Sorry if not allowed, but just had a question for fellow Korean food lovers.
Does anyone else find steak as a food painfully boring/bland? Along with usual steakhouse ‘sides’ like asparagus, brussel sprouts, wedge salad sort of items?
I grew up eating traditional Korean food mixed with American food. Loved kimchi jigae but also burgers and macaroni growing up.
Now that I’m an adult, I struggle even eating steak. It feels like a swallow-athon of just eating the same boring salted steak piece for a never ending 6-8oz… no interesting flavors.
This is a problem bc I take out business clients to restaurants constantly as part of work, and every time we go to a steakhouse it feels like torture. It doesn’t help that the steak is usually some crazy wagyu expensive thing that I pick at and mostly throw away – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ordered a steak over $120 just to take a bite or two, put in a take out box and throw away when I get home. I don’t have dogs or college kids to give leftovers. Sometimes people notice and ask if my steak is done ok. It’s fine. Also, it’s usually all food at steakhouse type restaurants I find kind of just bland… chicken, Chilean sea bass, I don’t want any of it. 🙁
I am not rich and all of it goes on the corporate card but wish I could enjoy it more.
On a related note, I love kbbq and red meat, especially braised meats, stews or ribs. YUM. Wish all foods punched you in the face with flavor.
by wunderwaffIe
9 Comments
If you take it home, have you considered cutting it into smaller pieces and using it in soup or jeon or something else more interesting?
Are you eating it well done or something? Salt and pepper alone should deliver a delicious steak every time.
Maybe you aren’t going to the right steakhouses. A high quality seared ribeye steak with a loaded baked potato is glorious.
Also, enjoying a prime cut of meat is just that…it shouldn’t have to be coated in 50 layers of seasoning and spices and sugar to make it palatable. If you can’t appreciate the taste of a good cut of beef, well then just don’t order it? Idk I kinda find this post weird.
Yes. My ex was a steak and potatoes guy so we’d go to these kinds of places sometimes.
Now that we’re no longer together, I’m so happy to eat out elsewhere. I’m partial to Asian food but Ethiopian is great too.
Why not take the client to something actually fun and different. American Steakhouses are mostly boring but it’s probably also your selection of restaurant and dish. Change it up and order it with Au Poivre sauce. Or try out high end Japanese teppanyaki that sells A5 wagyu. (Not Benihana. )
Nope. Steak is great if it’s prepared correctly. And the sides are the best part imo. A loaded baked potato with a nice steak is a wonderful meal…
I’ve had a similar experience, at least a handful of times. I’ve always loved a good steak, but a few times my husband took me to one of the more upscale places and it was just – salted beef. No depth of flavor, just…salt. Everyone always talked the one place up about being so good, and everything was bland, even the sides.
We stick to Korean bbq places for special occasions now. We’re getting older and know what we like. lol
Totally agree! I, too, love meat till the end of time. HOWEVER, I need as much vegetable sides as the meat, sometimes more to keep eating meat for a reason I don’t really know. So, Kbbq is perfect in that sense. And at one point in my life, I realized I don’t really like beef that much compare to other options. I didn’t even love hanwoo. I enjoy it as a stew or soup version (like boeuf bourguignon, or galbi jjim/tang), but once a year for a steak is enough for me. So, I feel you. I’m sorry you have to deal with it.
I love steaks. I love the flavor of pure simple beef that’s seasoned with just salt and pepper. It speaks to a very primal side of me.
That being said, the sides at generic steak houses are boring as fuck. It’s like tasting the color gray.
I tend to float more towards Asian flavors since there’s so much dimensions to it but I will never say no to a good steak.
That being said, if you do go to a steak house again and get the steak to go afterwards, put it in a jjigae. I had a particularly bad steak one time, took it to go and added it to a kimchi jjigae.