Medium Rare

We are now in Amarillo, Tx.  After two days of crossing the Great Plains, I’m beginning to grow a bit nostalgic for those Pennsylvania mountains.  Variety has its virtues.

But tomorrow we’ll be in New Mexico, where there are plenty of mountains.  Though alas, the entire drive there will be boring.

The Joadmobile continues to serve brilliantly.  It’s even getting close to 30 mpg, which is pretty good for an overloaded vehicle traveling at freeway speeds.

I have only one real beef, which is with beef.  Traveling across the nation, we’ve been eating out more or less by necessity.  Since the Flyover States are where they grow beef cattle, most towns have a McDonald’s, a Wendy’s, a Subway, and a steak house named after Big Slim, or Cowboy Matt, or some other local character.  So that’s where we eat.

I’ve had the same steak in four or five states now.  It’s quite beautiful, very tender, and perfectly cooked.  And it doesn’t taste like much of anything at all.

I remember when beef, y’know, tasted like beef.

When I was in the hospital back in 2005, my sense of taste was the last thing to recover.  For a while, the only thing I could actually taste was red chile sauce.  (I ate a lot of huevos rancheros.)  And for months, I couldn’t seem to taste beef worth a damn.  I finally concluded that the anesthetic, or the painkillers, or something had just wiped out my beef-tasting taste buds.  Occasionally I would have a really lovely slice of beef, and it would taste like . . . nothing.

But then I was surprised by a wonderful, flavorful steak.  And I thought my sense of taste had finally recovered, until I had another steak that was tasteless.

And now it’s no longer a surprise.  Somewhere around 2005 something happened to America’s steaks, and for the most part they’re bland and taste only like a shadow of their former selves.  Is it chemicals?  Feed lots?  What?  And every so often I luck onto a good one, and I remember what all steaks used to taste like.

So here I am in Beefland, and everything I eat is bland and tasteless.  And the sad thing is, so many people think this is what the steak is supposed to taste like.