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Where Y'Eat
Where Y'Eat
A Bistro's Third Act
New Orleans, LA
(2009-11-19)
Chef Greg Picolo understands the love of specific places, and our attachment to our buildings and our neighborhoods. It's the reason why in the four years since Katrina he has committed the effort to reopen the Bistro at Maison de Ville not once, but three times.
Exploring Underground Chinese Menus
New Orleans, LA
(2009-11-05)
The writer Calvin Trillin once brought a linguistics professor along for dinner as part of his campaign to penetrate Chinese-language restaurant menus in New York, which he was sure held finer culinary delights than the standard options. It doesn't take quite such lengths to get to the good stuff at a few New Orleans-area Chinese restaurants. But it does help to keep an eye-out for clues that, sometimes, there's more available than the same old Americanized Chinese dishes.
Ironclad Cooking at Louisiana's Black Pot Festival
Lafayette, LA
(2009-10-29)
As Louisiana recipes are passed down through the generations, it's common for them to acquire family stories and lore. A small, young festival in Lafayette shows how the same thing sometimes happens to cookware, especially the seasoned cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens in which we cook our gumbos, stews and jambalayas.
Catfish Tradition, Through Thick or Thin
New Orleans
(2009-10-15)
When new owners bought Middendorf's, they took pains to reassure everyone, including the staff, that they had no intention of messing with the landmark, Depression-era seafood restaurant's ingrained character. And just when they convinced everyone nothing big would change, something very big and beyond their control changed.
Exploring the French Quarter's "Oyster Alley"
New Orleans
(2009-10-22)
By 4:30 in the morning, Al Sunseri of P&J Oyster Co. is usually performing his pre-dawn stake out near the corner of Iberville and Bourbon streets in the French Quarter. The intersection is home to four bustling oyster bars within mere steps of each other: Acme Oyster House, Bourbon House, Felix's Restaurant and Red Fish Grill. P&J supplies them all, but there's plenty to set each place apart.
The Big Cheese
New Orleans, LA
(2009-10-08)
Knowledge, passion and a commitment to spread the word on curd have made a New Orleans cheesemonger a favorite among local chefs.
Taking School Lunch Back to the Drawing Board
New Orleans, LA
(2009-10-01)
Some people may have fond memories of school food, prepared in real kitchens on campus. But times have changed. In many schools, lunch service has been outsourced and the result is cheap, heavily processed and nutritionally questionable - nachos, chicken fingers, fried tacos, the stuff you find at sports stadiums. Whether you have kids in school or not, if you're an American taxpayer, you're helping fund these processed meals.
Feeding the Oktoberfest Masses
New Orleans, LA
(2009-09-24)
Most of the food that is so much a part of the draw of Oktoberfest at Deutsches Haus is prepared in-house. It's a monumental task that falls to volunteers from the German cultural group's membership, some of who describe the tall order more as a family tradition than a club obligation.
The Tamales of Today
New Orleans, LA
(2009-09-17)
In much the same way that their red flavor burns your lips, their wet grease stains your fingers and their bomb-drop weight rests on your belly, the memories of New Orleans hot tamales have a way of sticking around too. Many of them revolve around Manuel's Hot Tamales, founded in 1932.
Tweeting for Your Supper
New Orleans, LA
(2009-09-10)
The same service that keeps groups of friends hyper-connected, that helped disseminate information about Iranian civil protests this summer, and that is used by celebrities, politicians and charitable causes alike is making a big splash in the New Orleans restaurant world.
The Compassionate Breakfast Club
New Orleans, LA
(2009-09-03)
Many Crescent City Caf guests learned about the program while waiting in a mission meal line, but this breakfast is a very different type of experience. Every practical effort is made to create a restaurant-like setting for these monthly meals provided for people in need.
Counting Losses and Blessings
New Orleans, LA
(2009-08-27)
As much as Katrina cost New Orleans, the city's close call with oblivion had has reminded people of just how important our food culture is, and brought us closer to it. At the same time, it has led some to make new contributions to the fray.
The Four-Year-Long Homecoming
New Orleans, LA
(2009-08-20)
For the past four years, New Orleans has been a living case study for just how much local restaurants can mean to a community. Where else but in post-Katrina New Orleans could people help celebrate the grand opening of a 100-year-old restaurant?
Stalking Greens at the Vietnamese Market
New Orleans, LA
(2009-08-13)
To the first-time visitor, however -- and to anyone uninitiated to the local Vietnamese-American culture -- the Vietnamese farmers market in far eastern New Orleans is like a postcard of foreign travel come to life, complete with all the smells, sounds, tastes and touches of a bustling marketplace.
Eating with the West End Blues
New Orleans, LA
(2009-08-06)
Since Hurricane Katrina, it has required either a sharp memory or a keen imagination to picture the restaurant scene that once crowded the New Orleans lakefront. Yet, should the old seasonal urge for a visit to the West End hit, a trip here can still amount to a seafood safari, albeit on different terms.
Made from Scratch
New Orleans, LA
(2009-07-30)
The concept behind the Southern Food and Beverage Museum seems so compelling it's hard to believe it hadn't emerged earlier: a museum devoted to the culture and history of Southern eating and drinking in one of the world's great cities for eating and drinking just seems like a natural. And, appropriately enough, plans for the museum took shape around a kitchen table.
A Tale of Two Charlie's
New Orleans, LA
(2009-07-23)
Charlie's Steakhouse in Uptown New Orleans and Charlie's Seafood in the upriver suburb of Harahan are very different restaurants, but each has long been an institution in its own neighborhood. That's the reason why, in the topsy-turvy world of post-Katrina New Orleans, the two have each been reborn under quite similar circumstances.
Magic Portions
New Orleans, LA
(2009-07-16)
The option of creatively ordering an all-appetizer meal has always been out there. But now it is being explicitly packaged and promoted by restaurants themselves. It's the small plate trend, and it's one that seems to be gaining momentum around town.
The Vietnamese Po-Boy
New Orleans, LA
(2009-07-09)
The banh mi is a staple in Vietnam, and in Louisiana it is sometimes called the "Vietnamese po-boy." Once found only in Vietnamese bakeries and noodle shops around the edges of New Orleans, they are now becoming increasingly common across the metro area.
Scoop du Jour
New Orleans, LA
(2009-06-25)
A profusion of new gelato parlors around New Orleans adds up to a renaissance of the sweet, frozen arts, and it's a trend that lines up well with the heightened public attention to what goes into our food and how it's produced.
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