Jacques-Imo's Café

New Orleans, Louisiana

Oh sweet victory. I've lived in New Orleans now for about four months and have not visited Jacques-Imo's Café until... now. Shame on me right? Albeit that my first visit was long overdue, I surely made up for it by going with a group of friends and trying a ton of different items from their extensive menu.

Jacques-Imo's is pretty unique compared to many other restaurants. It's rustic and full with New Orleans flare. In the entry way sits a bar decorated all around with paintings of famous buildings and areas in the French Quarter, brass bands and even the Saints quarterback Drew Brees. It's not every day that you get to take a peek into the kitchen, and here you actually get to walk right through it to get to the seating area.

Once you get seated, the hostess greets you with a nice plate of fluffy and buttery corn muffins, garnished with chopped parsley and fresh garlic.

As an appetizer we shared their ever so popular Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake. I have no idea how they make this thing, but it has got to be a must have when you come here. With each bite, you get a some serious flavor from the alligator sausage and a lot of the spices that are thrown in. The shrimp is just some extra lagniappe if you happen to get a piece with your fork full.

Here is another appetizer known as the Eggplant Jacques-Imo's. A tower of perfectly fried eggplant rounds smothered with a nice and creamy oyster dressing and wild mushroom cream sauce. This appetizer was pretty heavy, but also incredibly delicious.

Right before you get your entree's, they also give you a small baby spinach salad tossed with a soy based dressing, garnished with sesame seeds, and a wonderful fried oyster.

With each entree, you get the choice of two sides. Sides that can range from potatoes in any way possible all the way to, corn maque choux and country greens. Pictured here are four of the sides we chose: the Corn Maque Choux, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Coleslaw and Butter Beans and Rice

First entree was the Tuna with Oysters and Mushroom Sauce. The tuna was sushi grade, had a really nice sear all around the piece of fish and basically raw on the inside. The sauce draped over the top accompanied it very nicely. This picture is only half of the serving. A pretty nice thing that they do here is that if you tell them prior to ordering that it will be shared, they will plate it separately for you.

Here was a major highlight of the night, and it was the Grilled Duck Breast. The duck comes with an orange-soy glaze, shiitake mushrooms and pecans. The duck was cooked medium, and had a little bit of chew to it, but the orange-soy glaze took the cake. It brought a delicious Asian spin to it that unbelievably appetizing. I'm pretty sure you could serve it with any meat and make it taste good.

My entree of choice was the Roasted Boneless Stuffed Quail. You actually get two birds on one plate, and they're both wrapped in bacon. Not only that, they come stuffed with foie gras and served over a bed of nicely cooked mushrooms. Talk about a party in your mouth. The bacon wrapped around the quail gave it some extra fattiness for the meat that's generally lean. It also probably helped it to be very tender; enough to cut through it with your fork. And the foie gras stuffing was so good that they could probably have it served as an entree on its own.

A pleasant surprise was the dessert at the end of our meal. This was a trio of three small Chocolate Cheesecakes, Coconut Bread Pudding and Crème Brûlée. The cheesecake was surprisingly light but had a lot of depth in chocolate flavor. The bread pudding was covered with coconut shavings, but other than that, the flavor of coconut didn't overpower it at all. The Crème Brûlée was excellent. The custard was still nice and evenly chilled, and the torched sugar on top made a world of difference in sweetness and texture.

I highly recommend dining here, if you have the time and money. A ballpark price for each entree is around thirty dollars and certainly worth every penny. Make sure you make reservations ahead of time if you have a group of five or more. They tend to be busy all the time and you could be waiting a good bit for a table.

Jacques-Imo's Café - 8324 Oak Street New Orleans, Louisiana

http://jacques-imos.com/

Oak Street Po-Boy Festival

New Orleans, Louisiana
November 18th 2012

Well, here we go again. Back on Oak Street after a year of anxious waiting and hungry for some delicious po-boys. For some reason, this year's festival was unbelievably crowded from the start. So, my plan on knocking out the heavy favorites first was a total bust. I was ridiculously hungry, so I went for a sure thing and revisited Ninja for their Soft Shell Crab Po-boy. It was like being reunited with a long lost friend and their signature sriracha sauce was just as delicious as I remembered.

Next on my list was the 2011 Specialty Seafood winner. This Shrimp Remoulade Po-boy was done by The Ridge Bistro.

I was actually somewhat disappointed with this one. The flavor was pretty bland for a remoulade, and the main curve ball was that the shrimp was really cold. My sister enjoyed it because of the really light contrast from the heavy fried po-boys that were around. I was looking more for things that sit like a brick in your stomach.

This year's Best Seafood award went to Ralph Brennan's Red Fish Grill's BBQ Oyster Po-Boy. It was dressed with lettuce, red onion and fried oysters in their BBQ sauce. The BBQ sauce wasn't overpowering but very tasty and allowed to flavor of the oysters to play the main role in this one. Definitely well done.

Here is Mondo's Pastrami Po-boy, dressed with gruyere cheese and pickled slaw. The pastrami was good, and the slaw was really nice, but something about it made it a little too much on the salty side.

Here is the 2011 'Best of the Fest' Shanghai Shrimp Po-boy done by WOW Cafe and Wingery. Last year, I was so skeptic about them putting a po-boy out in the festival that I didn't even try theirs. When I heard that they won the top prize, it left me baffled. So, naturally I have to try the best one right? This po-boy comes with fried shrimp in their special sauce, ranch dressing and topped with an Asian slaw and lettuce. The shrimp was done pretty well , the sauce was certainly unique. It was a very mild buffalo flavored sauce with an Asian twist to it. The Asian slaw was the kicker here, and probably my favorite part.

Winner winner chicken dinner. Or, I really should say roast beef dinner. Here was the number one crowd pleaser of the festival, winning both the Best of Fest and Best Pork/Beef awards. All brought to you by Palace Cafe's Poutine-boy. This came with their roast beef, french fries and cheese curds. The fries and curds were buried under the hot roast beef, which eventually melts the cheese. The roast beef was nicely shredded and really juicy, and just full with good quality beef flavor. We added a touch of crystal sauce on it to give it some kick. And who doesn't love fries in their sandwiches?! Congrats to Palace Cafe.

Now, back to the Best of Fest winner of 2010. Yes, we went back for it and yet again the line was a block long! GW Fins' Fried Lobster Po-boy was pretty good this year, but not as amazing as I remember it. Maybe it was because they didn't try to live up to being the reigning champs, or maybe they were just running out of lobster (we got in line pretty late). Still a great po-boy though.

Last, but not least was the Fried Chicken Waffle Po-boy from Palate New Orleans. This was probably my favorite one of the day. It took my sister an hour long wait in line to get it too! It came with a nice crispy piece of boneless chick on top of a sweet potato waffle and some slaw. We got the combo as well, so it came with a side of Crawfish Mac and Cheese. The chicken was decent, and the waffle had a great cinnamon sweet potato flavor. The cole slaw took off some of the heaviness that came with the chicken. The Crawfish Mac and Cheese was pretty good too. I think it could have use a little more cheese but the crawfish flavor made it pretty awesome.


That was all I tried this year, and I'd say it was pretty successful festival. I did notice that it's better off to get po-boys as early as possible. Not because of the lines, but I could definitely tell that the po-boy bread at a lot of stands tend to get harder as the day goes on. Bring friends, and bring an empty stomach. I'll see y'all next year!

Ninja - 8433 Oak Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Ridge Bistro and Deli - 1827 Hickory Avenue, Harahan, Louisiana
Red Fish Grill - 115 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Mondo - 900 Harrison Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana
WOW Cafe and Wingery - 231 N. Carrollton, New Orleans, Louisiana
Palace Cafe - 605 Canal Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
GW Fins - 808 Bienville Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
Palate New Orleans - 8220 Willow Street, New Orleans, Louisiana

Willie Mae's Scotch House

New Orleans, Louisiana

In the heart of Treme rests a little restaurant known as Willie Mae's Scotch House, and they're known for their ever so famous fried chicken. Some even may say that it's hands down the best fried chicken that they've ever had. And this was my chance to finally get my hands on some.

For about 10 dollars you can get enough food to feed two people. A standard order of chicken comes with one large breast, a wing and a drumstick. It also comes with a side of your choice. I got an order of their fried chicken and a side of their red beans and rice. My friend did the same but with the white beans and rice instead.

When I took my first bite into the chicken, I couldn't believe how juicy it was. The skin was extra crispy and sealed in all the seasoning. The main difference between Willie Mae's fried chicken and anywhere else is their cooking method. They use a secret wet batter and fry it around 20 minutes. So, it takes a while for it to come out.

When peeling back the fried deliciousness, you can see the coat of seasoning around the outside of the meat, making each bite just as good as the next. Both the red beans and white beans and rice were about as they could be. We also somehow found room for a little bit of dessert and got their bread pudding. This too was very well done and added a sweet highlight to the end of our meal.

The chicken was the star of this show and was worth every penny spent. The service was a bit lackadaisical though, but yet again the chicken didn't make us care too much about that either. Now I know why food programs on the Food Channel and Travel Channel keep coming back here. So, if you haven't yet, take the trip out to Treme and eat the best fried chicken you'll ever get your hands on.


Willie Mae's Scotch House - 2401 Saint Ann Street, New Orleans, Louisiana

Mean Streak Tailgating: Joey 'BarbieMan' Harvey's Pastalaya and Gumbo

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Welcome to LSU game day in Baton Rouge. The place where thousands of loyal Tiger fans gather to party like rockstars, drink like fish, and eat like kings. Oh, and occasionally watch some good ole smash mouth SEC football. 

What goes behind the scenes at every tailgate are a handful of dedicated and loyal people that do things that allow them to separate themselves from the average tailgater, and lets them be a part of the greatest tailgating tradition in the country. This may include waking up at the crack of dawn to set up tents, ice down kegs, and setting up entertainment systems for not only LSU fans, but those from the opposing teams as well.

Sure, the Tiger faithful take pride in the ability that they can out-drink any other group of fans. But what we're really proud of, is the food that we consume every weekend. This... is when one of the more generous types of people come in. It's the guys or gals behind the grill, burner, pot or any cooking device. These people take the time to bust their humps to slave away in the hot Louisiana heat to prepare some good eats to level off some of the hangovers that are to come the next morning. They sacrifice a lot of their fun time to work and aren't even personally thanked for it most of the time...But they still love doing what they do and especially love to sit back see people enjoy their food. That my friends, is what LSU tailgating is all about. 

On this day, Mr. Harvey created some delicious pastalaya and chicken and sausage gumbo. Pastalaya is basically jamabalaya, but in noodle form. If you know someone that can pull it off, you're in for a real treat. This was ridiculously tasty. There was a ton of spices and pieces of delicious meats. So delicious that it may even sway a vegetarian's stance. 

People generally don't eat soup while the weather is warm... but not in Louisiana! Any weather, is gumbo weather. This gumbo had everything you'd want in it. Okra, chicken, sausage, you name it. You think gumbo is good by itself? How about trying it with some potato salad in it. Sounds crazy, I know. I have never heard of it before, but Joey claimed that people out in Lafayette do it and that it's pretty damn good. He was right. So, now if you have some extra potato salad laying around and a bowl of gumbo. Give it a shot. I added some Louisiana Hot Sauce in it and I was ready to rage for a few more hours til kickoff. Another successful day of eating in the books.

As always, the food was delicious and I can't wait for what shows up next.

Thanks Joey, and all the other hard working cooks and tailgaters out there in Tiger Nation. LSU tailgating would not be the same without y'all.

NOLA Restaurant

New Orleans, Louisiana

Everyone knows who Emeril Lagasse is and that the man can flat out cook, but it's always a task for his restaurants to live up to his name, now that he's one of these "celebrity chefs." I had the pleasure to dine in the second restaurant he opened in New Orleans, NOLA Restaurant.

This restaurant brings in many of the occasional New Orleans Creole dishes but some may come with a Cajun, Southwestern and even a Vietnamese flare to them.

First, they bring every person a nice corn muffin and this odd looking square bread. It was actually pretty good, there were definitely pieces of sun dried tomato in it and definitely made you ridiculously hungry.

Our reservation was really late so unfortunately they ran out of their popular Crispy Smoked Duck and Mushroom Boudin Balls. We asked out waiter what his favorite was and he said that he orders Miss Hay's Stuffed Chicken Wings with homemade Hoisin Dipping sauce, every time. We ordered them and were not disappointed in the slightest. They were fried perfectly and once you bite into them, you instantly get the Vietnamese twist to it. This came out of left field for sure, I was expecting some kind of sausage or other kind of stuffing but you could really consider this as a chicken wing dumpling. The homemade Hoisin sauce was delicious as well.




I came here with my aunt in cousins so I was fortunate to try all of their dishes as well. We had Pan Roasted Salmon with Herb Couscous, Ratatouille, Red Chili Raita and Preserved Lemon Butter Sauce. The salmon was cooked just the way we wanted it (more on the rarer side) and everything surrounding it was very flavorful.

I told my visiting family that someone absolutely had to try shrimp and grits, because they haven't had them before. NOLA Restaurant's Shrimp & Grits comes with Sauteed Gulf Shrimp, Grilled Green Onions, Smoked Cheddar Grits, Apple Smoked Bacon, Crimini Mushrooms and Red Chili-Abita Butter Sauce. The grits were nice and creamy as they should be, and I really enjoyed the size and flavor of the shrimp. The Red Chili-Abita Butter Sauce added some heat to it and ...who doesn't love big chunks of apple smoked bacon?

I decided to try the Abita Beer Braised Pork Shank. I was expecting maybe a small portion of cut up pork shank, and not this Fred Flintstone sized piece of meat. I was pleasantly surprised when this got sat in front of me. It comes with Fresh Field Pea Succotash, Housemade Bacon and Sheaux Fresh Farms Okra Sprouts. The pork had a very good braise done to it so every bite around the outside had a very nice sweet caramelization to it. On the inside, it was so tender that you could pull it apart with your fork. The Fresh Field Pea Succotash had a very nice earthy flavor that paired really well with the shank.

And last but not least, dessert. We didn't have enough room to each get something we wanted so we decided to split the Creme Brulee Trio. One was Vanilla Bean with Fresh Berries, the other was Coconut with a Coconut Truffle and the third was Mocha with a Chocolate-Almond Biscotti. They were all pretty rich in flavor, and I really liked how the coconut brulee wasn't overpowering with coconut flavor.

We had a great time here, I really enjoyed the casual-fine dining atmosphere and the food lived up to the Emeril standard. I recommend on making a reservation here if you need a good place to eat in the Quarter.

NOLA Restaurant - 532 St. Louis Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.emerilsrestaurants.com/nola-restaurant

Cochon Butcher

New Orleans, Louisiana

There comes a time where everyone should take in a deep breath, and enjoy a deliciously prepared sandwich with some excellent choices of meat. When you first walk in the doors of Cochon Butcher, you are immediately lifted to the high heavens with the aroma of... well... meat. Once you get back down to reality, you realize that you have to order something, and maybe everything.

Here, I decided to go with everyone's guiltiest pleasure... bacon. This is their Buck Board Bacon Melt. It comes with a copious amount of deliciously smoky sliced bacon, collard greens, swiss cheese and pickled pepper aioli. The bread comes nicely buttered and pressed to make a delicious sandwich. It also comes with a side of their potato chips, and sliced pickles.

You certainly get a mouthful of bacon in every bite, just like how all great sandwiches should be. Very rich and full with smoky flavor. The pepper aioli pairs really well with it. They also have a couple hot sauces that go with the sandwich pretty well too, if you're into that kind of thing. The sweet potato habanero sauce was my favorite, sweet and a big spicy kick at the end.

My friend ordered the BBQ Pork sandwich, because she's a huge fan of the Carolina style. Carolina style BBQ is more geared towards the vinegary flavor, so it has a clean bite to it. It came topped with coleslaw on a big fluffy bun. It too came with a side of their chips and sweet buttery pickle slices.

Overall, we enjoyed the experience a ton and definitely plan on coming back again. Beware that seating is pretty limited. We came at a very arbitrary hour and it was still very, very busy.

Cochon Butcher - 930 Tchoupitoulas Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.cochonbutcher.com/