I took my wife to NOLA for her birthday. We had a really good time with some sightseeing, people watching and, of course, eating. I decided to share some of the food we experienced. These dishes may give you an inspiration for something to try at home, on your grill or smoker.
After arriving later than planned, we wanted something to eat. We headed to the Oceana and had some crab cakes with crawfish and turtle soup. Both were very good.
We liked this place so much, we went back for breakfast and had the St. James Crepe. This was loaded with blue crab, shrimp, onions and cheese (they held out the green onion for my wife). We split this crepe and neither one of us could finish our half. Really good, but way too much food.
We headed to Jackson Square and walked around and shopped a bit before it was time to eat, again. We went to Muriel’s and enjoyed a lighter lunch. My wife had a gorgonzola torte and I had a bowl of gumbo.
My wife decided that she wanted some beef after we had eaten so much rich seafood already, so we went to Dickie Brennan’s Steak House. No pictures here. A steak is a steak. Food was good, but I didn’t take any pictures.
The next day we ate a more normal breakfast. Afterwards we went on a tour of NOLA. Pretty amazing town. I think the press is missing out on some good stories about what how the recovery is still going on and some of the things the people have done towards that effort. For lunch we made our way back to Jackson Square and to the Central Grocery, home of the original muffaletta. We shared half of one and then walked over to Café Du Monde for an order of their famous beignets. Light, fluffy and covered in powdered sugar. What’s not to like.
For dinner that night we headed to Emerill’s NOLA restaurant. I enjoyed my 2nd Sazerac. I could get used to drinking the occasional Sazerac. We shared a Caesar salad with an anchovy vinaigrette and no egg. Very, very good. For dinner my wife had a bowl of Prince Edwards Island Mussels in a white wine sauce. I enjoyed grilled shrimp and cheese grits with a special roasted red pepper BBQ sauce. The shrimp were two full bites each and done to perfection. For dessert we shared a dessert. Profiteroles with homemade chocolate pecan ice cream, a berry sauce with what looked like little pearls. These pearls were actually little pieces of puffed rice covered in white chocolate. A really top notch dessert.
Our last day in NOLA involved more sightseeing. After a quick sweet role and coffee, we headed to the World War II Museum. If you go to NOLA, this is a very entertaining place to visit. While we were there we had lunch at The American Sector, owned by John Besh. We wanted to save room for dinner, so we ate a little lighter. We shared a cheeseburger slider and fries. These turned out to be bigger than we expected, but they were good.
After lunch we went to Harrah’s to do a little gambling. We saw John Besh’s Steak restaurant located in Harrah’s. We left there a little lighter in the wallet and headed back to our room to change and get ready for dinner at Commander’s Palace. I had the best Sazerac of the trip. Instead of a salad, I tried their Soups 1-1-1. This is a demi serving of each of their three soups. Their famous turtle soup takes three days to prepare and has twenty three spices in it. Much better than the first turtle soup I tasted. The second soup was their gumbo. Also very good. Their last soup was the Soup du Jour, smoked ham hock and potato soup. I could have dined on any by themselves. I did not get a picture of them. You’ll have to trust me that they were all killer. For dinner my wife ordered Brown Butter Seared Jumbo Sea Scallops. They weren’t kidding when they used the word “jumbo”! I ordered the Griddle Seared Gulf Fish which happened to be sea trout. Both were really good. One last dessert. Actually two last desserts. I decided that I wanted my own. My wife ordered the Baked Kettle of European Chocolate and I ordered a freshly made Ponchatoula Strawberry Shortcake. The desserts were out of this world.
There are so many good places to eat in NOLA. The problem is deciding which one to go to next. Thanks for checking out our food in NOLA. Hope you get some ideas to try at home, and then share with the rest of us.
Art
