Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup: Oh Goodness Gracious Yes

It's beginning to get hot out here in Sacramento, and there's few better meals for dry n' scorching weather then fresh Thai soup. The rendition offered in the Cooking Club cookbook looked pretty choice to me, so I picked up some nice looking tiger shrimp and some slightly more esoteric ingredients and gave it a shot.

You will need (for 4 servings):

6 oz dried rice noodles
2 stalks fresh lemongrass
Vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
An inch of ginger or galangal, sliced
4 kaffir lime leaves if you can find em', 4 tsp lime zest if you can't
1-3 Thai red chilis, depending on your preference
Salt (no duh)
1 to 1 and a half lbs shrimp, shells on
1 quart chicken stock
Button mushrooms (1 cup)
1 cup baby bok choy
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup tamarind paste/concentrate
Juice of one lime
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup cilantro (if you like it)
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil (necessity)




You'll need to acquire some Thai ingredients for the broth. Collect your shallots, ginger, kaffir lime, and lemon-grass. Bruise the cut lemongrass first.



You'll want to get yourself some shrimp - I used about a pound for two people and had plenty left over. Remember to get shell on shrimps.



Here's the important part: keep the shells when you peel the shrimp. You're going to use the shells to make the shrimp stock which, when cooked for a while, will infuse the broth with an addictive and tangy flavor. I am rather mortified that I did not realize the delicious utility of the humble shrimp shell sooner.



Heat some oil (I used olive, I don't think that ends the universe or anything) and toss in your magical shrimp shells, your garlic, shallot, lemongrass, galangal or ginger, kaffir lime, chili peppers, and salt. Saute for four minutes and stir frequently because burned shrimp shells are a tragedy against mankind and also sorta icky.



Toss in your chicken broth, turn the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer this beeyotch for 20 minutes, skimming off the foam on occasion. While you're at, boil your rice noodles in a separate pot.



Once 20 minutes are up and the broth is attaining some margin of deliciousness, you'll need to strain it, unless you find consuming shrimp shells delicious and stimulating - we won't judge you. Strain the broth and return it to the pot. Now, add the mushrooms and the bok choy (and whatever other veggies you may be using) and cook for two minutes.

Next, add the tamarind, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and shrimp. Stir well and cook for two more minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and delectable. Turn the heat off, dole out rice noodles for each bowl, and pour the soup over them.



Serve the soup with fresh basil and mint, to be ripped up and dumped into the broth as suits personal taste. Fresh bean sprouts are another crunchy and refreshing touch. I like to add hoisin sauce and additional fish sauce to my soup, as well as some hot sauce: put out some condiments and let the people decide for themselves, you patriot, you.

Jazzfest Round Two!

We arrived bright and early for another exciting day at Jazzfest. The weather was delightfully overcast (a good thing), and droves of people had emerged from their Bourbon Street hotel rooms to wander onto the fair grounds. Hell, Neil Young was even slated to play (among others). We had even had the foresight to bring along convenient folding chairs to sit in - seasoned Jazzfest vets bring along folding chairs that could be used to colonize deep space, complete with cupholders, snack containers, shade tents and possibly water spritzers. I have never seen so many hats with beer holders on them in my short lifetime.



We were very happy to get back into the food game.



I don't know a whole lot about African food, but I adored this jama-jama, a spicy, slow-cooked and addictive spinach dish from New Orlean's own Bennachin restaurant. Spiked with hot sauce, this was very much up my alley. (I love my greens, if you hadn't guessed from reading this blog).



This was Jamaican chicken with veggies - pretty good and slow cooked in a spicy sauce, although I sure wish it had been jerk chicken. (It's hard to beat jerk chicken).



I also tried out a pink lemonade sno-ball. A sno-ball is as a sno-ball does: they're about the same as the much-beloved Hawaiian shave ice, a sno-cone with an extra fine texture. In New Orleans, sno-balls are often made with condensed milk or other distinctive (and often house-made) syrups and flavorings. Just the thing on a hot day...if you're too much of a wuss to drink daiquiris from 10:00 AM onward. Since the weather's heated up, I've been seeing folks riding their horses on the neutral ground (where the streetcars run) while sipping big-ass travel size daiquiris. Love ya, NOLA, don't ever change.



As eager pork consumers, we were pleased to see these pork cracklings - produced old-school style and fresh, with the skin and a little bit of the fat still on. They were hot and warm, if a little crunchy: some hot sauce and some extra salt helped soften them up. Yum.



This BBQ turkey wing made me very happy: cooked til' falling apart in barbeque sauce and served with porky white beans and cole slaw, this was a delectable exercise in soul food.



This peanut guy was rather magnificently self assured.



We also saw this excellent blues musician, Chris Thomas King, in the Blues tent. A rap/blues pioneer, he's been featured in quite a few films, among them O Brother Where Art Thou, the Soul of a Man, and Ray. Check him out.



These Crocodile Gumboot Dancers from South Africa were compelling. Their routine really made me consider the origins of hip-hop music - all this awesome stompy stuff to the beat of guitar and drum.

What about Neil Young? I'm a big Neil Young fan and have been since a very young age, and I was pretty happy to get a chance to see him. Unfortunately, about five bazillion of my very closest friends had the same idea. Surprisingly for someone who really enjoys crowded Asian countries, I don't like giant crowds at concerts at all - but I was willing to elbow my way through the crowd for a little bit of Neil Young. The man himself duly came on stage and began to rock, with an impressive amount of fervor for a gentleman in his mid sixties who has not, let us say, taken the conservative approach with illicit substances.

I stuck it out for four songs, but gathering storm clouds and the constant nasty glares of the grossly obese people with umbrella hats sitting next to me prompted me to move on. I had to use all my third-world honed Pushing Through Crowds skills to escape the scrum, but they served me well: I managed to make it out of the crush in good time, earning me yet more disapproving stares from the folks I shoved my way by. Hey, they don't apologize for that shit in Beijing and Old Delhi! Get over it!

My instincts were right on: the skies opened up and it began pouring, just as my mom and I began making our way to the taxi stand. Out came the dorky ponchos and the umbrellas, but those are little protection against the monsoon-like power of New Orleans spring downpours: we was soaked. The taxi man harrumphed a bit at us for soaking his seats, but we got to talking and he ended up being very friendly, as most New Orleanians are in most situations, except for when they are mugging you.

Jazzfest was a lot of fun and I see why it is so endlessly famous, although I am going to have to get over my aversion to masses of large sweaty people who like to stand in front of me before I may truly enjoy it. The food, certainly, is delicious and tremendously fun to work through - I know I will return to try everything I didn't get a chance to sample this go-round.

Jazzfest Food!!

The weekend I finished up at Tulane and headed home to Sacramento, I got to go to Jazzfest, NOLA's music festival that heralds the beginning of summer and an end to the (extremely moderated) good behavior that heralds Lenten time in Louisiana. Jazzfest time is a New Orleans holiday on par with Christmas, New Years, and Mardi Gras, the sort of big-time event that everyone begins anticipating with glazed and blissed out expressions long before it rolls around again. Sure, the music is swell and all - featuring a combination of New Orleans local music and big-ass names like Neil Young, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Bon Jovi (um) and much much more. But the primary reason people wax sentimental about Jazzfest is the food: licensed vendors sell all sorts of New Orleans foods to all sorts of people, producing the best damn way to sample the best of Lousiana's cuisine in a small and music-loving environment. Nice work if you can get it.

My dad's flight unfortunately got in late the first day of Jazzfest (boo) so we only got to spend an hour or so mussing about on Friday. Jazzfest is held at the New Orleans fair grounds and race track, and the music stages are spaced out inside the confines of the racing track. There's tons of music going on at all times, and the people watching is equally excellent: you really do get all sorts for Jazzfest. Indeed, Jazzfest is Woodstock for middle aged white people. They dress like it too: you will never see such a profusion of furry white chests and string polka dot bikinis and matching husband-wife ensembles in your life. (One man enjoys wandering about the festival in a tartan skirt above the knee, and most disquietingly, no underpants. A stiff wind kicked up while I was sitting down and enjoying some reggae, and I saw what cannot be unseen. I may require therapy.



But on to happier topics. How was the food? Here are some of the food stalls and vendors - there's a bunch of them, representing essentially every cuisine found in the city.



We tried out these fried chicken wings: pretty tasty. New Orleans has mastered, mastered the art of the fried chicken wing.

We arrived bright and early for our second day of Jazzfest- the party starts at 11 AM. Parking is a horrendous nightmare within a few miles of the fairgrounds, so we took the logical approach and hired a taxi, which dropped us off within spitting distance of the gates. We joined the scrum of people heading to the concert grounds, showed our passes and came on in.



First up: a very interesting gospel show. I rarely view people who have Got the Spirit and this was pretty refreshing - dunno what the white-face mime thing was all about but it was definitely symbolic. And you've got to appreciate the sheer wall-busting power of gospel style voices.

Lunch time came up swiftly enough. There is no lunch time at Jazzfest, of course - Jazzfest is really an excellent excuse for constant grazing. Gastric distress is another Jazzfest tradition.



Tragically, this soft shell crab po-boy wasn't very impressive: the oil had sat too long and the crab ended up rather tough and greasy.



Things looked up big-time with this quail and andouille gumbo. Great dark roux flavor, lots of tasty quail meat, and a sufficient amount of spice - what's not to like?



This lamb tagine with harissa and rice was tasty and meaty - and it's hard not to like anything with harissa on it. Not exactly traditional NOLA fare but still most tasty.



My mom was very happy with these Louisiana style hot tamales. The Tamale Man in my grandfather's native Mendon, LA, is a bit of a family legend. I'd never had them before, but I was very impressed with the flavor: they're smaller and a little more "juicy" then typical tamales, with an addictive spicy sauce and a piquant ground beef filling.

For a recipe for Louisiana style hot tamale recipes, look here: Hot Tamales And check out the annual Zwolle Hot Tamale festival in Louisiana....how deeply interesting.

More Jazzfest stuff next time....

cook book club, go go!

Sacramento foodies should check out the Cookbook Club, a new book from some Sacto area writers with some great ideas for putting together excellent gatherings. The included ecipes from cookbook clubs across the nation are top notch, encompassing cuisines from Greek to Thai to Creole. The authors provide a great template for putting together your very own cooking club - and what better way to eat great food with your friends and get some assistance with post-gorging clean up? I recently made the vindaloo and roasted cauliflower and peas with tomato chutney and raita and was very much impressed by the authenticity of the flavors - a pictorial will be going up soon!

Dina Guillen and Michelle Lowrey, the authors of the Cookbook Club will be signing the book and chatting it up at Taylor Market May 16th, at 11 AM. Drop by!

Commander's Palace

Commander's Palace
1403 Washington Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
at the corner of Coliseum Street in the Garden District
(504) 899-8221


Commander's Palace is one of those New Orleans Institutions with a capital I, the sort of place that has been feeding the elite, successful, and merely aspirational of the New Orleans population since 1880 on. The restaurant, originally a popular gathering place for river-boat men and their mistresses, has maintained its towering and oh-so-posh reputation for a startlingly long time: nowadays, it's still one of NOLA's most popular and most rarefied dining destinations. So how's it hold up?

First impression: what a beautiful space. Truly old school restaurants are difficult to find these days, and Commanders is carrying the torch where other establishments have acquised to hipness and serving staff with interesting haircuts. Patrons dress to the nines and staff are dressed about as well: everyone you walk by up the stairs and into the warren of rooms in the restaurant greet you and do a great job of looking just thrilled to see you. It may be a conceit but I totally approve.

The menu features Creole classics but reconstructed and nicely updated: rich, complex food, at a high price point (go figure). Commander's does offer some decent deals, especially at lunch- my mom and I selected the special menu, which featured any salad or soup, an entree, and a dessert for a consolidated price.



I tried the Creole tomato salad with tomato gazpacho and roasted tomatoes for my appetizer. A really elegant dish, and I liked the combination of fresh tomatoes with a layer of cold "soup" alongside chewy, roasted tomato slices. Light and very summery. (It's summer, right? It qualifies now, right?)



I also sampled the gumbo: nice and roux heavy, although my mom noted there was not enough Stuff In It. When discussing seafood gumbo, the amount of Stuff In It (oysters, shrimp, so on) is a terrifically important barometer of quality. Be aware, Commanders, be aware.



I had the roasted fish and shrimp for my entree. This was particularly interesting because it featured ramps - those uniquely Southern ferns - as a major component of the dish. I liked the somewhat asparagus like and indisputably earthy flavor of the slightly charred ramps, and they added something to the sauteed fish and meaty, seared, shrimp. I wish they showed up on more menus (and I also wish you could get em' out here in California, but such are the proclivities of ferns).



My mom tried the special of lightly fried soft shell crabs, served with lump crab meat and various and sundry spices. Commanders dishes out a large serving, and the crabs were lightly fried and meaty - not overburdened with batter as some preparations are. The addition of lump crab meat definitely is a nice counterpoint to the crunchy and crispy crab meat.



My dad had the quail, stuffed with blue crab and served with cornbread, Creole choucroute, apples, and Makers Mark-blackberry lacquer ($32.00): a pretty excellent fowl dish from a restaurant with a yen for wild game. A little bit sweet, I liked the combination of bourbon tinged meat with sweet cornbread and apples. This would be an ideal fall dish but doesn't suffer much for being served in summer.



I also tried out the side-dish of crab boiled vegetables: mixed vegetables in a butter sauce flavored with crab boil. This was almost obscenely rich and therefore very tasty indeed - a real old fashioned side that one doesn't encounter much these days.

Commanders is famous (and justly so) for its decadent and fairly extensive dessert menu. Creole cuisine finds its greatest expression in anything involving butterfat and cream, and Commander's Palace's offerings are no exception.



I tried the Praline Parfait, a ridiculously huge dessert composed of a crispy and caremalized pastry cookie, pecan syrup, chantilly cream, candied pecans, and a boatload of rich housemade ice cream. Really liked this, although dessert-phobic me might have preferred this in a shot glass. I need to develop more testicular fortitude in the face of Creole cuisine.



My dad is a serious bread pudding fan and he selected the Creole Bread Pudding souffle, Commander's light and airy variant on the omnipresent bread pudding. Served with whiskey sauce, it's a refined dessert but may not entirely satisfy those who prefer the crispy, broiled edges of traditional bread pudding - this is more of an eggy and liquid speciality, a real pudding. Order early.



Finally, my mom selected the hibiscus sorbet with candied ginger. What a delight: tangy, fresh hibiscus sorbet works perfectly with the slight spice of ginger. A refreshing nibble after a big, rich dinner. Commanders apparently switches up its sorbet and ice cream selections on a regular basis, so check back often.

We observed a surgical ritual: a guy a table over had apparently ordered a 3000 dollar bottle of wine. This required the sommelier to open the bottle with the precision of a neurosurgeon, using a candle to check for impurities and oh-so-carefully easing the cork out of the bottle. Apparently the wine had gone off a bit, judging by the sommelier's nervous reaction, but the customer seemed to take it in a stride - wonder if he'd ordered the stuff more to seem impressive then for flavor purposes. I will never know.

Commander's offers a chef's table, and I'd very much like to take them up on it sometime soon. On the whole, I really enjoyed Commander's Palace: it's a truly classy and timeless restaurant, with an ambience and a slavish attention to service that's pretty rare these days. It's not a daily restaurant, but I can think of few better locales in New Orleans for a really special occasion, for a classic American experience. And the people watching, needless to say - superb.

Dante's Kitchen Round Two

Dante's Kitchen Round Two
504 861-3121
736 Dante Street
New Orleans, LA 70118

I last reviewed Dante's Kitchen a month and a half ago or thereabouts. A small neighborhood restaurant located in New Orlean's Riverbend area, it's reasonably priced, a little funky, and always interesting, if not always predictable. We returned over the second Jazzfest weekend for a casual meal pre the big shindig/my returning home to Sacramento in a blaze of triumphant glory. Something like that.



We started off with the Perique Farms Beet Salad with arugula, citrus roasted pecans, stilton cheese and sherry vinaigrette (8.50). I'm a total beet whore (hurr hurr that sounds naughty) and order them whenever they appear on a menu. I have tried to cook beets before and the results, albeit tasty, left me looking like a serial killer post heinous slaughtering murder. I recall looking at my hands covered in lurid red gore and thinking about how, if I ran outside and started running around in circles and going WAGGA WAGGA, the neighbors would definitely call the police and a helicopter would come. This really made me smile. To address this particular beet salad, it was pretty good: roasted beets combined with peppery greens, stinky cheese, and toasted pecans is a winning combination.



We also tried out the New Orleans Style Barbeque Shrimp with Abita Turbodog beer, rosemary and garlic (9.50). Big daddy shrimp with all the heads and shells on, as befits the BBQ shrimp tradition of New Orleans: peel those suckers yourself, you Yankee wussmunch, don't bother about the clothes. New Orleans BBQ shrimp actually involve no BBQ flavor but DO involve about a two and a half pounds of butter, lemon, worcestershire sauce and other stuff I cannot relate to you at this time. As you may imagine, they are delicious.



I took the Seared Pompano with Louisiana blue crabcake, green goddess dressing, and pickled mirliton salad (26.00) for my entree. I liked this dish: it had a fresh, clean, spring-like quality that is really refreshing in a city that fetishizes rich-ass food. I liked the slightly crispy and skillfully cooked fish in juxtaposition with the meaty crabcake and the crunchy and vinegary flavor of the mirliton. The Green Goddess was interesting and involved some anise-flavored local greens: strong and distinct flavor and something I haven't encountered much before. It was a simple dish but a successful one. As a California spa-cuisine twink, I dig deconstructed variants on New Orleans traditional recipes.

A Mirliton, if you were not aware, is the New Orleans term for chayote, a gourd-like plant common in the Southern USA and Central America, but regularly consumed all over the world. The green fruit has a rather bland taste somewhere between a pear, a cucumber, and a daikon: they are often stuffed with seafood or prepared in casseroles in New Orleans cooking.



My dad tried Bell & Evan’s Chicken Roasted Under a Brick - maple glazed, with a potato and bacon hash cake, topped with egg (23.00). Beyond the obvious question of who Bell & Evan are and why restaurants feel compelled to drop little in-jokes into their menu, this is a nice, hearty dish. The chicken was a little bit sweet for my taste due to the maple glaze (go figure,) but I liked the combo of maple, drippy egg, and smoky bacon. It's in essence a jazzed up variant on breakfast for supper. And who doesn't like that.



My mom tried the Redfish “on the Half Shell” topped with crabmeat and soft herbs (24.00). The flavor profile of this was actually extremely similar to my dish, down to the selection of local herbs used - but that's not a bad thing, as the fresh, simple aesthetic carried over here. Nicely prepared, slightly crispy pan-sauteed fish and fresh crabmeat are a really classic combo and done well here. No flashy business here but doesn't really need it.



My friend tried the Daily Preparation of Local Farm Vegetables served with a goat cheese and caramelized onion croquette (20.00). Vegetarians seem to be forced to contend with a lot of cheese croquettes in this town. Interesting dish here: seemed like they were going for a Thai salad combined with a cheese croquette. Sounds sort of disastrous but it tasted okay to me, though the combo was about as odd as it sounds.

Dante's isn't one of New Orleans must-visit-or-you-will-die dining destinations, but it's a good pick for locals out for a solid meal that won't necessitate a second mortgage or a prescription for beta-blockers. It's a good place to hang out, talk, and drink, and the addition of honest, earthy cooking is icing on the cake. Check it out next time you're out with your friends and need somewhere to nosh.

Also: corn spoonbread with honey butter, complimentary at each table, as tasty as you might presume it to be. Discuss.

frankie and johnny's new orleans

Franky and Johnny's
Neighborhood Restaurant & Lounge
321 Arabella Street
New Orleans, LA. 70115
(504) 899-9146


Frankie and Johnny's is pretty much the base definition of a New Orleans neighborhood restaurant. Off the tourist beaten track and a popular destination for boozing locals and those who really very much enjoy large pitchers of beer, it's a good spot to hit up for some no-pretensions seafood. Don't expect any fancy BS here: that's just the way folks around here like it.

(If you ate at Commanders or Galatoire's every single day, you would develop hardened arteries and an enlarged heart and poor vision and all sorts of deleterious maladies, you would sicken and become ill. Man must not subsist on butter and lard alone).



We tried out one of their stuffed crabs. If you are some sort of infidel and did not know, a New Orleans stuffed crab involves bread crumbs, herbs, and crabmeat, baked in the crab's original shell. They are exceeding tasty. This was a nice version with lots of plump crabmeat, though coulda been a bit warmer.



Frankie and Johnnie's does a real fine boiled shrimp by my estimation, and I am very particular about boiled shrimps. These are 1. very large and 2. come complete with shells and delicious, flavorful heads and 3. are boiled in some sort of tasty spiced substance and thus satisfy all my parameters.



I also tried out a Muffaletta salad. Okay, but could have used more olive salad on top - the key to a Muffaletta salad is excess amounts of olive salad. I am told Frankie and Johnnie's does reputable muffalettas so you should try one and report back post haste. I saw one once and I think I had a bite but there may have been some Drunk Memory involved there. I could not confirm or deny.



We also tried out the fried oysters. These guys do a very fine rendition of this New Orleans treat: not too heavily breaded, big fat fresh specimens, simple and good. Not the airy perfection of say, Casamento's, but still mighty fine. The fries weren't half bad either.



Last up: crawfish etouffee. Simple stuff but pretty tasty: nice tomato and spice flavor, decent roux, good quantity of crawfish meat. It's pretty much what F and J is up to: simple and good New Orleans food, unpretentious setting and service, acceptable cleanliness levels, a jukebox, and large quantities of inexpensive booze. I recommend it.

french quarter fest, muriels, seafood boats

New Orleans has a festival problem. Within a brief time period in late April-Early May, French Quarter Fest and the two weekends of the monolithic Jazzfest are stacked up against one another. (And this all coming about two months after the Big Kahuna of Mardi Gras). This means that we New Orleans residents must once again sally forth to listen to music, eat inordinate quantities of food, and deep-fry ourselves in the ever-hotter late spring sun in the pursuit of a good time. You should feel really damn sorry for us.



French Quarter Fest takes place, not surprisingly, all over the Quarter, featuring mostly-local bands on a whole bunch of stages interspersed throughout the area. Besides the music, there's also tons of food vendors selling everything from po-boys to banh mi to African food, as well as cultural learning events and eating contests - I just missed the oyster eating contest and am still regretful. Perhaps watching what happens to someone who eats 100 oysters is a learning experience in and of itself, I cannot tell you.



I DID manage to wander around, listen to some good ragtime, jazz, and Cajun music, as well as get up next to my bon ami, my beloved, crawfish. Let me explain to you why I love crawfish so. I love Interactive Food. I define this as food that requires an inordinate amount of work for little gain - crab, Cornish game hens, lobster bits, Chinese duck, and so forth. If it has tons of little complex bones or requires special implements to eat it, I'm there.



Therefore I love crawfish, which require perhaps the most pain in the ass effort for the smallest caloric benefit of any food out there. And they really do taste delicious if done right: delicately flavored and plump tails, vying for attention with the yellow, fatty, and divine goo that lies within the crawdad's head. If you do not suck the heads, you are an infidel, or at least missing out. I do not "suck" the heads per-se, I instead dig out the goo within the heads, but the final result is the same. These were Rouse's supermarket brand crawfish and I though they were pretty good - and at seven bucks for well over a pound of big juicy ones, in addition to corn and sausage, well, not such a bad deal at all.

After the crawfish feast, I ran into my wonderful relatives from Kentucky quite randomly on Bourbon Street. I had been planning to meet them later in the evening anyway to attend my cousin's wedding party at Muriel's on Jackson Square, and it was great to run into em' all ahead of time.

Muriel's did a great job with the party. We had what Muriel's called Heavy Appetizers, which sounds somewhat dirty (well to me anyway oh don't judge me) but turned out quite delicious.



We had a cheese and fruit and pate platter.....



And an honest to god Seafood Pirouge with big old shrimp and big old oysters. Someone needs to do a sociological study of why food in boats tastes better - sushi boats, seafood pirouges, whatever. You could probably relate it to Freud and make a ton of money by evoking people's childhoods/water phobias. Just trying to give y'all good ideas.



And a whole bunch of desserts including some incredibly reputable chocolate covered strawberries...



As well as sliced prime rib with horseradish and mustard, fried turkey breast (nicely prepared), jambalaya, roasted vegetables, and various passed around snacks including coconut shrimp, prosciutto and asparagus, and some excellent crab cakes. We were upstairs in a big open space with a view of the French Quarter Fest crowds - we also, of course, had an open bar with plenty of good bourbon. We DO have Kentucky roots for God's sake, otherwise would be sacrilege, so forth and so on. Lovely evening and a lovely way to catch up with my family - I'd recommend Muriel's special events set up anytim

The restaurant is also reputed to be haunted like every other goddamn establishment in this ghost besot-city, which means you may freak out everyone else in the party by saying quietly, "Did you SEE that?" My cousin Jennifer scared the sweet Jesus out of some random gentlemen on the street - he was taking a Ghost Tour, was instructed to look in the window at Muriel's - whereupon my cousin ran to the window and yelled BOO. Bro jumped about six and a half feet and spilled his Hurricane. We're still laughing.

off to sacramento then to points otherwise

Sorry for my absenteeism. I've been moving out of my apartment in New Orleans, putting my possessions in storage, and preparing to head back to Sacramento for a month. It's been a great year here in NOLA, and I'm looking forward to eating lots of interesting things around town next semester. Look for reviews of Frankie and Johnnie's, Commanders Palace, and a revisit to Dante's Kitchen very soon - as well as some Jazzfest stuff and nonsense. (I got to see Neil Young's head for like a minute. He is still apparently rocking).

Officially going to be going to Italy, Switzerland, and Spain this summer. Will be covering and blogging a Tulane Slow Food program in Bolsena. Watch this space.

For now, have some North Korean propaganda cartoons, complete with fuzzy animals.