When Liz was invited to attend the Mom 2.0 Summit in New Orleans this year, thankfully it didn't take her too long for it to occur to her that I might like to tag along. All I had to do was promise that I wouldn't embarrass her (I promised I'd try my hardest, but you can never wholly promise against unpromisable forces of nature such as weather, acts of god, and my uncanny ability to say something offensive to someone), as well as not expect her to be able to hang out that much as she'd be busy doing "conference things" (i.e. talking to lots and lots and lots of people about things that make me want to scratch my eyes out so I can put them in my ears so as to not have to listen).
So let me check, I could go to New Orleans for 4 days and all I had to do was not be anywhere near the conference?
(Working with the logic that you can't say something offensive when you aren't at a place, unless, I guess, you texted an offensive text. But then the textee wold have to be complicit in the act and would be, probably, more to blame than me, as all they'd have to do is not show it to anyone... right?)
Yes, please.
So we boarded our plane (eventually) (long Delta-Airlines-hate-filled story) and at 8 the next morning Liz kissed my still-sleeping head to go off to her day. Which left me alone with a camera and one of my favorite cities in the world to explore.
This being a food blog let me just say that despite it's reputation to the contrary, the food in New Orleans is really good.
Excellent even.
I was surprised too!
I mean, I've eaten at Popeye's Chicken before (hell, I even worked there as a teenager), but who knew that they have other things besides fried chicken and shrimp poppers!!??
All kidding aside, I love cajun/creole cooking with a passion held only in esteem with really good Spanish food or slow smoked BBQ. Don't get me wrong, I love all food, but my breadbox of happiness is right in the middle of the Southern BBQ-Spanish-New Orleans (cajun/creole) triangle.
This was my third trip to the area, the first being a wedding with a bunch of friends and thus the obligatory Bourbon Street drunk fest/sight seeing touristy trip you'd expect (before Katrina). The second I was visiting a friend (after Katrina) who lived there, being a more local/somber visit (the drive we took through the lower 9th ward still haunts me to this day). So this trip I had my bearings a little bit and could really take my time to pick and choose what I wanted to do and see.
It's a nice feeling to have visited a place enough times to not feel compelled to do anything I didn't want to do, or feel like I was going to miss out on something. New Orleans is also the kind of city I hope I get to visit many more times in my life so hopefully each time will be more and more custom built to what I like to do, which in my case is eat, take pictures, drink, walk around, and learn about history, all of which NOLA has in abundance.
So, lucky me, had exactly ZERO plans for this trip other than to eat well, take lots of pictures, and get out of the French Quarter(!!), which I'd like to think I accomplished, again with the foresight that I'll be coming back many times (I hope).
Food picture wise, I think I probably failed you here the worst, dear reader. I only have iPhone pictures of a few of the dishes. So, I'll get those out of the way here, and then just "random picture" you to death over the next couple of days (hey, gotta get those post counts up...).
So first, my first lunch;
Red beans and rice with smoked sausage and a Pimms Cup at Napoleon House. Sort of a "must stop" for first timers and, as I found out, locals as well. Famous for their Pimms Cups, which sadly, at least to this jaded ex-bartender, just weren't that good (unless you're supposed to make them with equal parts Pimms and fountain lemonade).
That night we dined at Meson 923, which I didn't take any pictures of, but had an amazing meal at, so just wanted to give them a shout out and maybe one or two peoples worth of traffic to their website. The place is gorgeous, the food was excellent and the service was great. Astrid Lavenia was kind enough to give us a kitchen tour afterwards, more due to the caliber of fellow dinner guests than anything to do with yours truly, but coat tails are great to hang onto if they take you places like this!
Great Place! Go there!
The next day for lunch I was invited to attend a cooking demo by the world(?) famous, celebrity(?) chef John Besh at his restaurant Domenica. It was a cooking demo for the Zataraian's boxed New Orleans style food (which I love) for a bunch of mommy/food bloggers (which I wanted to strangle).
I wanted to not like Chef Besh for reasons that only my snobby anti-celebrity-chef's-on-t.v. jaded self could explain, even though I own his cookbook and would love to dine at any of his restaurants. It turns out, as I'm sure would be the case in many of the chef's that have dared to go on television (as it is with the chef's that I've emulated my attitude from which, by the way, have all been on television -I'm looking at you Andrew Carmellini, and Riad Nasr) he is a warm, wonderful person who cares about food and his restaurants (and his city for that matter) as much as you'd want any great chef to.
Although we were eating boxed super market food along side freshly cooked food (a'la Sandra Lee) I came away with a newfound respect for Chef Besh and hope to eat at one of his restaurants proper one day in the near future, not to mention maybe I'll give other chefs a break for going on Top Chef Masters... But not regular Top Chef... Fuck those guys!
Anyways, that night I dined with a new friend (another cast-aside husband along for the ride as it turns out) at Herbsaint, Donald Link's excellent restaurant. I apologize again for the iPhone quality pictures, but it's all I had.
My first course was my favorite thing that I ate on the entire trip.
Housemade Spaghetti with guanciale and fried-poached farm egg. If you look on the website, you see a better picture of it than this one, but the dish is a knock out. I want to go back and eat it again right now.
Entree was a little more "obligatory New Orleans/Donald Link" type fare, but I had to try it anyways..
Muscovy duck leg confit with dirty rice and citrus gastrique.
I've had a fascination/tragic-love-affair with dirty rice. I want to like it, and order it almost anywhere reasonable that it's offered, but have yet to have an order of it that I "got it" from, which is to say, "enjoyed". Often times it's over cooked thus making the liver and innards too strong tasting (dog breath-y) or it's just not cooked right and is weird (dry, grainy). I'm happy to report that this was cooked perfectly (although I'd guess only liver was used) and although I haven't had that "aha" moment of clarity like the first time you have really good sea urchin, or top level sushi, I'm finally ready to accept that I've just had bad experiences and there's a dirty rice out there somewhere for me that's going to change my life...
Needless to say, if you're in New Orleans and don't visit Herbsaint, you're doing yourself a disservice. There's just something magical about outdoor seating with a full moon in New Orleans on a warm spring night that's made all the better by great food and great company (I miss you, Rael!!)
So how do you follow that up, you may be asking? With this:
Praline Bacon from Elizabeth's Restaurant in the Bywater District. For me the only thing better than Praline bacon would be smoked pork chops. Luckily for me...
House-smoked pork chops (you can really taste the smoke), with grits and country gravy with a biscuit... With good strong coffee and a spicy bloody mary, I dare you to find a more "Nate like" breakfast...
I've always thought that if I were to ever open a place of my own it'd be a super casual/local place with really good food, so it was a pleasure eating in a blue print of what I'd like to do one day...
Really the only other "food" pictures to show you are from lunch later that day at Cafe Maspero's in the French Quarter (It was liz's first and only "day off" so we did some touristy stuff) where I had the Muffuletta:
Which was delicious...
As was my trip.
New Orleans, I love you. Thank you again for being so magical and entrancing...
I hope to be with you again real soon...
The End.
(I'll post more pictures randomly for no reason, but this post is already waaaaaay too long....)
Farts and kisses,
n*
