Entries Tagged as 'French Quarter'

NOLA

April 20th, 2008 · 6 Comments


NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans


NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans

I heard that regardless of what you think of Emeril Lagasse, some people love him and some people hate him, his restaurants in New Orleans are fabulous. He did win a James Beard award, after all. The last time I was in New Orleans, I didn’t plan ahead and couldn’t get in to eat at one of Emeril’s restaurants. This time we planned ahead. After some beers at Crescent City Brewhouse, we had a fabulous dinner at NOLA.


Gulf Oysters and Crabmeat Baked in the Wood Oven with Garlic Butter and Herb Bread Crumbs :: NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans


“Shrimp & Grits” Sautéed Gulf Shrimp, Grilled Green Onions, Smoked Cheddar Grits, Apple Smoked Bacon, Crimini Mushrooms, Creole Tomato Glaze and Red Chili-Abita Butter Sauce (topped with crab meat) :: NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans


Grilled Pork Porterhouse with Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Toasted Pecans and Caramelized Onion Reduction Sauce :: NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans


NOLA Banana Pudding Layer Cake with a Graham Cracker Crust, Homemade Vanilla Wafers and a Warm Fudge Drizzle (a la mode with Drunken Monkey Ice Cream) :: NOLA, French Quarter, New Orleans

I thought that the food was really delicious and well prepared. I can see how Emeril says his style is New New Orleans. There are some of the classics you’d think of in Cajun and Creole cooking, but with a modern twist. Also, the service was really great. I loved our wait staff. Our waiter was really knowledgeable, but into joking around with us all the same. There was also a bread girl who came around to tempt us with her wares. Instead of getting a bread basket at the table, as the bread was made, she’d bring it out from the kitchen and offer it to us. I had the onion foccacia roll, a tiny french loaf, and a jalepeno cornbread muffin, all hot out of the oven. So good.

For anyone who is visiting New Orleans and wants to go out one night for a nice dinner, I’d recommend NOLA. I also want to try one of John Besh‘s restaurants next time I visit.

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Crabcakes

April 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments


Crab Cakes, Bourbon House, French Quarter, New Orleans

You probably don’t know this, but I love crab cakes. Louisiana has fabulous crab cakes, so I try to order them whenever I can while visiting. So far of the trips I’ve been down there, my most memorable crabcakes have been:

  • Red Fish Grill where I had some delicious Louisiana blue crabmeat cakes
  • Mr. B’s Bistro – A pan sauteed jumbo lump crabcake served with our classic ravigote sauce
  • Bourbon House – deviled crab cakes served with creole ravigote and marinated crab claws (pictured above)

Mr. B’s and Bourbon House are both part of the Brennan’s empire. I wonder if that’s why they both serve their crabcakes with ravigote. In any case, the New Orleans is not stingy with the crabmeat like other places I’ve been where the crabcake is mostly cake and not crab. YUM!

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Muffuletta Sandwich From Central Grocery

April 15th, 2008 · 24 Comments


Central Grocery, French Quarter, New Orleans


Central Grocery, French Quarter, New Orleans


Central Grocery, French Quarter, New Orleans


Central Grocery, French Quarter, New Orleans

Unlike my last muffuletta in New Orleans, this time we decided to go straight to the source: Central Grocery. It’s a small, old-fashioned Italian deli that created the muffuletta sandwich in 1906.


Muffuletta, New Orleans

The muffuletta consists of one Italian muffuletta bread loaf split horizontally in half and covered with marinated olive salad and layers of capiocola, salami, mortadella, emmental cheese and provolone cheese. And it’s huge. Central sells the sandwich by the half or the whole and the whole is for sure enough for two people. The olive salad is the key to the sandwich and is made of olives, celery, cauliflower and carrot. Combine all that, mix in seasonings and olive oil and let it sit for a day or more.


Muffuletta, New Orleans


Muffuletta, New Orleans

Central Grocery’s muffuletta was so very tasty, but both of us did not finish it. New Orleans is one place that we surely do not go hungry!

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Beware: The Hand Grenade

April 9th, 2008 · 1 Comment


Tropical Isle, French Quarter, New Orleans


Hand Grenades at Tropical Isle, French Quarter, New Orleans

After dinner we got a few beers to go and wandered down Bourbon Street. For some reason we wandered into a place called Tropical Isle whose specialty is a drink called the Hand Grenade. What is actually in the the Hand Grenade is a big trademarked secret and the bar will actually give you $250 if you find someone else selling a drink by the same name. I didn’t think it tasted that great, but it will mess you up after only one. The next day I had a ringing headache, which wasn’t good because I had to get up at 7 a.m.

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Our First Crawfish Boil

April 8th, 2008 · 7 Comments


Dallas :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans

Dallas had to work a lot over the weekend we were in New Orleans but there was one thing he knew he wanted to do in his limited spare time and that was go to a crawfish boil. He’s wanted to do this in the past, but it wasn’t the season. In my head it was going to be something like the steamed crab we had in Baltimore. And it sort of was.


Shucking Oysters :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans

We couldn’t figure out where to go before our trip. And once we were there we still didn’t know. So, we were walking up Iberville and when we walked past Felix’s we saw people inside eating mounds of crawfish so we beelined in. We barely got past the door when a guy at the bar, who was shucking oysters right there, asked if we’d like oysters and something to drink. The answer? Why, yes. Yes we would. So we ordered some beer and ate some oysters while the waitress prepared our table. We paid that bill and were escorted to our table.


Crawfish Boil :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans


Crawfish Boil :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans


Crawfish Boil :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans

For the boil we ordered 2 pounds to share. Like the crab experience in Baltimore, the taste was really good, but it was a lot of work for not much payoff. I guess it’s the same when you get crab legs too. One of Dallas’ coworkers who lives in New Orleans said that she thought it was a pretty good boil. Seasoned well, a bit spicy, good taste. So, we were glad our first one was liked by a local. Some of us were surprised by how much 2 pounds of crawfish looks like. In these photos one of these bowls/baskets is one pound. But actually, the coworker said when they order it in at the office they usually get 3-4 pounds per person.


Fried Pickles :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans

On the menu was something else I’d never seen before: fried pickles. All I could think about was how Jeannette discovered years ago that her mom had a deep fat fryer and we talked about having a deep frying party where each person would bring something they wanted to fry. We never did it, but I remember Yvan really really wanting to fry a pickle, so this menu item reminded me of him. When we got it the dish was fried pickle chips. They were ok. They tasted like fried stuff dipped in .. I don’t even know what.


Shrimp Po’Boy With Red Beans and Rice :: Felix’s, French Quarter, New Orleans

For dinner I had a half shrimp po’boy with red beans and rice. It was ok. Everyone who had the crawfish boil agreed that it was really good, but that the rest of the food was just average. Oh, and the oysters were good. Really big and juicy ones. And the Abita beer was good.

The funny thing is that after we had this dinner then we started seeing signs at a lot of restaurants saying crawfish are back in season or that they’re having boils. Dallas wanted to keep going back for more, but we didn’t.

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