George took me to Herbsaint for dinner last night, to celebrate my birthday. Our friend Megan works there as the grill cook. Oh man, it was delicious. I highly recommend it.

Let’s see…we started out with cocktails, a Pimms Cup for me and a gin Martini for George. They brought us out some yummy warm bread and butter. Then we got a little tasty nibble snack thingy “compliments of the chef”, but we’re not sure if everyone gets that or if it was a treat from Megan. It was deliciously unusual – some kind of smoked (I think) fish atop a mound of minced apple and fennel, drizzled with tarragon oil. Who thinks of these things? Good chefs are geniuses, I swear.

After that, we had our salads. George had a Caesar salad, which I’m sure was delicious, but it had whole anchovies on top of it, so I’m just going to take his word for it. Mine was mixed greens with dried figs, walnuts, and blue cheese (bleu?) and a sherry vinagriette. I don’t even like figs, but mmm, the salad…delicious! Mmmwah!

Entrees…George had the free-range roasted chicken with bacon and wild mushroom hash and butternut squash. Seriously, bacon and wild mushroom hash? Gorgeous. I ask again, Who thinks of these things? I had the grilled flatiron steak with fries. Yes, fancy restaurant fries. Oh god. Megan told us they were fried four times. Holy cow. And probably in beef lard or something bad but oh-so-good. The steak was so yummy. Had some herbsy-green sauce stuff on top. And there was some fancy dipping sauce for the fries. No ketchup to be seen. Mmm.

Dessert (hello, this was my birthday dinner!) was Satsuma and Cardamon Creme Brulee. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. I love creme brulee. Could stick my face in it. But I’m polite, so I don’t.

Next birthday…hmmm…hard to top….but this is New Orleans, so I think we’ll manage…