Steak is overrated
This can't be the only meal men love, can it?
Ask men in the UK or US their favourite meal and I have no doubt that the meal of choice would overwhelmingly be a barked: “Steak”
A slab of beef with varying price tags sizzled on a hot pan. Covered in salt, barely any craft, meat, potatoes and creamed spinach. You’re telling me that would be your death row dish?
This preferred dish says so much to me about the conditioning on men. Steak isn’t actually your favourite meal, the only real seasoning on that rump is generations of perceived ideas of what success is.
What I hate most about steak isn’t actually steak
I really like steak, it’s not my favourite meal because I have tastebuds beyond salt, but I don’t mind it at all. It’s a great dish.
What I hate about steak is that it’s a default response. Of course it’s steak, it has to be steak for a man, why wouldn’t it be steak?
Come on, we can do so much better than this, there are so many more food choices than this.
All steak says to me is that you’ve been told to value what’s expensive, what’s big, what’s rare and you still buy into the classic masculinity trap of bigger and stronger = better. It’s actually average. It’s a post-workout meal now. Maybe if you’re in a great restaurant it’s excellent, but you can usually do better for the price IMO.
It’s not actually man’s favourite meal. Your favourite meal is the one your mum always made you. Or it’s the Pad Thai you loved when you went travelling, or that mad Lamb dish you tried in that Indian restaurant with your mates that times. It’s not Steak, you’re saying steak on autopilot because you think you have to. Because you think that big slab of meat defines success.
Steak lulls you into the false belief that you can cook too, if you could cook - your favourite meal wouldn’t be steak. Anyone can cook a steak. Please don’t tell me that leaving it out to room temperature before you fry it is cooking.
Give me a burrito, give me a pizza, give me a pho, give me a bacon and cheese oatcake made by my Mum, give me any dish crafted with love. The only time I’ll accept steak as your favourite meal is if it’s cooked on a Braai.
The default love of steak is the default belief that bigger is better, that more is always the answer and that the price of something says more than the quality.
Down with Steak as man’s favourite meal.
Down with the conditioned beliefs of what good looks like for men.