Ok, so I don’t remember the place but a little steak house in the middle of nowhere. I was 20-21 years old (I’m pushing 50 now). It was a filet mignon, first one I had ever had. I’ve had some amazing steaks since but I’ll tell you why it was the best.

Growing up my mom always cooked steaks WELL done, steak was always chewy but that’s how she made it. When we would go out to a restaurant my dad ALWAYS ordered them well done so that’s what we ordered as kids. My dad would say that’s the best way to eat them. My sis and I would always put ketchup on the steak to help chew it, as I got older I would occasionally do steak sauce.

Now as a young adult with a good friend of mine who took me to this restaurant with his other wealthy friends he suggested I get the filet and I was ordering and he quickly chimed in to say he’d like it medium rare then he glared at me to not say anything. After the waiter left he said that everyone at the table and the chef would be offended if I ordered it well done. I was confused but didn’t want to offend anyone.

I was hesitant as I cut into the red almost pink juicy meat, was I going to get food poisoning, would it taste terrible??? I took that first bite and the meat melted in my mouth and actually had SOO much flavor without any sauce or seasoning!! I was shocked. It was the most delicious thing ever.

I’ve never eaten a well done steak again. Years later I asked my mom why she cooked them well, she said my dad made her do it like that otherwise he was afraid he would get worms or food poisoning or something so most foods were over cooked. Which sucks because my mom was a good cook.

Then later I remembered my dad had always said “Red Meat is bad for you, that’s what the doctors say”. I finally asked him about that statement, his idiotic idea was that “red” meat it was unhealthy so if you cooked it til it was brown it was healthy. I wish I was making that up but seriously he thought it was the color and not that it was beef! Looking back at a lot of things, he wasn’t a smart man.