Jason Perlow

Ah.. Dr. Bob is the guy who does those "Flipper" things I saw in various places too. The one with the lady scratching her armpit or...

I don't know how native New Orleanians eat these things without making a complete mess of themselves. These beignets are piled on with so much powdered sugar that its impossible to keep the stuff off your shirt. I must admit that despite the touristyness of that part of Decatur street and Cafe Du Monde, the beignets and the coffee are very very good. I guess thats why we keep going back.

There's no doubt that Jacques-imos has the best Fried Chicken in New Orleans because it is cooked to order and has the most amazing fry chef in the entire country cooking it. However, at $14 a plate, its also the most EXPENSIVE fried chicken in New Orleans. So if you want Fried Chicken that is both good and not expensive, Dunbar's is the place to be. Its a real soul food restaurant that real people eat at, and you'll be supporting a family business.

My thoughts echo Rachel's sentiments exactly. Both Pascal's and Mr. B's are excellent renditions of barbecue shrimp (why do they call it barbeque?) but both are very different. I loved both, but as Rachel says, the Mr. B's one is better for sopping up the sauce with. The Pascals version is much more peppery while the Mr. B's one is more buttery and thicker.

I really, really liked this place. I'm not sure if its the beat up and extremely casual atmosphere (read, "dive") but I fell in love with Camille's. The fried stuff was certainly top notch, and it had some of the best hush puppies I have had in my entire life, but the big tray of shrimp boil was exactly what I needed after driving around cajun country all day with Rachel and Mayhaw Man. BTW, in regards to the christmas tree -- its up all year round and is decrorated for different holidays. You'll notice that it is decorated as a Thanksgiving tree. She also decorates it for Mardi Gras, easter and a few other holidays.

I concur with Rachel's sentiments about the Jambalaya. Don't go for lunch at Tujagues, do dinner.

By far my favorite dish was the Spicy Shrimp with Jalapeno Cornbread. It sort of tasted like a cross between a latin american, spanish and creole shrimp dish. The red caramelized onions in it really added something to the dish. The Cane River Shrimp was also extremely good, and that and the previously mentioned dish was probably my two favorite shrimp preparations (that and the Barbecue Shrimp at Mr. B's) the entire week in New Orleans. Rachel is also correct about the gumbo -- it's extremely dark and flavorful without the roux being burned -- a difficult and impressive accomplishment. I will also add that the Creme Brulee at Upperline was also one of the best desserts we had all week. The creme part was better than Jacques-imos, which was the second best creme brullee only in that the burned sugar crust part was exceptional. There wasn't a single dish at this restaurant I didn't like, which is pretty amazing considering that at every other fine restaurant we went to in New Orleans that week, perhaps with the exception of Commanders and Jacques-imos, there were a lot of tradeoffs.

Prior to visiting Celebration Distillation Corp, my only experince with visiting a rum distillery or any other kind of liquor distillery was Bacardi in Puerto Rico. Comparing Celbration Distillery to a massive operation like Bacardi would literally be like trying to compare night and day or apples and oranges. Celebration Distillation is an extremely low-tech, small production operation compared to a huge industrial giant like Bacardi. What you see in these pictures is what you get -- a small, artisinal rum producer using old equipement to produce a very fine, old-style rum. The product is made using blackstrap molasses which is brought in from sugar processing plants near the Louisiana cane fields, which is then pumped into their storage tank and then processed with water using their vintage still and boiler. In the case of the higher end Cane product, pure cane syrup is added during distillation to give it that distinctive sugarcane flavor and it also lightens the color of the rum somewhat. The product is then put into bourbon barrels where it is aged for several years and picks up some of the flavor from the barrels. If you're in New Orleans I highly recommend visiting the distillery. Be sure to call in advance as they don't normally do tours, although they just opened up a new visitors center. And definitely pick up some of this rum -- its one of the best American made spirits I have ever had, and it really compares favorably with some of the best artisinally-made rums from the Caribbean. Its distinctive Bourbon and sugarcane flavor also sets it apart from its competitiors and makes it a distinctively New Orleans and Louisiana product.

I liked all the shrimp dishes with the exception of the BBQ Shrimp and Oysters, which Rachel is correct in saying it was way too salty. My understanding is that this place started out as a Po Boy joint. We didn't actually try any of the po boys, but I'm thinking that might be what this place does best.

I realize these folks look kind of scary, but this po-boy shop is the REAL DEAL. It looks like something out of the backwater parts of cajun country. The decor is kind of scary and as you can see some interesting characters inhabit the place. However, the people are really nice and they make AWESOME po boys. I had the shrimp po boy, and it was REALLY good. However I really should have ordered the fried oyster one. They gave us samples of fried oysters to taste, and we could have sat there for an hour eating them had we not had things to do that afternoon. This place is right near the Bywater Art Market, so be sure to check that out if you are on a day that it is open. They run it the 3rd Saturday of every month. http://www.art-restoration.com/bam/

It was cool to see the factory but I would have really have liked to have seen the fields of growing tabasco peppers and the aging rooms for the sauce -- it takes 3 years for them to age the packed peppers in salt to give it the distinctive taste that we recognize. Apparently they used to do this, but I'm guessing insurance concerns have stopped them from doing it.

Palace Cafe was one of the restaurants we had most looked forward to re-visiting on our trip to New Orleans. Several years ago during a trade show during the summer, I beleive the same year the restaurant was opened, we went to Palace Cafe. We were incredibly impressed by food and the service, which was to be expected because this was a Brennan-owned establishment -- all of which have set very high benchmarks for restaurants in New Orleans. Palace Cafe is also a very attractive restaurant, a huge open space with a spiral staircase that leads up to the top level dining area. The restaurant is loud with a semi-open kitchen, and there's lots of servers racing around at all times. It's a happening restaurant that wouldn't be out of place in New York City or Los Angeles. We arrived at around 9PM on Friday night for our dinner reservation, fresh off the plane after checking into the hotel. We were promptly seated, so my gully sense had not yet been set off. However, after sitting at the table for 5 minutes without anyone bringing us water or taking our drink or appetizer orders, both of us became alarmed and very unsettled. This may have been because we just spent 8 or so hours travelling, but we thought that going 5 minutes without having water brought to us or our drink order taken was definitely sub-par for a restaurant of this class. Finally, the server came and took our drink orders. I think Rachel may have had to reinforce to the server and the water guys to bring us water a few times, but we eventually did get it and I got my Bloody Bull. For those of you not in the know, a Bloody Bull is a Bloody Mary with beef stock or bullion added. It adds a really awesome beefy dimension to the drink, and for those of you who like Bloody Marys, I can assure you, it only improves things. Palace Cafe, like its sister restaurant Commander's Palace, makes a damn good one. Both our appetizers were very good -- Rachel had the Oyster Pan Roast and I had the scallops appetizer special. The oysters in the cream sauce were a bit overkill, but then again, this is typical for New Orleans and we knew what we were dealing with this week. My very fresh and delicious grilled scallops came in a butter and chantrelle mushroom sauce, excellent. Couldn't complain about that one. The salads that followed were a disappointment -- it seems that in New Orleans restaurants for the most part really don't have good access to high-end salad greens, they seem to get the same stuff the supermarkets do. Skip the salads. Fortunately the main dishes were very, very good. Rachels pecan-crusted catfish with meunière sauce was expertly cooked and the sauce was wonderfully rich, and my Shrimp Tchefuncte, which was kind of a peppery etoufee, was a great but yet again extremely rich dish with huge juicy gulf shrimp (did I see a pattern for the week?) with tons of butter in it. (Ok, we're on vacation, I kept saying to myself. Better see the cardiologist when I get back. ) . The rice that came with these dishes was also perfectly cooked and also very buttery. Many people, including the table next to us told us that the White Chocolate Bread Pudding signature dessert is not what it used to be -- so we ordered alternate desserts. Irregardless, both of these were disappointing. My coca cola cake was extremely dry, with a cloyingly sweet coca-cola reduction and accompanied by homemade Jack Daniels ice cream with coca cola sugar "bottle shards". The ice cream was the best part, I left over most of the cake and the shards were unpleasantly hard and tasteless. Rachel's warm lemon torte was a little bit better but they completely forgot about the accompanying lemon truffles until we told them to bring them. Something at this restaurant that night was off. If you are going to order a dessert at this place, go with the traditional Bananas Foster. Just about everyone in the restaurant seemed to be ordering it and it LOOKED good. I've had it Brennan's, the restaurant that started it all for this family, and it was really good there. This one seemed to be just like it. I feel like a dumbass for not ordering it then because we didn't order the dessert at any other restaurant the entire week we were there. I'm not sure if it was the busy friday night, the planets were in the wrong alignment or the wrong people were on shift that night, but we were extremely disappointed in Palace Cafe. I had to wonder if Dickie Brennan is really aware of of what is going on in that place and if he is still tasting his own place's desserts and is aware of the abyssmal service issues. The main dishes and the appetizers were still good though -- but this place wouldn't last 2 seconds in New York City in the shape its currently in. Not a total disaster, and it had some nice highlights, but it put a pallor on the two other Brennan restaurants I visited that week. Fortunately, this was a quirk.

this reminds me of a documentry film i saw on ifc "shalom y'all" all about jewish tradition in the deep south. http://www.shalomyall.com

Poche's. http://www.poches.com

Given that I hoard my HC for special medicinal purposes, I am partial to Cruzan Estate Dark or Cruzan Estate Light for mixing. Bacardi is perfectly ok for white rum drinks as well. Appleton Estate Special is also a very good gold mixer. I also like Brugal for Cuba Libre.

I'm gonna git me some bo ju lay.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/996928.asp?0cv=KB20&cp1=1 Exit interview with William Grimes on MSNBC

Well you could do that. they are open. but there are so many other choices that would make you much happier. Copeland's is sort of like Applebee's with seafood and extra salt. Oh my god does that place look gawdy as hell.

Newsflash: http://www.egullet.com/shared/wrap-news.pdf The Toast-N-Serve MAGIC WRAP is released! (you need Adobe Acrobat to view) These differ from the Magic Bags in that they can be completely opened to a flat piece of teflon for easier cleaning and can accomodate THICKER sandwiches! I have not received samples for testing yet but will shortly.

He's his grandson. I believe Eric's dad started NY Newsday or is one of the top people in that organization.

Our second fridge, which is of the minibar-sized variety, is exclusively used to store beverages in. Our house is laid out as a ranch-style, with an upper level with the 3 main bedrooms, a main level with the kitchen and main living room and dining room, and our basement (offices and laundry). When we had our kitchen redone we didnt have room to move our large refrigerator downstairs, so we bought one of the smaller units for keeping cold beverages upstairs so we wouldnt have to go downstairs at night into the kitchen-in-progress in various states of danger. It still serves as our primary beverage fridge so that we can keep them out of the main fridge downstairs and leave space for other stuff. Its also cool that we have a minibar because it lives in the guest bedroom and is nice for our guests when they sleep over. Our guest bedroom also acts as a wine storage facility, they are all racked on the wall facing the bed. We also have a chest freezer in our den/3rd bedroom, which is also upstairs.

NOTE: I've just temporarily removed the thread index and all the threads concerning the New Orleans trip in order to re-arrange them and add content. Stay tuned for updated versions in a few days.

Not at Commanders. But at Palace Cafe it happened about a dozen times. In fact I have the whole bananas foster process photo documented.

the maduros are sweet and soft. The tostones (not shown) are savory and firm.