Risa's Birthday

Because I am the fabulous sister that I am, my flight to Texas was scheduled to fly out on the morning of Marisa’s 18th birthday, a day awaited with Much anticipation by my sister. Much anticipation. To make it up to her, I took her out to celebrate the day before. We started things off with doctor appointments. I know, we sure do know how to party. Pedicures were next and oh so very nice. As I haven’t gotten a pedicure in a number of years, say 4 or 5 or 8, I was thrilled at having my feet scrubbed and it was a welcome change to have someone else pick at my toes. My toes are now a lovely coral color and my feet are so soft they keep sliding around in my shoes which is making walking somewhat difficult. I complained to Marisa that my toes were cramping up from trying to grip my shoes. She ignored me.

We went to Port of Call for lunch, the first time for both of us. The best burger in the city doesn’t taste how I thought a top quality burger would taste. I wasn’t disappointed, the burger was thick and juicy and delicious and pink. I have long dreamt of eating a pink burger. They don’t overwork the meat though, they form the patties then season the outsides; I’m accustomed to seasoning all the way through the burger, the way my daddy makes them.

Burgers at Port of Call don’t come with fries; they some with a baked potato. It’s quite hearty and substantial, as you would imagine. I think I downed my burger and potato in about 8-10 minutes. When I finished, I noticed that Marisa was almost done her potato and still had half a burger to work on. She couldn’t believe I finished everything and wasn’t stuffed. I also noticed that, at the next table over, police officers were eating the same lunch as Marisa and I and I began to wonder about my eating habits. If a burger and potato is enough to satisfy hungry NOPD officers and they take almost as long as Marisa to eat, what is wrong with me? It was sort of a disturbing revelation.

We headed down to Magazine Street for a while until dinnertime when we would head back to the Quarter for dessert at Red Fish Grill. We thought it best to wait on dessert after such a lunch, and we probably still wouldn’t be hungry by dinner anyway. We got to Red Fish before the dinner crowd and were so giddy about our dessert. We told our fantastic waiter Roy exactly what we came for and he wished Marisa a happy birthday. So sweet. When he brought out the double chocolate bread puddings we were practically beside ourselves. When he drizzled on the chocolate ganaches, we wanted to marry him. I’m sure the entire restaurant heard our moans and groans while we ate our decadent dessert. Shamefully, we couldn’t even finish them and had to have them packaged up to take with us. We were in ecstasy as we ate the intensely chocolate dessert and giddy as we walked down Canal St. You could not stop us from smiling. I’m sure we practically floated.

We declared it the best dinner we ever had and plan to repeat the experience when we come home for winter break. We also left Roy a lovely comment card where Marisa professed her undying love to him. We expect him to be there when we return.