we had a wonderful wonderful trip to new orleans! so much fun. so amazing to hang out with family. & i'm going to tell you all about it. but i'm starting with the food. because we love new orleans' food.
our first stop as soon as we picked up julie & benny boo from the airport was the one & only cochon butcher. oh, donald link & your cochon restaurants, we love you. four trips in this five day vacation. truth. & we loved every one of them. this first stop included the must have boudin & pastrami sandwich, insanely rich duck sliders, quite awesome mac & cheese and green beans, & the most ridiculously tasty sweet + spicy brisket sliders. oh, i love those sliders. {for the record, stop #2 at butcher was those incredible brisket sliders & boudin, of course. stop #3? lots of boudin.}
we actually tried a few new spots on this trip to new orleans, including a little pub called capdeville. it's a cozy little joint on a tiny, off-the-beaten path street that is anything but fancy. comfortable & inviting it was. we were one of two groups when we arrived at seven in the evening but were almost turned away due to the high number of reservations. so it must be a happenin' place, if you go on nola time. for our meal, we enjoyed a few local brews & some tasty burgers. i'd recommend it for a little different taste of nola.
our first breakfast of the trip was, as it absolutely should be, at cafe du monde! it was julie & ben's first cafe du monde experience & it was awesome as always. the restaurant was crazy busy, as everything else on this trip, due to jazz fest. we went all out, ordering 7 bags {which is TWENTY-ONE beignets... yessss} & 4 cafe au laits to go. we took our gigantic bag of fried deliciousness down the street to sit on a park bench & enjoy.
get this - they were so busy, they didn't sugar the beignets. they gave us a bag of beignets & a huge bag of powdered sugar. so awesome. so we poured the 5 pounds {exaggeration} of powdered sugar over our beignets & shook away. just as amazing!
for lunch, the boys decided to take a walk down to the open air french market for some alligator on a stick. delicious!
for dinner that evening, we intended to try out the famous acme oyster house. but the line was crazy long & we were hungry, so we walked down the street to an oyster bar rated better on urbanspoon, royal house restaurant. we enjoyed a lot of oysters - fresh oysters on the half shell, chargrilled oysters, oysters rockefeller baked with spinach & bacon, & oysters royale baked with seafood stuffing. they were very good. i love me some raw oysters, but the chargrilled were quite delicious too.
breakfast number two was another new spot for us, surrey's cafe & juice bar in the garden district. it is a local favorite on magazine street with fresh fruit & homemade breads & other breakfast favorites. i had a fabulous housemade onion bagel with avocado mash & vegetables. blakey enjoyed huevos racheros with chorizo & a side of boudin patties. he loves trying the boudin everywhere in nola, as it is always different. & always good.
for happy hour drinks & food, we went back to our favorite nola happy hour at lüke, for half-off cocktails & fifty cent oysters. these oysters are simply the best. they are gigantic & fresh & so tasty. we, once again, went all out with three dozen fresh & a dozen baked. you know, just because we could :)
& then the meal blakey & i had been waiting for since we left new orleans last, cochon!! i have had the highest expectations both times we have eaten at cochon & it simply does not disappoint. in fact, it was even more amazing than i remembered. we started our meal with fried boudin & fried alligator. these two dishes are probably two of my favorite dishes i've ever eaten. one, the very best of a dish you can find all around the city. & the other, so create & unique & well executed. for our meal, i had the pork cheek special served over hoppin john. it was incredible. & blake had the rabbit & dumplings. normally, i would ask why on earth would you order rabbit at a restaurant called pig? but it was delicious. rich & delicious. & we had to share a side of mac & cheese, as our server said it was the best. he was certainly not wrong. cochon, we love you.
for our final nola meal, we went a little on the light side {well, light for new orleans} with happy hour pizzas at domenica. at half off, we ordered three to try & share - proscuitto with tomato, mozzarella, & aurugla; calabrese with spicy salami, mozzarella, capers, & olives; and duck with porcini, mascarpone, sweet potato, & scallions. my favorite was the proscuitto, which is not surprising at all. it was fresh & light & lovely. blake's favorite with the calabrese, which surprised me. he loved how italian it was. oh, & the duck. it was rich & filling & delicious. but we could only eat one piece each. we headed home with an entire box full of pizza. which we ate cold the next morning for breakfast.
a delicious taste of new orleans, as always.
love love,
kjp.
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