This weekend was my first trip to the Southern part of the United States. I'd decided on an impulsive trip to New Orleans and booked it on a whim a few weeks ago. My impression of what New Orleans would be like was a wonderful mental collage of garish Mardi Gras costumes; Moulin-Rouge-style prostitutes in the bars of old Western movies; dark Jazz bars filled with smoke and potent cocktails; big grand plantation homes; Voodoo; the paddle boats from the opening credits of Huckleberry Finn and heady combinations of seafood with cajun spices and cream mixing into gluttonous French-influenced Creolean deliciousness...mmmmm.
I wasn't disappointed.
OK, so the Moulin-Rouge-style (rather glamourous) prostitutes of my imagination are somewhat less romantic in real life and modernisation hasn't been kind - they're now hollywood-shaved lapdancers leaving nothing to the imagination as they hang out of the Bourbon-Street sex-show clubs with an array of wonderfully explicit photography of the live karma-sutra displays available within. But apart from that, nothing else was a let-down.
Spectacular shrimp:
Lunch was the Barbecue Shrimp at Mr B's Bistro. They're on the bar menu as well as the restaurant one meaning that pretty much any time of the day you can indulge in this spicy buttery marvel. These shrimp (or tiger prawns as I would probably call them) have never been near a barbecue, and the sauce is nothing like the sticky stuff (still delicious but only in its rightful place) that is more at home on a rack of pork ribs. Oh no, this was a completely different symphony of butter, lots of butter, cajun spices and other herbs, with the prawns pan-fried in masses of this thick, soupy goodness that you simply cannot resist dipping first a guilty finger and then slice after slice of their fresh, still warm, French baguette into. I can't recommend it enough - those prawns alone were worth the price of flights from New York. At some point in this blog I am going to attempt to recreate this deliciousness and will share my efforts (and the recipe) with you when I do. And by the way, if you choose to find out more by visiting their site I take no responsibility for any trouble you might get into for the ridiculous Jazz-based-jingle that will blast from your computer as a result.
Cafe Du Monde is worth all the hype:
Even after the calorie-fest of buttery shrimp, we had been told by a tonne of different sources not to miss out on having Beignets (square french doughnuts) and Cafe Au Lait with Chicory at Cafe Du Monde. The menu is very brief you can only have Cafe Au Lait and Beignets, but it's perfectly executed and really cheap - a complete bargain for the sweet, warm, crispy, fatty confection of joy piled high with icing sugar that shortly afterwards covers the stone tiles beneath your table.
Excellent brunch
On two days we went for brunch, once at Stanley on one side of Jackson Square where we enjoyed a particularly excellent soft shell crab Po' Boy and then once to Cafe Pontalba where we had their 'Crab Cakes Benedict' which was amazing. Perfectly executed eggs Benedict with a lightly cajun spiced Hollandaise sitting on top of two fresh home-made crab cakes packed full of white crab meat (not potato cakes with a light sprinkling of crab meat like you get in some places). The 'Crab Cakes Benedict' would be great if having people over for lunch or also great just serving one crab cake with one poached egg as a starter so I'm going to do my best to recreate this recipe too. If I serve it followed by Barbecue Shrimp I'm pretty sure my guests will suffer instant coronary arrest, but they would die very happy people so I think I'll give it a try.
The finale
Finally, we had booked ourselves in to Restaurant Stella. We opted for the tasting menu which was delicious but they seem to introduce one too many flavours into each course. The spiced shrimp and brie risotto didn't need mushrooms in it as well and the fabulous chocolate cake dessert didn't need the 'hot buttered pink lemonade' sauce it was sitting in. However, the sommelier was heavy handed with the size of the wine pairings which is always nice and the menu was adventurous and still very enjoyable. I won't be trying to recreate any of those courses but if you find yourself in New Orleans it's worth checking out.
This weekend is Labour Day so it's a long weekend and I feel like cooking, possibly a good Minestrone or perhaps an excellent Boston Baked Beans recipe I adapted last winter. Whichever I choose - I'll share, so I hope you'll enjoy :)
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