Sharing and Caring: The Food Game

Fey and I tried something fun yesterday while in Louisville. We had a set amount of money to spend for lunch and supper (not a lot, btw), and we decided to play a game Fey thought up. Here are the rules:

1. We must stop at a restaurant we've never visited before.
   
2. It cannot be part of a chain.
   
3. It cannot be "planned" - we have to see it and stop.
   
4. We must order one item on the menu (water--no tea or soda).
   
5. We must split this item between us (difficult, considering I don't eat meat or cheese).
   
6. We cannot "settle" on an item--we must both want it.

This was surprisingly difficult, but we wound up having a great time. The winners of our scavenger hunt were:

• Red Pepper: A Chinese restaurant on Frankfurt Avenue, where we split Sizzling Rice Soup with Seafood for Two.
  
• Adrienne & Co. Bakery Cafe: This was across the river in Jeffersonville, IN. We split a ginormous blueberry scone.
  
• Bucks: The most expensive restaurant on the trip. We split Maryland Crab Cakes.

We had no luck at Brendan's Irish Pub, where we couldn't find anything but water to agree on (although we may return when we don't have to split anything). Finally, after all this driving, we decided to chuck the game and get a real supper. Happily, we still had enough in our spending budget to go to Shalimar, where I once again proved I'm the spice wimp of all time by ordering baby food. Actually, I got egg pulao ("as mild as humanly possible"), which might as well be baby food. It was delish and I had enough to take home for lunch today. Fey got the non-vegetarian sampler tray ("moderately spicy" because she's a show-off), which she loved.

And guess what? With all that, we still came in on budget.

We rock so very much.

Top Chef: Oh, Carla, Where Were Thou?

Like gillions of other people last night, my partner Fey and I watched the season finale of Top Chef: New York on Bravo. As much as I hate to admit it, I've become a huge fan of these contest shows, and am probably more vested in their outcomes than I should be. When Aaron "Big Daddy" McCargo, Jr. won The Next Food Network Star competition over Dallas' intensely more talented Lisa Garza, I stopped watching the network in a fit of pique for almost two weeks.

But I digress. Top Chef. Once Ariane had to pack her knives and go home, I thought I would no longer care about the competition. But the underdog performance of Washington, D.C. caterer Carla Hall caught my imagination.

Get this--a competitor who is nice. Who helps people. Who cares about people (other than herself). And who wins! Fey and I fell in love with her, and were hoping against hope that the egos of Hosea and Stephan would cancel each other out, allowing our favorite to quietly steal the prize.

But alas, that was not to be. Carla. Carla, Carla, Carla! What were you thinking? The challenge was easy: make the best three course meal of your life. Time and time again, you had it pounded into your head--Be Yourself. Do Your Thing.

Carla, you had the chance to easily take it all. But you let yourself be swayed by a sous chef (who, incidentally, did not win the previous season....) and away from your strengths. It broke my heart to watch, and while I'm still happy that Hosea won over Stephan (who wouldn't be?), I'm still depressed that you didn't pull through at the last minute and score a Victory for Goodness and Light.

Carla Hall Talks to the Washington Post