but not in a bad way. in a full way.

lunch today was at lemongrass, a restaurant jane and i went to last may where everything (it seemed) that she ordered beat what i ordered. welcome to the high stakes world of competitive menu ordering. this time, however, i ordered well. i had a wonderful grilled salmon with vegetables and then the same dessert we had a year ago, the white and dark chocolate mousse. mmm. both phill on my left and rayza on my right couldn’t even refrain from giving it a try. and i don’t blame them. it was amazing. light airy, sweet, chocolatey, all situated in this crisp praline brittle bowl of loveliness.

rayza had already made dinner reservations for us at gabrielle restaurant for 8:30pm, so i had some time to chill by myself at the hotel (digesting). spent the time looking at digital cameras, and decided to finally get one, the new canon sd400. given that there won’t be time for it to arrive in chapel hill to bring to california, i decided to ship it to the hotel in sebastopol where i’ll be staying next week. we’ll see if that works.

eventually 7pm rolled around, and we headed (with phill and susan) to rayza’s incredible house uptown. an old victorian, immaculately decorated, art on the walls, the shiniest hardwood floors i’ve ever seen, a stainless steel refrigerator with a see-thru glass door, and an amazing backyard. we chatted about art and collecting as they fed us wine and cheese and strawberries. then we piled into the car for gabrielle, a familiar sight to me—like so much in new orleans. jane and i had walked by it on our way to jazz fest.

i had the bbq shrimp pie appetizer, which was lovely. sauce all rosemary flavored, a layer of sweet potatoes on the pie crust, topped with several shrimp. then a simple garden salad to break things up (gastrointestinally), and finally a breaded and fried rabbit loin on top of some andouille grits and greens. i think there were even some shrimp to garnish it all off. this is new orleans after all.