Burgers, Dogs, & Pizza, Oh My!

Posts Tagged ‘New Orleans’

I love this place.  Been in regular attendance for the past two decades.  They’ve had their share of troubles, flooded twice cause of storms, but they keep coming back, stronger and better than ever.

Caveat one:  this is a New Orleans AREA restaurant, not in the city, it’s about a 30 minute drive north on I-55. It sits perched on the edge of Lake Maurepas, which in turn empties into Lake Ponchartrain. There’s a nice outdoor deck when the weather is nice, which it usually is.

Middendorfs, like a lot of area restaurants, serves tons of local seafood, prepared in all manners and styles, but deep fried is the New Orleans way; you can get giant combo platters of shrimp, oysters, fish, and crab. But most people go for a dish unique to the restaurant, deep fried catfish filets, but they’re cut lengthwise into paper thin slivers. Unique. Crispy. Tasty.  Dinners come with fries, slaw and hush puppies.  Never had any use for the latter, personally.

You can get a piece of beef or chicken if you insist, and there is an adequate ankle biter menu. You can get raw or BBQ oysters or delicious gumbos as a side or starter.

I only get here once every few years, and I hope they keep on and on.  It’s my place for ‘cat’ in the New Orleans area. (Oh and they also serve them whole, bone-in, if you like it that way).  I like to bring out of town company here. If I haven’t taken you, it’s because I hate you.

Middendorf’s Menu.

Middendorfs Review

I lived in New Orleans for a long time, and while it has always had some of the greatest restaurants in the country, there was not a great deal of diversity in menus; translation –  very few ethnic places.  Except for the Vietnamese blocks in New Orleans, it was tough to enjoy these Southeast Asian delicacies, but I’m delighted to say, “fusion Louisiana/Vietnamese” has spread around the city.  Couple months ago, I was in one Mo Pho, which I really enjoyed.

This time around it was “namese”  (as in VIETnamese, get it?) at Tulane and Carrolton, just up the street from the giant new hospital complex.  A smallish restaurant, the food is reminiscent of street vendors and markets in the SE Asian country, with a lot of soup (Pho), small plates (rolls), and Banh Mi sandwiches (which in New Orleans, are commonly known as “Po Boys.”

I went with the latter, fried shrimp for innards, and spring rolls in a rice wrapper to start.  Both were excellent. New Orleans is blessed with some really great bakers of French bread (including Vietnamese French), and they surely do make a sandwich.  The main difference between a traditional po boy and banh mi is the vegetables, with the latter taking on a cool and refreshing air with the addition of cilantro and peppers.

The food is really superb, wait staff is strong. Give it a try.

Open Monday – Saturday, 11AM – 10PM

Full menu.  Order online for delivery.

Namese Review

Superior Seafood is on the St. Charles Streetcar line, a quick ride from the Quarter.  Superior’s  menu incorporates the best of local seafood,  po boys, plates, and fresh catch, with beef, chicken and pasta available for those who partake in those edibles.  It’s moderately priced ($10 – $25), is happy to toss you a loaf of Leidenheimer’s to start with, is open for lunch and dinner seven days, with brunch service Sunday mornings.

My companion is a local, as local as you can get, her family having arrived in 1750, and she had a hankering for a shrimp po-boy and said Superior was the one for her.  I ordered a half with fries, she ordered a whole one and said I’d regret my diminutive order. Which I did. She said she’d share, but she lied.

It’s one delicious sandwich, and they had outstanding coffee as well.

Classic cocktails run $8-$12, and they have a happy hour daily from 4:00 – 6:30, the highlight of which is 50 cent raw oysters, a bargain these days. Wine list is respectable and value-priced.

They do catering, including crawfish boils.

Shrimp Po Boy

Superior Seafood Review

I had never been to a Mardi Gras celebration until I moved to New Orleans. What I learned living there, is that  for the locals, it’s a great opportunity for family activities, far away from the tourism debauchery in the Quarter.  I was  ‘inspired’ one year to write this Mardi Gras poem, which will resonate with locals more than tourists.  You still have nearly two weeks of Carnival season left for this year. Eat a muffaletta.   If you can’t make it, put it on your bucket list!  In the meantime, many of the biggest parades will be streamed on NOLA’s WDSU TV.

The Night Before Mardi Gras

Twas the night before Mardi Gras, and all through the burb,
Denizens were in place to see the parades, even lining the curb;

The beads were hung from the floats with care,
In anticipation of the throngs that would soon be there;

The children were nestled all snug in the car,
Dreaming of doubloons tossed from afar;

Mamma in her toga, and me in my mask,
I was all tuckered out from my bead buying task.

When out in the street there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my perch to see what was the matter.

Away to the neutral ground I flew like flash,
Tripped over the Landreau sign and fell face down in the trash.

The sun was just rising on the St. Charles line
Giving the impression parade day would be fine.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But the homeowner in his robe, his shouting so crass,
Saying, ”Hey, you buddy, get the hell off my grass!

A curmudgeonly old man, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment he was a tourist, he acted like such a dick,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called me some name;
It was obvious to me, he didn’t understand the game.

I looked around before leaving, to see what was the matter
But no I hadn’t forgotten anything, Not even my ladder.

I gathered my things, and got ready to view
The amazing display that would be put on by the Krewe.

I was ready as ready, me, Mr. Jimmy Crackcorn
I even had fresh double A’s, to use in my bullhorn.

I had borrowed a kid from some neighbor named Jim
So I could point to the toddler and say, “Hey the throws are for him!”

We worked all night on the “We’re from…” signs
Many places listed, the more exotic the better

After seeing all those, will they guess we’re from Kenner?
Continuing my mental tick list of things, forgetting the old coot,

Yep, I had my umbrella and shrimp nets, to help catch the loot.

I was stuffed with King cake, the tasty treats screamed “eat us”

I’d eat a lot more, if the toy didn’t look like a fetus.
The middles are not plain, but now stuffed with a filling
Since McKensies went bankrupt, small bakers make a killing.

I heard the music, the parade was near
When what to my wondering eyes should appear

Floats so lovely, adorned in things so bold
And trimmed of course in green, purple, and gold.

“I can’t get enough!” I thought, so I recounted them all
“Now, Zulu! now, Rex! Now, Endymion and Proteus!
To the end of St. Charles! to the top of Canal!

Then fade away! fade away! fade away all!”

“Damn I’m thirsty,” I thought, as I took a swig of my booze
“I hope I don’t have to pee before I see all of the Krewes!”

And then he appeared, the King of the Day,
He laughed and he chortled, and got ready to play.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Reached in his sack, then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, skyward went the throws!

The beads, candy and toys all flew like rain,

Me and ma were so drunk, we was feelin’ no pain.

The kids were getting trampled, ordinarily a horror
But not today cause someone nearby was surely a lawyer!
The crowds were noisy, their hearts were a thumpin’,
As they cried in unison, “Hey Mister, throw me sumpin!”

mardi gras 2015

(From our archives) I’ve intentionally shied away from the Café Degas, because it’s one of those places that many natives find absolutely thrilling. That’s usually my first clue to avoid it like the plague.

I frequently find that my view of “outstanding” varies widely from my native friends, but that’s largely due to the fact I’ve been exposed to restaurants outside of the area, and have a base of comparison. When my native buddies talk about a local restaurant as “outstanding,” I realize it is because they are comparing it to the Tiffin Inn.

Desperate to find something nice to say about the Café Degas, I come up empty. It is tied with my visit to the Café Adelaide a few weeks ago, for worst overall dining experience in New Orleans.

We could start with parking, but there is none. At that corner of Esplanade, with Whole Foods and a few other shops, parking is non-existent. The Café could well use a valet service, but service doesn’t seem part of their vocabulary.

I had made a reservation and arrived promptly on time. One enters the Café thru the bar, and walking into that space, four employees were busy talking about everything under the sun, but none asked if they could help me. I wandered into the dining room alone, where a single waiter was waiting on the one couple that had arrived before me. The waiter DID ask if he could help me, but it was more the kind of “are you lost” type of inquiry. I told him I had a reservation, and he told me to go back up front and see the hostess. She was nowhere to be found, so I returned to the dining room, and the waiter did show me to a table.

The place did fill up over the course of the next few hours, and “fill up” is an understatement, as they have crammed far too many tables into the small space, claiming an “authentic French bistro” ambiance. The owners and I must have visited different bistros during our journeys to France. Certainly the French buy more comfortable chairs, anyway, so that if space is at a premium, at least your personal space is enjoyable. Dega’s chairs are patio furniture.

The menu (“French with a Creole accent”) (geez, why does EVERYTHING have to have a “Creole accent?” – why can’t one get simple classical French cuisine in this town?) is short, with a few nightly specials.

As restaurants, like everyone else, struggle with increased energy and supply costs, they look to cut costs, and Café Degas has done it on two fronts – wait staff and ingredients.

In short, the service was lousy, the food worse.

The house salad with Dijon vinaigrette was bad enough (btw, add gorgonzola for a buck extra); I ordered “parmesan encrusted veal with caper lemon butter” for an entrée, and the first bite cried out “chicken fried steak!”

Some portions of the meat were inedible.

Service was nearly non-existent, again, probably due to cut backs, the room is noisy and crowded, and a peculiarity with the air conditioning causes the vents to drip water on diners. A woman at the table next to me, having had enough to the drips alternating hitting her plate or her shoulder, asked the waiter to do something about it. He asked her to stand up, whereupon he stood on her chair and wiped the grill above her with a towel.

Let’s not talk about what color the towel was after a single wipe.

Or the look in her eyes as she glanced at the chair that she was supposed to sit back down on.

Café Degas is a disaster. Another in a series.

The good thing about the evening? I got to leave at the end.

Cafe Degas Review

For as crazy as New Orleans can get, as long as I lived there, it was never a late night dining town.  Having exhausted all your energy in the Quarter, and not in the mood for an overpriced slice of pizza, one was left with few choices for satisfying cuisine.  I love diners, and my favorite at the time was called the Hummingbird, had been there forever, closed to make room for a project that never happened.

One around the clock outpost is the St. Charles Tavern, just up St. Charles Avenue from the Central Business District, not a terribly long cab ride from the Quarter.

The St. Charles serves cajun and creole specialties along with American diner food anytime of day or night you’re in the mood.  I used to frequent it quite often on my late night prowls of the Big Easy.

Stopped in during the daylight this trip, and grabbed half a muffaletta, which was excellent.  Guess they were closed for awhile, a little remodeling, maybe new owners.  Looking at their website, I see they feature Charmaine Neville Wednesday nights (she’s a Neville sister) and if you’ve never seen here on your trips to the Crescent City, you should try and take in a show.

St. Charles Tavern Menu (pdf)

st charles tavern reviews

Liuzzas Original Location

Too often, visitors to the Big Easy miss out on many of the best places to dine in the Crescent City.

I guess you could probably say this about most travel destinations; in the Crescent City, visitors tend to get “stuck” in the French Quarter or nearby Garden District and miss out on the neighborhood dining experience.

Not that there is anything wrong with what is available in either of those two locales, it’s just that New Orleans has so much more to offer when you get out and about.

Not far from the Quarter, Liuzza’s has been operating and serving local favorites since 1947.  In a city where some eateries have been open for way over a century, one that is only approaching 70 might not seem like such a big deal, but in most US cities other than New Orleans, a seventy year old restaurant is a big deal.

Liuzza’s menu is straightforward New Orleans, a combination of Creole and Cajun cuisines, with a little Italian mixed in. Luizza’s has a second location, “Liuzzas By the Track”, which is not far from Burgerdogboy daughter’s domicile, and near the fairgrounds/racetrack where the annual fete of JazzFest takes place (starts in two weeks!)  The “Jazz” part of the name is kind of misleading, as every year during the two week extravaganza, you’ll also have the opportunity to hear the biggest stars in the history of rock, as well.

Anyway, the spawn and I hit Liuzza’s for a quick lunch, and as always, it was superb. She went with the soup of the day, which was Turtle, and excellent, and I opted for a fried shrimp po-boy, which was absolutely perfect at every level.  We hastily decided to split an order of fries, and that was over ordering, as it turned out. For the uninitiated, a “Po Boy” is a New Orleans creation, crunchy French bread (only the local brands will suffice), stuffed with your choice of protein, fried or broiled, usually seafood like shrimp, oysters, catfish – but there are also ham, and roast beef variations. Your server will ask if you want it “dressed” or you can volunteer this information – it means with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mayo. Take it all, some or none. The height of decadence would be a po boy that includes your choice of meat, with french fries piled in there, too, and the entire sandwich is dipped in batter and deep fried. Believe it. It does happen!

If you’re planning on hitting New Orleans, it’s worth a quick cab ride to either location to have some great grub, and dine with the locals, who can be pretty entertaining all on their own!  Open Monday through Saturday from 11A – 7P.

Fried shrimp poboy

Liuzzas Review

The “official state donut” of the State of Louisiana, the beignet (ben-yaa) has become synonymous with the stereotypical tourist stop in New Orleans at a joint in the French Quarter called “Cafe du Monde.”  The pastries, developed by French bakers, use a type of dough that rises due to its own steam, rather than from yeast.  This type of baking is called “choux” pastries.

French settlers brought the tradition during their immigration to Eastern Canada, and their later forced migration to Louisiana.

The fried delicacies are generally sold in an order of three, accompanied by a shaker of powdered sugar and a steaming cup of cafe au lait or other local beverage.

While most visitors experience the pastry at the aforementioned stop, the sweet delights are widely available.  An alternate choice is an old-timey stand in Metarie, ‘Morning Call”, which is open 24/7 and is the local gathering place for die-hard denizens, particularly judges and lawyers.

Morning Call now has a location in City Park, easily accessible to tourists via the Carrolton street car which you can catch on Canal. City Park is one of the nation’s most impressive green spaces, and is home to a number of diversions including the New Orleans Museum of Art.

At  the “casino”, which isn’t one, you’ll find Morning Call, which you can enjoy your beignets and a few other local specialties in the splendor of the park.

Morning call restaurant review

Seafood & Sausage Gumbo Recipe

Ingredients

4 ounces vegetable oil

4 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds raw, whole, head-on medium-sized (16-20 count) shrimp
2 quarts water and 2 quarts more
1 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced green peppers
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 cup peeled, seeded and chopped tomato
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
1 pound andouille or smoked sausage sausage, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon file powder

I fell in love with gumbo years ago, and my love affair only intensified living in New Orleans for nearly ten years. I feel the same way about gumbo as I do about pizza. There’s no such thing as a bad cup of gumbo.

Shrimp boats at rest

If you read last week’s posts, you’ll know I was back in the Big Easy, and drove down to where the shrimp fleet parks and bought pounds and pounds of fresh shrimp right off the boat, which I toted home in an ice chest. The shrimp were very good size (about 16-20 to a pound), and very cheap compared to what I am used to paying. Fresh gulf shrimp is so much better than the frozen shrimp imported from Asia found in most supermarkets, tho my favorite of all are shrimp from off Key West, large, pink and sweet.

Arriving at home, I snapped off all the heads of the shrimp, remove shells, and dropped them in two quarters of boiling water to make the liquid base for the gumbo. This gives the ‘soup’ a lot of extra body. If you’re in a hurry or lazy, use chicken stock.

Once the broth has been reduced by half, remove from the stove and set aside.

Raw, head on shrimp

The next component you have to deal with is the “roux” (roo) which is essentially a thickener. Here again, I vary from conventional wisdom, and take four ounces of quality vegetable oil, combined with four ounces of flour in a dutch oven and put into a 350 oven for 1 ½ hours, stirring two to three times during the cycle. The longer you cook, the darker your roux will become and thus the darker your gumbo. Some people prefer a light roux, but my preference is for a darker end product.

When the roux is done, put on low heat and add the “holy trinity” of vegetables (green pepper, onion, celery), and the garlic, stirring constantly for about ten minutes until the vegetables start to take on a clear state).

Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne and bay leaves and stir to mix.

Broth and roux cooking

Drain the solids out of the shrimp broth and slowly add the liquid to the roux/vegetable mix, whisking non-stop while adding. Add another two cups of water (or stock) and stir in.

Lower the heat to low and cook for 35 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the shrimp and sausage. Add the file powder (another flavor, but also a thickener) and stir constantly while adding. Cover the pot and allow to rest for 5 – 10 minutes.

Serve in a deep bowl over a mound of rice. Enjoy.

Plated

Shrimp Gumbo Recipe

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I love old-timey places that have survived and thrived over the years, and certainly Casamento’s fits that description.  The consummate oyster restaurant in New Orleans, it’s been open continuously since 1919.  Except when they close every June, July, and August, much to the dismay of locals, who eagerly await it’s reopening every year.

With a menu long on locavore supplies and tradition, Casamento’s dishes out raw oysters ($11 a dozen in 2013), and fried seafood plates and “loafs”, or poboys sandwiches, using their own special bread, and eschewing local tradition of French bread for poboys.

While the joint had been the setting and backdrop for numerous movies and television shows over the years, it’s the inner workings, the kitchen, that make this restaurant shine.   Try the gumbo, some of the area’s best, as are the soft shelled crabs.   That’s what Burgerdogdaughter had the other day when we dropped in.

I went with a catfish poboy, as it’s nearly impossible to be able to afford catfish in Portland, OR, where I reside.   Down these parts, it’s dirt cheap and delicious.

We split a dozen raw oysters to start.

Casamento’s should be on every tourist’s list of ‘must stops’ in the Big Easy.  Be prepared to wait for a table, and it’s cash only.  Menu.

Catfish Loaf