Eating in NOLA:

** This is be the last post that makes use of my trusty iPhone camera.  It didn't always take the best pictures or the clearest pictures, but I like to think it really gave this blog the gritty, tough, hardcore persona you have all come to love.  That being said moving forward all pictures on this blog will actually look like food.

We went to One Restaurant yesterday.  Kerry had been a few times before but it was my first time.  I wasn't disappointed.


It's nice having a few nice places in the River Bend neighborhood.  One is a pretty good lunch spot.  Prices are fairly reasonable and not at the expense of quality or portions.

Kerry started with the char-grilled oysters with Roquefort and red wine vinaigrette.  I'm not really into oysters (gasp) but I am into Roquefort and they were great.


I had the tomatoes three ways to start.  The three ways were marinated, raw and stewed.  All were good.  The marinate was a balsamic one which was pretty good.  I think my favorite was the raw though.  Cant beat a little salt and pepper on some raw tomatoes.


Kerry had the BBQ shrimp and grits.  Again, it was just really well prepared.  The BBQ had what tasted like a ginger soy base which was surprising but worked really well with the grits.


And I had the pulled pork sandwich because I love pulled pork.  It wasn't bad.  It wasn't quite what I expected.  I was expecting bbq even though there was nothing on the menu that indicated that would be the case.  Also it came on forcaccia which I think might have been a little better had it been grilled up.  All of that aside the pork was really tasty and it came with a mound of shoestring fries which is always going to win me over.  No joke, if me and you got into a shoestring french fry eating contest I'd probably eat a million and chances are you would eat like 3 or 4.


We got dessert too and we got it to go.  Deserts to go always look terrible but look at this.  This is how it looked when I opened it after just kind tossing it around in my car and throwing it on the table.  Not too shabby.  It was a flourless chocolate cake and thats what it tasted like.  It was good and a good way to finish off a solid lunch.

So we went to Jackson last night which re-opened three weeks ago. I've only been here since July 2008 so I never got a chance to visit its original incarnation before it closed. From what I hear there wasn't much of a reason to make the trek down to the one-way section of Magazine for the old Jackson.

I want to start this post saying one thing. The food was very good. I'll get into specifics about the food in a second but I want to make it clear that it was good. That doesn't mean the restaurant wasn't without its issues.


You are looking at issue one. The menu lacked a coherent theme. There was some Latin Fusion, some French, some Cajun and some good old American. The decor of the restaurant had a very similar problem. Again really nice and really comfortable but kind of a mixed bag.


Problem two was this. We got a pretty good bottle of Malbec. And we were happy with it but it was not corked in front of us and we didn't get a chance to taste it before the glasses were filled. Again it's a small thing but its probably the type of thing that bothers people more refined than me.

So we started with this Diablo Dip. Actually some pretty good stuff. Pretty much a glorified 7 layer dip but really good still. Even better were the chips that it came with warm and fresh. Oh and good the next day too... left overs are going to be a reoccurring theme in this post.


So Kerry had this. Not the best picture but probably the best thing we ordered. It's the Gnudi or Spinach ricotta dumplings with fresh sage & brown butter sauce. So good. She had leftovers. No way I would have had leftovers.


This is what I ordered. The Blackened Seared Tuna. It came with a Strawberry Jalapeno butter that I was a little worried about but I was wrong to be worried. It was a good. It was also a lot of tuna and made for a good lunch today. I picked the truffle french fries and grilled veggies to go with it. A good selection I think.


So this was dessert. The stuffed cookies. Two with hazelnut and two with chocolate ganache. Again. They were great. Probably worth going back for.

Alright so like I said everything was great if not a little disjointed. The last concern is that we were the only people in the restaurant. Not a great sign for a resturant that I think really does show some good promise. They make good food. If they can get their i's dotted and t's crossed it could do really well. If they are around long enough to fix a few things it could be a really good addition to the area.

SO... we have a back log of posts. I'm going to do two super fast quick post right now just so the work ahead is less daunting.



So post one here is the Kupcake Factory. This place opened up right on Claibore and Calhoun. pictured below is the Goin' Bananas Cupcake. It is incredible. The icing is an amazing cream cheese and banana frosting and the cake of the cupcake is moist and good. This is my favorite cupcake in the world.

MMM... Ice Cream. I always forget what good flavors Creole Creamery has. I had a sample of the Saffron Pistachio (it tasted like rice!) but only after I had already ordered a Cookie Monster Sundae.

And Kerry had this Cake Batter Sunday. Mine looked similar before I devoured half...

Whatever... We would have gone to Gott Gourmet today regardless...



It's right on Mag and we needed to be on Mag today for other stuff so we stopped for a quick lunch before our marketing meeting back at school. It was our first time and it sure didn't disappoint. Plus it was warm enough to eat outside and enjoy the view so it ended up being a great idea.



Kerry rarely is more happy with a decision than she was about her Shrimp BLT Wrap. The shrimp was sauteed in Tabasco butter. Now I don't know what Tabasco butter is but I'm pretty sure it was made just to saute shrimp in.



I had the Chicago Dog. A steamed poppy seed bun full of goodness, grape tomatoes, yellow mustard, relish, peppers and onions oh and a pickle I took off. Oh right I forgot the salad... tomatoes are in a salad though.



Why not some dessert from Sucre? How about a pink purse full of $2 a piece chocolates for me...



(flavors: absinthe, port, something else, and wedding cake)


And a strawberry stuffed vanilla cupcake for Kerry.



Oh and some of my hair for this baby squirrel


-- Post From My iPhone

So this blog is called "Eating in NOLA" not "Eating in Europe".

So here is what we will do. Because I care about you guys, or I guess mostly I care about taking pictures of food awkwardly in restaurants both foreign and domestic, I took a ton of pictures of food from across the pond. So we are going to do one long post with a ton of pictures and short captions. Then we'll get back to what you come here for. Good old NOLA eating.

So... Here we go...

Here is our meal from the top of Montmartre in Paris. Kerry has Coq Au Vin and I had some sort of steak in pepper sauce. We had a real good dessert with cherries and ice cream too.



We drank lots of red wine that night and this is one of the bottles. We went to a cool little place.


Oh so this was in Dijon France. It was suppose to be one of the best restaurants in the country. It was fantastic and they had colorful plates.

We drank Kir. Its a local specialty with white wine and black current syrup.
And we both had the scallops with a vanilla lime infusion.

So Annecy was another stop along the trip. Annecy is at the foot of the alps and offered some pretty incredible views. It also offered some pretty incredible cheese fondue for lunch one day.
oh and some pretty incredible chocolate fondue for dessert one night too.
And one day I bought some things I thought were cookies but were biscuits and I didn't like them much but I took this picture.


On to Rome. We had our first dinner at this restaurant just feet from the Coliseum.
We started with a local favorite... melon and prosciutto.
Kerry had a classic Caprese Salad
And I ate a pasta dish we are going to try at home really soon so keep an eye out. Its just spaghetti with olive oil, garlic, cracked red pepper and cheese.
And all night this guy sang to us...


So this was a place right by the apartment we stayed in. These are crab fritter things.
They made their pasta fresh and this was some pasta and cheese I ate with cracked black pepper.
Kerry had the gnocchi with Italian sausages

Then we went on an awesome walking tour that took us into some really cool Roman squares. In one we got a cannoli and it cost 11 euro. That's like 89 dollars US.


Alright and the last meal we documented over seas is this one at Vitti, an out door cafe. We got a little wine.

I ate a little pizza. Actually the best pizza I have ever eaten.
Kerry had this pasta that was spicy and good too.
and then we had dessert. We ordered gelato. We ordered the flavors we didn't understand. The flavors we ordered were "kiss" and "egg flop." We are pretty sure the flavors were hazelnut and butter scotch.

So that's it. You never have to hear about Europe again. Start reading again. Don't take us off your blog rolls. We will be NOLA through and Through from now on. Hell I could post a Community Coffee post right now if you wanted.

Oh yeah... one last thing though. I had two connecting flights through new york and Atlanta before I got home to the Big Easy. At JFK I went to Chili's. I'm ashamed about it but in the spirit of full disclosure... Bacon Ranch Burger and fries.