Eat Arkansas

Aw man! There goes my plan to submit pictures from my New Orleans trip in 2 weeks to the blog photo contest! We'll be hitting Port 'O' Call, Acme Oyster House, Dante's Kitchen (first time there, so I'll report back), and the Saints game Sunday afternoon. And Cafe DuMonde, of course...so touristy, but still can't resist. I'm also a fan of Frankie & Johnny's, but I don't think we'll make it this trip.

ARK. BLOG: There's always room for more pix from New Orleans. Find me a big plate of red beans and rice with some fat garlicky hot sausage on top. Get a po boy at Liuzza's. Go to Mosca's for the oyster pan roast, shrimp Mosca and crab salad. BBQ shrimp at Manale's is still worth ruining a shirt on. Galatoire's stuffed eggplant and crabmeat remoulade won't disappoint you. The Camellia Grill has reopened. Cochon features fine SW La. food, plenty of pig naturally. Commander's Palace jazz brunch -- ok it's a little hokey -- is still a deal, but have a bed to sink into after it's over. Don't miss the bread pudding souffle.

mmmmm. let's see. to me any trip to New Orleans begins when we pull off at Amite for po-boys at either Master Chef or Spitale's.

In the city:
Mandina's (Turtle Soup)
Camelia Grill (finally reopened!--omelette and chocolate freeze)
Joey K's (shrimp po boys and beer)
Domilice's (roast beef po boy)

in the Quarter:
Oceana (gumbo)
Frank's (Muffaletta, STUFFED ARTICHOCKE!)
Coop's Place

hungry now.

Oyster Stew tasted like butter becuase it looks like it was all butter.

I don't get New Orleans. Place is over-rated. Howmany ways can you market Po-Boys and Gumbo. And clean the damn place up a bit. And the Gulf Coast oysters don't come close to Northwest or Upper North East coast Oysters. Not even in same league. You better fry the Gulf coast oysters IMO.

Still, it's big and easy and you might get lucky at the Maple Leaf Tavern with the music.

IABL1969, you betta put on yer flame suit. i'm not even gonna touch that comment.

Spinsouth:

Really. It's a good college hangout, cuase then you don't mind the dirt and the greasy food and being drunk goes a long way toward being able to truly appreciate New Orleans.

But once you reach about age 35 or so I don't get it. Like Spouth Beach.

That's another place I just don't get unless you are having a midlife crisis.

I know I'm in the minority on New Orleans but to me it is just pretty much a dirty, greasy spoon of a city with some decent music sometimes.

And in the summer time is smells like stale piss and stale beer. But some call that charm I suppose.

Crabmeat Yvonne at Galatoire's

Roast-beef po' boy at Parasol's

Shrimp remoulade at Mandina's

Any omelet at Camellia Grill

Cuban sandwiches at any of the Cuban restaurants in Mid-City

Vietnamese food at just about any place on the West Bank

Lemon ice at Brocato's (though I don't think it's open again)

IABL1969--

Methinks you've spent too much time in the Quarter.

My 35 year old self just took the wife and two kids for a fine New Orleans vacation. World class zoo, great family friendly eats, beautiful parks.

As for the Quarter--- I can tell you Jackson Square is a different--but wonderful-- place in through the eyes of a 4 year old.

And re: "decent music sometimes"-- have you spent much time on Frenchman?

Well maybe I'll have to give it another shot and do it better. I still won't eat Gulf Coast Oysters raw, but the rest fo the itmes listed above do sound palatable if not supremely appetizing.

Now though, strangely, I am hungry. Not enough for that "Butter Stew" but maybe enough for a Po'Boy.

What is that anyway. It's a just a sandwich on bad bread. But you go and call it a Po Boy and all of a sudden everyone loves it.

If they put it on some great bread, not what passes in the South as "Hoagie Bread"then you might have something. Might. Just maybe. Even then it coulld use some improvements.

Liek I said, it helps to be drunk and maybe a puff or two on some local French Quarter herb, and have the munchies there.

Anyway, off to lunch.

OK, IABL1969... I give up.

First you question the existence of consistently good music in NOLA, then you call a po boy a sandwich on bad bread??? I guess you've only eaten them at the Oyster Bar in LR-- either that or you're just pulling my leg about all of this.

Click my name for the essential ingredient to any proper po boy.

The bread. O.K., maybe I've never had one with that bread. But I'm still skeptical. (And yeah, how does Oyster Bar survive? )

I mean they're ok, po boys, I mean, not into the Muffalatta much. Again, usually just too much bad bread to overcome anything else that might be going on inside of it. But here's how I would improve both and I would enjoy New Orleans. I would get bread from the Northeast, and ev en then only from some very specific locales, some truly awesome Italian bread, maybe semolina, crusty, then go and but some great oven roasted Roast beef (not deli meat Roast Beef) some roasted red peppers, some Sharp imported Swiss cheese, lettuce, shredded, onion, tomato, salt and pepper, generous drizzle of olive oil and vinegar, a touch of red hot peppers, then,, and only then, would I go to New Orleans with my Sandwich, which I'd call a Po Boy since really that is what it is, and eat it outside one of their famed and beloved Po Boy cafe's and sit and enjoy myself, watch the crowd, eating my tasty Po Boy, and truly enjoy being in New Orleans.

But I admit I'll have to try it on the bread you say is the secret.

Spinsouth:

Hey. Help me out. Teach me how to do this:

How do you get the click on the name/go to a website thing to work?

Thanks

And I still am amazed that anyone who isn't completely stoned to the rafters can eat that Oyster Stew. Like drinking a vat of melted butter.

IABL1969, are you a yankee? Northeast oysters and bread, makes me think you're from North of the Mason Dixon line...if so, probably means niether of you are going to be able to convince the other of the superiority of one region over the other. But it sure is entertaining to watch y'all try!

Mr. Mordy and I are big fans, but I can definitely see how some people would be put off. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise...more to eat for me! But spinsouth is absolutely right on one thing...true New Orleans french bread is definitely a heavenly buffet item!

Mordy

I'm a Yankee but not one of those Yankees. You know the type, the Damned Yankees type, that say things like, "Why where I come from we do it this way", or "You think this is cold," or "You call this Pizza?!"

Well sometimes. But only about the Pizza. And really, if you want to experience real cold you do have to..aaah, never mind.

So I'm guilty.

And oh yeah, since you brought it up, why does everyhting move so S-l-o-w, down here. Let's kick it up a notch.

but that is all I will say about that.

Oh one more thing, siince you asked. we did win the war. And we should've. So what is the problem with that. Like the South didn't deserve to lose that one. Hello? I don't get that. What is that about--this little chip on the Southern shoulder thing. They need to let that go. Oh, but this is about food ins't it. Sorry. I digress.

But that's really it. We really could use some better Pizza though. We should send Pizza makers north to taste/make/apprentice to guys named Tony and Vinny, real pizza makers. And Bagels. What is with the Bagels anyway. How hard can it be to make a decent bagel for crying out loud.

Stilll we now have a few places now to get Guinness on tap. So it's coming around. The South I mean.

And the Bread. Blvd. Bread. Big improvement to the locale eating thing. Big.

Right there with you on the pizza, IABL1969, although even Yankee's can't agree on the best pizza! Chicago deep dish vs. New York thin crust...as a Southerner (who doesn't mind that we didn't win the war btw...which probably revokes my Southern credentials, now that I think about it) I don't have a side in that fight. But by golly, pick one and we'll find out a way to deep fry it!

And on the pizza train of thought...some decent Italian food would be welcome around here. I hear people rant and rave over Bruno's, and I just don't get it. Just mention the Hill in St. Louis and I'm like Pavlov's dog...

LR is slowly taking baby steps towards international cuisine, but until we get some decent Italian and Thai, I'll have to take food road trips...not unlike my planned trip to New Orleans in 2 weeks! Oh, right...nevermind...

Yeah but you're not going to get the Oyster Stew are you. Please tell me you are not going to go all the way to New Orleans to down that cardio-stopping, artery clogging, congealifiying "Stew."

Don't do it. You'll thnak me for it.

Bon Appetit though. Will be here before you know it.

Laissez le bon temps rouler cher.

As N'awlens was 'home'
for 25 yrs. I think I
know a thing or two about
the food. To me the roast
beef po'boy is the gravy.
Drive 15 miles west on 90
to Luling, Boutte, Bayou
Gouche...for REAL cajun
food cooked by REAL
cajuns. Got to get out of
the city for that taste of
heaven.

Jazzy, I agree with you on both counts. The gravy makes a roast beef po' boy. I love the Parasol's version because they pot roast their beef (with potatoes) for hours, till it falls apart, with potatoes in the pot.

I hope they survived Katrina. If so, I imagine they're the same old place they have been for aeons, where you watch the lady making the sandwich move painfully slowly, as she slathers the french bread with mayonnaise, spoons on gravy and shredded beef, adds lettuce and tomato, wraps it up, and finally hands the precious bundle to you through a little window.

And you have to go to Cajun country south and west of New Orleans to find real Cajun food....

ARK. BLOG: Parasol's is great. And, I have to put in a word for Mother's, though it is well-discovered. The "debris" poor boy, in which they mound beef trimmings, crusty parts, fat and pan gravy from the carving station on a french loaf is an inspired idea. "Platonic," as Richard Collins once said. Which reminds me, his New Orleans cookbook, with his wife, is still the standard against which all others should be judged.

MT..oh yes, that gravy,
dripping down all over
your hands, between
fingers mixed with the
mayo...you need a roll of
paper towels to clean up.
My fave, SAL'S on hiway 90
in Luling/Boutte....worth
the 400----450 mile trip.
I found the best food was
small family run places off
the beaten path. Best I
ever had was JIMMY'S in
Ama, on the river road,
run by 3 cajun sisters...
Oh Lordy....
talk about..........
I'm sure its long gone by
now, I was young & they
were my Mom's age.

Jazzy, you're right, the test of a real roast beef po' boy is how much gravy and mayonnaise drips down on your hands as you consume it. No way to eat a really good one with due decorum.

And I agree about the little hole in the wall places having the best Cajun food of all. One of my father's cousins taught first grade for a century or so (it seemed that way, at least) in New Iberia. She used to send me cards printed in perfect first-grade hand, with "I" turning into a little picture of an "eye," "see" becoming "c," and "you" printed as "u."

Anyway, to the point: we'd go to see Cousin Lucy about every year when I was growing up, and the trip from Arkansas down into Cajun country was fascinating, even in turns of the topographic journey: from higher land to low, from running streams to bayous that appeared not to move at all, with a green coating across the top.

A highlight of these trips was when we'd stop at what looked like no place at all--a little wooden structure with a sign outside; a grocery store that sold boudin and bread along with groceries, etc.

The very best Cajun food has always been in those places, and it's not the zinged up, spiced up stuff that the food critics have invented recently. It's home-cooking made by thrifty French housewives who know how to take anything and make it tasty, by long, careful stewing and by adding a tasty roux.

HERE YA GO

You Might be a Cajun If....
...you start an angel food cake with a roux.

...watching the "wild kingdom" inspires you to write a cookbook.

...you think the head of the united nations is boudreaux/ boudreax-guillory.

...you think a lobster is a crawfish on steroids.

...you think ground hog day and boucherie day are the same holiday.

...you take a bite of 5-alarm Texas chili and reach for the Tabasco.

...fred's lounge in mamou means more to you than the grand ole opry.

...you pass up a trip abroad to go to the crawfish festival in breaux bridge.

...your children's favorite bedtime story begins "first you make a roux..."

...your description of a gourmet dinner includes the words "deep fat fried."

...your mama announces each morning, "well, I've got the rice cooking-what will we have for dinner?"

...you greet your long lost friend at the Lafayette international airport with "iiiiieeeeeee!"

...you sit down to eat boiled crawfish and your host says "don't eat the dead ones" and you know what he means.

...you don't know the real names of your friends, only their nicknames.

...you gave up Tabasco for lent.

...you know the difference between zatarains, zeringue, and zydeco.

...your dog thinks the bed of your pickup is his kennel.

...any of your dessert recipes call for jalapenos.

...you consider Opelousas the capital of the state, and Lafayette the capital of the nation.

...you think the four seasons are: duck, rabbit, deer, squirrel.
80 Mile an Hour Ticket

Thanks, jazzy. I got quite a laugh from the list, particularly the line about giving up Tabasco for Lent.

Now that is a rigor beyond human imagination!