I don’t really understand it myself and I’m a native Californian. For whatever reason nearly all restaurants do medium well as the standard and you have to specifically ask for rare, which comes with a warning from every waiter about how it can spread illness or whatever.Christ, there are no redeeming factors about California other than the weather, are there?
At least I know never to order a rare steak there if for some reason I have to visit. They'd probably fuck it up and actually make me sick. Tell me more about their rare steak stigma though. It sounds like it will be really dumb. Is it a point of public shame like everything else over there?
I even remember a Hell’s Kitchen episode where the challengers for in trouble because the steaks weren’t cooked well enough for the Californian customers. A reality show so fake jr course, but it was a moment where I could say “yeah, that’s accurate.”
that said, I have ordered countless rare and medium rare steaks and never gotten sick here. I’ve had my fair share of shitty steaks as I’m sure we all have, but otherwise I’ve been fine. I have gotten weird looks from people I’ve dined with though. The concept of blood in a steak is very taboo here
and yes, the cancer warning is literally everywhere. However, most people that I see mock it. “Everything causes cancer if you’re in California” is a common joke, even among the liberals


