Month: May 2017

National Macaroon Day

Today is National Macaroon Day. It’s a day to celebrate and enjoy these little treats. But there might be some confusion out there about Macaroons verses Macarons. While they may sound like the same thing, they are both very different. I thought I would take a little time to explain the difference.

Today’s celebration is for the macaroon, which is a coconut cookie. It is an easy cookie to make because it only has a few ingredients – shredded coconut, condensed milk, and egg whites. Rather than rolling the cookie out, it is dropped onto a cookie tray. For this reason, not all the cookies will be the same size. If you want to get fancy with these cookies they can be dipped into chocolate. I would make these for my uncle at Christmas because they were his favorite.

The other Macaron is a French cookie. It is meringue based. The two halves are filled with either a ganache, jam, or even a buttercream icing. Any time I have seen macarons in pastry shops they are always bright, fun colors. I have never made these versions myself because they are said to be very difficult to make.

So now you understand the difference between each of these cookies. Head out to your local bakery and pick some up today.

Enjoy!

T

Café Du Monde – New Orleans, LA

I was very excited to get back to New Orleans. I had a list of new places I wanted to try plus a few repeat visits to places I loved. Café Du Monde was one of those must visits repeats. I could not leave New Orleans without enjoying a fresh made beignet.

Since I had been to the café before I did not need to eat the beignets there. Good thing too because there were absolutely no seats anywhere, There were lines just to get a seat.

   

I headed over to their take-out window. There was also a really long line but it moved pretty fast.

  

I got up to the window and ordered my beignets. Before I could even hand over my money the bag of piping hot goodness was in my hand.

I could not wait to dive in. I felt like a little kid.

I ended up finding a chair so I could sit down and eat the beignets while they were still hot. There is about a pound of powdered sugar in the bag. It is definitely more than what you get on the plate.

They tasted just like I remembered. The dough was soft and tender. I could taste a slight hint of yeast in the dough but it was over powered by the powdered sugar. It is ok because a beignet would not be a beignet without all the powdered sugar.

I tired really hard not to make a mess but I still ended up getting sugar all over myself.

I got to watch them make the beignets outside one of their windows. They do this all day, every day, 24/7. It is so fun to stand there watch.

  

  

I took a few videos to share with everyone that can be seen on my twitter account.

It may always be crowded but if you are visiting New Orleans please stop by Café Du Monde. It is a city tradition and must be experienced. Check out their history at http://www.cafedumonde.com/

Enjoy!

T

 

Acme Oyster House – Metairie, LA

Acme Oyster House and New Orleans go hand in hand. I had visited and written about the Acme on Bourbon Street many years ago. This is where I discovered chargrilled oysters. I was going to visit that location again on my trip but every time I went by the line to get in was out the door and down the sidewalk. I decided to try one of their other location, thinking I would have more luck getting in. I went to their restaurant in Metairie, which was not far from the French Quarter. Sure enough I was able to get a seat as soon as I walked in.

As soon as the waitress came over, I put in my order. There was no need for me to look over the menu. I was there for their chargrilled oysters. I ordered a dozen plus a side of hush puppies.

The hush puppies came out first. They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. These little bites were sweet. I thought they tasted like a dessert fritter.

I also ordered a cocktail to enjoy with my oysters. I went for the Acme Sunset. It was rum, crème de banana, grenadine, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cranberry juice. The sweet tropical drink reminded me of something I would have at a beach bar. I knew it would balance out the saltiness that the oysters would have.

Finally the star of the show came out. They were still sizzling on the tray. The smell of the garlic was so nice. I could not wait to get in there but they needed to cool down just a little. Those shells can be really hot to handle.

The oysters were just like I remembered. The tender meat were soaking in the garlic butter and topped with a ton of parmesan cheese that was extra crispy because of the grill. The bread was there to help soak up the left over garlic butter. There is no reason to waste any of it.

If you are in New Orleans you must have chargrilled oysters. It is a staple of the city. Visit their menu at http://www.acmeoyster.com/

Enjoy!

T

 

SoHo Social – Homewood, AL

The SoHo area of Homewood/Birmingham has been growing over the years. There is a rejuvenation of business and restaurants. I have already written about a few places in the area – Savage’s Bakery and Jacksons. A new restaurant recently opened that had starting getting great buzz called SoHo Social. I decided to check them out to see what they had to offer.

I started off with a unique cocktail called Rosé Dale. It was a blend of vodka, St. Germaine, rosé wine, lime, bubbles, and a sprig of rosemary. I was a pretty presentation. The drink was light and fizzy. It was also refreshing for a warm spring evening. The rosemary did not add a whole lot of extra flavor. It was more for decoration. After a few sips the rosemary sprig actually got in the way so I just took it out of the drink.

I ordered the charcuterie plate to munch on. It was the perfect size. It was a little different from other charcuterie plates I typically get. It came with white cheddar cheese and “Conecuh”, which is sausage from Alabama. It was sliced up and grilled. It also came with two hoe cakes. For a little background information, a hoe cake is basically a cornmeal pancake. They are usually cooked in a cast iron pan. If you are from the Northeast these are normally known as johnnycakes.

Their hoe cake was nice because it was firm and only slightly sweet. I ate it by itself rather than with the sausage and cheese. The sausage had a wonderful hickory smoked taste. It was grilled so that the edges were crispy. I wish it came with a little more on the plate.

I also ordered the avocado dos formas. There were two different fillings loaded into each half of an avocado.

The first one was called primero; it was tuna ceviche stuffed in the avocado. The ceviche had a great salty taste. If you like onions this will be perfect for you because there was a ton chopped up. The only thing that disappointed me was that there was barely any avocado in the dish. It’s like they scooped it all out and used it in some other dish. I was able to scrape a little left on the inside of the skin but it was very minimal.

The second half of the avocado was baked and stuffed with hot crab dip. They called it Segundo. The crab dip was amazing. It was so creamy. I ate it with some of the lettuce that came on the plate. I wish the dish came with crackers or even hoe cakes. But don’t get me wrong, it was perfect to eat on its own.

This new spot, SoHo Social, had some pretty good appetizers. I checked out their brunch menu and this is definitely a place I want to come back and try again. Check out what they have to offer at http://sohosocial.bar/

Enjoy!

T

 

Sucré – New Orleans, LA

I had just finished having lunch at Joey K’s on Magazine Street when I came across the dessert shop Sucré. They were bustling with customers, so I knew it must be good.

 

As soon as I walked in I could smell chocolate. They had every type of dessert you could want: chocolate candies, pastries, rainbow colored macarons, cupcakes, and several gelato choices.

 

 

I noticed a sign hanging proudly on their wall that says their éclairs have been voted “World’s Best” for the last 2 years. Naturally, I knew I was going to try one of those.

The éclair was very pretty to look at. It had this iridescent edible glitter on top. The decorative pearls were little crunchy candies.

The pastry dough was light and puffy, exactly what an éclair should be. It was filled with a sweet vanilla cream. They used a ton of filling which was great because this ensured that each bite got cream and not just pastry. The chocolate glaze they used on top was semi-sweet and they used a lot of that too. The dough was not sweet which was good since it balanced out the sweetness that came from the cream and glaze.

I wanted to try another dessert so I went for their Devil’s Food. It was layers of chocolate with those crunchy decorative pearls on top.

If I could re-name this dessert I would call it “Death by Chocolate”. There were 4 different forms of chocolate in this creation. It starts with the moist chocolate cake which was layered with a thick chocolate fudge, like a ganache. Then the cake was covered in a homemade chocolate shell. To decorate the top they used a chocolate buttercream icing.

This dessert was SWEET. If you love chocolate this is a must try. Every component was great but this dessert was overwhelmingly rich. I ended up having to share it because there was no way I could eat it by myself. My favorite part of this was the cake itself. It was light and not as sweet as the other chocolate parts. The sweetness all came from the fudge and icing.

Finding Sucré helped make my visit to New Orleans a little sweeter. They have a few locations around town so check out their website at http://www.shopsucre.com/

If you cannot make it to one of their stores you can buy some of their sweets on their website.

Enjoy!

T

 

Central Grocery – New Orleans, LA

Located in the heart of the French Quarter is a little old fashioned grocery store / deli. This 110 year old store is called Central Grocery. Here tourist and locals alike can buy Italian imported pastas and olive oils along with cheeses and Italian cured meats. However, the main reason people flock to Central Grocery is for their muffuletta.

      

Central Grocery is considered the home and creators of the muffuletta. A muffuletta is a sandwich that contains layers of salami, ham, provolone cheese and mozzarella cheese topped with olive tapenade on fresh Sicilian bread.

People line up all day to have one of these muffulettas. I too waited in line, but it moved fast. The folks behind the counter know how to prepare them quickly.

I got half a sandwich because I did not think I could have eaten a whole one.

The bread that they use for this sandwich is freshly made. It did not fall apart when I took a bite, even with all the layers of meat and cheese. The cheese was cut into nice thick slices. Its creaminess went perfectly with the salty meats. Those elements of the sandwich were great but what elevated the muffuletta to the next level was the olive tapenade. They make if from scratch there. It was the best olive tapenade I have ever had. The olives were cut up into chunky pieces. Now I understand why they sell it in jars. I could have eaten this by itself. This was the best sandwich I have ever had. I ended up regretting not ordering a whole one.

If you are in New Orleans, make time to stop by Central Grocery. Make sure to order their famous muffuletta and don’t worry about the wait, it is totally worth it. You can get it to go or enjoy it there.

Learn about their history at http://centralgrocery.com/

Enjoy!

T

 

Joey K’s – New Orleans, LA

In the Garden District of New Orleans, on the corner of Magazine Street and 7th sits a local restaurant called Joey K’s. You can’t miss the sign hanging above the door. You also can’t miss the sign in the window that says “Sorry We’re Open”. It really made me laugh.

Based on the position of the entrance, as soon as I walked in I realized that back in the day, this space must have been an old pharmacy. The restaurant was cute inside with New Orleans artwork decorating the walls.

 

I took a seat at the bar and took a look at their drink menu. What my eyes fell to was their sangria. As I have written about many times before, sangrias are one of my favorite cocktails. I love trying each restaurants versions. At Joey K’s they make a homemade one however, what was interesting is they only serve the white during the Spring/Summer and the red during Fall/Winter. So since I fell into the Spring time frame I was thrilled to try the white. It was light tasting with fruity accents. It was not overly sweet. It was refreshing.

The menu had many great sounding dishes. It was hard for me to make a decision of what to order. So I asked my bartender what she recommended. She said there were two items that customers are always ordering.

The first is a New Orleans classic – red beans and rice. It was the perfect size in a small bowl. The beans were huge and mixed with pieces of sausage. The sauce had a nice smoky taste. It was not too heavy even when I mixed the rice and scallions. It was the perfect starter.

The second item that was recommended was the eggplant napoleon. The dish had a beautiful presentation, it was almost a shame I had to take it apart to eat it.

There were eggplant slices that were breaded and fried, then stacked with fried shrimp in between the layers. Then it was topped with a generous portion of crawfish cream sauce.

Breaking this dish down, each component was perfect on their own. The eggplant was sliced just right so that it became crispy after being fried. The shrimp were coated in a thicker batter than the eggplant. I could tell the shrimp were fresh because they were very tender.

The crawfish cream sauce was my favorite part of this dish. This is where all the flavor was located. The sauce reminded me of a sausage gravy that is served on top of biscuits for breakfast.

The salty taste from the fried portions was balanced out thanks to the sweetness of the cream sauce. They all worked well together.

If your hanging out on Magazine Street stop into Joey K’s. The staff is extremely friendly and the place is loaded with regular customers. However, do not plan on visiting them on Sunday’s because they are closed.

Check out their menu at http://joeyksrestaurant.com/

Enjoy!

T

 

Mahony’s – New Orleans, LA

There are so many places to eat in New Orleans. To say it’s overwhelming would be an understatement. For this most recent visit I decided to head to Magazine Street and explore this growing area.

Mahony’s was the first restaurant I came to. From the outside it looks like an old house that has been converted into a neighborhood hang out. It blends into the neighborhood nicely.

  

As I walked in I was greeted right away and told to sit anywhere I wanted. It was like being invited into someone’s home.

I was excited to see that Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives had visited. I saw Guy Fieri’s  spray painted signature on the wall.

I started off with the loaded fries. They hand cut the potatoes to make their French fries. Then they smother them with cheddar cheese and tons of roast beef gravy.

They call it debris gravy and it is truly loaded with meat from cooking homemade roast beef. The gravy was full of flavor. There is no way the fries can be eaten without a fork. It would be too messy.

I really wanted to try the crawfish etoufee but they had sold out of it already for the day. So I ordered their gumbo. Apparently the gumbo changes daily. On today’s visit the gumbo was shrimp and andouille sausage.

The shrimp were tender and fresh. The sausage was chopped up into great bite size pieces. The rice added a thickness. The gumbo was full of flavor.

Mahony’s is known for their po’boys, so I will definitely need to make another trip to try those. If you are in the area you should check them out. Visit their website at: http://mahonyspoboys.com/

Enjoy!

T