YOLO in NOLA pt.1

In the midst of your journey into a whole food lifestyle, there are times when you will ask yourself if all the extra effort is worth it.  Is it worth it to forgo the canned diced tomatoes and chop them myself?  Is It worth it to make my own pizza dough and marinara sauce?  In the long run, it is definitely worth it.  Not only does it make your body feel better when you put fresh and real ingredients into it, but your food actually tastes better.  Herbs, fruits, vegetables, and spices all have their own unique flavors.  If you ever find yourself eating a tomato or any other vegetable that doesn’t have a distinct flavor, you need to drop the silverware and back away from the plate. 

My love of nutritious food that tastes good compels me to be on the lookout everywhere I go.  I just recently got back from a weekend trip to New Orleans.  I have been on several trips to New Orleans, and I love so many things about.  The history, culture, music, and architecture are so unique, but what keeps me coming back time and time again is the food.  I spend my trip indulging in delicious food, and then I come home and am saddened by the fact that the sea food, among other things, just doesn’t taste the same here.  In my opinion, there is nothing better than enjoying dinner out with a small group of friends and enjoying well prepared fresh food.

 

The first day of my trip started out great!  We had found an awesome place to go and run by the river, so we decided to start our morning with a 2 mile run.  It was humid, but ultimately it was refreshing.  After the run we came back to where we were staying and met up with our husbands, who did not want to get up early and run.  Then we got ready and went into New Orleans for lunch. We went to an old restaurant known as Antoine’s.  It is extremely unique in multiple respects.  The restaurant itself has been around since 1840.  It has a vintage charm that you can’t help but notice right when you walk in.  The restaurant also has 13 unique dining rooms and a massive wine cellar.  I was lucky enough to secure a private tour of the dining rooms a couple hours after we enjoyed lunch there. 

Upon entering the establishment, we were seated in the large annex room.  You couldn’t help but notice the elegant feel, and I was happy my friends had prepped me prior to lunch on the dress code and elegance of the restaurant even during lunch.  I had chosen a nice dress and a cardigan for lunch, and I felt right at home.  Everyone in our lunch group decided to order off of their lunch special menu.  I had a trio of oysters each with a different sauce.  One was a topped with a tomato sauce and piece of bacon, one was topped with a cream heavily flavored with Worcestershire, and the final one was topped with a cream and white wine sauce.  I really liked the one with tomato sauce.  Each oyster was nicely baked and each sauce had a nice delicate crust on top.  For entrees I chose scallops on top of creamy grits.  The scallops were cooked perfectly, so they had a nice sear on the top and bottom and still had a nice give when they were cut.  The creamy grits and seared scallops were a perfect combination.  The portion sizes were small which we all appreciated since no one wants to feel overly full from lunch and still be expected to move around.  I got a cheesecake that was sitting in a pool of homemade strawberry sauce.  I stopped eating sugar about 4 months ago, so I didn’t get to indulge in any of the cheesecake, but I was a nice wife and gave it to my husband and let my friends all taste a bite.  Everyone remarked on how nice and light it was, and they said the sauce was to die for.  I’m just happy that we don’t truly eat with our eyes, because after surveying all the desserts at the table, I would’ve gained about 15 pounds in a 1 minute period.  Everyone in our group left the restaurant full and happy.

We returned about an hour later to tour the dining rooms.  We were taken around by one of the waiters, and he gave us history on each of the dining rooms.  I won’t turn this into a history lesson, but I will tell you some tidbits about my favorite places.  Antoine’s has a tab on their website to find out the history of each room, so if you find my tidbits entertaining, you can go there and find out more.  My best friend who was with us had a grandfather who was once King of Proteus during Mardi Gras one year.  I don’t know how familiar you are with Mardi Gras, but it’s actually so much more than the drunken, flashing mob you see on television and in movies.  It is actually a really amazing time, and if you go to the right parades at the right time, you don’t have to witness any of the night time spectacle.  Elite groups actually get together and host a parade.  They will have a King and Queen which is a great honor.  My friend’s grandfather was King of Proteus, so she was very excited to see the Proteus room since it was dedicated to their group.  My favorite room would have to be the mystery room.  During prohibition it was used as a speakeasy.  You could actually leave the other dining rooms and go to the women’s restroom and go through a trap door in the back which would lead you to the mystery room.  People would return with alcohol and when asked where they got it they would reply, “It’s a mystery to me.”  If you ever get a chance to go, it is well worth it.  You can call and make a reservation for dinner and request to be seated in any dining rooms you choose.  They are all first come first served for requests.  They are all extremely interesting with their own ambiance to add to the evening.  Be prepared to get dressed up and have a night full of good food.

 

 

After the tour of Antoine’s our group left the city and returned to our residence for the weekend.  We had dinner that night at N’Tini’s in Madeville, Louisiana.  They are known for their martinis.  They even have a menu as big as their dinner menu which is full of martinis.  The members of our little dinner group each got a different martini to try.  I am not a big fan of alcohol, so I opted out.  They all really enjoyed their drinks.  For dinner I chose a piece of fried eggplant covered with a cream sauce of crawfish, crabmeat, and shrimp.  You can’t ever pass up the opportunity to get seafood in Louisiana and especially not crawfish.  It is too die for.  It also came with feta and green onion risotto and sautéed squash and zucchini.  Normally, I wouldn’t order anything fried, but when you’re on vacation, it’s okay to splurge right? 

My friend’s husband ordered an appetizer with escargot in a delicate homemade tomato based sauce.  I’d had a chance to try escargot 11 years earlier on a cruise, but my friend who was cruising with me told me she’d get sick if she saw me eat a snail.  Not being an adventurous foodie yet, I declined the opportunity and it has taken me this long to find another opportunity to try it.  I’ve always heard it is rubbery, but it must be that everyone who told me that didn’t have it cooked correctly.  I thought it was delicious.  I’m not going to lie and say it tasted like chicken, because it certainly did not.  I was expecting it to have a texture like calamari due to all the comments I’ve heard about it being rubbery.  I also recall seeing an Olson twin movie where one of them eats escargot and says it tastes like a balloon.  Needless to say, I was preparing myself for a less than pleasing texture.  Boy was I surprised when I bit into it, and it seemed to melt in my mouth.  I would say it has a texture more similar to a scallop, but the escargot is still softer.  It was actually one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.  If you know me, your jaw is probably hitting the floor right now because up until about 3 years ago, I was doing good to eat anything that didn’t come out of a Kraft macaroni and cheese box.  Now here I am eating snails!  Who would’ve thought?  If you ever go to N’Tini’s you have to find out if they have the snails and tails appetizer (oh yeah did I mention it had alligator in it too?).  It will not let you down.

Dinner came, and I enjoyed the delicious creamy seafood sauce.  It had huge chunks of crabmeat, shrimp, and crawfish.  It was absolutely outstanding, and I ate every bit of it off of the eggplant.  In hindsight I probably would’ve enjoyed the eggplant more if I’d asked for it to be grilled.  Oh well, there’s always next time!  I was a little disappointed that what they advertised as risotto was actually orzo with green onions and feta.  It was still really delicious, but orzo and risotto are not the same.  If you aren’t familiar with them, orzo is actually small pasta which is basically in the shape of rice.  It really looks like rice, and when I first started cooking it, my husband thought it was rice.  Risotto is made from Arborio rice, and it has a very creamy quality to it.  It is really delicious if it is cooked right.  Either way the orzo with feta and green onions was delicious.  I was just upset to find orzo being masqueraded as risotto.  Those of you who know the difference in taste and texture will probably be appalled as well.  I was, however, excited to see sautéed squash and zucchini on my plate.  Two of my all time favorite vegetables!  They were cooked perfectly just the way I like them.  I thought the dinner couldn’t get much better until I looked over and noticed my husband had untouched real green beans on his plate.  Yum!  One of the rules of being married to a foodie is that you are required to share the deliciousness from your plate with your spouse.  This works especially well for me, because my husband isn’t a foodie.  I gobbled up his green beans in an instant. 

 I have to stop and explain my green bean obsession.  Growing up I was only fed green beans from a can…yuck!  These I do not consider to be real because they have sat in a can on a shelf for goodness knows how long soaking up liquid, sodium, preservatives, and all other kinds of unhealthy junk.  Real green beans are the ones you select individually in the produce section and come home and snap each end off and cook them to your desired texture.  I happen to prefer them roasted with a tiny bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  I enjoy the texture to be soft and delicate.  My mouth is watering right now just thinking about them.  I’m growing them in my garden this year, but they aren’t quite ready for picking right now.  Maybe I can find some snails out there too… just kidding.

We went home that night and continued our enjoyment by playing a riveting game of phase 10.  If you don’t play phase 10, you are really missing out.  It’s one of the few games where you can spend 75% of the game losing, and in the final round you can jump way ahead and beat everyone.  I being an ultra competitive person happen to love it!  The game went late into the night, and we were all really tired the next morning.