Cochon, New Orleans

Recommended to us by everyone, we went to Cochon for lunch during our New Orleans holiday. The menu is by far one of the most unusual I've encountered; fun things like fried livers, sauteed mullet, hog jowls and stuffed pig foot all making appearances.

To kick off the experience Alan ordered a drink called a Swinekiller consisting of Hendrick's Gin, rhubarb bitters and limeade that was really easy to drink.

To start we ordered the fried alligator with chili, garlic aioli and and plate of the smoked pork ribs with watermelon pickle plus I got a boring but much needed salad of mixed greens, pickled onions and peanut vinaigrette.

I can tell you that it's time I start using a Thesaurus. I have run out of words to describe such wonderful food. (pause - checking www.thesaurus.com). It was downright ambrosial! The alligator was tender with a little kick and had not even a hint of the chewiness that is often the downfall of this meat. I loved the preparation and the garlicky sauce. The ribs were delectable - fall off the bone tender with great flavor. Just wish they were either bigger or there were twice as many. For $12.00 a plate, I should have just gotten two orders.

The salad was also very good - hearts of palm, great blend of bitterness from the greens and sweetness from the onions...really nice, refreshing plate.

For our main course we both ordered sandwiches. I went with the special sandwich of the day (don't laugh); fried bologna with lettuce, tomato, a blend of cheeses and a garlic mayonnaise. Alan got the oyster & bacon sandwich.

Both of these were really good. I don't think I've had bologna once in the past twenty years...perhaps closer to thirty. And this was definitely a step up from Oscar Meyer. The tomato was super ripe and the whole thing gave me the impression of eating a Bayou BLT. Seriously good. Alan's oyster sandwich was a surprise - - not only because he doesn't love oysters so it seemed like an odd order for him, but because this one melded together into a concoction that really worked. Having the oysters be fried so they had a crunch to them and none of the brine associated with raw was nice. The bacon wasn't overpowering but lent the needed salt component.

And I guess I should mention that this restaurant is located on Tchoupitoulus Street in the warehouse district right next door to another highly acclaimed Donald Link establishment, Cochon Butcher. The inside felt like a converted warehouse with low key wooden tables and chairs. There's a no nonsense feeling when you get inside - this is a place to have great food, not hem and haw over service (which was fine for what you'd expect in a high volume lunch place) or the decor. There's a huge wood-fired oven in the open kitchen lending to the ambiance and puffing out all kinds of great smells.

This is one you have to put on your list if you're in the area and looking for authentic Southern Cajun cooking. If I find myself back in New Orleans I will make the time to go back!

Zagat's Rating: 27-23-24
Jenn's Rating: 86

Manning's New Orleans

When you are traveling over a major holiday there won't always be a lot of open restaurants or bars. This was the case for us on Thanksgiving Day. After waiting a stupidly long time at one of the only open places serving breakfast (Camillia's in the French Quarter) for simple eggs & hash browns (never got our order of toast), we scoped out a place to have drinks and watch the afternoon football games.

Lucky for us our first choice, Manning's on Fulton Street was open. If you haven't been and love sports, this is a pretty awesome bar. A big place with tables along one side, more tables in the center of the restaurant up half a level, a few dozen recliner seats down in front of a massive, full wall TV screen (13 feet by 7.5 feet), huge bar and an impressive outdoor patio with another incredibly large TV screen. Besides the two big ones, there are another 30 or so flat screen TVs along every available inch of wall space showing all broadcast games.

The menu is a mix of southern comfort and Creole dishes in the spirit of bar food. We settled into a table with great views of the big screen to catch the second half of the first game -Houston vs. Detroit. We ordered fried, hot chicken wings and the blue crab and spinach dip served with baked focaccia chips. The wings were really good served with a traditional crumble of blue cheese and blue cheese dressing for dipping. Alan's only comment regarding the half a dozen wings on the plate is that he wished there were twice as many. I liked the crab and spinach dip but we were mixed on the focaccia chips...they were in between soft and crunchy which made for an odd texture.

We kept the drinks coming through the first game and by the start of the Dallas vs. Washington match we ordered round two of appetizers. This time I went with a classic Caesar salad of romaine, organic chicken, romano cheese, house-made croutons, olives and a creamy, thick Parmesan Caesar dressing. Excellent salad - great flavor on the dressing! Alan picked the corn-fried Des Allemands catfish chips served with a ravigote dipping sauce. These were fantastic! Perfect little fried bites and a sauce that was thick and flavorful. The catfish was moist and flaky and really good.

We killed about three hours at Manning's that afternoon and the crowd swelled, calmed and swelled again with lots of groups coming in wearing their team jerseys and ordering beer by the bucket. The only downside was that the restaurant seemed understaffed and the service was sketchy. Our empty glasses were not cleared away even as new drinks were being brought out and a general sense that you needed to actively seek out your server if you wanted something. We chalked this up to it being Thanksgiving Day and wouldn't hold it against the restaurant. Definitely a fun place to hang out if you're down there looking for a place to watch sports.

GW Fins, New Orleans

Our first dinner in New Orleans was at a little place on Beinville Street right in the middle of the French Quarter called GW Fins. With a new menu every night to take advantage of the freshest available catch, this is a fish lovers dream come true.

We started off there early to have a drink at the bar. Alan had a Tanqueray martini and I a glass of Belle Glos pinot. My wine as a little too warm but nice flavor. The bartender was a fun, upbeat lady with enthusiastic recommendations about the menu. I knew it was going to be a special evening when she said that whatever I ordered I could ask them to put a sauteed soft shell crab on top!

As you can see from this picture, not a large place. There are less than twenty tables in the dining room (you can also eat at the bar which has about eight seats) in a semi-circular layout. Calm colors, upbeat staff and a comfortable feel, this seems to be both a tourist and a locals hangout.

To start off, I ordered the soft shelled crab done with a simple butter and lemon. The batter was light but with distinctive tastes. The crab was phenomenal - tender and perfect...not too crunchy. I loved, loved, LOVED this dish.

Alan ordered the blue crab pot stickers with country ham and creamy pea shoot butter. YUMMY!! Nicely prepared, lots of crab...awesome sauce of butter and pea. Really, really good!!

Next round, I went with the house specialty, the smoked sizzling oysters served simply with butter and lemon. These enormous shells are heated up to over 500 degrees and the raw oyster put back on the shell right as they are served. This means there is an interesting conflict of raw and partially cooked. Super fresh, excellent texture and clean. Other than leaning too far over the plate and getting a nose full of sizzling smoke (oops) this was a great course.

Alan tried the Louisiana yellow fin tuna tartare appetizer with watermelon relish, avocado, mango, pine nuts and Wasabi cream. Very fresh with a nice combination of melon to offset the fish but also not a knockout dish. A little expected; bland.

For our entrees we both ordered fish. I went with one I'd never heard of before - Drum fish. It was lightly battered and served over creamy, whipped potatoes in a simple butter, lemon style sauce. Drum is a delicate, white fish much like flounder and local to the shallow Gulf waters. It was a nice dish - not earth shattering but good.

Alan tried the sauteed red snapper with shrimp etouffee, Louisiana jasmine rice, lobster butter. This was superb. Great flavor and the combination of etouffee gave it that Creole spin that is different from anything we get at home. I really like his dish a lot.

This was a wonderful dinner - great dishes, fun bar and the service was great (something we'd remember not to take for granted over the next few days). Alan had a cocktail with dinner called a Cancun cooler that he enjoyed quite a bit while I paired up with a Plowbuster Pinot. If we were going back this one would be on my must list. Truly enjoyable evening all the way around and not to be missed.

Zagat rating: 28-26-27
Jenn's rating: 90

Emeril's Restaurant, New Orleans

Alan and I just got back from a four day, Thanksgiving holiday trip to New Orleans. The focus was food & exploration of a new city. The weather was gorgeous and we were able to fit in a lot of dining experiences all around The Big Easy.

The first one, lunch at Emeril's original namesake on Tchoupitoulas Street, was right in the middle of the Warehouse district; just a few blocks up from our hotel. The space used to be a pharmacy and has an odd, interesting decor of exposed metal beams, brick walls, bowed wood ceiling and lots of glass & mosaic work around the open air kitchen.

This was the meal I was the most wary of. We've only eaten at one other Emeril restaurant (Emeril's Fish Restaurant in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas) and it was SO bad that we'd almost written off his places all together. But a strong recommendation by Paul and a desire to see how different (and hopefully better) the original might be, we took a chance.

The menu is a nice size - not so small you feel cornered and not so large that it's like being in a Cheesecake Factory. We were mostly interested in appetizers and small plates and wanted to try a few different things. Along with my sangria and Alan's Creole Collins, we ordered the crawfish pasta and gumbo of the day. The fresh angel hair pasta with Louisana crawfish tails in a Creole cream sauce was fantastic! Rich, full of flavor, unique with the distinctive taste of crawfish generously strewn about - this turned out to be one of the best dishes we'd have on this trip.

Alan's gumbo of the day was chicken and andouille sausage; thick with plenty of rice and smokey flavors. Alan thought this one was the best of the gumbos he tried while we were in New Orleans.

The next course was a salad for each of us. I tried the truffled Gulf shrimp "Louis" with  iceberg lettuce, asparagus, smoked bacon, chopped egg and Louisiana citrus. This was a pretty nice dish...I really liked the creamy, citrus dressing and the mixture of the bacon for salt and vegetables. Where I did myself an injustice was thinking I was going to magically start loving shrimp just because it was in lovely salad. I had a few bites of the shrimp and it was fine, but I'm the first to admit that it's my least favorite food that comes out of the ocean. If you are a shrimp lover, you'd probably really dig this dish.

On the other hand, score a big win for Alan's yellow fin tuna and bacon in butter lettuce wraps with plenty of jalapenos, grapefruit, citrus hoisin and crunchy Asian noodles. This dish offered a fresh bite with a clean flavor and lots of kick thanks to the peppers.

To end the meal we split a sandwich...the BLFGT. Benton's bacon, butter lettuce, fried green tomatoes on brioche with boiled shrimp and a mustard aioli served with sweet potato chips.

This dish didn't do it for me. There was an interesting blend of flavors and textures - the fried green tomatoes are a little crunchy with a significant bitterness; the mustard aioli was up in your face; the bacon was barely there and the lettuce was (not being iceburg) on the wilted/soft side. I'm not saying it was bad...it was just a combination of flavors and textures that I didn't appreciate. It didn't fit my palate well. I'm also not a fan of sweet potato anything and there was a awful lot of the boiled shrimp which as we've already covered, not my favorite thing. So this was just ok.

Our conclusion - Emeril's New Orleans, pretty good! Loved the pasta and the yellow fin tuna wraps and the gumbo was good. The other dishes we'd pass on next time in favor of trying something else.

Zagat's Rating: 26-25-25
Jenn's Rating: 84