What animal would it be?

A month ago, my brother and his wife went out to dinner for his birthday, and I watched the baby.  Because they are so sweet and thoughtful, they said that I got to go out to dinner with one of them while the other watched baby Dallas.  I chose (they always make me make decisions and I hate it) John since it was for his birthday after all.  


Last night we finally had our dinner date.  We went to the same restaurant they went to, called Animal. (Side-note - they are supplied by Schaner Farm!) Our reservation wasn't until 10:15, so Lily was almost ready for bed by the time we left.  When we got there, J asked if we could actually just sit at the bar, but it was too full.  That is what they did last time, and said it was much more quiet and the bar tender was super nice.  So we were seated at our table, and it was really loud.  The restaurant was more like a tapas place, J explained, and that we could decide on a bunch of plates and share.  We chose five things, and I will tell them to you in order of least favorite to best:


5. Quail fry with grits, bacon, and honey jus.  Least favorite because it was so nothing special, and a little disappointing.  It was like a boring fried chicken. Fine, but the only thing we didn't eat all of.  


4. Local Burrata with homily, tomatillo salsa and red onions.  It was good, but not as good as everything else.  I really liked the crunch of hominy with the really soft cheese, and then the warm onions.


3. Bone Marrow with toast.  So so good, I've never met a marrow I didn't like.  It was cooked with garlic and had a little bit of parsley on top, mm mm.


2. Chicken liver pate.  I really loved this, it was warm and so smooth spread on top of the toast, which was crunchy but not too crunchy.  And the best part was that it had a strip of blackberry jam on top, which I would never think would taste good on pate, but it was right up my alley.


1.  Flat Iron, potatoes and artichoke, with fondue.  The cheese was melted aright over the meat, which was nice and pink, it was the best part of the meal.  But it was also the last thing to come so I was almost too full to even try it.  


Oh yeah, and then the part that was really the best, but is judged on a different level than the dinner, is dessert!  We had a bacon crunch bar with salt and pepper ice cream.  There is nothing bad about that, there can be nothing bad about that! 


Afterwards, Lily asked me what animal it would be? A Honey badger?  Yes, definitely a honey badger: ultimate badass of the animal kingdom.