the top 5 foods i ate in new orleans

well i am back. i just spent the past week in new orleans volunteering with give back beyond. me and my 120 some new best friends were working with habitat for humanity to build houses. it was a crazy, unforgettable experience which i am still very much in the process of recovering from (i am exhausted, sore, dehydrated, and literally have no voice).

my group on the last day at our site

new orleans is a city that definitely does not take itself too seriously, but damn it do they know how to eat. my one regret is that i did not spend enough time exploring the city's culinary treasures. there were all these group events where the food just kind of ended up being average, and during the day we had to just eat boxed lunches at the work site. so i had a very small window of eating opportunities. i tried to make the best of them. so here we have...

the top 5 things i ate in new orleans:

5. poboys from mother's. i ordered the ralphie which has ham, roast beef, cheese, and that roast beef bits thing ("debris") on top. this was ok but not amazing. also, i'm sorry but they do not have the world's best baked ham. not even close (hello, honeybaked?). if you go, get the shrimp poboy. i tasted that and it was a million times better than this. really an awesome sandwich.

4. chargrilled oysters from acme oyster house. hot, buttery, parmesan-y... yum. they give you bread to soak up the rich delicous juices with. a top notch cooked oyster experience. you will probably crave these in your sleep.

3. beignets from cafe du monde. now i am really not even a sweets person but these had me at hello. they are only good hot though so be warned. they are the perfect chewiness and not at all greasy. and all the sweetness comes from the powdered sugar so you can modify them to your own taste. if you love fried dough (and let's face it, if you don't then there is something wrong with you), you will love these.

2. shrimp boil at the blue angel lounge (they don't have a website). this was without question the freshest, most delicious shrimp i have ever tasted in my entire life. they literally caught the shrimp and immediately boiled it up. it was seasoned perfectly and cooked just enough. the potatoes, corn, and onions were amazing and the lemon and whole heads of garlic put it over the edge. as for the andouille sausage, i am currently in a state of full on denial over the fact that i do not have access to it in cincinnati... it was ridiculously good. please note that this is just one of four tables full of shrimp prepared for our group. i ate so much that i literally got drunk off of shrimp. i already love shrimp and this was seriously amazing beyond my wildest dreams.

1. raw oysters, again from acme oyster house. ok so i did not like raw oysters before this trip. i had tried them before in new york and thought they were chewy and seaish. everyone told me that they were just bad ones and if i had good ones i would like them. seeing as how so many reputable food lovers that i know are obsessed with raw oysters, i knew there had to be something to it so i made it my personal food goal to learn to like them on my trip. readers, i succeeded. avani is a seasoned oyster lover and did her homework to find us what i am absolutely certain are some of the best raw oysters on the planet. i was so obsessed with these oysters after i had them on thursday that i had to go back and have them again, for breakfast, on saturday. the oysters were phenomenal and with the super spicy homemade horseradish it was a culinary experience unlike anything i have ever had. the juice dripping down my face, the feel of the shell resting against my teeth, the tender juiciness of the oyster in my mouth, and the hot bite of horseradish and lemon on my tongue... unreal. i didn't even know food could be this good. these oysters are without question one of the best things i have ever eaten in my life.

honorable mention: bloody marys, yet again from acme oyster. my other food goal for the trip was to learn to like bloody marys. i had one in chicago once that made me want to throw up and swore them off after that. but what goes better with oysters than tomato juice and vodka with a bunch of pickled shit in it? nothing i tell you, absolutely nothing.

cheers, new orleans. i will be back.

knotty pine on the bayou

i am so excited because beth and i finally made it to knotty pine on the bayou tonight! we have been meaning to go for like 6 months and we just had not gotten around to it. we had hoped to get there while it was warm out and eat outside, but we missed the boat on that one. eating inside was great though.

for anyone who doesn't know, knotty pine on the bayou is a cajun restaurant off on some random state road in kentucky not too far from 275. it is just this little place off the highway but when you go inside, it is totally warm and welcoming and cute. wood paneled walls, lots of neon, and new orleans themed art.

sorry for the photo quality but i forgot my camera. fortunately beth had her iphone which takes much better pics than my crappy verizon phone.

when beth and i got there, the hostess asked if we had a reservation. we did not. she wandered around, assessing the situation, and told us it would be an hour wait. but by then we had already sat down at the bar and ordered drinks (we both ordered abita lagers, a louisiana beer), and she said we could also just eat at the bar right then. that was fine with us so she gave us menus and we began perusing.

i was very torn because i felt that i should eat something really unique, given the offerings. i was debating between the alligator and the frogs legs. beth was looking at a few different things too so we asked the bartender. he said that he thought the grouper (a special that night) and the halibut were the best things on the menu. you can choose your style of preparation and he was adamant that pan fried with cajun seasoning was the best. so beth got the grouper and i got the halibut. we ended up trying all the sides between the two of us (the choices are roasted red skin potatoes, green beans, collard greens, and rice with gravy).

our food came out not too long after we ordered. beth was in the middle of a story when i bit into my fish. "OH MY GOD!" i yelled. "THIS FISH IS AMAZING!" i totally forgot what beth was talking about and went into raptures over the fish. truly, the fish was absolutely delicious. it was perfectly crisp on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside, and extremely flavorful. definitely some of the best fish i have had in cincinnati.

grouper, rice, and green beans

beth also forgot what she was talking about when she tasted her fish. it was also tasty. actually, i really could not tell the difference between the two fishes. maybe hers was a little softer or something. but the seasoning was so flavorful that you really could not tell a difference in fish flavor.

for sides, i felt that the potatoes and the green beans were the best. the greens were ok but could have been better. the rice with gravy was pretty bland, but actually it was nice with the fish because the potatoes were really flavorful too and it was almost too much flavor (is that even possible?).

my one complaint about the food is that it was too salty. the salt level kind of got overpowering after a while. i went through two beers and a glass of water and i have been parched since i got home. other than that one detail, it was really good. the salads were fine, nothing special. we did both try the homemade dressings (red wine vinaigrette and onion mustard) and they were yummy.

halibut, red skin potatoes, and collard greens

the ambience is really fun. it is a very laid back atmosphere and all the servers and staff seem to know and love each other. everyone is friendly and helpful and it is casual and quirky. there was a table of about ten asians who we were sure had gotten bored of jo an and wandered over from toyota. there was a semi-drunk middle aged woman wandering around the restaurant wearing a tiara that said "birthday princess." there was a dude at the bar who was raving to the bartender (who i think was also the owner) about terry's turf club: "you've got to go. they serve a really good burger." clearly knotty pine is my kind of crowd.

we were kind of shocked that people were smoking inside the restaurant but then we remembered we were in kentucky.

prices were a little more expensive than you might expect. our fish dishes were $23 each and the beers were $4.25 each. other entrees ranged from about $16-$25.

it takes about 15 minutes to get to knotty pine from downtown cincinnati. it's really easy, you just take 471 to 275 and then a few miles of state roads and you're there. and if you want to make a night of it, the bartender recommends a bar about a half mile down the road whose name i don't recall but it's pretty much the only other building you will pass on your way to knotty pine. it looked fun and very local but we were too tired to go. next time! and we will definitely be making a reservation...