celebrity enrichment

Our ward has several small enrichment groups and recently started a new food enrichment where each month we try a different type of cuisine at one of the many restaurants in the city. We have the cutest girl in our ward who is a freelance food critic, as well as an amazing chef, who is in charge of this fun little group. Last night was our first activity and she took us to Merkato 55, an African restaurant in the Meat Packing District.

I was talking to my friend, Laurel, as we were waiting outside of the restaurant for the rest of our group to arrive, and all of a sudden she starts hitting me in the arm and signaling with her eyes that someone is coming. At first I was confused and didn't know what she was doing but as I turned Nigel Barker (the hot judge from ANTM) walked past. I had my back to him but from what I did see - he was looking very good. Laurel, on the other hand, made eye-to-eye contact and couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the night.



We had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know some of the new ladies in the ward and I was loving the African cuisine. As I was chowing down on my baba ganoush (my new favorite), Liesel (the food critic) leaned over and asked me if I knew who Rachel Ray was. I replied with a simple ... "of course" and she then told me to look at the table at the end of ours ... and there she was, in all her glory. Trying not to be annoying I quietly passed the news down the table and everyone was so excited to be seeing their second celebrity of the night. Soon after we spotted her she got up to leave and walked right past our table as we all tried not to stare.



I don't know what it is, but for some reason I get so excited when I see a celebrity and I think all of the ladies shared my enthusiasm. We felt so cool to be dinning amongst celebrities and learned that Thursday night in the Meat Packing District - is the place to be. Hopefully next month our celebrity streak will continue.