Saturday, May 28, 2011

Big city girl in the… big city.

Well, Neuquén isn’t really a big city by big city standards, but I’m peaking out from my small town world, and it leaves me wide-eyed and bewildered. Lots of people. Lots of hurrying people. Lots of cars. Lots of hurrying cars. Lots of movement. Lots of energy.

But it only takes a few hours for me to get back into the chaos of it all. Soon I’ve quickened my pace, activated my city eyes, and immersed myself in an accelerated version of dodge-the-vehicle and pedestrian game.

The city is also a great place to play hide and seek. If you want to escape it all, you just step outside and walk. Suddenly you’re invisible to just about everyone. Everyone except the political leafleters, the artesanos, and cat callers. But if you don’t mind them, you’re golden.

You can lose yourself in the streets of your thoughts. You can take the subway of your emotions and watch the stations whiz by. You can sit in park and people watch. You can figure things out. You can mess things up. You can stress yourself out. You can relax. You can accelerate. You can slow down. You can be alone as you want to be as life swirls around you.

I came to Neuquén to see my friend, Juanjo, a seriously Argentine personality. He does everything. He fixes anything. He knows everyone. He has unlimited energy. He’s always up for anything. Even a bike ride to the wineries.

Round trip it would have been close to 100km, which is a lot. So we loaded the bikes into the truck and gave ourselves a few kilometer headstart.

We escaped the dirty noisy busy city and went out to the countryside where the sky and horizon actually meet to shamelessly shake hands. Out here they don’t hide behind concrete buildings.

The day was a cloudy perfect. Not too hot. Not too cold. No wind. It felt good to be back on the bike. It had been **gasp** over a week since I had pedaled. Unacceptable.

The Fin del Mundo winery was my preferred destination. Having worked at a restaurant that served their wine, I had become a big fan of the Malbec Reserva. I was excited to go to the origin of this great wine.

After a tour by our super informative guide, we came to the best part. Yes, I bet you can guess what that was…!

We were given two wines to try, but since both Juanjo and I are big talkers and ask a lot of questions, we were treated to a few more. And a few more. “I don’t want to get you guys drunk,” said the employee. We just laughed.

On the ride back, Juanjo was having all sorts of bike issues and I was having an emotional crisis. On top of it all, we were both exhausted. And a little buzzed. At the end of the day as the sun was setting, we got a ride from a friendly pick up truck.

The next day was tranquilo. We threw some veggies on the grill, stuffed our faces and pleased our taste buds with smoky flavors.

Mix in a little bit of fernet.


A little bit of truco. And…being adults, there was no one who could tell us not to play with our food.


We were doubled over laughing until late into the night. Which wouldn’t have mattered much except the wakeup alarm was set for 4:15am.

Why? Juanjo has had many jobs. His newest one is truck driver. A meat truck driver. Which means abnormal hours, lots of driving, lifting really heavy boxes, and wearing blood-stained white clothes.

And on that next morning, I accompanied him because it promised a free ride back to Zapala. So after a hour or so of sleep, let’s go!

From before the sun came up to well past when the sun settled back into the horizon, we were in the truck. The guys worked very hard delivering huge hunks of meat to supermarkets in Senillosa, Plaza Huincul, Cutral Co, and lastbutnotleast Zapala!

It’s an experience like this one that gives a food fanatic like myself a chance to peak into the big food-corporation machine at work. It helps me start to piece together the origin of the food we eat and the path it takes to get from soil to spoon. It also helped me appreciate some of the hard work that it takes to get things that we often consider basic to the supermarket shelves. I’ve always taken for granted that I walk into the supermarket and find what I need. I’d never really sat down and thought of the human and engine-power involved. It’s a huge operation.

And it makes me want to keep things simple.

Go to the veggie store for veggies. Go to the meat store for meat. Go to the cheese store for cheese. And if you can, go directly to the source. Go to the farm for produce: animal, vegetable and textile. Go to the river for fish. Go to the soil for root veggies. Go to the tree or bush for fruit. Go to the animal for meat. If you dare to know where your food comes from. If you care about what you put into your body. I think it’s important that people realize what goes into their food production. It’s easy to avert eyes. It’s easy to plug ears. But if you’re not ready to take responsibility for what you consume, maybe you should reconsider your consumption habits.

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