Nothing better than a good steak.

So, pork week flew by in a flurry of delicious piggy meat, and week two dawned on the 8th of January, also known internationally as My Birthday. I hadn't decided which meat was to be second on my list, and decided in the end to leave the choice to Laura.

The reason for that was that she was to prepare my birthday tea (I'm a giant child, you see, and so was having a fancy tea. For anyone who doesn't know what a fancy tea is, it's essentially a buffet, and is so called because it's the kind of tea that you get at weddings or parties or something - fancy places. Ergo, fancy tea. True story.) and so I decided that she should be allowed to choose, in line with whatever she wanted to make, although I did suggest either beef or chicken, as those would be the two that would be easiest to get on with if I could only eat two types of meat. In her infinite wisdom, she chose to do a joint of beef, which she managed to cook perfectly - so that there was almost as much blood left in the middle of the joint after it had been cooked, as there was when it was raw. Having only tasted pig products for the last week, the change in animal pace was wonderful, and the fact that it was a great piece of meat made it all the better. Thank God my friends don't need their meat cooking too well, or the whole moment would have been spoiled.

Anyway, as I've said before, the first month or so probably won't be that interesting for anyone reading this, as nothing's going to taste horrific (unless it's really badly cooked), I'm not going to have any problems or jolly japes in figuring out animals or sourcing the meat, and you will all know what I'm talking about. Still, stick with us, I'm sure things will improve.

Anyway, Friday night saw me heading into town to Hardman Street with a couple of friends, and a little restaurant there, recently opened, called Vida. Situated opposite the Flute, it used to be a Greek place, but has expanded somewhat, and was where we decided to have a light bite before meeting people later on. The restaurant was entirely empty, and so we received excellent service from the lady there, although she was friendly enough that you could quite easily believe she would have been the same with ten times as many customers (as us 3. Not ten times as many as the zero that were there before us.) The restaurant was beautifully, and tastefully, decorated, and the menu, though not exactly enormous, had enough on it to make an actual choice neccessary (if not much of a choice for me). In the end, I went for a beef lasagne. Now, the lasagne was slightly odd, in that the meat and pasta were kind of seperate from the sauce, which was all around and on top of the pasta, but not between the sheets. This made the meal rather dry, as I hadn't expected that and had eaten most of the sauce before I tackled the pasta. If I'd known, I would probably have enjoyed it more, but as it was, I was slightly disappointed. However, my companions very much enjoyed what they had had, and with all three of us eating for around £30, including drinks, Vida was well worth a visit. I'll probably be going back some time later in the year when I can have a bit more of a free run at the whole menu.

Anyway, Saturday led to another birthday night out, and another meal. We had planned on going to Baby Blue down by the docks, a we had been there once before and had amazing steak. However, that had been during Liverpool Food Week or somesuch, and we had got three courses for about 10 or 15 pounds, which was very reasonable. Unfortunately, this time round, I checked the menu online and found that a steak would have cost upwards of £20. Given that there were seven of us goingout, and not all of us could happily spunk away nearly 50 quid for a meal, I took an executive decision that we would go somewhere else. Where, however, was a more difficult question.

In the end, we decided to go to Maranto's on Lark Lane, just round the corner. I'd been there a couple of times before and the food had always been good, so it seemed like a plan. We had a good 45 minute wait, due to how busy the place was, which is generally a good sign, and tonight was no exception. Despite being very busy, the service was excellent. Staff were attentive, yet didn't rush us into decisions, and there were plenty on hand to help out with anything we needed. Now, we all had starters, but as I only had minestrone soup, due to the meaty restrictions, I'll skip over that and get straight to the crux of the evening - the main course. I ordered a fillet steak, bleu, naturally, and was incredibly surprised. Although I knew the food was pretty good, I hadn't expected it to be so good. The cut was a good inch and a half thick, with approximately 2mm browned all around. The rest was a beautiful, rich purpley-red, and was so flavoursome that it defied logic. I have to find out who their meat supplier is. Even better is the fact that it stayed hot enough to eat and properly enjoy for the whole meal, as, too often, I've found that you will get a bleu steak that doesn't quite hold its temperature long enough. Not this time.

Other than that, everyone else's food also looked excellent, although there was not a great deal I could have tried (Laura has taken to purposely ordering meats I can't yet eat.) Laura's brothers steak was underdone, although he got round that by just not looking at it, lest it freak him out. Also, nothing was too expensive. All in all, it cost us around £20 each, not including drinks but including service charge, added automatically for a group of our size, and everyone had a really good meal, so you can't ask for more than that. I'll definitely be going back more often, and can't really figure out why I haven't been there more frequently in the four and a bit years I've lived just around the corner.

So, cow week has been going well. I've eaten in nice places, and had excellent steak, which is, let's be honest, the greatest thing around. Hopefully the rest of the year will be as flavoursome.

And hopefully I'll remember to update this thing more often. Once a week isn't quite up to scratch for me, but I promise to try harder. I know you all hang on my every word. So, till next time...

Keep meaty.