After the seafood heavy week 13 at Fleurs, and one of the best meals we’d had- ever- it was time for a shift of focus. In my world that means meat.

Once seafood is done, real meat must come…

Nutrition- 8
Taste- 7
Service- 7
Ambience- 5
Extra mile- 7
Budget – Medium

*Scores are out of 10

Wildfire: Overall rating – 34/50 on a medium budget

Mike

As I’m sure you can imagine, I’ve been to my share of ‘meat specialist’ restaurants. These vary in all shapes and sizes, cuts and tastes; however, the ones that seem to be popping up everywhere of late is The Brazilian BBQ, or Churrasco. And yes, I’ve been to a few.

Whilst we were still in New Zealand it made sense to do last week’s restaurant while we had the chance, and with Meat Mike Campbell coming to stay I think NN’s parents thought the easiest way to ensure a successful dinner out would be to book at Wildfire, a Churrascaria on Auckland’s waterfront.

It worked. I’m quite a simple creature, so sitting me down at a place that serves copious amounts of meat is a sure fire way to get in my good books.

Now, just because a restaurant serves meat, and lots of it, doesn’t mean it’s going to be good. Taste or quality. However, this was. Wildfire didn’t disappoint.

For the uninitiated a Churrasco works like this:

• Your order the churrasco
• Waiters start walking up to your table with delicious looking hunks of meat and ask if you would like any
• You would, so you get some.
• This continues with a range of meats, cuts and flavours
• You usually have a simple ‘stop/go’ indicator to let the wait staff know if you’re intending on making them broke or not
• Once you’ve figured out which cuts you like and that the seafood is never really a good option, you can request certain cuts to come back

The various meats were mostly fantastic. I’ve always found that the seafood options at these joints are no good. This was no different. I had to try the muscles, purely because they were New Zealand green lipped muscles- a good thing- but alas, I was disappointed.

No bother, the rest of the meat was superb, in particular two of the pork dishes, which I couldn’t help getting back to the table.

It’s often at this stage- once I’ve rabbited on about meat- that people ask- so then, why is meat so good? Usually followed up with- are you strictly paleo, or something?

Two answers there- no, I’m not strict ‘paleo’. In fact I’m not strict anything, apart from looking after myself as best I can, where I can. Paleo eating as a guideline is great, and if the majority of the Western World followed it we’d be a much healthier society. However, it has it pitfalls; anything with rigid barriers and labels is just that- inflexible. And flexibility with anything is necessary for success.

Second- meat is so good for so many reasons. Where do I start??? Oh yeah- the taste! Unless you’ve had your taste buds burnt off in an unfortunate rush to eat something fresh out of the oven, the taste of meat is obvious. It’s just so good. Am I right? (You have to say yes by the way).

Eating meat and breathing go hand in hand for me, and anyone that tells you it’s not right for humans to eat meat, for whatever reason, is flat out wrong. There- a nice rigid label just to contradict myself.

Don’t get me wrong, individuality is crucial; some people won’t need much meat, some will need more. However, if our ancestors hadn’t started eating meat one day and then continued to throughout history to this very day, we wouldn’t be here. Simple.

Out very existence and everything we take for granted, can be put down to our conversion to and successful adoption of eating meat and animal products.

There, I’ve said it. Meat is best.

The reasons are too many to list, but in short- the amount of beneficial nutrients we get from animal products, fat included, is endless. Don’t for one second believe that eating red meat will kill you. Or that it’s evil.

Anything is evil if it’s intended to be. If animal slaughter is humane and for the sake of providing life then it’s remarkable and exactly that- life giving.

Just ensure that whatever meat you eat is from quality animals and has plenty of friendly vegetables accompanying it down your hatch on their way to your stomach.

It needed be more complicated than that.

I’m going to cut myself off there or I’m in danger of going down a rabbit hole… however, if anyone has a question about meat, in regards to anything- health, cooking, farming- then please comment below, or send me an email.

There’s too much bullshit spread in this world every day and demonising meat is fucking ludicrous.

Wildfire, however, was awesome. I could tell by my own tastebuds, and also because the two giant blokes who were eating when we arrived, were still chomping when we left. Something like this:

Nards

When you go to a place like this you have to make sure that you have one of two things in check – 1) you have your discipline hat on or 2) you are wearing expandable pants. The reason being, as seen in the previous photo, the potential to overeat is huge, especially when the only thing standing between yourself and more meat is a tiny little ‘stop/go’ sign.

Therefore going to an all you can eat Meatfest restaurant such as a Churrasco can be a risky manoeuvre.

One of the biggest issues in society today is that people have the tendency to over eat. People eat until they are stuffed as opposed to eating til satisfied, and unfortunately this means that people are no longer ‘in touch’ with the finer workings of their body. If we actually got rid of distractions and paid attention to what our bodies were telling us, we would all be in a much better position.

Imagine going to bed when we were actually tired, or taking a day off training because we were too fatigued, or actually only eating nourishing food that our body requires instead of filling it with unnecessary crap? Crazy huh?

Pretty sure our mental, physical and spiritual selves would see vast improvements.

For many, knowing when to stop eating can be hard, especially if you are at a table of ‘big eaters’, or there are other people who are yet to finish their meals. In a situation like the Churrasco, or other ‘all you can eat’ restaurants try implementing the following strategies;

• eat slowly,
• put your knife and fork down in between bites,
• order sides of greens/salad and ensure that you eat that first,
• avoid the bread and rice,
• get rid of the ‘I have to get my money’s worth’ mentality, and finally,
• get the waiter to do two rounds of the restaurant before coming back to your table

There is nothing pleasant about walking out of a restaurant so full that your belly hurts, or having the ‘meat sweats’ (note: the meat sweats are not particularly pleasant, and are always accompanied with crazy Meat dreams), so do yourself a favour and next time you are presented with an opportunity to do a Churrasco or an ‘all you can eat’ affair apply these strategies.

For the record, on the night we went, I was wearing a skirt with a flexible waist band; however I stuck my strategies and walked out of the restaurant feeling very satisfied and also slightly pious.

NN and MC