New Orleans: Food Heaven

This particular robot got to spend a well-deserved vacation in The Crescent City, The Big Easy, The Mardi Gras Capital, otherwise known as New Orleans, Louisiana. A city with a rich cultural, musical and culinary history, it easily found itself on one of my favorite cities to visit.
Here are some of the gastronomic highlights of my trip:

Mmmm...beignets

No trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Cafe Du Monde, (800 Decatur St.) located across from Jackson Square in the French Quarter, just a few steps away from the mighty Mississippi River. This 24-hour coffee shop's power is in its simplicity: The only thing on the menu is coffee, orange juice, hot cocoa and beignets. (pronounced ben-yays), which are French-style donuts invented by Acadian migrants who relocated from eastern Canada to Louisiana - known more famously as cajuns. This open-air environment is a prime people-watching, beignet-munching experience, where one seats themselves and is served by a staff of predominantly middle-age Vietnamese waitresses. the beignets - served 3 to an order - are best enjoyed hot off the fryer, and are doused in mounds of powdered sugar. With a small cup of the local coffee-chicory blend, served au lait, it's pure bliss. Best value in town: A breakfast of an order of beignets and a small cup of cafe au lait only costs $5 - including tip! My best advice: 1) Dip the beignets in coffee 2) Scoop some excess powdered sugar into the coffee and 3) Don't wear dark-colored clothes. You will get lots of powdered sugar on them!

New Orleans is famous for its Cajun delicacies. It's really hard to find a bad batch of gumbo here. Some random spots: Mandina's (3800 Canal St) is a nice little local joint, specializing in Italian and seafood dishes. The locals rave about the turtle soup, which is a mixed vegetable-type soup with ground turtle meat (tastes like ground turkey). They serve it with a dash of sherry. Another great spot is Mother's Restaurant (410 Poydras St). The house jambalaya and thick and chunky and their oyster po'boy sandwich is chewy bliss.

Speaking of po'boys, this town is full of joints that sell them (which are really just sandwiches served on a large piece of French bread). Don't forget to order them "dressed," which means they come with lettuce, tomato and mayo, otherwise you just get meat and bread. Gene's Po'Boys is a bright "pepto-bismol" pink building on the corner of St. Claude and Elysian Fields that serves em up good, warm and cheap.

Central Grocery Co., home of the muffuletta.

The best sandwich I had in New Orleans was the muffuletta (spelling will vary). Of Italian origin (this multicultural town was once heavily populated with Italian immigrants), it's made on a large round bun of lightly sesame-topped Italian bread, slightly crunchy and still with a hint of flour still on it, filled with layers of deli met, cheese and olive spread. Packed with flavor, I even brought some on the flight home to import to friends and family. Their reaction was the same: "Wow! This is a real good sandwich!" Central Grocery Co. (923 Decatur St) , a small market located in the French Quarter with a warm, deli-style atmosphere, boasts the original muffuletta and it's not unusual to wait in line to get one. Advice: If you just want to order one for yourself, order a half muffuletta, a whole one is rather large.

The only bad thing about New Orleans is that eventually, you have to leave. Fortunately you can take a little of New Orleans with you...The French Market Seafood Company (1106 Peters St), located right in the French Market packs Louisiana seafood for your plane trip home. 10 lbs of crawfish (just $1.99/lb!) and a flight container cost less than $30 and after I got home I was able to have me a crawfish boil.

Now that this android is back in his home environs, the quest to find New Orleans-style eateries in SoCal has begun!

Cowboy Wedding Food!

Last night was the second wedding I've been to for two friends from college. I still can't believe my friends are getting married. Some of my girls were there last night, as well so that made it extra special, including all the tables having names of various landmarks in San Francisco. They fittingly stuck all the USF folks at the St. Ignatius table. SUPER CUTSY!

The Los Angeles River Center is such a gorgeous venue! As I'm told, it used to be the Lawry's factory and people could go there for tours and receive samples of spices. The architecture is very much in the style of a Spanish hacienda with large garden, lush greenery, fountains and several areas for a bar. The ceremony was on the side where there were archways. The only major drawback was that the center is right next to the 5 freeway and having something there during rush hour is not a good idea. Much of the sound during the ceremony was drowned out by the trucks and cars whizzing by and hocking at each other. Unfortunately, the person controlling the sound did not compensate for the distruptions so much of the ceremony was left to the audience's imagination.

The Center allows parties to bring in their own caterers. The food at this wedding was one of the most flavorful I have ever had at any wedding! Their chef really went by the title, "cowboy chef"! I thought James was joking when he told us. The spread consisted of chicken and steak fajitas, large salads, refried beans, rice pilaf with black beans, bbq ribs, bbq chicken, chips, dinner rolls, salsa and texas size steamed vegies! It was a mistake getting more of one thing because you had to taste everything! I talked to the chef later on in the evening to make sure to thank him for the spread. He informed me that he has been in the food industry for about 40 years and is now in his retirement phase, sort of. He'll come out and do special occassions every now and then if it fits into his travel schedule. Can we all be so lucky? He also mentioned that he collaborates with the owner of Kalesa Grill in Panorama City and makes some mean adobo. Good thing I got his card for future reference, just in case I ever want to do a texas style Pinoy party. ha!

No idea where the cake was from but that was equally appetizing. It wasn't dry at all and had the perfect balance of sweetness and lightness, not to mention that it was cutely decorated with pink trim on each layer and pearls strung around the trim.

Overall, a very enjoyable experience!