Coquette’s bread – When you are being careful not to eat too much because you have a huge dinner coming up and still order more bread, it means only one thing: Great Bread!
Boucherie’s Boudins – Fantastic to all senses including smell and touch. Not only you could smell them when they arrived, but the blonde at the bar next to us smelled them as well. “hmmm, I can smell your balls from here” was a compliment in this case. I think?!
Boucherie’s Brisket – Juicy, tender melt in your mouth goodness. And those garlicky Parmesan fries that came with it were just perfect
SoBou’s Cajun Queso – “More pork cracklings please” because our fingers dont taste as savory with this sickest cheese fondue ever
SoBou’s Alligator Sausages and Sticky Pork Belly (tie) – Cheating here a little but got no choice. We sampled quite a few items in Sobou and these stood out. You swipe the sausage with all 3 sauces and you got a fiesta in your mouth, add the briny and beautiful Okra to cool things down, until you taste the Pork and the accompanied boudin ball and your eyes widen and you start talking nonsense
Commander’s Palace’s Turtle Soup – More complex flavors! Much more! About 27 ingredients more!
Herbsaint’s Spaghetti – If I have to pick one spectacular starter, this is it. Once you break the picture perfect fried poached farm egg and mix in the salty Guanciale, you got pure ecstasy with every bite. Great Great dish.
Herbsaint’s Lamb Neck – Had a wonderful Lamb Neck in Tel Aviv in the summer but this one beats it by a mile. Nice and crispy on the outside, perfectly tender falling off the bone on the inside. And together with the delicate Saffron Fideo noodles and roasted tomatoes you got another spectacular dish. We also had other goodies in Herbsaint and if there’s a restaurant that provides more excitement pound for pound I would like to know
GW Fins’ Lobster Dumplings – Delicious! Like great Russian Vareniki
Drago’s Chargrilled Oysters – I may have lost respect with the Chowhounder folks with this one , but to us they were meaty and very flavorful. Did we just get lucky?
Mr B’s BBQ Shrimp – So good we broke a cardinal rule and came back for seconds. Peppery, buttery, buttery, buttery (thats 3 sticks) goodness
Sammy’s Ray Ray Po’Boy and Salmon Sashimi (tie). From the Po’Boy festival these 2 came on top. The Ray Ray is a delicious combination of fried chicken ham and cheese. But I need for someone to point out the vendor of the Salmon Po’boy (Hummus Whisperer fave) since I cant recall
Red Gravy’s Lombardo – Grits + Eggs + Gravy + Cheese = Silent moment
Cafe Du Monde’s Beignets – The history had something to do with this one, the cafe au lait helped, and those Beignets are nothing to sneeze at. Because if you do you, you’ll shower your friends with powdered sugar.
GW Fins’ Bread Pudding – The winner of our accidental bread pudding competition that featured 7 of the city’s top BPs. By accidental I mean desperation with over 20 years of living in NYC with major bread puddings withdrawals.
Special mention: Sweet Palate’s Pop Rock Chocolates.
Drinks: Bloody Mary from Marie’s Bar, French 75 from French 75, Dark and Stormy from Boucherie, Faubourg Tall Boy from Sobou.
Zei Gezunt and stay hungry my friends!
Eating With Ziggy 