Monthly Archives: November 2010

As touristy as it may be considered, no trip to NOLA is complete with out a late-night stop at the 24-hour Café du Monde. I remember this place well from my last visit to New Orleans in 1999, and it truly hasn’t changed. I opted for hot chocolate instead of chicory coffee (not sure why, but it was delicious!) and of course, a plate of piping hot beignets loaded with powdered sugar that mostly ended up on our jeans. The table next to us had an all-out sugar fight which was fun to watch, from afar. It was close to 2AM, our server was a little Lurch-like, and the scene was getting riddled with powder sugar face-washes, but we still stayed later for another round of doughnuts.

I recently discovered that an excruciatingly slow Internet connection combined with unlimited Sazerac-availability throughout a five-block radius does not a voracious blogger make. In other words, sorry about the lack of posting as of late. I have plenty of posts from NYC, recent visits to Chicago restaurants Ruxpin, Davanti Enoteca (ultra yum), and Saigon Sisters, and, of course, last week’s NOLA eats. I will mix and match them, starting with some of the finest dishes I had, including the fried alligator from Cochon, truffle gnocchi from August, beignets from Cafe du Monde, and of course, said Sazeracs and other fine cocktails. But I’ll begin with the po’boys, the fried catfish/fried shrimp combo from Parkway Tavern was totally worth the taxi ride from Bourbon (and hour wait to get them to come back when we were done).

Praise the combo…soft, crusty French bread, lettuce, tomato, pickle and mayo are the standards with fillings like grilled alligator sausage links, gravy (with fries), fried potatoes, and in our case, mile-long fried shrimp and catfish. Golden, non-greasy breading encrusted the mound of seafood on each sandwich..

Besides the po’boys and fries, we also got gumbo, teaming with turkey and juicy, spicy alligator sausage. It was a little warm out for hot gumbo, but we downed the bowl nonetheless…oh, and juicy thick fries, why not? Parkway Tavern, 538 Hagan.

Momofuku Milk Bar may have launched their new (yum) shipping site this week, but you’re just going to have to schlep to NYC to enjoy the heavenly soft serve. A visit there last weekend had me doing just that, and the object of my confection was cereal milk and black sesame flavors smothered with chocolate graham crumbs. Cereal milk tastes just how it should, creamy milk with the slightly sweet remnants of the Fruity Pebbles of my past, while black sesame tastes like toned down peanut butter. I have yet to try soft serve flavors like cream cheese frosting, sugar cookie or Orange Julius, but hot damn, sign me up. And if you have, vote here your favorite. Momofuku Milk Bar, 207 2nd Avenue, East Village, NYC