Before anyone asks, yes I’m writing a blog post about steak. I believe this whole problem (if you can even call it a problem) started during my trip to Egypt, while there I paid two visits to this nice little place called Charwoods in Mohandessin both times I gorged myself on possibly the finest steak I’ve ever had……it was cooked rare and truly it was a fantastic meal. One of those meals where you need to take a break half way through to loosen a belt buckle perhaps.
Anyway when I got back to Ireland the steak eating continued although not at the pace it’s currently at, it was a civilised and measured enjoyment of meat nothing overly gluttonous or unseemly. After a few weeks at home I end up here in Aachen and little did I know that this steak thing would spiral out of control in the most fantastic of manners 
(it always does with me).
The first place I sampled is a restaurant called Estado, wandered down there one evening with a few people from work. Fillet steak, perfect of course it was cooked rare again or Englisch style as they call it in Germany. For some reason I’ve be labelled a deviant for having my steak rare but who cares it’s so much more fantastic that way. Along with the steak there was some side salad and a baked potato with some manner of garlic mayo spread on top of it but that stuff is merely incidental to the steak. Dressing wise for the steak you can get pepper sauce which is quite nice or a little chunk of butter and herbs, I’m not sure if I’ve ever tasted the butter and herbs because it’s usually melted by the time I get to it anyway so the pepper sauce might be the better option next time.
Along with the Estado place there’s two others Paella (Spanish place near my gaf) and Ragazzi which is near Ericsson so it’s out of the question for weekend eating. Paella do a decent steak, I’m pretty sure it’s a sirloin cut and you have the option of two different sauces along with chips/baked potato and salad. I’m usually too full by the time the salad portion comes around but I make a stab at it anyway. Some times the sauce is a bit off too but it’s edible regardless.
Ragazzi was a bit of an accident food wise and has lead to part of this weeks insanity. Ragazzi has turned into an after work pint place for Friday evenings. The first Friday things went a bit pear shaped (same weekend the lads came over so I wasn’t party to the madness before anyone says anything) probably due to over consumption of beer and lack of food so it was decided that from then on food should be consumed. Oddly enough steak was to be found there too so earlier on this week a lunch time steak was had…..unfortunately it took about 45 minutes for them to get it ready and they also changed the pepper sauce. They also managed to anger the muslim of the group who ended up walking out and going somewhere else (hey I’d have the food rage too if I waited 45 minutes for pizza without swine and when it arrived it had swine on it). Fortunately this lead to some delicious helpings of win, as the rest of us were leaving we only got charged €6 each…..steak is normally about €14. Protip if you ever want a cheap lunch bring a muslim with you and try and get the staff to annoy him/her.
So at this stage you’re probably thinking “man he eats a lot of steak” and damit you’d be right. Friday ended up taking the biscuit slightly however. I wandered down to the canteen for lunch which is a rare thing and christ I could smell the steak before I even got there, I could smell it from Simons office and it was calling to me. The steak wasn’t fantastic but still steak for lunch at work is a rare treat, when I queued up for mine the cook asked me if I’d like it done medium to which I said “no, rare please” this managed to set him off into a fit of laughter as he picked up a raw chunk of steak and held it out toward me……for a moment I contemplated what would happen if I did try eat it raw. I still had work to do and not knowing if I’d spend the rest of the day on the jacx if I did eat the raw steak I passed on the thought.
Later on after work myself and two other goons took a trip up to Ragazzi for a pint……and a steak, yes kids there you go two steaks in one day and fuck it I’d do it again. It was after I’d finished my meal I began to think that maybe, just maybe this steak thing was getting out of control, actually I began to think this after I’d broached the idea of ordering another steak (more deviant behaviour from me according to Simon).
After writing all that I’m wondering how far is too far when it comes to steak……how about waking up in a field with a large meat cleaver in one hand covered in blood (some of it your own and the rest of a bovine variety) and strangely not feeling very hungry despite not remember having eaten in the last few hours? Or is it? I think when it comes to steak there’s always going to be new highs (or lows depending on how you look at it) to be reached. So for next week I’m going to try a different place……which one I don’t know but I’m sure I’ll find somewhere.
And now for the other news part (I’ll make this brief). Date with the German girl went ok, probably not going to happen again though on the bright side I learned something new about Aachen and I also found a new drinking place that plays metal. Work is same as usual although I may end up causing some trouble and heartache for people next week (screw it, it’s not I may it’s I will and it’ll happen tomorrow). My next trip is going to be to Maastricht I think….might go the first weekend in July after the NIN concert in Dusseldorf. Oh and I might be changing jobs within Ericsson at some point in the near future. I also need to do something about a trip to Sweden.
Now I’m going to go and dry my clothes and watch some tv and perhaps think inappropriate thoughts that will somehow involve a steak or many steaks. You’re all probably better off not knowing what I’ll be thinking about so I’ll stop here.
