Happy Birthday Elaine!

My friend Elaine from Pennsylvania, who went to NYU with me in NYC, is now living in Washington DC but is headed to Michigan for graduate school next year, even though she was originally going to go to Yale in Connecticut. Did you follow that?

Well anyway, Elaine was in NYC last month for her birthday and despite the ridiculously long wait for lanes, we went to the always fun Brooklyn Bowl. I knew it would be one of the last birthdays in a few that I’d be able to celebrate with her so I baked her a cake to make it extra special.

I went with Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake for the cake portion, layered it with whipped bittersweet chocolate ganache, mixed berry preserves, and my go to Swiss buttercream frosting.

Layering the cake with all of the fillings

Once you go Swiss buttercream, you never go back. Here it is whipped to a glossy sheen, which can take upwards of 5 minutes to happen.

Frosted cake. Unfortunately I didn’t have time nor did I make enough frosting to make a crumb coat first and then frost so it didn’t come out the smoothest or best looking

Jason was in India so I was all alone in watching Jasmine. This is what you allow your child to do when you need a 2 hour block for a project. I highly recommend it.

I really wanted to color some frosting, pipe some decorations, and write “Happy Birthday Elaine!” on the cake but like I said, I didn’t make enough frosting, didn’t have enough time to make more, and had ran out of cabinets that Jasmine was allowed to “explore.” Hence, the sprinkles that make it look more fitting for a 1 year old’s party than a 28 year old’s.

Picture of the birthday girl with our friend Tim, who just happened to be wearing a shirt matching hers. And no, I don’t believe Elaine was yet drunk at the time this picture was taken.

Hot Doug’s at Astor Center

Surprise surprise, I am behind in posting about our lives lately so naturally this took place all the way back in October. I’m hoping to play catch up in the next week or so and get pics posted from our holiday trips to Hong Kong and Florida.

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A few months back whilst browsing the interwebs, I saw a post on Serious Eats about an event they were sponsoring at Astor Center’s new space with Hot Doug’s. Truth be told, I had never heard of Hot Doug’s prior to this but as soon as I saw the menu, I knew we had to get tickets. If I remember correctly, it was $60 for two and the meal included 6 Dos Equis beers, an amuse, 2 Chicago-style hot dogs, two of their foie gras topped hot dogs, and an order of duck fat fries.

Ed Levine and Doug Sohn

Beer

Chefs in the kitchen

Jason

Jason and JJ

Amuse of fancy pigs in a blanket with spicy mustard (not surprising that these were Jason’s favorite of the whole night, aside from the beer that is)

Chicago-style hot dog with the works

Foie gras topped hot dog

Duck fat fries

All of the food was good but surprisingly, my favorite was the “homely” Chicago dog. I thought it would be the foie gras dog but without anything acidic/sweet/tart, it was a bit too rich for me. The Chicago dog was perfect though with the refreshing and crunchy fresh vegetables on top. I think the duck fat fries had been fried a little bit earlier so by the time we got to them, they weren’t as crispy as I would have liked but the flavor was good nonetheless.

The highlight/memorable moment of the evening for me though wasn’t the food. It was getting to meet and speak to Doug Sohn for a few minutes as we waited in line to get our food. Yes, he is THE Doug behind Hot Doug’s. He stood at the front of the line and spoke to each and every person at the event. It wasn’t surprising that he did though because he apparently mans the register at the storefront in Chicago almost all the time. Being owners of a food establishment ourselves, we totally respect his passion for his craft and appreciate that he loves to talk to his customers. He is a very funny, down to earth, and approachable guy.

When he learned that we were new owners of a food place, he quickly offered up some hard-earned advice. He told us to never look at blogs and online review sites (i.e; Yelp). He said that our goal shouldn’t be to please everybody and that we shouldn’t change what we do based on the opinion of a few people. That’s hard for me to do and whilst I don’t agree 100% with that philosophy because I do think that listening to our customers is important, I do understand that there will always be naysayers no matter how good the food. Now every time I read a negative review or comment on Twitter about us, I think about Doug’s advice, take a deep breathe, assess whether there’s any merit in the person’s opinion, and usually just close down my browser because I find none.

In any case, Jason and I are heading to Chicago for our annual anniversary trip (read about last year’s in New Orleans here) this year. So far I have about 30 places on our Chicago Google map to go to but rest assured, Hot Doug is at the top of the list and one of the places that definitely will not be missed.

Winners of Burger Cook-Off!

Our friends M&E invited us to partake in their first ever burger cook-off at their apartment in LIC recently. Being the burger types, we couldn’t turn down a challenge where all participants were winners (except vegetarians…you know who you are missy).

We used Jason’s simple and foolproof method for great burgers and they were thoroughly enjoyed by the judges, who eventually named us victors. I didn’t get to snap a picture of the burgers since we were too busy eating but while the grill was heating up, I took a shot of the beautiful view from the shared BBQ’ing area of their new building.

Lest you think I didn’t pull my weight, I contributed by making dessert burgers:

This was a cupcake cut in half with a brownie in the middle and colored frosting playing ketchup/mustard.

Next to my “burger” is E’s awesome cupcakes in an ice cream cone. I’m thinking that I may have to steal this idea and make these for Jasmine’s 1st birthday party!

Welcome to Queens, M&E! Two more down, many more to go

Blistered Shishito Peppers

Life’s been busy for us lately so we haven’t been able to update as frequently as we like. Things are slowly getting back to normal now so hopefully the postings will increase in frequency.

One of the many reasons we’ve been out of touch is we moved and as anybody who has ever moved knows, takeout was aplenty. To ease back into cooking in our new apartment, I stopped by the Dag Hammerskjold’s farmer’s market last Wednesday to grab some fresh vegetables. Most need little effort to make them delicious (i.e.; steamed corn on the cob, cut up raw tomato, etc…) and these babies were no exception.

I saw shishito peppers in a little wicker basket by the checkout counter and initially their potential for heat is what drew me to them. The accompanying sign said the peppers were actually very mild despite their intimidating compactness and at best, one in a dozen would have a small bite. I was about to pass them up when the person in front of me in line picked up a few and told me that they were his favorite kind of pepper. I asked him how he prepared them and when he told me how simple it was, I knew these would be just the thing to get back onto the cooking saddle.

This dish took about a minute to prep and a mere five more to cook. True to the sign, only one out of the 15 that I had bought was spicy, but that was of little consequence. These were delicious and despite their small stature; surprisingly meaty. The flavor of the pepper was familiar but unique at the same time. At first, it tasted like a sweeter, more tender green pepper but afterward, there was a small numbing effect in the mouth. The best part was that the whole pepper could be eaten (minus stem) so we popped them into our mouths like candy while we continued to unpack and settle in.

Blistered Shishito Peppers

As many peppers as you’d like (I’d suggest about 6-8 a person)
Olive oil
Coarse kosher salt or sea salt

Heat a cast-iron skillet on high while you prep the peppers. In a bowl, toss together the whole peppers with enough olive oil to thinly coat them.

When the pan is screaming hot, throw the peppers on in one layer. Do a second batch if you have too many. The worst thing you could do is here is to not have the pepper directly touching the pan.

Let the skins blister and pop, and then rotate.

When the peppers are as toasty as you’d like, remove from the heat and sprinkle liberally with salt.

Enjoy!

Jasmine’s Food Adventures

If you follow our blog, you might have seen the video of Jasmine eating solids for the first time. Well this is the follow-up to that with Jasmine’s first ever feature “in the kitchen”.

We started Jasmine on solids when she turned 5 1/2 months. Her first teeth started coming in around that time and she started to look at us longingly while we ate dinner. We felt so bad for her just sitting there watching us eat that we had to let her in on the fun.

Touchy subject disclaimer: All families are different; this is just what Jason and I decided to do and it works for us. There are so many opinions out there that I actually suggest piecing them together and forming your own.

We decided early on that given our love of food and cooking, it would make the most sense for us to make all of Jasmine’s foods for her. Besides the fact that it’s super easy and convenient (more on this later), our main motivation for home-cooking her meals is so she won’t think that all food comes from a jar or a can. This is especially true since I don’t breastfeed and she is on formula. We’ve been lucky with the vegetable supply because it’s summer and there’s an abundance of fresh foods at the market for her to try. So far, I’ve made a good variety of foods with different flavors and there hasn’t been anything she’s disliked. Hopefully it will stay that way!

The food prep part is easy since most of her food stuff has to be steamed or roasted until very soft and then pureed. I will usually take an hour in the afternoon on Sunday to cook a batch of food and then portion it out to last until Thursday. Then on Thursday night, I’ll throw some extra vegetables of whatever I’m preparing for our dinner into a steam basket or into the oven to cook while we eat. I’ll then finish making her food after we eat and portion it out to last until the next batch of food on Sunday. This is what I portion and store her food in but now she’s eating much more than can fit in one of the containers. I will probably switch to something like this since the containers are larger and use the smaller containers for freezing her summer favorites to be used later on.

To date she’s eaten, in the following order:

Brown rice cereal - I toasted up raw brown rice in a pan and ground up the grains in a spice grinder to a powder. Then I whisked the powder with water (about 1:9 ratio) over a low flame until it looked like grits. It was still a bit thick for her first food so I mixed it with some formula to thin it out and to also make it a familiar taste for her.

Avocado - Avocados don’t need to be cooked since they are already a mushy food, so we just mashed this up with water/formula to make it like an avocado cream.

Barley cereal - Same methodology as the brown rice cereal.

Prunes - I steeped some dried prunes in hot water and then pureed it with some water to thin it out.

Jook (aka; congee, white rice cereal) - Jasmine had some stomach issues after all of the fiber we gave her - as you can probably deduce from the prunes we gave her - with the brown rice and barley, so we decided to give her plain congee that I made with some fresh chicken stock.

Zucchini - I steamed these and then pureed them.

String beans - I steamed these also and then pureed them with some zucchini to thin it out.

Sweet potato - As you can see from the list of foods before this, I was reluctant to give her anything sweet aside from the prunes, which were more out of necessity than anything else. I don’t want her to develop a sweet tooth for life so was planning on holding off on a lot of the orange vegetables. However, my grandmother (Jasmine’s great-grandmother) came and rescued Jasmine from green/white food purgatory and suggested that we mix sweet potato with congee to bland it down a bit. I immediately bought some sweet potatoes (to Jason’s delight) and roasted them in the oven. A quick mix with some congee at about a 1:2 (potato:rice) ratio and Jasmine was happy. Brilliant!

Peaches - I have been giving her fresh cut-up peaches while they’re available at the market through a baby safe feeder. She loves the peaches and has a great, albeit messy, time feeding herself.

Kohlrabi - This was steamed and pureed and also mixed with some congee. She absolutely loved this.

We’re feeding her carrots now and she’s absolutely loving those too

Here are some pictures of her food adventures. We’ve gotten much better about not getting food all over her face

And in non-food related news, she’s now sitting up on her own!

The Powder - Chili or Chile?

I don’t really know which is correct — chili powder or chile powder — and since I’m a fan of b.s.’ing, I probably won’t ever know for certain. Instead, I will tell everyone my definition as though it’s fact so a small group will believe what I’m saying is a truth (even if it’s not). So here’s the definition:

Chili Powder: A spice mixture including chile powders, cumin, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper and possibly a few other spices depending on the culture/style of chili powder being made.
Chile Powder: A powder made from drying chile peppers, then toasting the dried product, removing the stems and seeds, and grinding them up.

In short, you need chile powder to make chili powder. Good enough?

With that said, I made some chile powders this past weekend and opted to keep them all single-variety chile powders instead of combining them to make a chili powder mix. I might want just the dundicut powder when I’m making Indian food, whereas I made a salad dressing last night utilizing the powder from ancho chile peppers. If I mixed them all together the usages are less versatile.

I made four powders:

Guajillo (Scoville Units: 2,500-5,000)

Ancho (Scoville Units: 1,000-2,000)

Cascabel (Scoville Units: 1,000-2,500)

Dundicut (Scoville Units: 30,000-50,000)

FYI: Here’s a scoville chart

The process is fairly simple:
(1) Buy dried chiles from a spice shop (I bought these from Penzey’s, who ships if needed, but there is a great spice place in the city called Kalustyan’s if you’re an NYC resident)
(2) Break off the stems and remove all the seeds
(3) Cut in smaller pieces, maybe quarter or half dollar sized
(4) Heat a large saute pan over high heat until the pan is VERY hot
(5) Throw in the chile pepper pieces and toast for about 20-30 seconds a side. Make sure you DO NOT BURN them for two reasons: one, they will taste terrible and two, the fumes are incredibly painful when inhaled. I know that from personal experience.
(6) Remove the pieces from the pan, cool them a bit, and then toss them into a spice/coffee grinder. Grind them up whilst trying not to inhale the airborne chile powder because again, it can be quite uncomfortable.
(7) Store in an airtight container!

I keep mine in the fridge since the powder is fresh and preservative free. It should keep about 6 months without losing flavor, though if you’re a heat addict like me, they won’t last that long

NOLA 2009 - Happy 2 Year Anniversary

As anyone who reads this blog knows, we were blessed with Jasmine in Januaury. For the last five -almost six! - months she has blessed us with her beautiful smile and generally inquisitive nature. On the flip side she has also blessed us with lots of sleepless nights, hours spent trying to decipher baby babble, and roughly 150 poopy diapers.

Due to the latter more than the former, we decided that for our two year wedding anniversary in June we’d take a domestic vacation to relax (and perhaps get to sleep in past 6:30am). We did some research for a place that balanced our love for food with a few slow paced things to do. In fact, here’s our basic vacation formula: vacation = lotsa eating + _____ things to do. The only variable is the adjective there (many, exciting, relaxing, intense, unusual…so on).

We chose New Orleans since neither of us had ever been and we had heard - and eventually confirmed - good things. After doing lots of restaurant/bar research (seriously, lots meaning many hours), we came up with a jam packed list of eateries and events for a mere 3 days. I’m proud to say that even without a car we succeeded in doing most everything on our list.

In between all of the eating, which was the real purpose of this trip, we did do some non-food related things. We visited Oak Alley Plantation, a beautiful estate outside of New Orleans. We also took a bus tour of the city, which allowed us to see both the historical beauty of the city and the tragic effects of Katrina. Without trying to sound like a salesman, New Orleans is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve seen so if you are looking for a weekend trip and love food, I can’t think of a place that would be more appreciative of your tourism.

So without further ado, our trip!

Friday

Our JetBlue flight was at 7am so when got to the airport around 6am, I went off to get us some DD coffee and explore the new terminal while Jason did some work.

I discovered the obvious: the new terminal is very cool! There are numerous food options, comfy sitting areas, and telecommunication stations.

We arrived at around 9:30 am local time and while waiting for a cab, we began to melt. It really seemed like the temperature range was between 95 and 100 degrees morning, noon, and night the entire time we were in Louisiana. When the cab finally arrived we asked our cabbie to take us to New Orleans. The highlight of the half hour ride into the city wasn’t the marshes or swamps, it was seeing where the Bucs will (attempt to) triumph this season:


We checked into our hotel in the French Quarter around 11 am and quickly headed over to our first scheduled food stop, coincidentally but conveniently located across the street.

I read about the Friday lunch experience at Galatoire’s on Chowhound and told Jason about it. Originally, I wasn’t sold on going since the traditional French style of food isn’t really my favorite, but Jason insisted. When visiting other places he truly lives by the “when in Rome” theory so when in New Orleans, one must do the Friday Lunch. It was a unique experience and the food was wonderful (can you say butter?) so it made for a perfect first meal in New Orleans.

Galatiore’s does not take reservations - no matter who you are - so we had to wait in line, in the smoldering heat, for about 15 minutes before they let us in. Once they opened, the maitre d’ began writing down the guest names and their personal waiter. When he asked us if we had a regular waiter, we knew we weren’t in New York anymore

After giving our name and party size (2 of course!) we were directed to go to the bar upstairs then head back downstairs at 11:30 to be seated. We got up there and felt like we were at a 19th century cocktail party and Jason forgot his seersucker.

We were fairly dressed up for lunch but still felt out of place amongst the suits and dresses (the women could have gone straight from lunch to the Derby and as for the men, well, I had never seen so many khakis matched with navy blue blazers). To be honest, I felt like we were going to be banished if we ordered the wrong drink or didn’t follow proper etiquette We managed and hubby ordered a sazerac while I got a French 75.

Once we were seated downstairs we ordered the fried eggplant and souffled potatoes appetizer to start, which came with powdered sugar and béarnaise sauce. I was wary of putting powdered sugar on fried eggplant but it was SO good. And I don’t think fried potatoes could ever be bad

For mains, I requested the oysters Rockefeller with the traditional pureed spinach topping. It was delicious and super filling. Jason settled on the shrimp dish because he’s unfortunately allergic to all other shellfish. While it was good, it was not particularly memorable. I’d 100% recommend this place for a traditional Friday Lunch but I’d stick to their specialties. The service was splendid, the food was above average, and the crowd was fun. This was also our first encounter with the excellent New Orleans bread…

After Galatoire’s we strolled down to the Mississippi River to catch the bus for our city tour. We were originally going to do a bike tour around the city but after realizing how hot it was and how full we were, we decided against it I think the biking would have been fun but for a quick weekend trip, this turned out to be a good way to acquaint ourselves with the entire city.

Walking back to our hotel from the river, we stopped by Napoleon House to try their muffuletta. From our research it seemed that there were polarized opinions on whether Napoleon House or Central Grocery (more on their’s later) is the best in New Orleans.

We opted to sit in their refreshingly fanned courtyard despite the sweltering heat and ordered two Pimm’s cups as suggested by W, half a muffuletta, and a cup of jambalaya.

Their muffuletta is served warm as opposed to Central Grocery’s room temp version. Personally, I liked the muffuletta at Napoleon House better. The olive salad had other veggies in it, like celery, and the flavors of those vegetables came through so it wasn’t all olive flavor.

After Napoleon House, we headed back to the hotel and took a nap. Yes, a nap. All parents of new babies will understand when I say that it was luxurious. A couple of hours later, we caught a cab and headed out to Franky and Johnny’s located about a 10 minute drive outside of the French Quarter.

It’s an uber-casual (think local bar in a small town where everyone knows each other’s name) restaurant that’s very popular with the locals and Tulane crowd. It was almost the end of crawfish season but they had some that day, thankfully. Though usually indecisive, I ordered 99 lbs as soon as we sat down out of fear that I’d be told somebody else just got the last order. Okay not really 99 lbs, but our waitress delivered a huge tray of spicy whole crawfish. FYI that tray was no match for me — I proceeded to eat in its entirety (plastic tray excluded).

It was the first time I’d ever eaten fresh crawfish and it was AWESOME. I can’t wait until crawfish season next year. I already found an annual crawfish boil in NYC that I will be attending with 100% certainty. We ordered the fried pepper rings and boudin balls to share and Jason chose what turned out to be the best fried shrimp we’ve ever had. Everything exceeded our expectations.
After dinner we headed back to the French Quarter and went to Arnaud’s French 75 which is a classic cigar bar attached to the famous Arnaud’s restaurant. We were served by Chris Hannah, who is a great bartender and did a great job taking care of us. Jason enjoyed a drink that Chris named the The Moviegoer after the novel and I ordered the bar’s namesake, a French 75.

On our walk home, we were surrounded by throngs of people stumbling down the closed-to-cars Bourbon Street. Keep in mind this was a random Friday night, and not Mardis Gras.

So ends our first day in New Orleans.

Saturday

The next morning, we woke up early and headed over to Cafe du Monde on Decatur to try their famous beignets. We were greeted by a ridiculously long line, immediately switched gears and headed to Cafe Beignet across the street, which was originally scheduled for the following morning.

There are multiple Cafe Beignets in the French Quarter so I can’t speak as to the atmosphere of the others but the one on Decatur is very low key. They offer all kinds of sandwiches and traditional New Orleans fare but we stuck to the simple stuff and ordered one small cafe au lait and an order of beignets to share. The cafe au lait was prepared right away but was disappointing because it was way too milky. The beignets were just the opposite: they took time and were delcious upon arrival. After patiently waiting for 10 minutes we became a little antsy and thought maybe they had forgotten about us. Once panic subsided and rationale returned, we realized that each order was made fresh in the order they were placed. When the lady in the back came out with our little tray of beignets though, our patience was duly rewarded.

Oh my were they delicious. Piping hot; super crispy on the outside; airy/fluffy on the inside. I thought it would be just like a donut but it was something else altogether. Jason said it tasted like a gourmet elephant ear (funnel cake) at the carnival but I’ve never had one of those so I can’t say. The dough itself isn’t sweet so the powdered sugar becomes it’s best friend. They are extremely messy though, which is why we don’t have many action shots of us eating them. Why can’t there be a place like this in the city?? If there was a best food of the weekend contest, these would be serious contender.

After dusting the powdered sugar from our beignets off of our clothes, we headed towards the country’s oldest city market, the French Market for a stroll. We were a bit disappointed since the food sales was a clear after thought to the chintzy flea market stuff sold there.

The best part of our trip to the market was a huge decorated hearse that has all sorts of pop culture paraphernalia glued to it. Jason wasn’t as fascinated as was I but either way, it did fit into the whole voodoo vibe of the French Quarter.

On the way to our bus tour of Oak Alley Plantation, we stopped by La Divina Gelateria for what was the most disappointing experience of the whole weekend. I got a cup of half earl grey with biscuit and half mint julep gelatos. Both had very little flavor and an odd consistency, almost like that of creamed ice. It was melting because it was hot outside and wasn’t delicious enough for me to eat quickly; hence, it got thrown away.

As mentioned in the Friday section, we stopped by Central Grocery to pick up half a muffuletta for our hour and a half bus ride to Oak Alley.

The store is nothing more than an Italian deli with tables in the back. The muffuletta we ordered was a slight turnoff because it was pre-packaged but considering their high turnover, we had faith in it’s freshness. As opposed to Jason, I typically prefer cold sandwiches over hot ones so I surprised myself by liking Napoleon House’s muffelata better. The olive salad at Central Grocery was very strongly flavored and basically over-powered all of the meat and cheese. In fact, I could barely taste the meat and cheese over the flavor of salty olives.

Don’t get me wrong: I love olives and Central Grocery’s muffuletta was an excellent sandwich but the next time I want my muffuletta fix in New Orleans, I’m heading to Napoleon House for sure.

**Comment from Jason: Okay, I get what Jacquie’s saying but I disagree completely. You see, what I love most is finding myself enjoying something I didn’t think I would. The warm muffelata was akin to a pressed sandwich and I enjoyed it throughly, as expected. As for the CG muffelata, I am not a huge fan of olives and it was doused with them, but I LOVED that sandwich. I didn’t think it was too olive-y and I did taste the meat and cheese. Heck, I even thought the cold bread was impressive (who actually likes cold bread more than warm bread?) So in the end they were both good but I tip my hat to CG because it did more than surpassed expecations — it made me like a cold version of sandwich better than a warm one. To be fair, NH did have the Pimm’s Cup though and better atmosphere.**

After listening to our bus driver (who we respectfully agreed sounded like Champ Kind) for 90 minutes on the way to Oak Valley, we pulled up in front of one of the most magnificent estates I’ve ever seen. Here are some pictures of our time at the beautifully serene and historical Oak Alley Plantation.

After we got back to the French Quarter, we stopped by the Gumbo Shop on the advice of our friends L and C who are quite familiar with New Orleans. There was an outside courtyard like Napoleon House and though it seemed touristy, the food was delicious nonetheless. We both started with fiery Cajun Bloody Marys — much more fiery than at others places we’ve had Bloody Marys. For that reason, and because they came with pickled string beans versus the standard celery stalk, it was one of the best we’ve had.

Also upon the advice of L and C, we ordered the creamy boudin accompanied by their spicy Creole mustard.

Of course we sampled their namesake and while the gumbo was tasty, I’d suggest that they rename themselves the Boudin Shop

We walked around the French Quarter some more and picked up some pralines for my coworkers at Leah’s Praline’s and we stopped by Pat O’Brien’s to get a hurricane from the bar that invented it. Jason was appalled by what we found there and he even has a secret (guilty) love for all things touristy (Bubba Gumps, Hard Rock Cafe, Margaritaville, etc). He likened the Hurricane to a glass of thick Red Kool-Aid with a splash of alcohol. We had them pour it into a plastic to-go cup so we could secretly throw it out when we left. It seems that public drinking is allowed and even encouraged as witnessed by signs like these hanging from many bar signs and windows.

For dinner, we caught a cab to the Warehouse District for our nice meal out at Cochon.

James Beard Award winner Chef Donald Link does a great job of showcasing the “snout to tail” philosophy of the creature that southerner’s love so much - the pig. In the words of the Barefoot Contessa, “How bad could that be?”

We loved everything about our meal from the friendly service to the couple next to us who we chatted with for almost half of our meal. The sad feelings that surface when I think about our meal there are only because I know it will be a while before we’ll get to go back.

A beet salad that came with bite size pieces of paneed pork cheeks. I have never eaten pork this soft before.

An heirloom cherry tomato salad that was over a fresh corn fritter.

Their signature cochon dish served atop braised cabbage and turnip with cracklins on top. When all the parts of this dish were eaten in a single mouthful, I realized that there was nothing that could’ve improved this dish.

Roasted local redfish was cooked nicely though it was fishy when eaten with the skin. When eaten without the skin and with the pickled vegetable served with it, it was wonderful.

We also got a side of their braised greens on the advice of the couple next to us and we’re glad we did. While we expected the greens to be bitter, they surprised us by having a naturally sweet flavor.

After dinner we headed over to the Snug Harbor Jazz Club for our first time at a jazz club. The “Piano Prince of New Orleans”, Davell Crawford was playing there for one night only and I’m so glad that Jason suggested we go. Davell and the band that played with him were absolutely amazing. He lives in New York now (you can read more about his story of displacement from Katrina here) and I can’t wait until he plays at a location closer to us than New Orleans. The pictures are very blurry because it was dark and flash wouldn’t have been appropriate but you get the idea.

The show ended around midnight and went to Cafe du Monde since we figured it wouldn’t be as busy at that hour. We were right about it being quieter but that also may be the reason why our beignets were not that good.

We sat down, ordered, and had our beignets and cafe au lait in front of us in about two minutes flat. I’m sure that in the morning and afternoon, the beignets that are made are sold at about the same pace as they come out. Not so at midnight and I’m fairly certain our beignets had been sitting in the back for a while. They were not crispy at all and were dense and chewy.

Cafe Beignet wins in the beignet contest hands down though I will give the cafe au lait to Cafe du Monde. Next time I’ll try Cafe du Monde at a reasonable hour to give it a fair shot.

So ends our second day in New Orleans.

Sunday

Our flight on Monday morning was very early so I knew Sunday would be the last day we would be able to eat anything in New Orleans other than airport food. We got up bright and early - much to Jason’s chagrin since we had many cocktails on Saturday night - and headed to brunch at EAT.

I read about EAT through the New Orleans Chowhound board and it seemed to be very popular with locals and visitors alike. Jason and I shared the fried green tomatoes appetizer which was excellent and served with a remoulade sauce. I could’ve had two more orders for my breakfast alone.

I ordered the shrimp and grits upon the recommendation of tons of posters and though the sauce and the grits together were REALLY good, what little shrimp that the dish had (maybe 3?) were clearly frozen and had an odd texture. I was surprised and disappointed by that but like I said, the dish was still good since it was mostly sauce/grits anyway.

Jason got the grillades and poached egg over biscuits for the novelty of it and was disappointed that it was basically a salty beef stew. He liked it but in his hungover state, would’ve preferred more standard breakfast fare like an omelet and bacon. I actually loved his dish and abandoned my own for his after hearing he didn’t like it. I wish I had gotten the grillades over grits!

After EAT, we went back to the hotel to set a game plan for the rest of the day. I really wanted to go to Parkway Bakery and Tavern because I heard the po boys there were the best but after beating my desire for Parkway into Jason’s skull for a week, I finally realized that it was out of the way from the other areas we wanted to hit up. It would’ve taken us a good hour or two to get there and back by streetcar so perhaps for our next trip, and oh, there will be a next trip.

We chose instead to ride the historic St. Charles Streetcar and then walk around Magazine Street. On the way to Canal Street where we’d catch the first stop on the streetcar, we popped into Felix’s so I could try their freshly shucked oysters. Since it was only me eating, I asked if I could get one oyster to try instead of a half dozen order. The shucker was very nice and obliged free of charge, but of course I tipped him for his kind service.

I thought the oyster there was just okay. Very plump but taste wise, it was a little fishy and left a not-so-pleasant aftertaste in my mouth. It’s not fair to judge though since I only had one and it could’ve been a fluke.

After Felix’s, we went across the street so I could compare the oyster I just had to the ones at it’s rival, Acme.

The atmosphere wasn’t as conducive to ordering just one oyster so I sat down at the bar and ordered half a dozen. The oysters weren’t as plump as the one I had at Felix but they had a better flavor here, which I partly attribute to the spicy cocktail sauce!

After I had my 7 oysters, we caught the streetcar and rode it until we got to 8th Street, rang the bell, hopped off, and walked due south towards Magazine Street. It wasn’t a far walk but it was hot out and right smack in the middle of the day with the sun beating down on us. Once on Magazine we made a beeline to Sucre for rest and sugar.

We ordered two pieces of chocolate, iced coffee, and some pistachio gelato to help us cool off.

All were super delicious and I picked up a box of chocolates for my sister. It was hard to decide which ones to get!

The space was very open/fresh/modern and a bit out of place relative to its antique-selling neighbors.

Before catching the Magazine Street bus back to Canal, we walked a 1/2 mile to Parasol’s for a roast beef po boy and a fried oyster po boy to take back to the hotel with us. We weren’t hungry thanks to the abundance of dessert in our bellies so even though we knew they would be better fresh, eating them later was a sacrifice that had to be made. Parasol’s was on the corner of two residential blocks and was, from what I can remember, the only dining establishment in the vicinity. How often is a a restaurant/bar situated in a neighborhood and not off a main road? I find it difficult to believe that anybody going there are stumbling upon it by accident.

After getting back to our hotel about an hour later, we took our sandwiches out expecting them to be soggy and cold but they were still warm and nearly in their original shape.

This is my fried oyster po boy, which was alright, but suffered from too much breading on the oysters.

This is Jason’s roast beef po boy, which was better than mine but didn’t have enough roast beef on it in my opinion.

They were both improved upon with a few shakes of hot sauce though neither blew my mind. I really wish I had gotten to try Parkway (or even a fresh one) but at least I have it to look forward to for next time

For dinner that night, we went to Emeril’s NOLA in the French Quarter. We had a fantastic experience at the Emeril’s in Orlando so we thought we’d give him another chance to impress on his hometurf. He did.

The ambiance is great and I loved the decor with the brick walls.

Our waiter, John, was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We started with the stuffed chicken wings, which judging by the tables around us is something most people start with. They tasted like an authentic Vietnamese spring roll with a wrapper of chicken wing instead of spring roll skin. For entrees, I got the smoked duck and Jason the rib eye. The portions were LARGE, which had we known beforehand, we would’ve just selected two appetizers and one entrée. We couldn’t finish our meal but also couldn’t get it to go since we were leaving the next morning. It was such a shame. We ended with their popular banana cake dessert, which was refreshing and light but nothing too special. I didn’t get any pictures here because while NOLA isn’t super fancy, it just didn’t seem appropriate.

After dinner, Jason said he had a place in mind for drinks and took me to the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone.

The bar is decorated like a carousel and it actually spins. I told you he likes touristy stuff. Unfortunately, there were no available seats at the bar so we just sat at a side table that didn’t spin. It’s a nice space but very “old school.”

Not really our style but we could appreciate the appeal/charm.

We tried for one more round of beignets the morning we left at the Cafe Beignet across the street from our hotel but they opened too late and we had to go. I could talk about our breakfast at the airport but I’d rather leave this entry on a positive note Thus that concludes our eating and drinking adventures in the Big Easy.

In the end, we left with a newfound love for the city, the people, and most importantly to us, the food. Their food is unabashedly spicy unlike the food up here that would rather be bland than en fuego. No matter what the place we ate at, they served breads and rolls that were delicious and so much more than afterthoughts. I would compare the bread to a place like Italy or Tahiti — no matter where you go it’s like they specialize in crusty, fluffy, bread awesomeness.

Here are some random pictures we took throughout our trip. This is by far my favorite one — we walked into a random bodega type store and Jason spotted this on a rack. I 100% swear up and down that we didn’t move them around in any way. We just found them this way:

Is that a sign that if we have a boy one day we should name him Jacob??

Shrimp Malbec Jason Style

I have no idea how to cook seafood; all I know is red and white meat. Well that’s not totally true — it’s just that for seafood, I don’t have an internal recipe repertoire like I do for other meats. That’s why I had to pull out Molto Italiano a few weeks ago when Jacquie tasked me with cooking shrimp for dinner. After thumbing through Batali’s book, I thought his “Jumbo Shrimp Marsala Housewife Style” sounded great.

Just one slight problem. I was missing many of the recipe ingredients: capers, pine nuts, currants, fennel seeds, plum tomatoes, and marsala wine. Yeah, pretty much everything. However, I knew the flavor profile of those things and knew I could substitute for the stuff I didn’t have. That’s how in our version of the dish, capers became dill pickles, pine nuts became walnuts, currants became Pom juice, fennel seeds became fennel pollen from Marx Foods, plum tomatoes became vine ripened tomatoes, and marsala became malbec. Lastly, this dish is meant to be served like an appetizer but being as it was our dinner, we served it over pasta. This forced me to throw in some tomato paste to thicken it up a bit.

Despite all of the substitutions, we loved it and though the pics might not be great, I assure you that dish itself was tasty and beautiful.

Shrimp Malbec (Jason Style)
adapted from Molto Italiano

5 ounces of dried spaghetti

1 celery rib, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
2 vine ripened tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
2 tbsp chopped dill pickles
1 tsp fennel pollen
1 tbsp red pepper flakes (less if you aren’t a fan of spicy)
1 tbsp Pom juice
1/2 cup malbec wine
2 tbsp tomato paste
10 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
salt/pepper to taste

1. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil for spaghetti.

2. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and celery. Salt and cook until translucent.  

3. Add the rest of the ingredients up to the shrimp and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 4-6 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.

4. While this is simmering, start the pasta.

5. Add the shrimp and cover, cooking for 6-8 minutes or until the shrimp turns pink. Salt and pepper the sauce to taste.

6. Transfer the pasta - which should at this point be just al dente - into the sauce and toss.

7. Serve immediately.

Taking the cake

A couple of months ago Marx Foods sent out an email saying they were giving away free samples of spices for people to use and then blog about. I jumped on the opportunity and two days later I had a package of spices delivered to my door step. In the box were samples of:

1. Tahitian vanilla beans
2. Lavender buds
3. Fennel pollen
4. Dried hibiscus flowers
5. Tellicherry peppercorns
6. Grains of paradise

This post features the vanilla bean but there will be future posts (Jason’s soon to be posted shrimp dish) about the spices he generously gave to us. Thanks Justin!

To be honest, I’ve used Tahitian vanilla beans in my cooking before. I was lucky enough to be able to pick some up on our honeymoon in Tahiti two years ago. I loved using them because they seemed to make ordinary desserts extra special. Unfortunately, I ran out before I had the chance to use them in all the applications that I had planned. More specifically, I didn’t get to try my hand at homemade vanilla extract, even though I told Jason I would so many times that he was sick of hearing it. You can imagine my anticipation in using the one I got from Marx Foods.

I got my chance last Sunday when we went over to L and C’s apartment in Long Island City for a birthday brunch held in L’s honor. When C sent me the menu for the shindig one thing was glaringly missing: a cake. What’s a birthday celebration without a dessert!? No, fruit salad does not count.

I asked C if I could bring a dessert as my present and before he could modestly decline, I started doing research into what L would like that incorporated the vanilla bean. I was going to do a strawberry trifle with a vanilla scented custard until C burst my bubble and told me L couldn’t eat whipped cream. How she finds the will to live is beyond me.

I finally decided on a cheesecake recipe that recently made the food blog rounds after it was the Daring Bakers challenge for April. I’ve made plenty of cheesecakes in my day but I always come away less than satisfied and wind up hunting for a different recipe the next time I make one.

Well that stops here and now.* This recipe turned out a fantastic cheesecake that managed to be fluffy and light yet rich and flavorful at the same time. It was a wonderful cross between an Italian style and New York style cheesecake. It was also incredibly smooth thanks to the water bath it baked in. The best part of this recipe is that it is vanilla (pun intended!) and lends itself to “customizing” very well.

In this instance, I stuck with the original recipe but topped the finished cake with a chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries. I already have tons of ideas on how I can change the crust and also incorporate fruits that will be coming out at the farmer’s market soon.

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
adapted from Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake

Crust

• 2 cups / 180 grams graham crackers or the crumbs
• 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
• 2 tbsp / 24 g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Cheesecake Filling

• 24 oz cream cheese, at room temperature (very important to create a smooth mixture)
• 1 cup / 120 g sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream (I figured it’d be okay for L since it would be heated through thoroughly in the baking process)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• innards of 1 vanilla bean (could substitute 1 tbsp vanilla extract)
• 1 tbsp liqueur that suits your cheesecake, optional (I omitted this)

Chocolate ganache

• 5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Strawberry Topping

• 8-10 strawberries, hulled and thiny sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bring a large pot of water to a boil for the water bath.

2. If starting with whole graham crackers, place in a food processor and grind to get crumbs. Add in melted butter and sugar and pulse to combine until it looks like wet sand. If you’re starting out with crumbs, you can just manually mix it all together.

3. Press the crust into the bottom and/or up the sides of your pan, depending on your preference. I use the bottom of a measuring cup for this to get the crust really dense and solid. I also wrap the bottom of my springform pan with foil to prevent water from leaking in while it bakes in the water bath. Set crust aside. Next time, I will blind bake the crust for 10 minutes in the oven to see if that creates a crunchier crust.

4. Combine softened cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or a large bowl if using hand-mixer) and cream together until very smooth. Add one egg at time, being sure that each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. It’s also a good idea to scrape down the bowl between eggs. Add heavy cream, vanilla (innards or extract), lemon juice, and alcohol. Blend until smooth and creamy.

5. Pour batter into the prepared crust and tap the entire pan on the counter to bring the air bubbles to the surface. Place the pan into a large pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until quarter way up the side of the cheesecake pan.

6. Bake for 45-55 minutes. At the point of shutting the oven off, the cheesecake should still look VERY jiggly in the middle but held together at the edges. Do not bake it until it’s completely firm. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let it rest in the oven for an hour as the oven cools. By doing this the cake won’t cool too quickly, which is what causes cracks.

7. After one hour, remove the cake from the oven and take it out of the water bath. Let it cool on the counter for one hour.

8. While the cake is cooling, get started on the ganache topping. A lot of recipes for ganache say to heat the cream and pour it over the chopped chocolate. For frosting/spreading purposes, I like to do it the other way around and melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Then I pour room temperature cream over the melted chocolate while whisking. I suppose this opens up the possibility of having the chocolate seize but since I use room temperature cream and not cold, I’ve never had that problem. I find that by using this method, the ganache gets thicker much quicker and I can use it right away.

9. Spread the ganache over the top of the cooled cake with an offset spatula being sure not to let the chocolate pool over the sides.

10. Decorate with sliced strawberries.

* I don’t know who you are Abbey, but a special thanks to you!

Lemon Basil Dressing

Since we haven’t done a food post in a while, I thought it best to ease back in with a sauce recipe that’s quick and versatile. We tossed this with roasted asparagus the night we made it but used the leftovers later on in the week drizzled over grilled branzino.

Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

• ¾ cup olive oil
• 1 large bunch of basil (we used a 70 gram store bought package)
• juice from 1½ large lemons, separated
• salt to taste (about 1/2-1 teaspoon)

Combine the basil, 1/2 cup of olive oil, and the juice from 1 lemon in a blender along with a pinch of salt. The reason I don’t do all of the olive oil and lemon is because I like being able to adjust the flavors and consistency as I go along.

If you like your dressing smooth and not chunky, pour the vinaigrette though a mesh strainer to separate out the solids. If you’re fine with having it a bit “grassy” - in texture, not taste - just skip this step.

Taste the dressing and if you need to adjust the flavors, return the strained mixture back to the blender. Blend in remaining olive oil, lemon juice, and/or salt according to your taste.

In this instance, I decided that the rest of the olive oil was needed to smooth out the mixture so it was less of a chunky pesto and the rest of the lemon was needed to perk up the flavor.

That’s it!

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