is what I asked for. When served it was so raw it could probably still have walked off the plate. When I asked for it to be sent back and cooked some more they never asked at all how I wanted it but it did come back ok, for a Chinese steak that is. Now I never ask for anything less than 100% and even then the texture is sometimes strangely mushy. I would like to know how they differentiate between say 60% and 70% for example, I am tempted to one day ask for 89.5 and see what reaction I get.
It's all fake beef. Naturally aged means the critter died of old age and will be tough as shoe leather. I drew a picture of a cow showing where the tenderloin/fillet mignon cut was and always asked for it. Over seas you can tell a cut of meat by looking at it. In China it's just a chunk and I really don't think the Chinese know which chunk cause I only got shoe leather. My Nikes had more flavour and they're plastic, but very tender.
The steak places I've been to base it on some random number scale. The menu provided actually has some correlation between the numbers and rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well-done. To the best of my memory, the correlating numbers were 3,4,5,6,7 (3 being rare, 7 being well done). The Chinese was san fen shou, si fen shou, wu fen shou...etc (can't remember the characters). Of course, they couldn't prepare the steak I wanted the WAY I wanted it. Sorry, this steak can only be cooked well-done. WTF?
Were you at United Easy System or Houcaller Beefsteak? Houcaller is probably one of the best steakhouses in China, and you can get REAL steak there. It's a bit expensive, but totally worth it. UES is trash in every way. Expensive and small portions.
I once asked for it well done, and they sent me a bloody-as-hell steak. I pretty much refuse to eat rare meat. Then I asked her to cook it again. She does that, and brings back a still-raw steak. I just ended up sending it back 4 times until it was super well done. They were pissed. Never went back.
Houcaller's steaks are great. I recommend them.
Hulk:
Check out Houcaller... seriously. I can't recommend it enough.
Scandinavian:
No matter how much you recommend it, it is not present in hicksville aka Zhuhai
Recommendation noted for when I go to the big town
Hulk:
Ｇｕａｎｇｚｈｏｕ， Ｃｈａｎｇｓｈａ ａｎｄ Ｓｈｅｎｚｈｅｎ ｈａｖｅ ｏｎｅ． Ｉ ｄｏ ｎｏｔ ｇｏ ａｎｙｗｈｅｒｅ ｗｉｔｈｏｕｔ ｅａｔｉｎｇ ａｔ Ｈｏｕｃａｌｌｅｒ ａｔ ｌｅａｓｔ ｏｎｃｅ， ｉｆ ｉｔ＇ｓ ａｖａｉｌａｂｌｅ．
diverdude1:
I've been to Houcaller. Pretty damn good. Saving my money for Morton's in TST though !! I probably saved enough, but there darn dress code. I can't do that. 
I like my steak rare. Just knock it's horns off and stick it on a plate.
Scandinavian:
I would usually also go far meat that is still something a skilled veterinarian can save, but in the country of poor kitchen hygiene I go far the added safety of "medium"
Scandinavian:
Thank you. I strive to put at least 10% Good Points in amongst all the crap I write here :)
