Eating in NOLA:

So Frankie and Johnny's is a classic New Orleans spot.

In all honesty- and  it might make me a bad New Orleans food blogger to say it but- there are plenty of classic New Orleans spots that I don't get all that fired up over.  I think maybe its because I'm not huge on fried seafood.  I'm not sure what it is but its just not my thing.

I think that is probably what led to me getting the meatball poboy at Frankie and Johnny's.  Huge mistake.  Why I assumed it would be a decent choice is beyond me.  I think maybe I figured that if Subway could turn out an edible meatball sandwich this place should be able top as well.  Not the case.  I feel silly even complaining about it since its just not what they do there but it was particularly bad.


Kerry fared better with her fried shrimp platter.  She particularly enjoyed the breading on the shrimp.  I enjoyed stealing her french fries.


There isn't anything wrong with Fankie and Johnny's.  They serve fried seafood.  Just make sure that's what you order.  And they have crawfish.  Who doesn't like that?

Frankie and Johnny's

Have you been to this place?  No.  I'm serious?  Have you.  Then you're missing out.


Il Posto is fantastic.  I wish I lived closer but to be honest, if I lived next door to this Italian cafe it woudn't be close though.

This is a cool place down on Dryades Street.  They serve salads and pininis but these are not your run of the mill pressed sandwiches.  The ingredients are fresh and and of an extremely high quality.  And more reasonably priced than many places serving similar fare.



We both had the Classic Proscuitto.  Thin procuitto, thick, salty mozzarella, and pesto on warm crispy ciabatta.  This is my new favorite spot to get a sandwich.  Great food and a comfortable place to spend a little time.

Plus they gave us a few hints on the ganache that went on our bacon creme cupcakes we served at Hogs for the Cause.

I will be back soon.  Very soon- and it won't be soon enough.

Il Posto
4607 Dryades Street
New Orleans, LA

How was your Christmas?  Mine was... filling.  So this week we are going to look at four healthier eating options in the city.  Hopefully you all provide me with some good ideas on places to hit.  I've been here for a little more than a year and a half now and I can't think of any particularly healthy spots... which might be appernent in this post.  So comment please and let me know the places you think have some good healthy options.  So lets go...

Healthy Eating?  Heavenly Ham?  Hilarious.


Let me explain.  I had every intention of starting this series out with a place that was healthy and sounded healthy but things went awry.  First Il Posto was closed and then I was gonna go to Surrey's but it was just so far away and I was so hungry.  But believe it or not Heavenly Ham has some good healthy options.

Now don't get me wrong they have plenty of butter croissant stuffed with bacon and American cheese options too... but show a little self control and you can walk out of there with a fresh sandwich that doesn't sit like a brick in your stomach.



I went with the chicken salad.  Now normally it comes on a croissant but I got it on sliced wheat bead which is one of the healthiest of the sliced breads.  Now I planned on getting it without cheese, but just by looking at me they could tell I love cheese and put it on without me asking.  Nothing I can do about that.

I've just recently become a chicken salad convert so I'm by no means an expert, but I'm pretty sure they have pretty good chicken salad.  It would have been great with bacon on it.  I bet the bacon there is awesome.

So to wrap up.  Heavenly Ham - not my first choice of healthy spots but definitely can be healthy if you want it to be- and good sandwiches either way.  So go there... just don't get the ham... or do... either way.

Its good to be home.  But that doesn't mean I can't force one more Atlanta post on you.

We are only a few weeks away from the unveiling of the "Fattest States 2010" list.  Now both Louisiana and Georgia are bound to be on it but these states' fat strategies are very different.  What Louisianans manage to do with fried seafood in cream sauce, Georgians do with delicious, delicious quick service food.

Georgia must have the best quick service food in the country.  Just drive down any road in metro Atlanta and you'll find a Mecca of quick service food options.  Woven in among McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's and Taco Bell you find Chick-fil-a, and Waffle House, and Nathans and Firehouse Subs and Bruster's and Steak 'n' Shake and tons and tons of other options.

Today we look at three.  One fast food, one independent quick service and one glorious super market.

Zaxby's



Above is Zaxby's chicken finger sandwich.  I hear a lot of people (one guy, once) talking about who reigns superior when it comes to Zaxby's and Cane's.  Both are chicken finger spots but really they are pretty different.  Zaxby's offers a lot more options than Cane's, with a bunch of different salads and sandwiches.  Zaxby's is also a little cheaper I think.  Cane's has better chicken though so i guess that's probably what actually matters.

Dacula Dogs


Even more impressive than the chains, metro Atlanta is laden with great independently run quick service places that, for the most part, reside in little strip malls.  I counted 4 independent pizza places in less than a mile just driving around.  Dacula Dogs is a hot dog place pretty close to my house.   I can only think of one good hot dog place in the city (Coney Island Dogs up on Airline), but when me and my dad wanted to grab one the day after Christmas we had something like 5 options.  This place was great.  Fresh Vienna hot dogs on warm poppy seed buns... great stuff.

Publix


When I was a little kid I remember people protesting outside of Publix all the time.  Now I don't know what they were protesting about but I like to think it was people from other places protesting how good Publix Subs are.  These are the best grocery store subs I have ever had and in my top 3 sandwiches anywhere.  And I have made it clear in the past I think, that I love sandwiches.  Publix subs are fresh and substantial, and come on bread that is soft and chewy and amazing.

So Louisianans... If you are interested in getting fat and you want to do it faster and cheaper than you can here... head on up to Atlanta.  Its delicious there.

** 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.

A few weeks ago someone from Market Umbrella (the group that runs the Crescent City Farmers Market) came and spoke as part of a panel at Tulane. It was an interesting panel that discussed the importance of the availability of fresh organic foods to all socio-economic groups. It was interesting and informative and just inspiring enough to make me feel guilty for having skipped it the last... 20 weeks or so.

So when Kerry wanted to go this morning I tagged along even though its pouring rain and about 50 degrees outside. I'm actually still soaking wet while I write this post. I picked up a few things for dinner tonight but the best thing I picked up was this roasted pork and cucumber sandwich that was the Green Plate Special from Cochon.


Man was it good. So good I didn't mind standing in the rain to eat it. I had never really has the pork/cucumber combination before and I was a pretty big fan. Plus you got to appreciate the guys being out there in this weather. Though I'm not proud of it lots of time its the Green Light Special that gets me out to the market before the fresh produce and meats. So its good to see Cochon making the commitment in miserable weather.

There are very few things I miss about living in D.C. But one thing that I miss is having about 10 good delis within 4 blocks of work.

Now New Orleans has some great placed to get a sandwich. You have Cochon, St. James, Stein's, and the list goes on. But I haven't known of a ton of places to get a good club sandwich. Oh but did I find one.

Between the Bread is pretty great and it has a decent sized selection of sandwiches. Look how much thought this guy was putting into his choice.

Like I said I got the club. It was a classic triple decker with three meats and two cheeses and I looked like an idiot trying to take a bite out of it but I looked like a satisfied idiot.


And it was a pretty cool little cafe. I went in expecting to get it to go, but instead I sat up on the balcony on a couch and read New Orleans society magazines while I chowed down on this mammoth sandwich. I don't spend a lot of time in the working man's section of the CBD but I assume one day I will have to. Its good to know I won't have to go hungry.

'Hot Roast Beef Monday', bacon friends! We serve it with White Gravy + Provolone on a French Roll. And we got an Egg Salad on White.
11:03 AM Oct 26th from web
-Cochon Butcher

And that is how Cochon Butcher extracted $25 dollars from my wallet.

After a Twitter post like that how do you not make the trip to the Warehouse District for lunch?

I headed over and picked up the best sandwich I've had in a few weeks. Seriously, just look at the picture. Savory beef with bacon incorporated, cheese, soft chewy bread... No joke, those are probably 4 of my top 10 favorite things. Not favorite foods... favorite things.

But this post isn't just about a good sandwich. It's about a pound of Kurabuta Bacon too. On the way out after contemplating it for the forth time, I finally took the plunge and forked over the $12 for a pound of what I am sure is going to be delicious bacon.


So that's how one twitter post turned into $25 for Cochon Butcher. They really are one of the few establishments around that I think really use Twitter the right way. Not too much, not too little... they are the baby bear of Twittering restaurants. And I have to imagine it pays off for them.

There are plenty of NOLA restaurants I follow but don't read because they bombard me with 20 posts a day. Cochon does it right so when they post I read it- and often it leads to them making a few extra bucks and me drinking a Mexican Coke.

Who doesn't like fancy smancy deli's?

I know a post about Cochon Butcher isn't exactly breaking new ground. This place is written up more than Sucre.



But I hadn't been there yet (gasp!) and was looking for an excuse. Today nothing sounded better than sitting down with superior pork sandwich and watching some NASCAR.

After twitter requesting a twitter suggestion, the one NOLA Food Blog that actually follows us on twitter gave me the excuse I was looking for (I'm sure Blackenedout or Appetites would have responded with the same suggestion if they followed eatinginnola on twitter...).


So I went (has anyone tried the kurabuta bacon from there?) and got the BBQ Pork sandwich. It was awesome and it came with some potato salad which was awesome too and I'm not normally a potato salad guy.


The big this is this filled me up... more than filled me up really and all for less than Stein's... and you know how we feel about Steins on this blog.

St. James Cheese Shop is next on the list of sandwich places I need to try. I'm hoping its as good because I really need a good sandwich place that is Uptown.


OH OH, and I got a Mexican Coke. I love Mexican Coke.

So this is what I ate the last few days. You would be surprised how long 2 pounds of meatballs will last. It was my first time making meatballs. It was pretty easy. Just some beef, bread crumbs, egg, garlic, and basil.

I mixed it all up and then rolled them and put them in a pan until they looked like this.


And as you can see above I like meatball subs so I added some overpriced tomato sauce and made the sandwich you see above.


In the end it wasn't a bad first attempt. Plus like I said, they lasted a few days so it was a gift that kept on giving.

So in celebration of finishing our first year of our MBA we went right from our Process Modeling final to Milk Bar over on Prytania near Delachaise. It was our first time there and it was good. Its run by a few Australians who know how to make a Thai Chilli Chicken Po-Boy.



That's what we had and you can see the description above and the Po-Boy below. It was bug and was enough for about a meal and a half. It was an interesting combination but it really was as good as it looked.


AND they give you Chupa Chup with your sandwich... thats just classy.


And afterward we drove down to Creole Creamery and got some good stuff. Kerry got Cotton Candy Ice Cream because she said it reminded her of summer.


I got Bananas Foster. I know its a weird picture below but I noticed when I was uploading it it had a pretty good shot of the water meter.


So we are done with our first year, and this is around the 5 month aniversery of this blog. And it's someone's birthday today... stay tuned for the post about what we ate at my party last night.

We headed to Reginelli's Wednesday night before going over to The Bulldog to watch some of the Hornets game. Kerry said it best when she said that Reginelli's always sounds like a good idea, but nothing on the menu really turns out that great. Based on my first experience there, things aren't that great... I had the Baked Ham Sandwich...
When I read the menu I had a feeling it was going to be a little bit terrible. I was right. There were just a ton of flavors going on, and one of the flavors was mushy ham.


She fared better with the bread sticks and a Caprese salad. The bread sticks did come with some weird pepper sauce though, which I'm not going to attempt to explain.

In the end, everyone won, because we walked over to Bulldog and drank some beers and took home some glasses. By far my favorite bar special is Bulldog Wednesdays - buy a pint ($4-$5) and keep the ever changing (and often topical) glass. If you didn't know, now you know sucka.

Why not keep up the Italian theme?


For lunch the next day it was Gelato Pazzo Cafe. Can anyone guess why? That's right, because we read both Bouillie and Blackened Out. Plus, you've got to help out places who had their road literally torn out from underneath them (ahem, Oak Street... ok not literally... whatever).

We got a few paninis.



K Mitch got some with proscuitto, mozzarella, and pesto (I think... I'd ask her but she's fighting with a paper and presentation right now). I had a bite. Hers was better than mine.


I had one with Gulf Shrimp and mixed greens and pesto. It was pretty skimpy on the shrimp but I expected it. I don't really like mixed greens either but I guess that was my fault for ordering it anyway. Both were served with some pretty terrible pasta salad as well.

I think you know that normally I'm not such a Negative Neil about the things we eat. Just blame it on some sub-par meals... and I just finished the aforementioned presentation and paper about 10 min ago.

So every once in a while we eat at a place and I'm sure they aren't going to have a website. Normally I'm incorrect because it's 2009 and everyone has a website. But today I was right. La Macarena Pupuseria & Latin Cafe is websiteless but it has some real good Salvadorian food at what we thought was a fair price.

For example, here is Kerry's Pupusa lunch special, which was delicious and came with fried plantains and rice and beans and some slaw. For around $10 it was a good deal for some delicious food.

And I had this Latin Style Chicken Sandwich. It came with a salad and some Zapp's chips (which was kinda weird I guess). Not a ton of chicken on it but it was enough and it was chargrilled and good and there was some yellow sauce I can't really describe on it that I really liked. And I need to find out where they get their bread. $8.


We'll make it a short post. This place is on Hampson between Carrollton and the river and it really is worth a try. I've heard some complaints about what you get for your money at other places and maybe we just ordered well... but check it out for yourself.

Who says we just read Blackened Out and post on the same restaurant right after?

Whatever, neither Blackened Out or anyone at Stein's Market and Deli read this blog. (Correction: Blackened Out does! Thanks, guys. KMK) But I will admit after seeing the Blackened Out post on Stein's this this morning we were intrigued. There is nothing like the promise of a good cheese steak to get me a little further down Magazine Street than I'm used to.

Well I can't tell you how disappointed I was to arrive to the corner of Mag and Jackson and learn that Stein's only serves cheese steaks on Tuesdays. There were still some pretty good options though...

Like the BLT. That's what I ate. I guess it's hard to really screw up a BLT, but it's hard to really get it right as well. They got it right. Thinly sliced tomatoes, not too much lettuce or mayonnaise, and great bacon. I don't remember what kind of bacon, but I know it was a fancy kind because on the menu it didn't just say "bacon"... there was something else in front of it.


Kerry Mitchell had the Robert sandwich, with imported prosciutto and mozzarella and fresh balsamic vinegar. It was a little pricey for deli food, but incredibly good and worth the money according to her.


Oh, and they both came with two types of housemade pickles. We don't like pickles, but you can have them if you want. And we got the annual festival guide out of the Gambit to plan our upcoming adventures, so a pretty great lunch overall.

After a long stint at CC's on Magazine (we spared you the post... you're welcome) we needed some lunch before a grueling marketing class at three.

The weather here has been really fantastic lately so we decided on a meal outside at Cafe Rani (we normally don't link if there isn't a website but Cafe Rani has a pretty good lunch menu so I decided to break tradition... but seriously, get on it Cafe Rani). They have a great patio, which is rare on Magazine.

Kerry Mitchell went with the Cobb Club sandwich. We wondered why restaurants hadn't thought about this before... or at least enough restaurants for us to have seen it before. The description is below the picture.


Cobb Club

grilled breast of chicken, crisp bacon, roma tomatoes, diced egg, avocado and romaine lettuce topped with crumbled bleu cheese, served on fresh baked ciabatta

I went with a pretty standard club sandwich on a croissant but it was tasty and melty and I really did enjoy it. Both came with kettle chips.  Crunchy.

We drank normal tap water with it but they poured it in a recycled wine bottle, gave us lemon and poured it for us so it tasted fancy. Kerry liked it and she smiled.

... and this was one of those days. So we headed down to the Whole Foods at Arabella Station on Magazine.

The normal thing we do at Whole Foods is get the California Club, which is pretty great. You should get one the next time you're there. Turkey, bacon, avocado, some sun-dried tomato spread, probably some tomatoes on ciabatta and grilled up.

Either way, we get that and we split it.  Then normally we get some soup. This day we got sides from the hot bar at the deli instead. Kerry got the grilled vegetables which you can see below. You won't see my cheese and garlic mashed potatoes below because I ate them incredibly fast because they were the best mashed potatoes I have ever eaten.


The other thing we do is get good drinks to go along with it. Kerry got Pomegranate Limeade by Odwalla, and I got an Orangina.  Kerry doesn't like Orangina so I got to drink every sip of mine. She was nice enough, though, to let me have a sip of her limeade. I was appreciative.

And a funny side note - I just went to tag this post with the word "vegetables" and it was the first time we had used it... this is our 48th post.