Eating in NOLA:

Commander's Palace had the best lunch special in New Orleans.  Oh you thought I meant food special?  Oh no.  Oh God no.

$0.25 Martini's.  That's right.  Two.  Five. Cents. Dig it.  Now I'm not really a martini guy but if you are willing to sell me anything for twenty five cents I'll buy it.  You can quote me on that.

I get the green ones because I'm pretty manly.

Okay okay they have pretty good food specials too.  Like an appetizer and entree for $16.  And this is Commander's we are talking about not Chili's.  You're thinking about how good Chili's is right now aren't you?  Me too.

So Kerry and I actually got the $20 option because it sounded better.  Kerry started with the turtle soup.  Now I don't know anything about turtle soup but I assume this is some of the best there is.  What I do know is there was no turtle shell in it which I expect would be the most common turtle soup problem.


And I started with the Artichoke Salad.  I just thought it was just okay but in all fairness I get pretty upset if there isn't either cheese or some sort of candied nut in a salad.  Preferably both.


And we both had the Shrimp with the Spoon Bread.  Look at all that shrimp.  It was a great deal.  The $16 option was Citrus Glazed Drum which also looked good.


So at some point this showed up.  According to our waiter it is the best drink they serve.  I think it was Holly Berry Martini.  It was delicious... Seriously I don't normally drink these types of drinks but I'm not ashamed.


And last but not least we had dessert.  It was my first experience with pecan pie.  It was awesome.  The only problem is I'm sure I won't be able to get pie of this quality just anywhere.


So there you go all this and you're out the door for $30 a person after tax and tip and enough martinis to get you through a Wednesday.  Not too shabby.

Let me know when you're going.  You can buy me a few drinks.

If the three "Open" signs in the window didn't tip you off then let me be the first to let you know... Cabana Grill (no joke... that's the website printed on the menus) on St. Charles Uptown has opened up.  Its a nice place with a friendly staff and a island theme.  Thanks to the good people over at Cabana I can finally let you know about a place that is 1. healthy and 2. has some pretty decent food.

Kerry and I went after I picked her up at the airport and we were pretty impressed with the menu.  There were plenty of things I wanted to order and there really are plenty of pretty good healthy options.  They have around 7 or 8 salads and a number of lighter sandwiches.



 Kerry had the avocado egg-rolls.  I'm not sure how healthy they are but they were awesome and not only because they came with two different dipping sauces. 

It was a pretty good experience on the whole and a nice new option in the neighborhood.  Good menu, nice space, great lemonade and the staff was really helpful and very nice.  The only thing that was a little weird is it seconds as a oddly stocked convenience store.  Right in the middle of the restaurant they have shelves stocked with cans of soup, bags of sugar, and squeezable icing.  Don't believe me? 

 
Ha!  Don't believe that sucka.  All joking aside though, it wasn't a bad lunch and definitely had some healthy options.  It's worth a try.  So go try it already.

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

New Orleans had some great burger joints. Rather than get into the whole "Best Burger in New Orleans" debate, where Port of Call and Bulldog supporters often come to blows, let me just say this- Yo Mama's was the most surprised I had ever been about how good a burger was.

A few weeks back, after rushing out to the Guerrilla Radio show at HOB and missing dinner, some friends directed us to Yo Mama's. Needless to say we were fairly ravenous bu the time we left the show and slipped into Yo Mama's. We sat down ordered a few more cold ones and put in our orders. And then the order came.

And it was so good.

When I ordered my Roquefort Blue Cheese burger at 1am I really was expecting something St. Charles Tavern-esque to come out. And I would have been fine with that. I would have been excited with that actually. But no. This burger was juicy and medium rare and the Roquefort was creamy and blue cheesy. Seriously look at it. It was go good that my camera couldn't even take a clear picture of it.


And look I got a salad instead of baked potato. Hilarious! Why would I do that?

Long story short. Get there. If you're downtown its close by. If you're uptown its worth the trip. If you're in Metairie... wait why are you in Metairie?

So I've been spending a little more time in Mid City then I had been in the past. Kerry and I met for lunch last Saturday at the Olive Branch Cafe on Orleans right near Clever.

I don't have a ton to say about it but I especially don't have anything bad to say about it. It was pretty reasonably priced. That Citrus Salad with candied walnuts and feta you are looking at is actually the small size and was something like $4.99.

Kerry's pizza with artichoke was under $11 I think. Everything tasted about how you would expect but nothing was a disappointment.

We don't rate restaurants on this site with any fancy standardized grading system but if we did I think this would be a "Not Bad."

Someone had a birthday a few days ago and someone else threw me a party.

So I'm 25 now. I'm not sure it's quite time to start worrying about eating too healthy, but maybe it's time to consider it a little. That's probably why Kerry decided on bacon-wrapped potatoes AND tomato and mozzarella skewers.


These little suckers were good. It was like a deconstructed Caprese Salad (is Caprese Salad already a deconstructed dish?). Three grape tomatoes and a chunk of mozzarella on a stick, drizzled with some homemade, home grown basil olive oil. Everyone loved them and I ate a bunch, but not so many that I didn't have room for the main attraction...


In general people don't eat enough bacon-wrapped things on their birthdays. These went fast. Small red potatoes quartered, boiled for a few min, tossed with some fresh rosemary, salt n peppa, and olive oil, then wrapped in a half slice of bacon and cooked at 400 degrees for about 40-45 min.

Oh, don't worry - the bacon grease they sucked up was countered by the sour cream and Tabasco dip we had for them. These were so good we made then again the next night for a meal.

There were some banana nut cup cakes to top the night off as well, but somehow we forgot to get a picture of them... it's a shame because they were delicious and looked pretty good too.

So - turn 25 if you haven't yet, get some bacon, and a girl that will throw you a party and life will be pretty good.

In a few hours I'm going to do a long post on our walking tour of Dijon. Here is a catch up post in some of the things we missed...


I'm sure there is some food down there somehere





Snack before dinner from a bakery by the hotel.




Catacombs in France




Ate here last might in Dijon and below is a specialty I forget the name but it's ham and herbs



And Kerry had this salad



Ok stay tuned for a real post later just had an awesome day in Dijon.

-- Post From My iPhone

Don't get me wrong... I know you read for the colorful writing style... No time though at a free wi fi bar and we are leaving here are a few pics from lunch at chez... Something... Kerry says Clemente. Chicken salmon mashed potatos and something with goat cheese and apple








-- Post From My iPhone

Well it was good the first time... why not do it again?


We did the whole frozen 4 cheese pizza with tomatoes cut up on top thing again two nights ago before we went out (more on that later). It was pretty good again, the tomatoes seem to add something more than just color. I've never been a huge frozen pizza fan in the past but this keeps being surprisingly pleasing. This one was round and of the Red Barron variety. This picture has a big knife in it because it was Friday the 13th.


We did salad again as well. Just some romaine tossed with a balsamic vinaigrette, Parmesan, and some croutons from my mama. There is a bear in this picture because I forgot to move it.


And white wine (Francis Coppala on special at Roberts Fresh Market) this time instead of red.


Well I guess that's it. Sorry if it was a repetitive post... I figured the pizza being a different shape and the white wine might have made it post worthy. This picture has a Kerry in it because she hasn't decided to take it down yet... maybe she wont.