Eating Our Way Through NOLA

We just got back from a really glorious trip to New Orleans. I used to go every summer for work but hadn't been back since the year before the hurricane, Matt on the other hand has never been. It was a little more humid & hotter then we had hoped for in early May but that didn't stop us from eating & drinking our days away.

It was lunchtime when we arrived on Sunday so we wandered the French Quarter & ended up at The Alpine where we split a Shrimp Po' Boy for lunch. Your very typical po'boy with the nice soft roll & mayo. Our waiter was very nice & actually bought us two Abita's to go to say sorry for the Saints beating the Vikings during the championship game.

We stayed at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans. The hotel is the home to the Sazerac Bar where the Sazerac cocktail was created. Matt couldn't resist trying one before dinner. After a sip I decided rye is not my thing & I was happy with my pear vodka cocktail.

For dinner that night I had chosen Emeril's NOLA in the French Quarter. My boss used to take us there for dinner every year & I knew Matt would enjoy the contemporary Creole cuisine. We started dinner by sharing & amazing crab cake then I had duck breast over sweet potato spaetzle while Matt had shrimp & grits. Dessert was so good! I had a Banana Pudding Layer Cake but Matt had the star of the show the Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie with Sweet Potato Ice Cream. I think he would have been happy with just the ice cream & we'll be trying to copy it this summer for sure.

Lunch on was supposed to be a muffuletta at the Central Grocery but they were closed on Monday so we ended up getting one at the Napoleon House instead. That was fine with me because it was a perfect excuse to also have a Pimm's cup...or two.

For Monday night's dinner Matt chose John Besh's Lüke, a Franco-German brasserie. We couldn't resist the charcuterie patter for a starter, it was really wonderful & I highly recommend it. I had the pasta with crispy pork belly & clams for my main dish. The pork belly was wonderful, I just wish there had been more of it & less of the pulled pork. Matt had the crab ravioli. We were disappointed to hear our waiter tell the next table not to order it because it wasn't very good after he'd just served it to us! Luckily Matt liked it though we both thought the pasta, which was obviously homemade, was a little too thick & chewy. For dessert we shared a classic bread pudding.

Tuesday night we ended up at the Acme Oyster House for dinner. We waited in the line that snakes out front every night for a table but were able to get seated quickly by agreeing to sit at the bar. We started with boiled crawfish & charbroiled oysters. The crawfish were spicy & juicy (perfect for sucking out the heads) though I was disappointed by how many were missing their meaty tails. Matt loved the oysters calling them creamy & delicious. We followed that up with a bowl of crawfish etouffee and shrimp gumbo. Both were good but overshadowed by the starters.

For dessert we went for a New Orleans classic, beignets at Cafe du Monde. I love going there in the evening when you have less crowds fighting for a table & you can just sit & enjoy your coffee with chicory & those hot sugary donuts.


For our last morning we splurged with breakfast at Brennan's & I mean splurge, if you eat here plan to spend as much on breakfast as you would on a fancy dinner out with wine. We went for the three course breakfasts & mimosas. Matt started with onion soup & I had the Southern baked apple in double cream (it was like dessert for a starter!). For the main course Matt had Eggs Owen which were poached eggs over roasted beef hash, though it was more like pulled beef than a hash. I had the Eggs Portuguese, which was eggs & a sweet tomato sauce in puffed pastry with hollandaise, wonderful! Brennan's is known for Banana's Foster so that is what I had for dessert & Matt had the Crepes Fitzgerald. Both are flambéed for you to watch. It was so good but hard to finish after the other two courses. The Food Network was there filming while we were there eating for a special about the ten best dessert so it'll be fun to see that when it airs.

We really had a great trip. The people of New Orleans were just so welcoming & friendly everywhere we went from waiters to shopkeepers to the New Orleans police.

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