Jason Perlow

NOTE: This topic is part of the Eating New Orleans series. Bozo's Seafood 3117 21st St. Metairie, LA 504-831-8666 Having just landed in MSY, We decided to hit the ground running, and after picking up our rental car, we went straight to Bozo's, a popular seafood eatery in Metairie. Bozo's is in a rather obscured location, and as it says in Pableaux's book, the place has no visible signage and is definitely an "insider's" restaurant -- they probably rarely get tourists, if ever. Nevertheless, Bozo's is producing great seafood, and has impeccably good raw oysters as well, along with seasoned oyster shuckers. We ordered a plate of the raw oysters, which are served unadorned. Each table has a bottle of Hunt's Ketchup, grated horseradish, and Crystal/Tabasco. Along with a dish of lemon juice, you're given small dishes in which you mix your own blend of these condiments. I put a rather large amount of horseradish in mine. The cold freshly shucked raw oysters were a great start, as we just walked out of 93 degree heat. They were fresh as can be and were absolutely delicious. Here's the oyster guy shucking away. This is Bozo's signature gumbo, which has no roux in it whatsoever. It has a lot of okra, a little bit of shrimp, a lot of chicken, and a bit of sausage. It's fantastic. The Bozo's seafood platter is much like others in town, like Deanies, but the cornmeal crust is on the oysters and catfish only, and is only lightly seasoned. The catfish was pristine, absolutely clean tasting, and the oysters were excellent, as were the shrimp, which was lightly breaded with breadcrumbs. The crab stuffing was also very good. Not pictured here are the endless plates of broiled halves of buttered french bread, which basically melt in your mouth. The reason why we don't have any pictures of is testament to how good they are -- we went thru 2 baskets and could easily have eaten four.

Some highlights from the last several days, and then we'll start with the detailed reports and the thread index. Deanie's Liuzza's by the Track Bayona Brigtsen's Greek Festival Hansen's Sno Bliz Plaquemines Parrish Seafood Festival Pampy's Wayne Jacob's Smokehouse

Just got back. Oh man are we tired. New photos tonight of Pampy's, Hansens, New Orleans Greek Festival (INSANE!!!) and the Plaquemines Parrish Heritage Seafood Festival (click) As to Jacobs: There are actually TWO Jacob's in La Place. One is an impostor (Jacob's Original Andouille) which manages to make pretty good andouille and a number of other items and the other is the actual ORIGINAL (Wayne Jacob's Smokehouse) and is a much smaller, low tech, high quality andouille and tasso producer. Wait until you see those photos. We went and bought from both. Mittendorf's, unfortunately we didn't make it to, as we had to head back to hit the Greek Festival, which was a complete and total waste of time. Argh, insane crowds.

Just uploaded the new photos. I apologize for the quality of the Brigtsen's shots, the light in there is REALLY dark and all the shots are multi-second exposures. More descriptive stuff next week when we get home.

Perlow New Orleans Trip, May 2005 (click for photos) We've updated the Photo Gallery with new places. Some Highlights: K Jean Parkway Bakery Willie Mae's Scotch House Plum Street Snow Balls Crabby Jacks Crescent City Farmers Market

I've added updated Upperline pics to the Upperline thread. Here's the Nectar Soda we had at Creole Creamery: And here's the Ice Cream selection there -- we plan to go back shortly! Interior shot of Creole Creamery, right before the afternoon rush:

Upperline is in Pableaux Johnson's book, so we had the perfect excuse to come back and eat on this trip -- not like we wouldn't in the first place! Oysters St. Claude -- Phenomenal Aftermath of Oysters St. Claude Main Dining Room Crab Meuniere Owner Jo Ann Clevenger Original Fried Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade Veal Grillades with Cheddar Cheese Grits Roast Duck with Port Garlic and Ginger Peach Sauce "Hot and Hot" Black Drum with spicy Shrimp Sauce Cane River Shrimp Spicy Shrimp with Jalapeño Cornbread & Aïoli Trio of Soups: Chicken/Andouille Gumbo, Turtle, Oyster Banana Carnival

This week, Rachel and I are in New Orleans following Pableaux Johnson's June 2005 book, Eating New Orleans: From French Quarter Creole Dining to the Perfect Poboy MODERATOR NOTE, September 2005: Here is the master index to all the places we visited in late May of 2005 and in November 2003: Eating New Orleans Snowballs Eating New Orleans Ice Cream Eating New Orleans Po Boys Willie Mae's Scotch House Closed -- rebuilding Upperline Deanies Central Grocery Sid-Mar's Closed -- destroyed by Katrina Palace Cafe Commander's Palace Closed -- renovating Drago's Pampy's Creole Kitchen Closed -- destroyed by Katrina Dunbar's Tujagues Jacques-Imo's Bayona New Orleans Farmers Market Crescent City Farmer's Market Cafe Du Monde Mosca's Uglesich's Closed Bozo's Pascal's Manale Elizabeth's Frady's New Orleans Rum Closed -- rebuilding Lemon Grass Liborio Mr. B's Outside New Orleans: Camille's Cajun Cafe Lagniappe Too Plaquemines Parrish Heritage Seafood Festival Eating Louisiana Andouille Tabasco see also: The Perlows to Visit New Orleans (2003) *********************************** Here's our complete photo album from the trip: Perlow New Orleans Trip, May 2005 (click for photos) We'll be adding to this album every day or so, so check in often. Here's some highlights from some of the places we have visited: Bozo's (Metarie) Drago's (Metarie/Bucktown) Sid Mars Brocato's Ye Olde College Inn (New Orleans)

Yeah, where's the Mexican sous chef?

Like that wouldn't IMMEDIATELY set off huge alarms in the food media as far as conflict of interest goes in real life... Amanda Hesser was roasted after her Spice Market review for allegedly having a friendship with JGV and because he had a blurb on her book jacket... Can you imagine if she was an ex girlfriend or an ex-wife?

Happycook, I'm actually going to be in New Orleans all next week (impromptu vacation) so if we find anything new we'll let you know. I plan on going to Bayonna, I haven't been yet. that being said, I think for the most part we are going to be concentrating on casual, "locals" type places this time around.

My interest is piqued. What's a swamp cabbage?

Two flips, like Malawry.

Its a satellite channel we get on DirecTV and I think Dish. http://www.rfd-tv.com/

Yeah I saw that one too.. I don't think there was any trace of stock in that "soup" ...

Same thing that makes pasta tricolor.. some is made with tomato, some is made with spinach, and some is made plain. Dry it, mix it up in the bag, Voila.

The restaurant does seem to excel in all its fish dishes, from those that I have tasted.

Recipe Gullet was re-launched about 2 months ago, it had been out of commission for over six months -- which would probably be why you couldn't get to it. Clicking on the RecipeGullet link at the top of every page will also get you to where you need to be. The mysterious "Ed" is NYC Chinese restaurant entepreneur/pioneer Ed Schoenfeld, who we had a eGullet Q&A with back in late 2002: eGullet Q&A with Ed Schoenfeld

Stovetop, in a large saute pan.

Oh MAN do I have serious Digital Camera envy now.

Try telling a Recoltant Manipulant in Champagne he isn't a farmer... I'd like to see his reaction!

For those of you who don't want to wait on lines and wish to eat their burgers in a traditional restaurant setting -- I highly reccomend the close cousin and predecessor to the Shake Shack burger, the Blue Smoke burger: The meat is also ground fresh, has a great bun, and had an intense char-broiled flavor.

Ulp!

Here's a dish Rachel made tonight, although sans actual Tagine: Moroccan-Style Chicken Tagine with Tri-Color Couscous The couscous was purchased at Kalustyan's, a middle eastern grocery/spice purveyor in NYC.

Moroccan-Style Chicken Tagine with Tri-Color Couscous