L'Espalier

Went to check out L'Espalier's new space in the Mandarin Oriental last night. It's a very nice, modern-looking set of rooms, but doesn't quite have the charm of the old townhouse. We opted for the chef's tasting journey (at a whopping $185 per person, and an additional $110pp for wine pairings).

Hors d'oeuvres were mini smoked salmon napoleons with creme fraiche. Yummy, but not particularly exciting.

Amuse of oxtail salad with cucumber, filo shell, truffled carmelized onion, and sriracha.

Island Creek Oyster with jam and caviar, paired with Duvel Leroy champagne.

Sole with apples, crisp apple skin, caviar, radish, maitake mushroom puree, paired with a 1989 white rioja (really nice pairing)

Butter poached lobster with chestnut pear soup, brussels sprout leaves, caviar, and truffle oil. Paired with an Italian wine from Alto Adige (Kerner was the varietal, I believe), like a very floral riesling.

Monkfish with candy cane beet, butternut squash sauce, and a white wine I don't remember

Seared foie gras with sweet potato and cranberries. Very good, but not the best foie ever. Paired with a really yummy sauternes. I think the wine was better than the food for this course. It was ridiculously good.

Herbed gnocchi with mushrooms, white truffles, and beef shin broth, paired with a Barolo. The gnocchi were soooooo good, and I'm glad we got to try the white truffles, because now I won't have to wonder what they taste like. They are good, but not spectacular, so I won't end up spending a ridiculous amount of money buying them.

Lamb with the tiniest puy lentils known to man, with a delicious mustardy sauce; squab with celery root puree, and buttery garlicy carrot and turnip, topped with a mustard green leaf, paired with a Margaux. The meats were fantastic.

Very nice cheese course--six completely different cheeses with a red banyuls.

Dessert of chocolate log, cranberry souffle, something that was supposed to be a pate sable (more like a stick of butter--ugh), and a meringue-like thing. As expected, paired with the Banfi brachetto d'aqui. I think the dessert was too rich and didn't sit very well with me.

Overall, a very good meal, but way too expensive in my opinion. I'd much rather have no caviar (it really didn't add anything) and an extra course instead. I think if I were spending my own money, I'd go to Clio 9 times out of 10 (probably 10 out of 10, really). The wine pairings were really nice, though, which I think is the biggest thing that Clio lacks.

Cooking

It's great to know a bunch of quick dishes for the days you don't feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Here are a couple good ones:

Broccoli rabe with sausage. Here we added some tomato paste and red bell peppers, and served it with couscous (another super easy and quick side)


Pan roasted brussels sprouts with fish sauce and chili garlic sauce


When I have a bit more time, I like making things that will keep a few days, for example asian slaw.
Here I had red and green cabbage, cashews, and a sauce made with lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, ginger, and rice vinegar:


and I love potato salad (this one with onion, red pepper, mayo, spicy mustard, tarragon and thyme:


Finally, the fastest way to get food on the table is to have someone else make it! My husband made corn cakes with red pepper sauce, and a sausage (yeah, I know it looks like a giant turd).

Weekend breakfasts

Growing up, I ate cereal for breakfast pretty much every day, even on the weekends. No omelettes, pancakes, or anything that required cooking. Maybe occasionally I'd make french toast, but that was rare. Now, I love making a leisurely breakfast on the weekend.

Last weekend, we had scrambled eggs with local shitake mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and scallion, topped with scamorza cheese.


Today we made salmon and potato patties, topped with a fried egg. Served on some cucumber and pepper strips lightly seasoned with rice vinegar and salt.

Old Cambridge Haunts

Went to East Coast Grill for dinner last night. We hadn't been in a while, and last time was for Hell Night. We had the fried calamari, which was really good, especially with its accompaniment of mint, cilantro, and chili garlic dipping sauce. Fried chicken livers were also good, if a bit overdone. They came with a delicious mix of chard, orange marmalade, and lime (and probably some other ingredients). It was a great sweet and sour dish. Mussels were also very good in a ginger lemongrass sauce, and the grilled sirloin was fine, but nothing special. We sat in front of the oyster shucker, who was very friendly.

Afterward, we met some friends at the Cellar, another Cambridge spot we hadn't visited in quite some time. I forgot how cheap it is compared to other places in Boston--at one point we ordered a round of 8 drinks and it was $37!!!! I love Cambridge!

Comfort food

Even in the summer, sometimes comfort food really hits the spot.

Chili made with ground buffalo and kidney beans, served over polenta:


Cheesy garlic bread--this is possibly the best thing ever invented. A mix of cheese, garlic, scallions, mayo, butter, and cream cheese baked on good bread:

Updated liquor cabinet

We've had a bunch of additions over the last couple years so it's about time to take inventory again:

Whisk(e)y:
Thomas Handy Rye (our of our favorites for sipping, barrel proof)
Rittenhouse 100 Rye (great for mixing and sipping, so cheap)
Old Overholt Rye (mixing only)
Sazerac 18 year (my favorite!!)
Red Hook Rye
Old Portrero 18th century style whisky (100% rye, too assertive for sipping, not our favorite)
George T Stagg Bourbon (great for sipping, barrel proof)
Maker's Mark Bourbon (good for mixing)
Oban 14 year
The Balvenie 10 year
Buchannan 12 year blended
Southern Comfort
Compass Box Peat Monster
Talisker 10
Caol Ila 12
Lagavulin 16
Dewar's White Label (for mixing)

Gin:
Hendricks
Tanquaray
Junipero
Corenwyn Ginever
Plymouth
Boomsma Oude

Rum:
Ron Zacapa 23 Anos
Bacardi 8
Old Monk (Indian rum, butterscotch flavors)
Khukri (Nepalese, tastes like molasses)
Mount Gay Eclipse (light rum)
10 Cane
Malibu coconut rum

Tequila:
El Tesoro Añejo
Herradura Silver

Vodka:
Vermont Gold
Luksusowa
Green Tea infused
Szechuan pepper infused
Earl Gray infused
Vanilla infused
Zubrowka bison grass
Aalborg Jubilaeums Akvavit

Brandy:
Laird's Applejack
Laird's Straight Apple Brandy (100 proof, really great stuff)
Laird's 12 year old rare apple brandy (nice for sipping, probably wouldn't buy it again)
Bas Armagnac Marie Duffau Hors d'Age
Christian Brothers VS (for mixing)
Calvados Mozin Hors d'Age 15 year
La Captive Calvados

Fruit flavored things:
Luxardo Triplum (triple sec, really good)
Marie Brizard Triple Sec
Marie Brizard Apry (so good)
Marie Brizard Poire William (sweet pear liqueur, we're not really sure what to do with this)
Marie Brizard Parfait Amour (perfumy, citrusy, really sweet)
Mandarin Napoleon
Bauchant Napoleon
Cherry Heering
Luxardo Maraschino (awesome)
Cassis de Bordeaux
Midori
Peach Schnapps
Creme de Banane
Blue curacao
Sloe Gin (now Plymouth instead of the nasty crap)
Mirto

Other Liqueurs:
Benedictine
Green Chartreuse
Yellow Chartreuse
Strega
Galliano
Amaretto
Pims
Creme de menthe
Creme de cacao
Bailey's
Kahlúa
Buttershots
Sambuca
Absente
St. Germain
Zirbenz Stone Pine
St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette

Bitters:
Fernet Branca
Luxardo Fernet
Amer Picon
Punt e Mes
Campari
Averna
Luxardo Amaro
Nonino
Fee's orange bitters
Regan's orange bitters
Fee's peach bitters
Fee's old fashioned aromatic bitters
Angostura bitters
Peychaud's bitters
Underberg
Fee's Whiskey Barrel
Elixir Vegetal

Wine base:
Vya sweet vermouth
Noilly Prat dry vermouth
Cinzano M&R sweet vermouth
Dubonnet Rouge
Lillet
Carpano Antica Formula
Barolo Chinato

More on SF

Okay, so if you haven't had enough of San Francisco, here's some of the food we ate.

First, the Slanted Door.

We started with grapefruit salad with candied pecans, really refreshing and intensely flavored:


Kona kampachi--possibly my new favorite fish, although I'm not sure it has replaced a great piece of yellotail:


Clams with basil and chilis. Mmmmmm.


Hamachi collar--this was probably the best one I've ever had. A ton of meat, perfectly cooked with a crispy exterior and tender, juicy, melty interior. Came with pickled papaya and a great soy dipping sauce. So so so so good.


Pork with rice noodles:


We had a great bartender who was from Boston. Drinks were really tasty, and went really well with the food. In particular, we liked the Indian Summer (gin, elderflower and grapefruit juice) and the Hotel Nacional Special (Barbancourt 8yr rum, lime, pineapple gomme, Orchard apricot brandy).

It was so good, we went back the next day for lunch:

Turnip cake:


Cellophane noodles with crab (tons of fresh crab meat, soooooooo yummy):


We also had a salad with shredded green cabbage, chicken, and rice noodles. Good, but not as good as the grapefruit salad. An order of the hamachi collar was just as delicious as the day before.

"Pimms" cup with homemade "Pimms". A really pretty, interesting, tasty drink.


For dessert, cherry tomatoes and buttermilk sorbet. A really nice light dessert.


The Slanted Door was not at all like we expected--it had a much more modern feel, great food and drinks, and very affordable. We loved it.

Drinking in SF

We managed to hit up a few great bars in San Francisco.

We went to the Slanted Door for two lunches, but I'll post those later with photos.

Bourbon and Branch is a bit of a pain in the neck if you want to sit at the main bar, since you have to make reservations, but the woman I talked to never called back. However, the library didn't require reservations, and was a nice room through the back of the bar. Lots of dark wood, old books, and candles.
We started with the traditional Revolver and a tequila drink (El Diablo). Then, we got an old fashioned and a Genevieve drink that also had lemon juice, orange juice, sweet and dry vermouths. Finally, we finished with a negroni variation: aperol, gin, and lillet. All were really good, but I think our favorites were the Genevieve drink and the "negroni".

On another day, after a long walk through the city to Golden Gate Park, we stopped at The Alembic for some refreshment:

Perfect Storm: Goslings rum, tawny port, and beer, served in a tea cup with a clove-studded lemon. Cute presentation, and very tasty.
Bolo tie: silver tequila, miso white peach puree, sparkling wine. Interesting twist on a bellini.
Macanudo: anejo tequila, apricot eau de vie, Qi smoked black tea liquor, and agave. This was soooooo good and very complex.
Vow of Silence: Wild Turkey rye, benedictine, creme de griotte (like cherry), and bitters.
Boutonniere: Scotch, nocino, and orange bitters.
Old Fashionista: aged cachaca, smoked maple syrup, house-made sasperilla bitters, soda, and lemon. Very funky and interesting.

We then went off-menu with excellent bartender Thomas Waugh, and got a drink with stone pine liquor, an attempt at a Hierba Buena (his entry in the Averna competition that won him a trip to Sicily--the glass wasn't right), a different Averna drink with simple, lemon, ginger beer, and mint (so delicious), a vieux carre, and a nightcap whose ingredients I can't remember.

At Alembic, we also snacked on za'atar potato chips, crispy tripe, octopus carpaccio, beet salad, and tomato burrata avocado salad. Yum.







Of note was that despite SF's reputation as an expensive city, we found food and drink prices to generally be lower than Boston, and certainly lower than NY.

Fleur de Lys, San Francisco

We're in San Francisco for a few days, and are busy eating and drinking our way around the city. Last night we had dinner at Fleur de Lys, where we opted for the four course menu.

Amuse:
Butternut squash soup with lentil salad.
A nice tasty bite to start the meal

Course 1:
a. Tasting of Alsatian Choucroute: Choucroute soup, toasted spaetzel, and paprika oil; Choucroute fondant with Osetra caviar (so yummy, like a cauliflower flan); Choucroute strudel with sauteed foie gras (wow, this was amazing).
b. Sweetbreads with morels, sauteed leeks, farm egg, and veal jus. Just delicious.

Course 2: Fish
a. King salmon with marcona almonds, sweet and sour radicchio, grapes, scallion oil, and polenta (very good flavors, but the fish was a bit overcooked for our taste)
b. Sea bass with pimento butter, leeks, olive oil mashed potatoes, purple olive jus, and spicy fried artichokes (so good, the potatoes were spectacular!)

Course 3: Main
a. Buffalo strip steak, vegetables, and lemongrass sauce (great flavor, and the sauce was delicious)
b. Wagyu beef cheeks with butternut squash and celery root puree (amazing beef, and the celery root was so smooth and creamy).

Course 4: Dessert
a. Pistachio cake with apricot (roasted with grand marnier), amaretto ice cream (good, but not spectacular)
b. "Fleurburger" a dark chocolate patty with strawberry and kiwi garnish on a bun, banana shake, kiwi "pickle", fennel ice cream "frites" (very cute and fun)

Overall, we thought this meal was a very good value. The food was generally very tasty and interesting, while very French. We had a good Trimbach Pinot Gris, a couple glasses of red, and a Quarts de Chaume dessert wine. Service was nice, although the main course came out way too fast. I don't think we would have been disappointed with any of the menu items--they all sounded really good!

Soups and a salad

I totally love soups. They change with the seasons, and you can serve them hot, cold, smooth, silky, lumpy, etc. Almost any ingredient can find its way into a soup, and there's so much room for variation.

Zucchini mint soup
I'm not sure why I keep buying zucchini, since it's so disgustingly bland. It grills up okay, and isn't bad sauteed or in pasta, but it has no real virtues that I can think of. Except this one: cold zucchini mint soup. I first had this at Via Matta many years ago, and it was the first time I liked the vegetable. For this version, I also added a handful of basil, a few dollops of Greek yogurt, a squeeze of lemon, salt, pepper, and olive oil.


Tomato, watermelon, cucumber, and goat cheese
aka, variation on this summer's most trendy salad (tomato watermelon and feta). There's a slice each of watermelon and tomato, topped with cucumbers and Tomme de Fleur goat cheese, which is possibly my favorite. It's coated with tarragon, rosemary, and pink peppercorns, among other spices, and has such an elegant balance of tang, creaminess, goatiness, and spice.


Sweet potato soup with chorizo shrimp
We flavored the soup with onion and smoked paprika, and used a chorizo, garlic, and scallion flavored oil to lightly cook the shrimp. Mmmmmmmm. We ate this with a Manzanilla sherry. Double mmmmmmmm.


Hey, a non-pureed soup!
This one has cauliflower, fennel, onion, and carrot. I added a parmesan rind and some prosciutto ends to the broth, along with bay leaf and Italian seasoning. The broth had a great flavor, but the cauliflower was a bit bland. Oh well.

Eating in the 'burbs

There was a review of Blue Ginger in Wellesley in the Globe the other day, and it generated a decent number of mixed comments from readers. One person mentioned that it was a "solid option" for those in the suburbs who don't like to go downtown. Do people in the 'burbs really settle more for lesser food? Many people on eGullet complain about chain restaurants and the number of people who love crappy food, but it seems that sub-par places in the city are just as popular as the good ones. PF Changs is packed, Cheesecake Factory has ridiculous waits, and I'm sure Olive Garden would attract hoardes of visitors if one existed in Boston.
In any case, I'd like to find the good neighborhood places outside of Boston. A number of Boston chefs have started opening restaurants in the suburbs, but there must be some good neighborhood places that just go unnoticed because they aren't in the city. I'll start keeping track of the good (and bad) ones as I find them. Here are a few places we've visited recently:

Blue Ribbon BBQ
Many people, even city folks, know about Blue Ribbon. They have really good ribs, pulled pork, burnt ends, and varied sides, among other items. Almost everything we've tried has been delicious.

Sweet Tomatoes Pizza
One in Newton Center and one in West Newton, this is one of my favorite pizza places. Super thin crust, but still nice and chewy, with fresh toppings. I think my favorite is spinach, garlic, and sausage. Mmmmmmm. The pesto veggie is also very good, but sometimes a bit oily.

Paddy O's
One drawback of the suburbs (in my opinion) is the lack of good bars within stumbling distance. Obviously, with the higher number of families and lower population density, this makes sense, but I still don't like it. The first place we tried, which shall remain nameless because I didn't bother remembering the name, was blah at best. We checked out Paddy O's the other night, and it was surprisingly good. It wasn't a particularly lively scene, but they had a decent selection of beer on tap, and the food was good for the price, if not great. The reuben had tender meat, good flavor, and came with crisp tasty fries, and the nachos were generously topped with real cheese, chili, good tomatoes, and sour cream and salsa on the side. (The olives and jalapenos were from a can, and not that great, so I pushed them aside.)

Do I like these places compared to places in the city? I'd certainly drive out to Newton for Blue Ribbon or Sweet Tomatoes, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way to drink beer and eat bar food.

Drinky...

A few drinks we've made recently:

Inspired by the Bijou:
2 oz Old Potrero 18th Century (damn, it's hot!!!)
1 oz green Chartreuse
1 oz Carpano Antica Formula
2 dashes Fee's peach bitters (thought they were orange, but grabbed the peach by mistake)
Stir with ice, let it dilute a bit.
Really good, and the peach bitters were a happy mistake.

Lil' jig (from Pegu club a couple years ago):
muddled basil leaves (recipe calls for thai basil, I only had "regular")
1.5 oz tequila
0.5 oz yellow chartreuse
0.5 oz simple
0.75 oz lime
Shaken and strained. Soooooooo good.

We've also been playing with the Plymouth Sloe Gin--it's pretty good stuff, very tart, nice flavor.

The "sloe vermouth" was quite good:
Equal parts sloe gin and dry vermouth (1oz each), with two teaspoons of lemon juice.

Capital Grille

Went to the Capital Grille in Boston tonight. I had been once a few years ago, and I remember that it was unmemorable, but I wanted to give it another try. I started with lobster bisque (super rich with large chunks of tender lobster, and topped with sherry tableside), and had the kona crusted sirloin as my entree. I normally have rib-eye as my steak of choice, but the sirloin came highly recommended. It was really delicious, very flavorful, and came with shallot butter. We had a side of steamed broccoli with red pepper sauce (where sauce=butter), also very yummy. Ravenswood Zinfandel went nicely with the steak.
We tried to skip dessert but our friendly waiter brought us a complementary flourless chocolate espresso cake. I was so full, but managed a few bites, and it was insanely good.

Duck duck...

The last few weeks I've been reading Jeffery Steingarten's "It Must've Been Something I Ate" on the train into work, and it makes me hungry! His essays frequently mention ducks and geese, so I've decided we need to eat more duck (goose is hard to find and much more expensive).
We bought a whole duck the other day ($2.99 a pound at Whole Foods, not too bad). We pan roasted the breast with some five-spice powder, and served it with Chinese chives, five-spice tofu, and hot peppers:


We had a bucket of duck fat in the freezer, and made confit with the legs and wings. For future reference, when you decide to crisp up the skin on duck confit, please use a non-stick pan. This hot mess is the result of all the skin sticking to the pan:

It was super tasty, and we served it on top of cabbage sauteed with onion, coriander seed, mustard seed, and finished with apple cider vinegar.

Seasonal dinner

You can't read the news these days without hearing about local food, carbon footprint, and all that shit. While I'm happy to support local businesses and farms, I'm not convinced that eating "local" is necessarily the best way to live. For example, if you live in New England, does that mean you never eat citrus? What about olive oil, or wine? I suppose Westport Rivers makes great local wines, but wouldn't you want a bit more choice than that? Also, will a local tomato ever beat a canned san marzano tomato at its peak ripeness? If you live in Iowa, are you only allowed to eat corn? Seriously, where do you draw the line?
I don't think I can ever do the real locavore thing. I need ethnic food--Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Thai, French, everything. That's the best part about food!!! All the crazy ingredients from different cultures, mixing things together, learning about all the foods of the world. How sad to limit yourself to only what comes out of the ground immediately surrounding you! There's got to be some middle ground, right? Where you can support your local farmers, but not limit yourself to potatoes and kale in winter?

In any case, here's a dinner we made including some local ingredients:
Local corn, red peppers, shallots, shiitake, and maitake mushrooms sauteed with butter and olive oil, finished with scallions and basil. Sauteed pork chop with pan jus, and gooseberry sauce (finished with poire william liquor).


We also had a totally non-local cheese plate:
Speck, toscano, morbier, laguiole, roaring 40's blue, and olives


Finished with chunk monkey ice cream.

Ultimate green beans?

I absolutely love green beans. How come they seem so difficult to cook? I've burned them, had them totally raw, flavorless, you name it. I think, after many, many attempts, I've figured out a decent method for making really good green beans.

First, get a pan screaming hot. I mean really f'ing hot. Get some olive oil in there, or some oil that won't light on fire when it's really hot. Throw in the green beans, and toss in some salt. Don't touch them for ~30-45 seconds. Then start stirring and let them brown a bit. After another minute, add about 1/4 cup of water and turn down the heat. Cover for a few minutes to let the green beans cook through. Then, the key ingredients: shrimp paste and cock sauce (no, not THAT kind, you sicko, the chili garlic variety!), and chopped garlic. Let that all cook down for a few minutes, and you're done!

Neptune Oyster

So after our sub-par New Orleans oyster experience, we were craving some "real" oysters (sorry NOLA, we love ya, but your oysters are yucky). We've been wanting to go to Neptune Oyster for a while, and finally made it yesterday.

Menus:


Started out with several varieties:
Island Creeks, kumamotos, Royal Miyagi, and two other kinds I can't remember :-(


Blue marlin tartare, with stone fruit, pea puree, and parmesan arancini (which was more like a patty). The tartare had ginger bits, and was extremely tasty.


Fried soft shell crab. Although the crab itself was just a tiny tad tough, the preparation was incredible. The avocado crab salad made a perfect bed for the fried crab, and the sweet corn provided a great sweet accompaniment.


We really enjoyed this meal. For drinks, we had glasses of muscadet and chenin blanc with the oysters (muscadet was a great match). With the soft shell crab, we asked to split a glass of the d'Arenberg hermit crab. The waitress gave us two very generous half glasses of this very tasty wine. Overall, we felt this was a very good value, and we're really glad we finally made it!

One nice-ish dinner

We've been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to eat lighter meals. We did manage to put together a nice small meal not long ago:

Flan with whipped potato and caviar. The flan was surprisingly successful--2 eggs, ~1/3 can of evaporated milk, salt and pepper blended together. The key was using the hand blender, and not beating extra air into the mix. I tossed in some sauteed shallots, then baked it in a water bath (in the toaster oven!). The egg came out custardy and smooth. We topped it with some mashed potato and some type of fish egg we got as a gift. Really yummy.


Veggie soup "foamed" in the iSi whip. We cooked down red pepper, onion, tomato, garlic, and some broth, then blended it up. For the shrimp, we made a chorizo oil, then slow-cooked the shrimp in the oil. They had an amazing flavor.

Some relatively recent dinners

We've been trying to cook more this summer. It's certainly easier than during the school year, when I eat complete crap most days. I now present a few of our more successful dishes:

Shrimp and mashed potatoes in a garlic cream sauce. We cooked the shrimp in the garlic cream over very low heat. Mmmmmmm.


Cauliflower soup with sauteed ramps.


Pork chop with jicama slaw and mashed potatoes. We recently tried jicama for the first time, and it makes a great refreshing salad.


Thai tomato soup, seasoned with ginger, garlic, coconut, lime, chili garlic sauce, fish sauce, topped with fresh scallions:


Leftover bbq pork, served over polenta with a fried egg and hot sauce.


We had some leftover thai tomato soup, so we lightly poached some cod in it, and garnished with watercress.


More pork chop, with sauteed apples, and an apple celerly root slaw.


One really tasty dessert: grilled white nectarines with melon-ginger-yogurt soup.

Eating at Tales (aka what we did when we weren't drunking)

People aren't kidding when they say New Orleans has great food. We ate some fantastic food, but I wish we could have tried more. Here's my best attempt to remember all our meals:
Started out at Napolean House. Great atmosphere, exactly what you'd think of a New Orleans institution. The muffaletta was quite good, but I can imagine a better one (it was a bit doughy). Jambalaya and gumbo were very tasty.

Afternoon snack at Acme Oyster:
Oysters were not very good, in my opinion...bland and mushy. I highly prefer East or West coast oysters:

Oyster po-boy was pretty tasty though:


Dinner at Cochon. Oh my, this place is sooooooo good. We tried almost every appetizer, a bunch of entrees, several sides, and desserts too. Also, we had a great sparkling gruener veltliner, some other wine, and got into a shot war with a table of New Yorkers. More good times. Anyway, it was so good, we went back two nights later and got some pictures:
Fried pig ear: nice texture, decent flavor, but I still prefer chinese style...


Fried rabbit liver with pepper jelly and mint. WOW. I could eat many, many orders of this:


Head cheese, compliments of the chef. Possibly the best I've ever tried. So soft and flavorful:


Pickled pork tongue with tomato salad. Great flavor on the tongue (haha), but the tomatoes were a bit unripe:


Ribs with pickled watermelon rind. The meat was juicy and tender, and the sweet, tangy watermelon rind made a great accompaniment:


Crawfish pie. Also very yummy, the pastry was fantastic:


Jalapeno spoonbread with okra and beans: probably my least favorite dish, but still quite good:


Crawfish and green tomato casserole: incredibly good. The sides at Cochon are amazing.


Eggplant and shrimp: this may have been the best thing we ate all trip. It's a mixture of eggplant, shrimp, grits, peppers, scallions, and topped with cheese. It is so ridiculously good, I can't even explain it.


I was too full to appreciate dessert the first night, and we didn't even try on the second visit.

Thursday lunch didn't sit well with me (I can't imagine why, after only ~15 drinks the day before). We went to Mr. B's Bistro for the bbq shrimp and pasta jambalaya. They tasted good enough that I wanted to go back when I was in better shape, which we did a couple days later.

bbq shrimp in New Orleans is basically jumbo shrimp swimming in a butter and pepper sauce. So messy and delicious, with bread to soak up the sauce. This isn't diet food!


Mr B's also makes a great pasta jambalaya, with spinach fettuccini, really nice andouille sausage, shrimp, and chicken (dry and useless):


We also had dinner at Herbsaint, which has co-owners with Cochon. Although a bit fancier than Cochon, the food wasn't quite as good. Appetizers were generally solid, but some of the entrees were just okay.

Johnny's Po-boy: we got a hot sausage and a roast beef po-boy. I thought the hot sausage was unexpectedly delicious, but the roast beef was a bit dry.

Oh yeah, we also ate at Subway. Mmmmmm.