#5 Eat at a 3 star Michelin restaurant

I love food.  L O V E Love. 

So it makes sense that the first challenge I complete is Eating =), and specifically eating at a 3 star Michelin restaurant.

I had the good fortune to need to be in New Orleans for work, and since I'd never been before, I decided to come early and explore.  My friends Katrin and Dave joined me, and we packed so much stuff in to 2 days - 5 hour bike ride/tour to Lake Pontchartrain, 2 tours of the French Quarter, a tour of the Treme, a visit to Mardi Gras World, and of course, walking up and down Bourbon Street.  

Hanging out at City Park on way back from Lake Pontchartrain

Hanging out with the Easter Bunny at Pat O'Briens

High fiving Drew Brees at Mardi Gras World

But let's not forget about the food... Incredible breakfasts, fabulous oysters, heavenly beignets at Cafe du Monde (twice!), and of course, sensational dinners. 

Devouring an entire bag of beignets from Cafe du Monde

Incredible oysters from Drago's

Praline bacon at Elizabeth's cafe

Celebrating Dave's 30th birthday at Commander's Palace - INCREDIBLE meal

But then Dave and Katrin had to leave to go back to work.  I stayed for work, but had a nice day to myself.

So naturally I continued the food tour of Nawlins and went to Stella! in the French Quarter, and splurged on the chef's tasting menu.  

Full disclosure here: Stella! is not a 3 star Michelin restaurant, but that's only because Michelin does not rate restaurants in New Orleans.  This place should be 3 star, though. It was incredible.

The chef's tasting menu is technically seven courses, but it ended up being a total of 10, as they provided two "amuse bouche" (which are "little bites of food to amuse the mouth and invigorate the palate") and at the end of the seven courses, 5 mini pastries.  Needless to say, I was stuffed.  But everything was incredible.  Here's what I consumed:

Course #1: "A Composition of Heirloom Beets - Pickled Beet Carpaccio, Baby Beet Confit, Roasted Beets, Beet Sphere and Citrus and Beet Dressing"... the beet sphere (second from the right) had a little beet chip on top, and was essentially beet juice in a bubble... the baby beet confit (second from left) had beet foam on top, which was kinda like air bubbles infused with beet juice.  This dish is just one of many that made me think I was judging Iron Chef... four little mini dishes in one, with fabulous presentation...

Course #2: Grilled Boneless Pork with Apple Fennel Pure, Apple Slaw, Herbed Barbecue Sauce and Spicy Kumquat Marmalade: Wow.  Each component individually was fabulous, but all together was a fabulous burst of savory, sweet, crunchy, creamy yumminess.

Course #3: Lobster Wonton Ravioli with a Lobster Reduction and Truffle Cappuccino: WOW.  While this may not look like much (there is lobster foam on top that hides the ravioli underneath), this was my favorite bite of the weekend.  The lobster ravioli was stuffed with this incredible lobster mixture that was just perfect.  The Truffle Cappuccino sauce was incredible by itself, but again, the combination was heavenly... 

Course #4: Pan Seared Scallop with Seared Covey Rise Farm Red Spinach, Fennel, Pink Grapefruit Butter and Citrus Dust: The scallop was cooked perfectly.  While not my favorite dish of the night, eating this dish alone as my main entree would have made me perfectly happy.  The combination of the grapefruit, fennel and scallop was amazing...

Course #5: Surf and turf - Grilled Prime Beef Tenderloin a la "Cajun Au Poivre", Stuffed Fingerling Potato with Lobster and Robiola, Caviar Creme Fraiche, Glazed Beets and Parsnip Puree: This dish is tied for first place on the amazing scale.  The beef (on the top left, kinda hard to see in my bad picture) was AMAZING.  Combine it with the cajun sauce (the smear that runs from the tenderloin towards the potato, bottom right) plus the parsnip puree, WOW.  It continues to amaze me how individually each component is amazing, but together in one bite, STELLAR.  The potato was good, couldn't taste the lobster... but it did not diminish my love of this dish...

Course #6: Frozen Chevre Parfait with Almond Financier, Poached Pears, Madeira Reduction and Caramel Croquant.  The pastry chef is in the running for a James Beard award because of this dish.  And I can totally understand why.  I'm not even that big of a dessert person, but this dessert was sweet and savory.  The parfait had goat cheese, the madeira wine sauce, the poached pears... so incredible.  

Course #7: A cheese plate.  This is not the typical course 7, but the chef was gracious enough to accommodate my preferences of not being that big of a fan of dessert... thank you, Chef!!!

 And this was the final (TENTH!) dish... five different mini bites of dessert...

All in all... WOW.  Wow.  As I said to my friend Katrin via text message: "Omg. Omg. O. M. G."  Not only was the food fabulous, but the service was outstanding.  Every time I drank water, someone was there to refill the glass.  Every little detail was attended to.  And, one of my favorite things, the wine.  Which was excellent. 

So, even though this was not technically rated 3 star by Michelin... am I good?  Did I fulfill the requirement?  Because if you all vote no, I'm gonna have to eat another amazing meal in the near future... and that would be a huge hardship on me ;)