Eating like there's no tomorrow ...

The title of this blog is not what I did at this restaurant - but the possibility that I could. The name of the restaurant - Fogo De Chao. Their specialty - grilled meats. This is a chain of Brazilian style steakhouses, serving various kinds and cuts of meat. For the vegetarians reading this - stop here, lest the rest of this writeup gross you out.

For the others - this is an experience not to be missed. The experience begins as you enter the restaurant and are greeted by a extensive salad bar. The salad bar in itself could suffice for a restaurant. This is well stocked with the regular greens, dressings, mixed salads - but also has a sampling of Mediterreanean style tabouleh, feta, mozarella & fine cheddar cheeses, fine cold cuts of meat. It's easy to go crazy here. Some of the others with me had been to one of these restaurants earlier - so warned me against filling up at the salad bar.

At the table warm rolls of melted cheese centered bread awaited us. Again - very easy to fill up on these too!

Now for the main course - Each diner is given a coaster with 2 colors - red & green. When you are ready to eat - turn the coaster to the green side up. As if by magic, waiters bearing seasoned grilled meat of various kinds on trays and skewers appear at your side. Each one explains the kind of meat they are serving. Gauchos are the traditional Brazilian skewered meats, racks of lamb, grilled lamb chops, beef ribs, filet mignon, chicken drumsticks, seasoned sausage, grilled chicken slices. Each table also has unlimited sides of polenta(type of fried potato), fried bananas and mashed potatoes. The fried bananas are used to cleanse the palate between different styles of meat.

Once you think you have been served for the time being - turn the coaster to red and the food stops bombarding you. Once you think you are ready for the next round, switch to green ... A prompt waiter replaces your plate and the onslaught begins.

At the end of it - beef ribs, the lamb chops and the sausage were rated the winners. However, this was not the end of the meal. Desserts - flan, molten chocolate cake and papaya dessert followed. The papaya dessert is supposed to be a digestive (how something mixed with ice cream can aid digestion is beyond me). My vote for the best dessert went to the flan. It was awesome.

So - to all my carnivorous friends ... if you are getting on the Atkins diet or just craving some good grilled meat ... Fogo De Chao is the place to go!