I can have steak with various sides, and while I don’t mind having it with potatos, I tend to prefer having at least one other option, e.g. green salad, asparagus, theoretically lobster tail (I say that as I’ve never had it that way, lobster is not only expensive, but largely unavailable in Prague, where I now reside.) In restaurants, on the rare occasion when I can have beefsteak, my default side order is a helping of white rice.
I see nothing strange about this combination, but apparently a lot of people around here do. Circa 2009, a young Prague waitress even asked, “are you sure you would like that with rice?” To which I answered: “Yes. What would you have with your steak?” The answer I got was fully the one I expected: “I would have mine with potatos.”
For a long time, I attributed this to local close-mindedness. What’s so weird about this? It’s not like I ordered chocolate sauce on my steak. But after speaking with a lot of people, my choice makes sense to almost no one. So I would ask people from the English speaking world, where beefsteak is more common and done in different ways: would you find my choice of having my steak with rice weird? Have you ever had this combination or seen it on offer?
Only recently did I remember how I even got into the habit. In the Czech Republic, it is habitual to have main courses listed on the menu without the side, and then you pick the side order separately from a list lower down. What would simply have happened is that at some point, when I saw steak listed on the menu, I looked at the sides on offer and, not feeling like ordering fries or potato slices, selected the next thing that appealed to me. A thing I like about the rice is that you can use it to absorb the steak’s juice, which I wouldn’t do with potatos, instead of leaving it on the plate.
As a Chinese-American, growing up we had white rice with everything. Seriously, everything. Pizza. Eggs. Tacos. Steaks. Even if there was another starch on the table, like spaghetti, or mashed potatoes, there was still white rice.
My father insisted. Still does to this day. It’s basically the only Chinese thing my dad does. He was born in Philadelphia, so it’s not some old-world thing, it’s just how he was raised, and at 80+, he’s not changing now.
I know our family eats a great deal more white rice than typical Americans do. But I’m Japanese-American and my wife grew up partly in the Philippines, so it’s what we like and grew up with ourselves.
So potatoes are a side starch for a lot fewer of the stereotypical “meat and potato” meals than might be typical.
That includes steak, which classically is served with a baked whole potato. We do that sometimes but not always.
I see rice as the side dish more and more on modern American menus. Even for steak, although that’s not as common. My problem is the opposite of the OP’s. I would prefer potatoes as the side starch for most meats and that’s getting more difficult to find.
Exceptions. Paella is of course a rice dish with meat. Duck and wild rice is a traditional option. Hard lines are impossible to draw across the diversity of foods and restaurants.
My husband is Chinese and before I met him, I never had white rice with steak. At restaurants , I don’t always order some sort of potato as a side but I cannot think of a non-Asian restaurant where plain white rice is even on the menu - it’s always rice pilaf or some sort of seasoned rice or rice and peas/beans.
I prefer potatoes with my steak (either fries or baked potato, depending on my mood), but I don’t think there’s anything that strange about rice. There is a Brazilian restaurant near me that serves their steaks with rice. It almost certainly is a cultural thing – in Europe and North America potatoes are the default side, in the Caribbean / Latin America / Asia it’s rice.
Steak with rice is awesome! The trick is to let the juices from the steak run into the rice before eating.
For more flavor cook the rice with broth. Now I’m hungry.
I like steak. I like it with rice. I like it with salad. I like it with a lot of things. Not weird at all; what percentage of the world eats rice every day?
For me, rice is an acceptable accompaniment for almost any main. The difference with different mains is what kind of rice. For Asian or Indian foods served over rice, it’s almost invariably white rice. As a side served with steak, roast chicken, or other main courses, it will be either some form of fried rice or one of my faves, different variants of vegetable-broth rice. For certain seafoods like grilled shrimp or scallops, it will specifically be Basmati rice.
People get weird about rice. I’ve met more people than I would expect who tell me they don’t like rice. And the rice they’re talking about is nothing but rather bland long grain white rice at best, and often just totally flavorless Minute Rice. I can’t understand what they don’t like but I’ve heard objections to using rice as a side dish with steak and other beef dishes from simple to chili. I’ve heard people object to serving rice with seafood even though that seems to be a fairly common combination. Whether it’s pork chops or chicken I don’t see what difference it makes. If you don’t like rice, well fine, but I can’t understand how you think rice is fine eaten with some foods and not others.
I grew up in Southern New Mexico. Sure, the “steakhouses” normally served steak with a side of horribly overcooked greens and a potato as the main starch plus bread, but if you had steak at any of the Mexican restaurants in town, it’d be served with rice. Granted, not plain white rice, but rice nonetheless.
I’ve often made a nice pan seared top sirloin, seasoned with a home-made teriyaki or hoisin based sauced, sliced, and served over white rice.
Granted, if I was making a fat ribeye (assuming I could afford one these days!) my default assumption would be with a nice crusty bread and/or a baked potato (russet or sweet) for a starch, but I don’t see anything weird about wanting white rice. As long as it’s good rice, I might think you’re weird if you were having an expensive steak with something like Uncle Ben’s.
I kid, you can like what you like. My dad still prefers Uncle Ben’s because that’s what was readily available in stores for years if you weren’t going out to eat.
Are they talking about plain white rice? If so, I might know what they are talking about. I don’t like plain white rice with meat or seafood that doesn’t have some sort of sauce or gravy. So I’m just fine having plain white rice with lots of foods - but not fried shrimp or plain steamed chicken. Make it shrimp scampi or chicken with garlic sauce and and serve it over the rice and I’m fine. Make some other sort of rice other than plain white and I’ll eat it with anything.
Then I’m weird. And so are a number of good chefs I’ve heard say they use it. Obviously not referring to “Minute Rice” type stuff, but regular Uncle Ben’s converted rice. It’s very forgiving, makes a fine white rice, makes great rice with various broths and added ingredients, and makes great fried rice. What’s not to like?
Though as I said, for steaks, chicken, or other main dishes that aren’t served atop the rice, I’ll always do some type of rice with broth. For steaks and certain types of grilled fish like sea bass, I’ll generally do vegetable-broth rice with some suitable ingredient like dried porcini mushrooms.
