30th birthday celebrations continue…
I celebrated my birthday again last night…turning 30 is more of a cultural ritual than I realized, it seems. In keeping with my love of good food and wine, a couple of old friends and I went to Ipanema in downtown Seattle.
Ipanema is like a temple of barbecued meat. I’m surprised the walls aren’t made from meat, frankly. At Ipanema, they do things in the style of a Brazilian barbecue, which I assume means that in Brazil the cultural norm involves men wandering the streets and public markets looking for people who want massive chunks of beef.
We walked in and were seated immediately at a decent table near the all-you-can-eat salad bar area. The “salad bar” included such things as hot mashed potatoes, a black bean and pork rib soup thing, rice, couscous with shrimp, asparagus spears, and loads of other cold dishes (including, inexplicably, slices of lunchmeat). We each took some stuff from the bar and then ordered a bottle of 2000 Crianza Rioja tempranillo. I forget the name; I will add it later when I get the chance. It was a perfect compliment to all the meat.
(Note: I edited this post to say that Campillo Crianza 2000 was the wine. Their Web site is way too Flash-y, so to speak, but it’s worth a visit I suppose.)
And wow, there was a lot of meat! Here’s a complete list of all the meat that arrives at your table in rapid-fire succession:
- Fish (swordfish, I think)
- Chicken
- Sausage
- (side dishes)
- Turkey wrapped with bacon
- Beef wrapped with bacon
- Tri-tip beef
- Top sirloin
- Filet Mignon
- Scampi
- Garlic steak
- Pepper steak
- Pork ribs
- Beef ribs
- Leg of lamb
- Pineapple coated in cinnamon
I ate at least one serving of all of those meats. Damn, that’s a lot of meat! You have to flip over a little card indicating whether you want more meat…it’s sort of like admitting defeat when you stop, so I think we kept going a bit too long as a result.