Fogo de Chao

Melinda and I went on a "meat date" last night to Fogo de Chao. We called it that because that's the main attraction of this place. You pay $45 a head and flip over your 'cue card' to green, and waiters bearing various cuts and varieties of meat come by your table and slice off servings onto your plate.

It was awesome!

We started off at what appeared to be the world's largest salad bar, then sat down to await the meat purveyors. I sampled pork ribs (which were mouth-wateringly good), chicken wrapped in bacon (yum!), and savory beef and lamb. There were also little sausages, but they were over-seasoned for my taste.

Our waiter was very nice and explained how everything worked. He was prompt and checked in with us often but wasn't obtrusive. Three sides come with your meal, mashed potatoes, plantains, and fried polenta (which I simply couldn't get enough of!). We also ordered a half-bottle of wine to wash everything down. The selection we enjoyed was a Merlot from the vineyards of one of the Coppolas.

This place is certainly not cheap and had Melinda not had a gift certificate, we probably would never have been able to try it; however, I enjoyed every minute! I would go again if I had the cash just lying around. The service was excellent and the food was so tasty. We stuffed ourselves so we didn't order dessert; but the fried plantains were sweet enough to serve as an after-dinner treat.

Adventures in Disturbing Food: Part One

So, this weekend, I was at Wal-Mart. True, it's not the most high-end of the grocery arenas but I only wanted to go to one place for groceries and I needed some more "big girl" shirts because I have limited casual maternity wear. There aren't any maternity shops other than Wal-Mart plus they have a nice selection of larger shirts for cheap. Win, win!

So when I was checking out, I noticed that the people behind me had the largest log of meat that I have ever seen. What is a log of meat?? It's this:

But this log was like....15 lbs or more. It was freakin' huge!!! A huge log of meat. I disturbed me. You could literally hold it like a beauty queen holds her bouquet of winner's roses, as observed in the following picture:

Yeah......if I was adept at Photoshop or the like, I could photoshop the log in place of the flowers for the ultimate in visual display. Alas, I am not so you must use your *gasp* imagination!!!

And that is my disturbing story.

What we're eating

Last night we had mac n' cheese with organic beef mixed in. I browned the beef (see left) and Melinda made the noodles. It was delicious. I had seconds, in fact.





We also found that one of our onions decided to sprout. It's grown another two inches since I took this photo last week! I may just pot it and see how far it grows.