Squeal BBQ

New Orleans, Louisiana
It's Mardi Gras in The Big Easy, I'm hungry and tired from traveling. Me and a couple of friends end up on Oak Street only to find that our favorite sushi place, Ninja, is closed. Luckily there's a glimmer of hope to satisfy our hunger needs just across the street. That place, is Squeal Bar-B-Q.

We've heard good things about this place but never tried it. First off, we had no idea that it was a sit-down restaurant. We stumble in there like a few clumsy fools trying to find an order window. We eventually get our bearings down and get seated. It's a nice quiet place, pretty small too. Just from walking outside you get smacked by the aroma of smoking meats so it probably made us want to eat more than we could really handle.

We get the menu which is clamped onto a piece of wood, pretty neat. As an appetizer, we chose to get the 1/2 order of the Squeal Nachos which come with white cheddar cheese on top of pulled pork, jalapenos and black beans. The salsa and sour cream came on the side. Just from the looks of it, you would think that it may be the best nachos ever made. As I started to dig into them, everything tasted great by itself but it seemed to be missing something for me. I'm pretty sure if it came with their BBQ sauce it would've made it better. Although their nachos weren't as good as I thought they were going to be, the pulled pork was amazing. They were certainly generous with their portions. Some pieces came with the really dark char on the ends that I really like too.


This is what I ordered for my entree. A beef brisket sandwich with their signature BBQ sauce and two sides. I had to try their coleslaw and their corn maque choux.

Corn maque choux is a traditional dish of Southern Louisiana, it contains corn, tomato, green bell pepper and onion. These ingredients are braised in either oil, butter, cream or even bacon fat. Then it's simmered down until it reaches a tender consistency.

Before I even touched my sandwich I took a bite of each side. The maque choux had a very creamy corn taste when you first take your first bite, then you get the spice as it goes down. It was very good, as far as corn goes. The coleslaw on the other hand, hardly tasted like anything. No pepper or any kind of zing. I was sadly disappointed, but I had bigger plans for it. I started eating my brisket sandwich and the quality of the beef was unreal. It was very, very tender. There are times where the fat of an animal should not be a focal point of the meat. Brisket is one of those, but you could tell that the fat that ran through the brisket tenderized it to perfection. Well, I couldn't just waste my coleslaw, so I piled it on top as if I were eating a pulled pork sandwich. I saved the coleslaw's day. The BBQ sauce was just some extra lagniappe, both spicy and sweet at the same time. My pet peeve with sandwiches has always got to go down to the bread. This sandwich was placed on some type of bun/roll that was pretty good. I don't know how some bakers do it, but I love it when the crust cracks but yet stays together at the same time.

This meal was definitely the jump start we all needed to make it back to Baton Rouge.

Squeal Bar-B-Q - 8400 Oak Street, New Orleans, Louisiana
http://www.squeal-nola.com