It’s sunday and my first evening in Mendoza. Not much is happening around here, really and I am in the mood of spending money. Much money. Yes, sometimes it’s that simple and shallow.
I’m alone in the second best restaurant according to trip advisor. I ordered the filet mignon for 95 pesos and a glass of red wine for 60 pesos (bottle would have cost 185 pesos). But the wine indeed is excellent with wild flavours like a love affair.. The waitress just replaced my mickey mouse knife with a proper sharp one that would be a perfect murder weapon. The blade is almost four centimeters wide. If the steak is going to be as tender as I expect it to be, this knife is certainly overkill.
An accordion version of “An Englishman in New York” is playing in the background, giving this place, Ocho Ceaps (eight vines), a french flair. I’m an alien. I should be staying longer in Mendoza to indulge in the primitive lusts of life, like food and drugs and rock and roll. Drugs in the form of tasty red wine. Mmmmh. But it clearly would empty my pockets faster than a black hole sucking up light beyond the event horizon. Or maybe…
Valparaiso, if its any similar to what Ben and Damon, my absolute food porn heros wrote on their blog, I will be spending even more there. Don’t be afraid. It’s only a passing moment. Or maybe…
Travelling always has two sides. At least. One side will make you focus n the things that really matter in life. The other, darker side, however, will spoil you beyond recovery. At least I refrained from getting something that sounded like a Schweinebraten at the number one restaurant for almost 200 pesos.
In the meanwhile, my steak arrived. There may me many steaks out there, but this is mine. 375g of pure tenderloin beef. You can imagine it running across the green fields on a sunny day at the foot of the Andes a day ago (yeah, picture either a steak or a cow hopping through the grass, I don’t care). Now my primal lust for blood and raw meat has delivered it to my plate.
Like those other lower desired and human wants it makes you both feel right and wrong. More right to be honest. It’s okay to be a man. Always.
I take my murder instrument into my hand. It is almost like sex, but no foreplay here. Once you penetrated the outer resilient tissue, the knife slits through the red juicy flesh as it was butter against a glowing hot rod. You pick up your trophy slowly, let it again gently touch the juice that formed a slight puddle, before you move it to your mouth. Your eyes following it with deepest desire, your hand almost trembling with anticipation on this precious moment. The non-recurring moment where the meat loses its virginity by letting all of its flavours explode in your mouth and brain like fireworks of gold, silver and blue. The first taste.
Slightly salty, the herbs and the texture of the burnt envelope catch your attention. You wiggle your tongue like an evil snake around this soft slice trying to choke it to death. Fluids gather. You trap it along your taste buds and never let go of it again. But you have to before the merciless force of your mandibles will squash it further, squeezing and tearing with your sharp teeth to milk out all of its different flavours, absorbing and assimilating them into your own body. Every drop is yours. This is heaven. Or maybe…
With every extra bite you have to concentrate to not losing control and speeding up the feast. Don’t be a slave of your desires now! Man made himself king of the food chain. Nothing can stop him from making other creatures slaves or part of his pleasures, his nutrition habbits. That beef is pwned!
Every bite gets you deeper into this fevered and delirious state, one step closer to this abyss of madness in the small ocean of sanity. You don’t mind. At all. You want to smell, touch, taste, and feel every single fibre and make it your own. Hybris! Pure hybris! You fool! Wake up, you primitive animal. Escape the primal rage! Or maybe…
Focus! Peace of mind. Just keep breathing. Five… four… three… two… one. Open your eyes. And it’s gone. Phew. That was close. This time.
Take care, women of this world, it will be a pleasure to meat you.
