two dinners

so on Thursday and Friday we had two dinners with Chaine friends- both very good - one was actually so excellent we are already planning to return and the other is a kind of regular place in the hood for us...

the amazing find- was down on 18th street - kind of a tragically hip neighborhood but we went anyway because we were catching up with Jenny (a foodie friend) - Here is the rundown on the absolutely perfect meal...

the amuse - an edamame spread on rice crackers

the full menu-

what we ate- shown in order of the menu-

for the mains we chose three and shared those highlighted in yellow-

one side was added on the recommendation of our superb server Santiago-

the desserts (how did we miss a photo of the menu?) - there were four choices and we picked three to show our virtue LOL

a cheesecake that was completely smooth and luscious

a chocolate tarte with a caramel sauce

and a banana budino with mixed grains

the meal was note perfect!

then the following night we met up with Kevin and Shari at Bien Me Sabe and had a panoply of things not many of which were photographed because we spent all the time catching up with each other since we hadn't been together since my Oriole birthday dinner in February-

but here's what we had for wines- a champagne from Shari and Kevin and a Rhone white from them as well and a South African red Malabar from Spice Route winery was our measly contribution :-(

two of the three desserts we ordered and shared - the meringue one was a real winner!

We also had an arepa each and shared a salad and had the shrimp tostones and the cachapa as starters- we did not go hungry LOL

so those were two great meals with great dining companions and we never did get the full run down on where the Masseys are in N.O. La recently (even foodies have other things to talk about LOL)

tonight we have a concert and tomorrow night a wine event- the social calendar is in full swing.... so more to follow.

a big win!

so tonight we went to try out a new BYOB in the hood- and it was fab! the place is called Bien Me Sabe and it is Venezuelan - with wonderful service and an extensive menu and terrific food... here it is in photos-

We brought a Chassagne Montrachet to try (checking it out for buying) and Mike brought a very nice Rhone (shown below) - and missing from the photos were the shrimp tostones which two of the group ordered and were wonderful and the empanada sampler which we split up four ways - so we each got a taste of the beef,chicken, and cheese empanadas- all good and opinion split on which was best- LOL

winner all around- and we will definitely be back here for sure!