Coming from an Indian family, steak was never really a big part of our diet, though my parents never had a problem with me getting a hamburger, pepperoni or any beef in particular. In any case, my dad grew up learning that all meat must be well cooked so he always ordered any steak he ate (which was very occasional) well done, so when I had my first steak, I also had it well done. Since then, even though I still only eat steak very occasionally, I've moved down to medium to medium well, but I can't bring myself to go any further down the cooking scale. I've tried medium rare and rare and the texture just feels very off to me. This would also be why I usually don't worry about trying prime cuts of beef since I know that any nuances of flavor will probably be lost on me.
Edited by appophylite - 12/26/11 at 9:16pm