The “Food in New Orleans” Megapost
Mar. 24th, 2011 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThursday:
Breakfast at Lil’ Dizzy’s Café in our hotel. I had fried catfish and eggs, Jethrien had a crab omelet. We didn’t get biscuits because the waitress specifically said they weren’t up to snuff. Neither of us was particularly hungry for some time afterwards.
Lunch at Croissant D’Or, where everything is good, though the éclairs are a little too creamy (versus custardy) for my tastes. I had a raspberry croissant, Jethrien had pastry with almond cream.
Salted caramel and strawberry-basil ice cream bars from Meltdown, which is basically “What if The Bent Spoon made popsicles?”
Dinner at Ralph and Kacoo’s, where we tried fried alligator and then I had a giant platter of crawfish—bisque, etouffee, fried and balls (basically crawfish-cakes). Alligator tastes mostly like chicken, with a texture closer to calamari. It was fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Jethrien had a crabmeat-and-shrimp stuffed bell pepper, which was decent.
Friday:
Breakfast: Random fruit and croissants from the Sweet Car bakery in the Intercontinental Hotel, mostly for the convenience.
Lunch at Daisy Duke’s, a random dive diner near Canal Street. Their fried shrimp po’boy was loose fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato and onion, and that was just fine with me. Jethrien had the jambalaya, which was good, not great. OK biscuit.
Dinner at Cochon: Deviled crab as an appetizer, which was fabulous. Also traded for some of the fried alligator there, which was obviously higher-quality and tasty, but still not a significant difference from other easily-available meats. The pork cochon was amazing, incredibly flavorful but not fatty. Jethrien’s rabbit and dumplings was a completely different spice set but easily just as good, and might have been the first time I’ve had rabbit…which tastes and has a texture pretty much like chicken. Black-bottomed banana cream pie was good, but not as good as Jethrien’s.
Saturday:
Breakfast: Beignets and café au lait from Café Du Monde. The beignets were not life-changing, but they were a lovely example of fried dough in powdered sugar (basically, somewhere between funnel cake and donuts). The coffee was worth trying, but as the chicory they add to it makes it even more bitter, and the bitterness is what I tend to dislike about coffee, it didn’t change any of my opinions. Also, we waited on line for 45 minutes, and I’m told that the beignets place next to the police station is just as good for no wait. (We then got some fruit to pretend there’d be nutrition that day.)
Lunch at Bayona: The portion sizes for the three-course brunch were reasonable, which was probably how we survived the afternoon. I started with a salad with pickled lemon and fried capers, which worked really well. The Boston cream cake was actually one of the weakest things I ate during the trip—probably in comparison to what surrounded it—being too dry and again lacking custard. The duck-in-pastry savory dessert was fascinating, though. Jethrien had a lovely cream of garlic soup, riblet with a green chile sauce, and chevre mouse in a pistachio pastry shell that was very interesting. I’m ashamed to admit, I can’t remember what I had as an entrée, which says something about how memorable it was.
Food Tour: Gumbo from Antonio’s, the oldest restaurant in the city: Most excellent. Pralines and pecan brittle at the confectionary across the street, which also does a very nice take on a peanut butter cup and makes sweet potato pralines. Then shrimp remoulade at Arnaud’s (which you’d swear has horseradish in it, but no, that’s just the German-inspired cajun mustard). Turtle soup from the Bistro at Maison de Ville (really just a fantastic sherried beef-and-vegetable soup; you wouldn’t know there was turtle there if they didn’t tell you). Hot, toasted muffalettas and comparable-to-Italy gelato at La Divina Gelateria on Pirate's Alley. Incredibly-tender brisket with cocktail sauce at Tujacque’s. Then finally a Mardi Gras dip and red beans and rice, which we ate while watching a roux-making demonstration. This was also while learning history and getting cooking tips. A++ Would Tour Again.
Dinner: Po’Boys from Mother’s. Jethrien had their signature turkey-and-roast beef sandwich (half of a 2/3 one, actually); I had the fried chicken po’boy, which came with pickles, cabbage and aioli. Tasty, but not life-changing. Glad we went at 8pm and waited ten minutes to get in, rather than waiting an hour at lunchtime.
Dessert: Cocktails at The Bombay Club. Shnayder, who was with us at the time, had an excellent chocolate cake with a nice creamy fudginess to it. I opted for dessert in a glass, which was raspberry vodka, raspberry liquor, white chocolate liquor and crème de cacao. Jethrien had elderflower liquor in sparkling wine with mint. We sat in their little patio area and listened to the band, but were still able to talk because the patio doors blocked some of the sound.
Sunday:
Brunch at the Columns Hotel: Thankfully, the portion sizes here were also reasonable. Shrimp bisque/smoked turkey gumbo, salad, and something between a biscuit and a roll (eventually described as a “roll in the biscuit tradition”) to start. I had fish, Jethrien had a crab cake, both of which were less noteworthy than what came before and after. Ended with pecan pie and bread pudding. This mostly inspired me to try to mimic the fluffy buttermilk rolls.
Dinner at Commander’s Palace: The first course included oysters in absinthe, which was a shared appetizer, then I had a very well-done fruit, nut and bleu cheese salad while Jethrien had the pork belly braised in root beer with preserved peaches that changed her life. I had a potato-crusted fish for my main course, which was a really nice piece of fish with a perfectly-done fried potato crusting, but the Creole-style sauce wasn’t exactly what I expected and threw me off a little. Jethrien had pecan crusted sheepshead (a fish, not an actual sheepshead) that was excellent but not revolutionary. We finished that off with a chocolate bread pudding with a truffle baked into it, and a bread pudding soufflé. This was overall an excellent meal, but I was a bit overloaded by that point and would have been happy with a slice of pizza.
Random drink-related notes: New Orleans bars seem to stock a lot of varieties of hard cider. Given that I don’t like beer but I do like cider, this is nice. We had a little group gathering of the bandies with a bottle of scotch, which lead to the revelation that I could learn to appreciate scotch if introduced to ones without a strong peat flavor. The rum distillery served us a sweet-tea-and-spiced-rum cocktail, which worked very nicely. Jethrien notes that Hurricanes and Dirty Bananas are delicious, Hand Grenades less so.
Jethrien notes that getting reservations for the high-end, really nice places (Cochon, Bayona, Columns Hotel, Commander’s Palace) is key. Of the group, I think Cochon was my favorite, though I was admitted tired by the time we reached Commander’s Palace and I suspect Jethrien would say it was better.
The really famous places (Mother’s, Café du Monde, Central Grocery) aren’t particularly worth the long wait for their signature dishes, because you can find as good or better versions of them elsewhere without the 45 minute wait. That said, if the line is short, I can vouch for the first two.
And if you are a foodie, the Culinary tour was totally key.
Breakfast at Lil’ Dizzy’s Café in our hotel. I had fried catfish and eggs, Jethrien had a crab omelet. We didn’t get biscuits because the waitress specifically said they weren’t up to snuff. Neither of us was particularly hungry for some time afterwards.
Lunch at Croissant D’Or, where everything is good, though the éclairs are a little too creamy (versus custardy) for my tastes. I had a raspberry croissant, Jethrien had pastry with almond cream.
Salted caramel and strawberry-basil ice cream bars from Meltdown, which is basically “What if The Bent Spoon made popsicles?”
Dinner at Ralph and Kacoo’s, where we tried fried alligator and then I had a giant platter of crawfish—bisque, etouffee, fried and balls (basically crawfish-cakes). Alligator tastes mostly like chicken, with a texture closer to calamari. It was fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. Jethrien had a crabmeat-and-shrimp stuffed bell pepper, which was decent.
Friday:
Breakfast: Random fruit and croissants from the Sweet Car bakery in the Intercontinental Hotel, mostly for the convenience.
Lunch at Daisy Duke’s, a random dive diner near Canal Street. Their fried shrimp po’boy was loose fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato and onion, and that was just fine with me. Jethrien had the jambalaya, which was good, not great. OK biscuit.
Dinner at Cochon: Deviled crab as an appetizer, which was fabulous. Also traded for some of the fried alligator there, which was obviously higher-quality and tasty, but still not a significant difference from other easily-available meats. The pork cochon was amazing, incredibly flavorful but not fatty. Jethrien’s rabbit and dumplings was a completely different spice set but easily just as good, and might have been the first time I’ve had rabbit…which tastes and has a texture pretty much like chicken. Black-bottomed banana cream pie was good, but not as good as Jethrien’s.
Saturday:
Breakfast: Beignets and café au lait from Café Du Monde. The beignets were not life-changing, but they were a lovely example of fried dough in powdered sugar (basically, somewhere between funnel cake and donuts). The coffee was worth trying, but as the chicory they add to it makes it even more bitter, and the bitterness is what I tend to dislike about coffee, it didn’t change any of my opinions. Also, we waited on line for 45 minutes, and I’m told that the beignets place next to the police station is just as good for no wait. (We then got some fruit to pretend there’d be nutrition that day.)
Lunch at Bayona: The portion sizes for the three-course brunch were reasonable, which was probably how we survived the afternoon. I started with a salad with pickled lemon and fried capers, which worked really well. The Boston cream cake was actually one of the weakest things I ate during the trip—probably in comparison to what surrounded it—being too dry and again lacking custard. The duck-in-pastry savory dessert was fascinating, though. Jethrien had a lovely cream of garlic soup, riblet with a green chile sauce, and chevre mouse in a pistachio pastry shell that was very interesting. I’m ashamed to admit, I can’t remember what I had as an entrée, which says something about how memorable it was.
Food Tour: Gumbo from Antonio’s, the oldest restaurant in the city: Most excellent. Pralines and pecan brittle at the confectionary across the street, which also does a very nice take on a peanut butter cup and makes sweet potato pralines. Then shrimp remoulade at Arnaud’s (which you’d swear has horseradish in it, but no, that’s just the German-inspired cajun mustard). Turtle soup from the Bistro at Maison de Ville (really just a fantastic sherried beef-and-vegetable soup; you wouldn’t know there was turtle there if they didn’t tell you). Hot, toasted muffalettas and comparable-to-Italy gelato at La Divina Gelateria on Pirate's Alley. Incredibly-tender brisket with cocktail sauce at Tujacque’s. Then finally a Mardi Gras dip and red beans and rice, which we ate while watching a roux-making demonstration. This was also while learning history and getting cooking tips. A++ Would Tour Again.
Dinner: Po’Boys from Mother’s. Jethrien had their signature turkey-and-roast beef sandwich (half of a 2/3 one, actually); I had the fried chicken po’boy, which came with pickles, cabbage and aioli. Tasty, but not life-changing. Glad we went at 8pm and waited ten minutes to get in, rather than waiting an hour at lunchtime.
Dessert: Cocktails at The Bombay Club. Shnayder, who was with us at the time, had an excellent chocolate cake with a nice creamy fudginess to it. I opted for dessert in a glass, which was raspberry vodka, raspberry liquor, white chocolate liquor and crème de cacao. Jethrien had elderflower liquor in sparkling wine with mint. We sat in their little patio area and listened to the band, but were still able to talk because the patio doors blocked some of the sound.
Sunday:
Brunch at the Columns Hotel: Thankfully, the portion sizes here were also reasonable. Shrimp bisque/smoked turkey gumbo, salad, and something between a biscuit and a roll (eventually described as a “roll in the biscuit tradition”) to start. I had fish, Jethrien had a crab cake, both of which were less noteworthy than what came before and after. Ended with pecan pie and bread pudding. This mostly inspired me to try to mimic the fluffy buttermilk rolls.
Dinner at Commander’s Palace: The first course included oysters in absinthe, which was a shared appetizer, then I had a very well-done fruit, nut and bleu cheese salad while Jethrien had the pork belly braised in root beer with preserved peaches that changed her life. I had a potato-crusted fish for my main course, which was a really nice piece of fish with a perfectly-done fried potato crusting, but the Creole-style sauce wasn’t exactly what I expected and threw me off a little. Jethrien had pecan crusted sheepshead (a fish, not an actual sheepshead) that was excellent but not revolutionary. We finished that off with a chocolate bread pudding with a truffle baked into it, and a bread pudding soufflé. This was overall an excellent meal, but I was a bit overloaded by that point and would have been happy with a slice of pizza.
Random drink-related notes: New Orleans bars seem to stock a lot of varieties of hard cider. Given that I don’t like beer but I do like cider, this is nice. We had a little group gathering of the bandies with a bottle of scotch, which lead to the revelation that I could learn to appreciate scotch if introduced to ones without a strong peat flavor. The rum distillery served us a sweet-tea-and-spiced-rum cocktail, which worked very nicely. Jethrien notes that Hurricanes and Dirty Bananas are delicious, Hand Grenades less so.
Jethrien notes that getting reservations for the high-end, really nice places (Cochon, Bayona, Columns Hotel, Commander’s Palace) is key. Of the group, I think Cochon was my favorite, though I was admitted tired by the time we reached Commander’s Palace and I suspect Jethrien would say it was better.
The really famous places (Mother’s, Café du Monde, Central Grocery) aren’t particularly worth the long wait for their signature dishes, because you can find as good or better versions of them elsewhere without the 45 minute wait. That said, if the line is short, I can vouch for the first two.
And if you are a foodie, the Culinary tour was totally key.
