LOUISIANA: NEW ORLEANS CUISINE

 November 6-10, 2019 

You know, it just seems WRONG to write a post on food that my husband was not there to eat with me.  Usually I rely on his food photos, at least in part, for my blog because he is so much more obsessive about taking pictures of food than I am. I didn't have that option this time, and I can tell. My food pictures are a little sparse. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I ate all of my meals away from the hotel--well, except for the very last one. It was my goal to 1) eat local dishes and 2) not gain ten pounds. The goal first was easy, the second was hard. The criteria for my choices of dining establishments were that they had to be within walking distance of my conference and they had to get at least four stars on Yelp. Olde Nola Cookery looked like a good place to begin.

I ordered redfish etouffée, which the menu defined as "Fresh Gulf redfish blackened then topped with crawfish etouffée. Served with vegetables and red beans."  My vegetable was collard greens. Delicious.

Amorino's Gelato Al Naturale was practically across the street from my hotel, which met the requirement of being within walking distance. In fact, if I hurried, I could go between conference sessions multiple times each day. (Not a good choice if you don't want to gain ten pounds in four days. Oh well.)

About the only place I remember visiting from our trip to New Orleans 15 or 16 years before was Cafe du Monde, the most famous place in the city to buy beignets. Of course, I had to go there to see if warm, greasy beignets drenched in powdered sugar were as good as I remembered.  They were. So where is my photo of them? If you've ever held a bag of warm beignets in your hand, you know that photography is not what you are thinking about. 

Of course, on my way back to California I had to visit the Cafe du Monde in the airport to see if the quality was the same as the flagship store. It was pretty close, but it lacked the atmosphere.

One day I strolled through the French Quarter looking for a place to eat. Mambo's gets 4.5 stars on Yelp. Okie dokie.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.  This was delicious.  That is oyster po-boys on the right and fries smothered in crawfish etouffée on the left. The latter was like Cajun poutine. Wowser.

It was so good that I'm going to give you a super close-up.  (Do you wanna go to New Orleans, Bob?)

Another 4.5 star restaurant I went to was the Gallier Restaurant and Oyster Bar.

I hadn't had gumbo yet, so I ordered the "Taste of New Orleans," which included a cup of gumbo, a cup of red beans and rice, and a cup of crawfish etouffée. (Can you tell I like etouffée?)

I liked this restaurant so much that I went back a second time and ordered the barbecued shrimp and grits. I love shrimp and grits, but the barbecue sauce was a little much for me. 

I ate my last meal at the Roux Bistro, the signature restaurant in the hotel. I had eggs benedict and grits. Pretty darn amazing.

New Orleans cuisine is worth taking a trip for. Of course, there are things to avoid:

However, if you hold true to the city's food mottos (see below), you'll be just fine.

So Bob, I'm sorry if this makes you hungry or jealous or both. There is an easy answer--let's go to New Orleans.