Why Is It The Norm To Serve Frites, Mushrooms And Tomatoes With A Steak?

[EcclesCake]

Why?

And add insult to injury some venues want you to lash a good few quid for an accompanying sauce.

Trip to the butcher is on the cards but shrooms and toms will be off the menu.

If/when serving a steak what do you serve on the side? Am I just weird?

[jourdain2]

After a lot of experience of frites in France, they are thinner than chips JD.

[Garaman]

To me, Jack, frites are those thin things which hardly seem to have seen a potato, whereas chips are a potato cut into a number of good-sized chunks. Frites are popular in countries that can't grow good potatoes because you can't tell they are rubbish.

[mightymouse]

Old habits, I suppose. I like a green peppercorn sauce or a red wine and onion sauce. A few frites, and coarsely chopped little gem lettuce with a french dressing with garlic.

Also I like rib-eye or fillet steak!

[corylus]

Tomato ketchup on steak, heaven forfend, sacrilege!

[ladybirder]

Worcester Sauce on steak. Yummy.

[Berniecuddles2]

i'll eat anything with steak but steak must be medium with a knob of garlic butter on it

[sunny-dave]

I had an excellent 'portuguese style steak' the other night - nice bit of thinnish rare sirloin topped with a garlic and red wine reduction and slices of serrano ham - served with pan roasted waxy potatoes - I shall have another tomorrow I think :)

[jourdain2]

We always broke our journeys to and from France with an overnight stay at Boulogne-Sur-Mer. The local Courtpaille restaurant served great steak/frites with blue cheese butter. Honestly, it's wonderful. I now make it with blue stilton, but they must have used St. Augur. Try it, I implore you. :)

[Jackdaw33]

You don't roast in a pan, you fry. Roasting is done in the oven.

[jourdain2]

^^ P.S. Mr J2 likes his steak 'bien cuit' (sigh) I prefer 'Presque a point', but not 'bleu'.

[Jackdaw33]

On the same subject, when in France, did you ever try steak tartare? I used to be fascinated watching people eat it but never had the courage to try it myself.

[tamborine]

Grilled m.rare rump, buttered baked potato, mush & spinach. Ground pepper & salt only to enhance taste. Nowt else needed for a perfect meal.

[-Talbot-]

I often'pan roast' JD.

[Captain2]

Jackdaw, yes I've had steak tartare a few times and I can tell you it is delightful - just melts in the mouth.

[jno]

no mushrooms or tomatoes for me, don't much like them, but frites or full size chips are okay - preferably not the big ones that are quarter of a potato, though.

Just taste, I suppose. A nice green salad would be just as good.

Sauces or garlic butter are a matter of taste too; I usually only ask for one if it's included in the steak price.

[RobNorth]

Not so very long ago there were only two types of steak at the butchers: stewing steak and frying steak. No, sorry three types including "best" frying steak....

[ethandron]

I've just asked my other half what would his idea of a perfect steak meal be, and guess what, it involved both mushrooms and grilled tomatoes. It also included peas and chunky chips, maybe onion rings.
Mine is a lovely juicy salad of finely chopped celery, cucumber and tomato, homemade coleslaw, and either home made chips or a jacket potato. And English mustard, none of your fancy sauces, can't bear sloppy stuff with a steak.

[zebo]

Thick chips, mushrooms, pepper sauce and a mixed salad, no grilled tomatoes, OH often finishes up with a pile of them from other people's plates. The steak has to be blue, just beyond mooing. We went out for a chateaubriand recently, a birthday present via wowcher, it was ambrosial.

[emmie]

i would prefer freshly made proper chips, not skinny little frites, served with a Dijon mustard on the side and perhaps corn on the cob with lots of fresh butter.

[237SJ]

I could eat pretty much anything with steak (although I tend to only eat it about twice a year) but I can`t see the appeal of Surf n Turf. Why would anyone want to eat shrimp or lobster with steak?