Thursday, May 04, 2006

New Orleans: Take 4

So, here I am, once again in lovely New Orleans, visiting Jason (amorous adventures are for my other blog), and enjoying my gustatory and wine heaven. This town is amazing, I feel like everyone here loves food, and, unlike my average Hoosier, the people enjoy adventuring into territories unknown. All of the restaurants in town seem to have amazing wine lists—and what I mean by that is that they have a wide variety of different types of wine on the list, not like Indiana, where you have lots of Cab, Merlot, maybe a Zin or Shiraz, and Chardonnay, maybe Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc, and always the White Zinfandel—almost always strictly New World if not simply California.

On an AM talk radio station, radio personality and foodie, Tom Fitzmorris, has a daily food radio show—it’s quite entertaining and informative, although he seems to have a very healthy budget. Check him out, especially if you’re ever coming down to the Big Easy.

Jason and I have made plans to (1) cook more this time I’m down here to save money and time eating out, which is really hard, because amazing restaurants and bars within walking distance abound (not to mention those to which we have to drive). We’ve also planned to (2) go to Dick & Jenny’s and/or the Pelican Club for dinner. For those not privy to New Orleans food culture, those are two great (not necessarily budget-friendly) eats. I’m really excited to make dinner for Jason and friends while I’m here because they have great groceries stores—especially Whole Foods on Magazine Street, which is in an old streetcar station. It has an immense amount of beautiful food and I have a crush on it. I’m going to experiment with new foods I haven’t tackled yet: primarily risotto, but maybe scallops, or shellfish. Speaking of seafood, I have to go back to Krabby Jack’s, the best seafood I’ve ever had. Oh heaven!

Last night, Jason and I went out to Mona’s, a local chain of a few lovely middle-eastern restaurants, with stellar hummus. I can’t find any hummus that compares to Mona’s or Café Lebanon’s hummus—it’s super-creamy, and they always plate it with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice. So great. So we popped the only bottle of wine we had on hand (although we had to pass two wine stores on the short drive down Magazine St.), which was an Oliver Winery 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon. It actually went nicely with the lebna and hummus we had for appetizer, and fairly well with my sautéed vegetable plate. It wasn’t exactly what I was craving, and I hadn’t eaten much since I was on planes all day, so it hit me quickly. It had that nice brick-red rim in the glass, and a subdued fruitiness and lingering elegant tannins, and still had a bracing acidity that helped it a lot with the food. I don’t think I am in a position to remember it well enough to convey it to you, and I think it’s more of a winter wine—not so much an 80 degree sultry New Orleans wine.

Anyway, the goal of today, was (1) sleep, of which I did for approximately 13 hours, and (2) go for a walk, which was spoilt by rain and thunder. More tomorrow...or later.

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