Steaks Alive
Trip Start
Oct 14, 2005
1
59
71
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
Mendoza,
Argentina
Monday, April 17, 2006
My companion for the bus ride was an American, Mike, who had already been to Argentina, and insisted that on my first night in Argentina we went out for the best steak in town. Argentinean steak is arguably the best in the world and I was really looking forward to trying it, so I agreed.
The hostel recommended Don Marios, a parillada (Meat House) on the outskirts of town, having nothing but a dry bit of bread and a thin slice of cheese to eat on our 8 hour trans Andean bus trip we were starving so we set off to Don Marios at around 7:30 getting there in a taxi at 10 to 8. This being Argentina, where any time before midnight is early Don Marios was shut, but the people who worked there recognised starving Gringos standing in the cold, and kindly let us in and plied us with bread while they set up.
Ok so the steak, I´m not sure how best to describe it, it was called bife de chorizo, not to be confused with the spicy Argentina sausage also called chorizo, and it was 500g of meat, half a kilogram of cow, it was huge. We both looked at this mountain of sizzling beef on our plates and thought there is no way I am going to finish this, but we did, because it was divine, it was heavenly, it was like a brown steaming lump of nirvana. Apart from one thin sliver of fat along one side it was a breeze block of the finest steak you could imagine. Tender and juicy, melting in your mouth with just a hint of seasoning, this was no gimmicky, no nonsense pure cow cooked to perfection, I feel sorry for all vegetarians and Hindus and people who will never go to Argentina to experience this bona fide foodgasm, it was unbelievable. I finished it in about 5 minutes, that's 100g of meat every minute, my accompanying side salad got about as much attention as a naked woman in a gay bar. To top off the meal, like a post orgasmic cigarette, we had a typical Argentinean dessert, Don Pedro, which is ice cream, cream, nuts, swimming in whiskey, mmmm, all of this was accompanied by a bottle of the regions second cheapest red wine, which was also mighty fine but tonight belonged to the cow.
After a terrible time sleeping in Chile, mainly induced by jet lag, I went to bed with a swollen stomach and slept for 12 hours, which I really needed.
I spent my first full day in Argentina wandering the streets of Mendoza observing the many plaza and open grass filled spaces that the South American town planners seem to like so much, and are mainly inhabited by kissing couples and stray dogs, finishing off at the enormous San Martin Park, a pleasurable stroll, but after 6 hours of walking with no food all day the effects of the steak were slowly wearing off, as hunger set in so I headed back into town to enjoy a more reasonably sized meal. The accompaniment for my meal was various buskers, who would play and then ask for money, the music was nice, but the hassle while you are eating was not appreciated. I also witnessed a very typical selling technique in Argentina, someone will walk past and leave something on your table, and all the other occupied tables, give you time to look at the goods, and then come back and collect the goods off the table or your money. Being slightly naive I mistook for a promotional thing and thought it was just freebie stuff, it was only a pen with some sewing needles (an unusual combination I know), when I saw the kid coming back round the tables I realised it was a sales tactic, so I put it back where it was on the table, fortunately I hadn't opened the packaging otherwise I would have been stuck with a, probably, crappy pen and some sewing needles.
I was still really struggling with the language though, and was relying on other people to help me out a lot, my last day in Mendoza I met an English guy who had been in South America for a year, and so was fluent in Spanish. This was very useful, because instead of going on the hostel organised tour of the wineries, $30 (that's pesos, but they use they same symbol as US dollars which is confusing) we got the collectivo (local bus) and went round a winery and a place that made alcoholic liqueurs and chocolates, which were both free, and had a few samples, so all we paid for was the collectivo rides, which was $3.65 (65p) so that's a 10th of the price. Not being able to speak very good Spanish though, and without the help of Antony, I would have had to pay $30 or miss out, this was part of my decision to head down to Buenos Aires and do some language courses. What I had learnt from a book helped, but it makes conversations very difficult, because I am not yet attuned to the Spanish way of talking, and it takes me so long to form a sentence in my head.
My over night bus to BA was again very comfortable, and entertained us with games of Bingo and films, and provided meals of airplane standard. I was musing how it certainly put National Express to shame as I drifted off next to gently snoring Argentinean
