Go meat!

Have you seen the Hillshire Farms commercial? With the guys who are grilling in their backyards and singing about meat?

If not, it's right here. I love it. Such passion!

Last Thursday night I nearly broke out in meat-inspired song. We had dinner at Fogo de Chao with our friends Craig and Andrea, and it was awesome.

For one thing, we were out with really good friends we never get to see. Craig and Nate are friends from high school. Andrea and I met while working in the dress department at Bloomingdale's. At that time, Andrea's friend Ann was dating Josh, who knew Craig (and therefore Nate). Ann and Josh introduced Andrea to Craig. They started dating. Craig and Andrea introduced me to Nate. We started dating. Ann and Josh broke up. I introduced Josh to my friend Joanna. They started dating.

Craig and Andrea got married. Josh and Joanna got married (and had a baby). Nate and I got married.

Tell me this was not meant to be!

(As for Ann...she's good. She got married, too. I wasn't trying to leave her happy ending out, but their relationship does not fit into my awesome friends setting each other up and marrying friends story.)

Anyway, we love Craig and Andrea. Though we are mad at them for moving to Philadelphia four years ago, and can't wait until they move back (the timing of which varies greatly depending on who you ask).

But, back to the meat.

Andrea first told me about Fogo de Chao a few years ago, after she and Craig went to the one in Philly. So when I heard they were coming into town, we decided to go. When we picked them up Thursday night, Craig made sure to go over the rules of eating at FdC:

1) There is an amazing salad bar. You are going to want to eat a lot of it. Don't.

2) There are amazing sides. They keeping refilling them. You're going to want to eat them. Don't.

In summary: save yourself for the meat. And for once, I actually heeded the advice of someone telling me to eat less food. While the salad bar was quite impressive, I took tiny portions of everything and didn't even fill up my plate. I ate one bite of each side (polenta, plantains, little biscuits and mashed potatoes). And then I flipped my little card from red to green, and the meat parade began.

One after another, the little gaucho men stopped by with their offerings. We had various preparations of lamb, sausage, pork, chicken and beef. It was all delicious, but the bacon-wrapped filet and garlic beef were our favorites. (Dear Fogo de Chao: please create a bacon-wrapped garlic filet. Okay? Thanks!) After a few rounds (there were a couple red card breaks in there...I thought my stomach was going to explode), we all gave up. Except Nate. He went another round — two more bacon-wrapped filets. The guy's got stamina!

We finished the night off with dessert coffees. We physically could not have stuffed another piece of food in our stomachs. And, unlike the meat, dessert isn't served on a stick by a man in funny pants. So, really...why bother?

In fact, I may start requiring Nate to serve dinner in a gaucho outfit.

He'd look good, don't you think?