A beefsteak, often called just steak, is a flat cut of beef with parallel faces, usually cut perpendicular to beef bottom round steak muscle fibers. In Australia, beef steak is referred to as just “steak” and can be purchased uncooked in supermarkets, butchers, and some smallgood shops. It is sold cooked as a meal in almost every pub, bistro, or restaurant specialising in modern Australian food, and is ranked based on the quality and the cut.
The combination is known as steak frites. This is also the case in Argentina. Steaks are often served with classic French sauces. In Indonesia, bistik jawa is a beefsteak dish that is influenced by Dutch cuisine. Another Indonesian beefsteak is selat solo with Dutch-influence, a specialty of Surakarta, Central Java. In Italy, steak was not widely eaten until after World War II because the relatively rugged countryside does not readily accommodate the space and resource demands of large herds of cattle. From the 1960s onward, economic gains allowed more Italians to afford a red-meat diet.
The dish is usually served in tortillas as a taco. It can be found across Latin America. In the Philippines, bistek Tagalog, a specialty of the Tagalog provinces, is typically made with strips of sirloin beef and onions slowly cooked in soy sauce and calamansi juice. Other vegetables such as peas or a green salad can also be served. Various types of mustard are sometimes offered as a condiment. In the United States, a restaurant that specializes in beef steaks is a steakhouse.
The more expensive steakhouses serve the highest grades of beef and often dry-age it for many weeks. The well-aged beef cooked on high-heat grills and broilers produces a steak difficult to emulate in a home kitchen. Steak is sometimes served with shrimp or lobster tail, giving “surf and turf” or “reef and beef”. Prepared condiments known as steak sauces are generally on the table in steakhouses. A vocabulary has evolved to describe the degree to which a steak is cooked. Used in dishes like steak tartare, carpaccio, gored gored, tiger meat and kitfo. The steak will be red on the inside and barely warmed.
