What’s at Steak

After Corps School in the Great Lakes, I was assigned to the Orlando Naval Training Center at the hospital; first on a medical/surgical and orthopedic ward, then the emergency department. While I was stationed there, I found two places that served great steaks. I can’t remember the name of the hole-in-the-wall restaurant, but it had great steaks, covered in mushrooms and onions. To me back then it meant the T-bone steak was cheap and flavorful, served with side orders of baked potato, vegetable, and a roll. My recollection was that the restaurant was long and thin. Six booths lined both sides of a narrow aisle with the cashier at the far end.

The other place in Orlando, Florida with memorable steaks was at my uncle Jake and Aunt Helen Stahl’s house. Jake was choosey about his steaks, going to a butcher and having the meat cut to an exact thickness, then he would grill them over a charcoal grill. He always cooked them to well done, I guess that was the way he liked them and supposed everyone else did too.

I was assigned to Iceland as my sea duty and I was often tagged as the designated driver. I’m a teetotaler, so when my fellow sailors wanted to go to the enlisted men’s club and bend their elbows, they would offer to buy a steak dinner for me if I drove. Who could turn down a good steak dinner? Although the club was close to the barracks and they could have easily walked, sometimes the weather was inclement and sometimes they were under the weather and couldn’t walk.

The reason they chose me as driver other than the obvious dangers of driving under the influence was the facts of the Icelandic cops and their judicial system. One requirement of the policeman was that he had 6 feet tall or above and had to know how to wield a Billy stick. More than that, if you were caught and suspected of having alcohol aboard, an immediate blood draw happened. The court showed no mercy, looking at your blood alcohol level and your salary. The higher your blood alcohol, the higher percentage of your wages was garnished by the court. The fines was more than most people were willing to pay.

At home the steaks I remember were cooked with onions in brown gravy. Most times the steaks were just cube steaks, which are basically chunks of cheap beef passed through a meat tenderizer and pressed together into a square slab of meat. I loved it because my mom served mashed potatoes gravy.