Restaurant Review #6: New Orleans

I recently returned from a weekend in New Orleans; all of the food was so good, I couldn't settle on just one place. NOLA is full of restaurants and cafes...and oh yeah, they've got a few bars, too. The weather was not very forgiving, as it monsooned 80% of the time I was there, but it didn't rain on our parade.

Beer tap water fountain.

One of the great things about New Orleans is that every place serves alcohol (including bakeries and cafes) and has a (three-hour) happy hour with amazing deals (from free appetizers to half-off alcohol). The first stop on the culinary streetcar was Il Posto. This is a tiny rustic Italian cafe...picture a cafe effortlessly decorated with distressed mirrors and old dining room chairs. They have quite the selection of cheese and cured meats. Every sandwich comes with a salad tossed with a very light lemon vinaigrette. The multigrain bread contained poppy seeds which added an extra crunch--poppy seeds in loaf bread was a first for me, but I loved it.

Stop two was Sucre; the bakery at which my friend worked for a short while. It also serves alcohol and "adult" milkshakes. They have exotic chocolates (we sampled the candied violet chocolate), desserts that rival the pastries in Harrod's display cases, gelato, and macarons just like the ones I had in Paris. My friend loves the avery, a caramel-filled dark chocolate topped with sea salt. They package the individual chocolates in a tiny pink purse for safe travels. Adorable. I also had to see if the macarons were as good as France's...New Orleans is, after all, the Paris of the States. The almond one was perfect.

Dinner was a happy hour special--half-priced pizzas and beer and wine--at Domenica, an Italian restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel in the central business district. It's a John Besh restaurant--he's a NOLA native and a James Beard winner. The ambiance was upscale, but the menus that doubled as placemats made it feel more homey. The pizza picks were the MUSHROOM (mushrooms, bacon, onion, and a broken poached egg in the middle) and CALABRESE (salami, mozzarella, capers, and olives), and we paired it with the Chianti...not for the sheer reason that is was the cheapest of the wines on the list...the pizzas were $6.50 during happy hour! What a steal. The crust was thin and crispy, and they were obviously hand tossed, as the shapes they took were rather organic. And I must say, egg and pizza are a surprisingly successful pair.

Old-school Britney...there was a little bit of everything...

We had time to kill before the Britney Spears concert--yes, I said Britney "Oops-I-Did-It-Again" Spears--so we got dessert. The peach cake with salted-caramel sauce and raspberry sorbet definitely sent us over the edge, but we were able to dance it off at Britney. Side note, I've never seen so many rompers in one place in my entire life. No lie. Not even on the racks at Forever 21.

It finally stopped raining, so we were able to sit outside.

Saturday, we had later lunch and that turned into a pub crawl. I was told I had to go to two places in NOLA, and Pat O'Briens, lovingly called Patty-O's, was a must. This, luckily, was stop number one on the pub crawl. I couldn't just go and take in the ambiance with any old drink...I had to order a Hurricane--all 28 ounces of it. So here's photo documentation for all of you who hounded me about getting a hurricane at Pat O'Briens.

Oh, I forgot, one of the other things about NOLA is that some restaurants are BYOB. GLORIOUS. We went to Lebanon's for dinner on Saturday. It was authentically decorated and served traditional Middle Eastern food. The hummus...oh the hummus...it was like velvet. I got the chicken tecka that came with a salad and hummus and pita. I couldn't attempt to eat one-third of it, but it was so delicious and full of garlic. fortunately, everyone's dish was equally as potent...at least I'm hoping I was in good company. And the chicken was cooked so slowly that it was fork tender. The red wine we brought was a perfect pairing--who knew!

Sunday began with brunch at Satsuma in the Metarie--a sort-of alternative, crunchy, grungy district of New Orleans. It is populated with "shotgun houses" (one-story, narrow, and long) painted with any combinations of colors you can imagine, and we drove down Desire Street, but sadly, there's no longer a Streetcar Named Desire. Satsuma is decorated with local art and serves as many local ingredients as they can source. Brunch hit the spot. I snagged a bite of the peaches and cream pancake; all I have to say is buttery deliciousness. I had the Green Breakfast Sandwich which was whole wheat bread housing avocado mash, arugula, and a scrambled egg. The also squeeze their own juice concoctions, so of course, I got the watermelon one--watermelon lemonade!

My wonderful host made dinner on Sunday before we went to see Woody Allen's newest, Midnight in Paris, at a swanky movie theatre. We had sauteed onions, spinach, and white beans over whole wheat pasta. After the movie, we walked past Jackson Square to Cafe du Monde (second and final stop on my unanimous must-see NOLA list).

We got beignets--the french doughnut drowning in powdered sugar. It. Was. So. Good. I said it was like a funnel cake, but I was corrected. I still stand by the fact that it tastes a bit like that, but a little more doughy, because less of the surface area is fried. It still has a similar flavor. They also have famous a famous cafe au lait, but it was already 10:00 at that time. Had I ordered a cup, I would have been up until I needed to leave for the airport at 4:45. After the beignets had been devoured (mostly by me...hey, I'm only in New Orleans once in a blue moon), we all felt like we had powdered sugar from ear to ear, yet somehow we managed to leave unscathed.

Here ends my culinary tour of New Orleans, and I am sure I only saw one-hundredth (or less) of what the city has to offer! There were adorable cafes on every corner--literally. There are so many phenomenal and unique restaurants from which to choose that you rarely have to wait for a table unless you're going to one of the notable New Orleans stops. If you ever get a chance to go, please do so. It is a lively city, and I'm pretty sure it could give New York a run for it's money for the title "The City the Never Sleeps." Everyone is so laid back, too. So much spirit lies within the people and the place itself that you can't help but enjoy yourself, even when it is constantly vacillating between torrential downpour and overcast. It also helps when you have a great host who knows exactly what you like and who has lived in the city long enough to know where the hidden gems (and tourist spots) are located. I know I would not have had the same experience had I seen the city through anyone else's eyes. Everyone start planning your trip to NOLA. No matter who you are--history buff, bar hopper, food lover--you will find plenty of ways to pass the time in the Big Easy.

Blueberry and/or Peach Pie

It seems everywhere I turn, there are gluten-free people in my life. I admire then, but I don't envy them one ounce. And yes, people, manufacturers, and restaurants are doing magnificent things with rice flour, xanthum gum, chickpea flour, but no matter how hard they try, it just isn't the same. There's nothing like a crusty french loaf, a gooey chocolate chip cookie, or a fresh pot of pasta. This is one thing, however, that rivals it's gluten-ridden equivalent.

There was a gluten free guest at the lake this weekend, and I decided to test a recipe I found. Of course, I tweaked a bit. We had a make-your-own pizza night complete with a GF pizza--crust made entirely of cheese! We followed our pizza pies with a fruit pie.

It was a huge hit...it also took a huge hit. We had about half of it the first night and decided not to have seconds, so that we could have some the next day. Well, the lake refrigerator is small, VERY small. It's not a college-size fridge, but it's certainly not a standard-size fridge, so objects get precariously stacked and shifted. I was moving things around to get to something that was stored behind and under everything, and well, it slid off the butter that was balanced on the grapes that was sitting on the blueberries and smashed on the floor. I even cut my foot on the glass from the antique pie plate. I was bummed that the pie plate shattered; I was bummed that I cut my foot, but I was the most bummed the pie was gone!

Since several didn't get to try the pie, I knew I had to make another one for the second lake weekend. The farm stand had freshly picked peaches, so we went with that. I honestly liked the peach a bit better. The crust is made of almonds and honey, and the filling has fruit, more honey, lemon juice, a shot of alcohol, and corn starch. That's pretty much it! There are so few ingredients, you can eat this for breakfast without feeling guilty--if you hold the whipped cream.

Crust:
2 cups almond flour (MYO: take blanched or raw almond slivers and pulse in the food processor until it is finely ground)
1/3 c honey

Mix the honey and almond flour. Press into a greased pie dish.

Filling:
4 cups fresh fruit of your choice (blueberries, peaches, strawberries, etc.)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 t salt
4 T cornstarch
1/4 c water
2 t lemon juice
1 shot amaretto, peach brandy (optional)

Place the prepared (washed and sliced, if necessary) fruit in a medium-size pot along with the honey and salt. While that is starting to simmer, mix the cornstarch and water. Pour that into the pot with the fruit; add amaretto and lemon juice.

It will begin to thicken after a few minutes. Once the juices begin to solidify, remove from heat and cool for a little. Once it had cooled for about 30 minutes, pour into the pie crust.

Whipped cream:
2 cups whipping cream
1/3 cup honey
pinch salt
dash vanilla

Whip the cream just a little in a clean, dry metal or glass bowl. Once it starts to take form, add the honey, salt, and vanilla. Whip to your desired stiffness. You may top the pie with it now, or store in a metal container and top it as you slice it--that's what we did.

This pie is so good--glutens and non-glutens alike loved it. Make it and let me know what you think...just don't waste it on the floor, and store it (safely) in the fridge.

Lemon Meringue Pie Bars

The past two weekends, I have been at the lake--cooking, eating, playing spades, skiing, boating, and floating. The cabin was FULL, and the kitchen is SMALL. Needless to say, it wasn't the best set up to pictures of the five dishes I was simultaneously cooking for each meal. Had I remembered to take pictures, all you would have seen was a huge mess. This post, therefore, will be minimalist. I only have one picture of these bars, and it's of my plate after I had already taken a bite out of it. Hey, it's better than no post at all!

My mom and another of the house guests are huge lemon fans. Last weekend, my mom made her famous lemon bars, and of course, they didn't last until this weekend. After the second weekend at the lake, we were able to convince one of the guests--the lemon lover--to stay just one more night with us in town. We went to town (first unpacking and doing laundry) cooking. They started with chicken fettuccine alfredo (with a hint of pesto!), and we just had to bake something. My partner in crime wanted something lemon, clearly, and while we found a lemon meringue pie recipe, we didn't have the stamina left after skiing to stand over a double boiler.

After finding a box of graham crackers in the cabinet, we decided to use that for a crust that would be topped with the filling from Mom's lemon bars...followed by meringue. Voila! Everything we wanted in one.

Crust:
10 graham crackers/one sleeve, crushed (tip: toss them in a gallon bag and smash them with a rolling pin or wine bottle)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted (I know...just do an extra crunch or two before you go to bed)

Toss crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a greased  9" x 13" pan..

Filling:
12 oz. cream cheese, softened (1.5 packs)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 eggs
zest and juice from one lemon
pinch salt

Beat the cream cheese before adding any ingredients so that it is easier to work with. Add the powdered sugar in tow batches so it doesn't snow all over the kitchen. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon zest, juice, and salt. Place on top of the unbaked crust and bake for about 25 minutes or until the filling is set. Cool to room temperature. You may even put them in the refrigerator until the next day if you don't have time to make the meringue then.

Meringue:
5 egg whites
1 t cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar

Once the bars have cooled, start your meringue. Separate the eggs. Place the whites in a CLEAN, DRY, METAL, or GLASS bowl. NOTE: egg whites (and cream) do not whip in plastic bowls or bowls that haven't been thoroughly washed and dried. Beat the whites and cream of tarter on medium-high until they are frothy. Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time with the beater on high speed. They are finished once stiff peaks form.

Spread this over the completed bars. Broil it just until the meringue starts to brown. That's it! Cut and eat immediately. Store in the refrigerator.