Carmo* (#236, 11/15/12)
Carmo is a “tropical cafe” and it’s good. Definitely different food here, and supposedly healthy, which I usually shy away from. They have a lot of weird fruits and different Brazilian type items. This is good preparation for me living in Rio. I went for the Rico, which is a fork sandwich; that doesn’t mean it’s made out of forks though, instead, it’s a bizarre sandwich that you eat with a fork. It had shredded pork, which is solid, then cheese and some sort of sauce. But the whacky twist is that it is served on a grilled plantain patty. As I said, very bizarre (though not as bizarre as the miniature donkey/horse creature I saw last night). Anyway, it was a solid meal and pretty close to work, so definitely a potential addition to my lunch rotation. They also have vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options – so sustenance for all!
This was not dinner.
Cafe Abyssinia (#235, 11/12/12)
15 Years of Worry
I am thinking that if I’m going to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans, I’ll have to eat at every restaurant in New Orleans. So time to venture out a little bit and try some Ethiopian food from Cafe Abyssinia on Magazine Street. Interestingly, there are two Ethiopian restaurants in New Orleans. I’m really not sure what to make of that; I guess it just means that I will be eating more Ethiopian food. Perhaps. Having done absolutely no research, I just went for the kifko, which is some sort of beef dish that seemed like it may be spicy. Beef seems good, right? And spicy is always good. Well, hindsight being 20/20, maybe not the best option. I read up on this kifko character and found out that it’s raw beef. Reading on, I find out that those unphased by raw beef can move onto other treats. However, I quickly became distracted looking up mad cow disease, which it turns out isn’t really transmittable to humans. However, it causes something else in humans, which will usually kill you, though the symptoms can take up to 15 years to manifest. So anyway, if anyone notices psychotic behavior, dementia or coma from me from now until 2027, it is likely due to the kifko. Turns out I might be phased by eating raw beef. My point is, next time, I may stick with chicken. Assuming nothing bad can come from eating birds, right?
I guess the basics…the food is served on a big platter and you tear off pieces of thin bread…almost tortilla-like, but not really (if that helps – wait, maybe the picture will help, the bread is the rolled up stuff at the top, and that white stuff is some sort of feta-like cheese, which apparently is good on the kifko. It prevent’s mad cow disease. But I didn’t realize that, so I didn’t use any; again, that damn hindsight thing). Back to the food, so it’s a good skill to properly tear the bread; it shouldn’t be that hard to tear a good and useful square, but I struggled. Anyway, you tear off hunks of bread and then sort of scoop up the food, squeezing up pieces with the bread and eating it. All of the food is essentially mushy. Man, I am thinking this isn’t selling the place. The lentils were good, so it has that going for it. Honestly, it wasn’t bad, I’m just struggling now due to a little dementia setting in.
Oh, it’s also BYOB, so bring some drinks if you like.
As far as the picture, my first effort at a photo on this blog, was described by one friend, “So Ethiopian food is school cafeteria leftovers?” Actually, good guess, but no, what it is, is a lot of raw beef. Mmmm.
Satsuma (#234, 11/3/12)
I’ve heard about this Satsuma place in the Bywater, but hadn’t made it down there yet. Wait around long eneough and I guess it comes to you, because they opened up another place on Maple Street Uptown. So I dropped in to check out the breakfast offerings on Saturday morning. It’s a casual type place where you order at the counter and then just find a seat. It was pretty crowded so a bit of a wait, but overall, I wasn’t inspired by the menu. Seems to be one of those healthy places, which is always going to be a problem for me. I usually prefer the unhealthy options. I ordered a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich – wanted it on a biscuit, but they were out (a good sign, only fresh stuff), so went with regulat wheat bread. Solid sandwich; it was good enough that I went back on Sunday for another one. But overall, nothing great.
Annunciation (#233, 10/31/12)
Dropped in at another new place for a little Halloween dinner. Annunciation, which was opened by a former chef from Clancy’s, is located on, wait for it…Annunciation Street! It’s in the old Deanie’s building in the middle of the Warehouse District. It’s a pretty cool looking place, well set-up, but not a lot of New Orleans character. Friendly service and good food as well. I had the veal annunciation, figured I should try one of their signature dishes and it was quite good. Veal over pasta, essentially. The drum looked good also, so it may be a worthwhile place to check out again, but it didn’t bowl me over…of course, I could be an idiot in that I may have forgotten the best part of the meal – the oyster appetizer! Fried oysters with melted brie. I like cheese on a lot of things, but have never considered it on oysters, yet it was awesome. Other things that I haven’t tried cheese on/with: ice cream, peanut butter, apple pie and any sort of fish.
Charlie’s Steakhouse (#232, 10/26/12)
Need a fun, old-school place to bring a group of carnivores? Then I would definitely recommend Charlie’s Steakhouse on Dryades in Uptown. It’s likely that as soon as you walk in, you will be greeted by the owner and the service continues from there. Don’t worry about reading the fine print on the menu, because there isn’t any. For that matter, there isn’t a menu. Do you want a big ribeye, a little ribeye or a filet? Be careful ordering the filet, you may take some abuse. Also be careful with the mountain of onion rings they will bring to your table – very good, but you don’t want to get too full. They do serve a salad, and it’s quite good, even better with leftover onion rings as croutons. The sides are solid as well – potatoes au gratin and potato wedges for us. Definitely an excellent stop for old-style steak, don’t expect fancy sauces or anything like that (there might be A1 on the table, that’s about it).
Maurepas Foods* (#231, 10/20/12)
For some reason, this Maurepas Foods place in the Bywater had been rattling around in my head for awhile, so I figured I better get out there and see what it’s all about. Upon arrival, I realized that I had found Hipster Headquarters. The host was clearly a high-ranking hipster, he was dressed in mostly black, with a black vest as well as the essential black glasses, but he clearly established his credentials with the well-coiffed handlebar mustache. Well played, Mr. Hipster. The place has a good atmosphere, though the acoustics are a little off; it stinks when “Tainted Love” is playing and you can’t really hear it. To lead off, the drinks (made by an intoxicologist, not a bartneder, or even a mixologist) were very good. Well, maybe I should say one drink was – the Que Guapo, some kind of tequila concoction with grapefruit juice and other stuff which was one of the best drinks I have had in ages. As far as food, be prepared for small portions (maybe it’s a sneaky tapas joint without warning in advance). One item you may read a lot about are the goat tacos. Not having ever eatne goat, I had to give them a run. Overall, I’m thinking they are just trying to be too cool and say, “We have goat tacos, not those other boring-type tacos.” I would have preferred beef, chicken or fish. And that’s not even because of the various pieces of goat bone included with the meat. It just wasn’t that good. So overall, the place has some character and it’s a cool building, but I doubt I’ll be back anytime soon.
Sarita’s (#230, 10/19/12)
Checked in at another Freret Street stop for lunch – Sarita’s Grill – a Latin fusion place. Apparently, Sarita’s has been going on Freret Street for a long time – well before all of the hip, new places have come to the area. It’s a solid stop, good prices, decent, casual atmosphere. Also, they have free chips and queso to start, which is always a bonus. The waitress was very helpful, and she was wearing legwarmers, I believe. Either that or some very bizarre socks, hard to say. I went with the fish tacos which various reviews recommended. They were okay, nothing spectacualr; but I liked the looks of the quesadillas, so will probably go back at some point.
Bacchanal (#229, 10/13/12)
Bacchanal is defined as a drunken or riotous celebration…well, this may not have been exactly that, but it is a pretty cool New Orleans place. It has been open for a while in the Bywater, but just recently added a full bar and kitchen. It used to be a great place to go and buy a bottle of wine (it is basically a wine shop that you can browse the different wines), then hang out outside and listen to some live music. Now you can do the same thing, except they have added the full kitchen and bar. We sat a tiny, rickety table that actually looked a bit like a toadstool, amongst some trees and branches – and had a great time. I munched on some bacon-wrapped dates and a flat iron steak (with chimicurri sauce, which I’m liking of late) and we sampled a couple of different wines. Good place to start an evening in one of the more cool, lesser-known New Orleans neighborhoods and while the night may have ended in some chaos, it was still pretty solid.
An added note, from their website: “Bacchanal is a wine retail shop, a wine bar, a live music venue, a New York style deli, an international bistro and a regular shooting location for HBO’s Treme.”
Jazzy Wings* (#228, 10/12/12)
Music in Ya Mouth! Finally! Number one, Jazzy Wings has the top motto/theme of any New Orleans restaurant, and I am using the term “restaurant” loosely. Jazzy Wings has a couple of big benches and about three stools. Like a true authentic wing joint, you pay through a bank-like slot in a window, possibly bullet-proof, we didn’t test it. I went with the tender special, which was three tenders (I opted for honey mustard, probably should have gone jazzy), fries and a drink. They also had a special which was simply “fish, salad, peas…$8.59.” I’m not a big pea guy, so I skipped that. My friends went with true “jazzy” wings, which is a special herb blend. Everybody was pretty happy with the meal, even with the fries being old. And we also now have frequent cutosmer cards, so that’s good too.
Saucy’s BBQ* (#227, 10/11/12)
New Orleans has great food, but it’s not known for its barbecue. And it’s Chinese food kind of stinks too. Actually, Mexican isn’t very good either. But a new bbq joint opened up on Magazine Street so I made the trip Uptown for lunch to give Saucy’s a try. It has all of the basics of a bbq joint, but I had read somewhere that the brisket was outstanding, so I gave it a run. Very solid. Not spectacular, but worth a lunch stop. They have a lot of different sauces, so need to explore those a bit more to figure out which is best. Good portions with solid sides (I went with mac and cheese and potato salad) and also a muffin of some sort that was excellent.
As an addition from May 2013, Saucy’s has a booth at the YLC Wednesday’s at the Square and the brisket quesadillas they were serving were some of the best quesadillas I have ever had. Will definitely try in the main restaurant.