Beez is right, unless you have a commercial oven or a dedicated salamander, it's not going to get hot enough. If you cook over charcoal on a grill, don't go with Kingsford. Look for all natural lump hardwood charcoal. It gets several hundred degrees hotter than briquettes. And, consider grilling right ON the charcoal. I'm not kidding. By putting the meat directly on the coals you don't get any flare ups. The fat can't get the oxygen it needs to burn. All you have to do is get a good hot natural lump charcoal fire going, then using a hair dryer, blow the layer of ash off the top (this will also help liven the fire) and flop your steak down. When that side is done after about a minute, flip it over. Once you do that, you can clean off any charcoal that is sticking to the first side. Once it's done on both sides, wrap it in heavy foil and leave it rest for 10-15 minutes.

I think there's an art to cooking steak at home. It really requires a very hot grill, and although I found some good instructions on the Web a while ago, and the steak came out good, it just never tastes as good as when a good steakhouse does it. (At home, I don't have an outside grill--I have just a tabletop grill designed for inside use, and it can't reach the optimum temp.) I like a good filet mignon, myself. At a good steakhouse, I have never seen "well done" listed as a cooking preference on the menu. Basically there are 3 levels of "medium"--the photos at one place look like they are either bloody, light pink or a slightly darker pink. I always got grossed out by pink--I wanted something "gray" looking. But when I started to go "pink," I was amazed and quite pleased. In the D.C. area, there is actually one steak place whose owner/chef refuses to cook certain cuts anything more than "medium"! I haven't been there yet, but I gotta think he knows what he's talking about! And you really ought to have sent the steak back. The chefs need to know how to respect both the meat and the customer. Them really blowing your steak--it's not like they can put it back on the grill--and having to put it in the financial loss column is the only way they will learn.

We have quite a few good local Mexican food trucks that feed you well for just a few dollars. At one time you could only see them near work zones during the day. Now they have regular places they set up for late night munching. It's almost 11:00 pm n here right now. If I wanted I could drive to at least 3 different sites in under ten minutes and get street tacos, burritos, a deep fried chicken quesadilla (weekends only) or Mexican hot dogs. If you are lucky you sometimes see people selling fresh homemade tamales for next to nothing out of their vehicles in spots like Walmart parking lots. Not as often these days. Probably because they are being cracked down on. A couple of towns away a bar has a chicken/steak BBQ on Sunday afternoons for 10.00. It's pretty much a biker day. My "community" is pretty expansive. I spend a lot of time in several of the cities within a 40/50 mile radius of where I actually live. So my community is not always what some would consider local.

I also tend to like just salt and pepper, as good beef usually doesn't need "help", in my opinion. Elery does like the Montreal Steak Seasoning, so we use that sometimes. I like my beef extremely rare, and I grow my own so I'm comfortable eating it that way. I've been know to eat it raw, even. (shrug) I figure Steak Tartare and Carpaccio are both raw beef, so it's all good. I never grill. I like grilled food, but not enough to ever grill it, I just dislike the entire process. Instead I get a cast iron pan screaming hot, toss the steak in there, turn it when I get a nice sear, get a sear on the second side, take it out. I'm done. My favorite steak is sirloin. It's not as tender but has so much flavor and I figure that's why I have teeth! Annie