Not so Texan Steak

Note that I tried to contact Checkers Customer Care via phone and their website for this submission but it would not accept my submission nor was my call answered.

This relates to Checkers Centurion Lifestyle.

On Fridays I like to make a steak burger for my wife and I and prefer to do this with Beef Texan Steak. The standard in South Africa is to use cross cut leg. I went to Checkers and got a piece. When I got home and opened the meat from the sealed package and noticed that the meat was tenderised, with a meat mallet or one of those roller machines that some butchers use. This is not common pratice for making a Texan Steak particularly because there is usually a piece of bone from the leg in it. Still did not think much of it because I was hungry so I heated the pan anyway. The meat had rested for an hour at this point. I cut the meat in to 4 pieces and noticed it was a bit tough and thought my knife needed sharpening. I cut the onions, tomato and cheese with the same knife with ease though. I then proceeded to fry it in the grilling pan 1 minute per side as I have done literally more than 2000 times be it on a fired grill or grilling pan. After that I put together my wife's burger and then mine. She immediately said "no this isn't going to work". I asked what the problem was and she pointed out that she can not bite through the meat. To which I rep**** No not possible. I have done it like this many times and the exact same way as last friday and all the ones before that. To my greatest disappointment I found that my bugers were exactly the same. It was the toughest meat I had ever tried to eat. It was not the normal collagen you would find but rather sinew with some meat on. The sinew ran parallel with the cut so it was a sheet or sheath of sinew. No amount of marinade or tenderising would have softened it up. And it being the incorrect cut it would never produce the same result as so many times before. I am sure that there is a market for such a thing but it does not belong in any butchery being falsly labelled a Texan Steak. Texan Steak gets its name from it size and the cut used. Not from the spice and flavour. The spice and flavour is copied from a Texas Steak which can be any cut but is not to be confused with Texan Steak which is a South African thing. I was a blockman in my early 20s, I know my cuts. Please make sure to inform your butchers to correctly label your meat and I will make sure to check what it is that I select next time.