Eating in NOLA:

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.

What better place to eat a New Orleans lunch before leaving for Buenos Aires than Bacco? What's ironic is that I'm writing this post sitting in the Miami airport where apparently every possible place to get food closes at 9 on Sundays. But back to Bacco.



Hey look at that salad up there! It was mine and It was the market salad and the market salad was greens with a warm bacon vinaigrette, seasonal tomatoes, Gorgonzola, and candied pecans. Best bacon vinaigrette I've eva had.



This one was Kerry's. That's goat cheese on there and pine nuts over greens tossed in sun dried tomato vinaigrette.



Alright I'm on my iPhone so I'm just gonna move it along. Up there? Oh that's my pasta with garlic, garden vegetables, and herbs. I might have made the herbs up... I mean I'm sure there are some in there.



And that's Kerry's lobster and gulf shrimp ravioli with caviar. It was real good too.

OK. Next post will be from Argentina... After a 10 hour flight.


- Post From My iPhone

Well it has been while since we posted. We have been busy. Mainly with school but also with French Quarter Fest like everyone else. So why not a festival food post? Evey one loves New Orleans festival food and we are no exception. We got a few pretty good things too.

We chose Love at First Bite on Friday when we went to see Soul Rebels on the waterfront. This is what the people that worked there looked like.


And this is what the food looked like. Crawfish Pasta for KM and I had a Cochon de Lait po-boy for me. Maybe the best po-boy I've ever had. There was so much pig in it I almost felt guilty.


Saturday we met up with some fellow MBA's and drank a few drinks and listened to a little music, but also ate some shrimp. Like this shrimp with cheddar and bacon grits from Saltwater Grill.

AND... these "shrimp" skewers from Bubba Gump's. I like that in New Orleans Shrimp Skewers come with Andoullie.

So... sorry for a delayed post but it should be a good warm up for Jazz Fest posts. I'll probably live blog via my phone so that should be really really exciting for everyone. Tell your friends and see you there. And more posts soon I promise.

Thanks to a restaurants.com promo we ended up with a $25 gift certificate for Petunia's for $2. I know what you're thinking - you want to get in on deals like that. If you really want to know how shoot me an email and I'll let you know.

So either way we got to try a place we normally wouldn't because they are a little pricey. It had been a while since we had eaten in the Quarter so it was a nice break from the norm. That on top of some pretty good food made it a nice experience.

I was between the Cajun Pasta and a crepe with broccoli and cheese. The waiter directed me to the pasta. It had at least a pound of butter and was completely covered in Parmesan cheese. There was also an absurd amount of shrimp and andouille sausage on it. I was only able to eat about 1/3 of it. Oh and it was delicious. There were red, green, and yellow bell peppers... so it was the healthiest thing I've eaten all week (don't worry about me, I think we are going to Gott for lunch and I'm heading in the direction of a salad).

Success!

So we went in for a round 2 because we don't like to be denied... And it's a cheap meal.

This time we switched it up a little and added some other fresh ingredients we picked up at the Crescent City Farmer's Market yesterday. Namely, fresh basil from our new sweet basil plant and a Creole tomato from a local grower. Oh, and an onion from the corner store on Calhoun.


We cooked up all the goodies in my one pan... By the way did you know I only have one pan and one tiny sauce pan? Well, we cooked it all up...



And you can see the finished product up top. Still not exactly want we got in Rome but just as good. That could be because we have gone through half a (big) container of Parmesan cheese in two days, though.

- 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.