Author: gatorgirl.outoftheswamp@gmail.com

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

 

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

 

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

 

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