F.A.R.E. (Friends Are Really Expensive)

When an old friend calls up to say she is coming into town for a visit it could mean a few pleasant hours by the fire contemplating the poetry of Keats or E.E. Cummings and sharing a hearty bowl of chili beans. Nope. It means girls get out your push-up bras and slap on a coat of paint; you're going out on the town! Wine, food and fun at a Winston-Salem restaurant called NOMA. The place is very modern but with a cozy feel. We settled down with the menus. Initially the menu undewhelmed, on the other hand, I have four fingers and a thumb. For starters the baked mac and cheese was pretty plain. The fried calamari was the most tender morsels of squishy deliciousness I have ever tasted. The main dishes were salmon with chili and sage sauce (pictured), portabella sandwich, kobe meatloaf and ostrich burger.

Then we had to go eat Mexican the next morning because we got so barracho. I know we just started this blog about being frugal but when friends call we drop our pour guise and turn into millionaires. We'll throw good money at food and wine in the name of friendship. In fact, when we raise our glasses to hear them clink together we say this: "Here's to the corkscrew - a useful key to unlock the storehouse of wit, the treasury of laughter, the front door of fellowship, and the gate of pleasant folly."