How I ate my way through New Orleans

“Nola, Nola, NOLA.” The phrase keeps looping in my head as my flight touches down in New Orleans. For those unfamiliar with the reference y’all need to check out this clip. I’ve just landed at MSY for a week long work conference and though I’m dreading being away from my bed, my man, and my home (in that order), I couldn’t pick a better place to be required to spend a week. Mainly, I’m excited to eat my way through the vast, incredible, incomparable New Orleans food scene. This is shocking to you, I know.

Jack and I had the pleasure of finding ourselves in NOLA over a long weekend in December and we made the most of our time eating, enjoying 70 degree weather at Christmas time, exploring the French Quarter and eating a bit (a lot) more. I know from this experience that Cafe du Monde and Commander’s Palace must be repeated. Unfortunately for Jack, his ass is still in Portland and he’s only slightly resentful that he’s missing out on the food fun this time around. Luckily for me, my boss is a BOSS and loves grubbing on good food as much as I do. She has her own agenda of “must do’s” and I couldn’t be more thrilled to test them out.

First stop: Drago’s, located just inside the Hilton Riverside, known for it’s Charbroiled Oysters and all things seafood. Now, I’m not really an oyster kind of girl. I caught major flack for this living in DC, but there’s something decidedly NOT appealing about putting this slimy, wet, slippery thing in one’s mouth…

Oysters pre-grill

I’ll leave it at that. Anyways, I was dining solo so I snagged a seat at the bar that happened to sit directly on the oyster prep and grill area. 5 minutes later and I’ve made friends with the chefs and they’re telling me I simply MUST try one. I’m skeptical but the oysters smell incredible, and they’re doused in gluttonous amounts of a garlic herb butter sauce and Parmesan cheese so I’m sold pretty easily. One whole swallowed oyster later and I’m suddenly a believer in the smoky, butter drenched oysters. Other dishes to try: Crescent City Shrimp.

Next up, Cafe Du Monde. Beignets and Cafe au Laits literally 24 hrs a day. Cash $$$ only NOLA tradition- The BEST.

K-Paul’s! Unbeknownst to me, my boss planned a small group dinner for us here on our second night and God Bless her for doing so. Paul Prudhomme (the “Paul” in “K-Paul”) was most recently featured on the last season of  Top Chef, and is basically the King of NOLA/Creole cuisine and a legend in his own right. K-Paul’s claims to have invented/perfected the “blackening” technique and I have to say after eating the Louisiana Blackened Drum I don’t disagree. Everything everyone ate here was a hit. Even the house salad with the green onion dressing and the chocolate cake that signaled to me I needed to undo the top button of my skirt. Note to self, no more high waist skirts/pants/dealings at dinner in New Orleans. We’re talking Empire waist dresses from here on out so I got room to breathe!!!  This place is casual, but pricey. Let’s just say I was happy work was picking up the tab on this one…

You want gumbo, and you want it fast. Enter the Gumbo Shop. This place is a jam. They have a teeny, tiny courtyard and a nice big, old school dining room. I walked in, sat down, and in 3 minutes had a bowl of seafood gumbo and loaf of french bread in front of me. The only problem I had with this place is that I quickly realized I was a gumbo novice when I saw not one, but two, two! pieces of hard shell crab floating atop my gumbo goodness taunting me. Quick! What’s my game plan? Fork or spoon? I made two attempts, splattering my napkin and myself during both (I’ve always been a messy eater but damn). I was rewarded with an insultingly small piece of crab. I ate the rest of the bowl and cut my losses with those not so little a$$hole crabs! PS- this place won’t break the bank and they have a Chicken & Andouille version (beware, like the crab, they are monster pieces of Andoullie to be reckoned with) and a Gumbo Z’Herbes that happened to be vegan on the day that I visited.

BAM! How could we do NOLA and not do Emeril’s? Our team snuck away to Emeril’s first restaurant for a charming, white table cloth bangin lunch.  The folks at Emeril’s now how to make a person feel special. You get THREE dinner (lunch) rolls to yourself to start the party off right- sweet potato roll, cornbread muffin and some herb-y delicious thing. At first I thought we had to share these tiny, baby rolls and I was NOT pleased. Sharing is not my strong suit when it comes to food (right JHH?!) so when they brought out the additional plates of rolls I was in love. Emeril is the MAN. I had his cookbook in middle school, watched his show and yelled “BAM!” like it was my job and made my mother take me to his Fish house in Vegas when I still refused to eat fish. When I ate his “char-grilled Kale salad with boiled peanuts, pickled watermelon with crab” and some other ridiculousness my love for Emeril grew even more. You don’t find a whole lot of Kale in New Orleans and Kale for lunch can totally= peanut butter chocolate oreo cake for dessert. Win, win y’all. Also order the BBQ shrimp x 5.  Added bonus: the restaurant is located on Tchoupitoulas street. And how fun is it to say that word? (Chop-ah-two-las). Say it out loud!! I’m serious.

Meat, meat, and more meat. Cochon Butcher (no guidance on how to pronounce that one since I’m positive I’m still not saying it right) is simply put, decadence at its best. Emeril says their muffaletta is the best in town (he told me this personally). I thought that’d be too much meat for my taste so I ordered the collard green bacon melt instead. Who knew that a “bacon melt” meant 10-12 slices of bacon piled high? Not me! Not that I was sad about this or anything… There will be a line out the door but they move fast, are SO nice and their cookies are incredible. Go there now and bring me back my bacon melt please.

Save the best for last. Commander’s Palace, sigh. I think that this may be my favorite restaurant in the world. It’s located in the heart of the Garden District complete with a delightful, airy courtyard with dangling string lights, flora and fauna and Koi fish. With a resume that includes Paul Prudhomme and Emeril as executive chefs (I mean, COME ON), this place is the definition of swank. The service is great and the food is mind blowing-ly good. It doesn’t matter what you order because it’s all that good and it’s worth the coin. Bonus: at lunch they do 25 cent martinis if you order an entree. Hands down, this would be my last meal.

3 days returned from my week of indulgence finds me feeling more than satisfied. And, aware that it’s nothing but green juice and smoothies and nuts and things for now so that my body doesn’t hate me for life. Thanks for tuning in about all things food. Now, go to NOLA and experience some of the magic.

Mbale Eats Yo!

Let me begin by first stating that normally I am righteously against posting pictures of my food. Food is art, food tastes great… I just don’t need to photograph it as long as I’m eating it. I leave food photography to the professionals. Before you jump down my throat (Annie Wells I’m looking at you!) I’m really not trying to hate, it just ain’t my thing. For this post, God help me, I’ve made an exception. First, some background info.

We are lucky enough to have a cook named Medina who throws down in the kitchen at the Casa. Both our breakfast and dinner are provided for us daily, and as a group of 11, Medina has her work cut out for her. She lives up to the challenge. Our dinners at home are made up largely of rice, “irish” aka potatoes that are either boiled or boiled and mashed, chapattis, cooked cabbage, chopped avocado, an accompaning fruit that’s generally watermelon (with seeds) and/or pineapple. The main dish is generally a stewed variety of meat (goat), cowpeas or beans. This food wonderful, just a bit repetitive. One night one of the 1000 Shillings ladies, Esther, gifted the fellows with a chicken whom they named Franklin. Franklin had a sweet, but short life. Franklin’s death was not in vain, the stew he created that we feasted on was to die for (no pun intended). I’ll spare you the pics of Franklin’s demise… Sometimes, if we’re feeling inspired, we band together to make guacamole because it’s HELLA delicious and we can easily find all the necessary ingredients. Breakfast is mandazis (doughnuts!), eggs in the boiled or fried forms, toast, gnuts (peanuts) and milk tea, mzungu tea (tea with water) and coffee.

Indian and East African food dominate the restaurant scene with a few American imitation items here and there. If you ever happen to find your way here, hit up Kapwata for food from the locals, Delicious Dish for off the chain Indian food, Chat & Chino for imitation mzungu food and awesome milkshakes and any street vendor for a chapati/rolex or jackfruit. Mbale’s got some solid eats and we thought it would be worth it to share them with you.

Bananas all day errday. Breakfast, snack, lunch, whatever. They come big, small, red, green, sweet and sweeter. Banana diversity is alive and well here in Uganda. God bless Bananas.

Milk tea. Tea w/ milk. It’s so good that Jack Henry will even drink it at 12 noon on a sweltering hot day in a crowded restaurant. Think spicier ginger/chai tea.

Alvaro juice aka pineapple juice. Delicious. Passionfruit juice is equally good.

Heaven–whichever way you go. Beans & chapati or beans & rice. 1,700 UGX, the equivalent of .60 cents. I eat this on the reg at Kapwata. 7up was a special treat, glass bottles are somehow more enticing.

Jack’s daily special. Beans & meat (goat) & rice & greens. Also at Kapwata. You’ll have to jump to the next pic for a view of the fried rice & greens he jams on.

Fried rice w/ greens. This was an action shot, can you tell?!

Roasted maize! Distinctly different taste than American corn, almost like they’re cousins, but there’s no funny biz like GMO’s. Suck on that, Monsanto!

Masala chips. RC, myself, Jack, the fellows and just about any other human being with a brain adores these. French fries in masala sauce with peppers, tomatoes and onions. Faces are best stuffed with these via toothpicks.

George’s chicken at the Pavement Pub complete with matooke (cooked green banana) and brushetta minus the toast. This is a far cry from our monster sized, hormone filled, GMO fed chickens at home. This skinny little bird has minimal thigh meat because it’s hormone free & naturally raised. It may have even still been clucking when we ordered it.

Jackfruit! It comes from street vendors in both yellow and orange varieties and tastes like a party in your mouth. We plan on smuggling seeds home and planting a tree in our backyard. Get excited.

Garlic. Naan.

The one and only. We, of course, borrowed these bottles for display. #codeofconduct

H20. From this bottle, all the time. Don’t even think about sipping from the tap! Good thing JHH is here to haul this biz around.

Meet the Rolex. Not to be confused with the time telling device back home. A rolex is Jack Henry’s dream as it comprises a chapati, a fried egg and some onions or tomato if you’re lucky. Noah our chapati man hooks this up on the reg. Note** this is a rolex pre roll.

And last but not least, THE snack of snacks, avocados as big as your FACE. Delicious & nutritious.