I was famished when I got home last night and didn’t have anything prepared to immediately consume. I made my weekly visit to Hollygrove during the weekend and picked up a box of produce…but the farthest I got with those was cleaning and prepping them. I wasn’t in the mood to spend any extensive amount of time prepping, cooking or for a clean-up afterwards. I needed something quick and delicious.
And it’s my favorite. On most days, I try to keep it light and healthy. I need some good fuel to ”get my engines” running, ensuring a good start to my day. But I consider my weekends for an opportunity of luxury and try to remind myself to enjoy the smaller things in life - especially time. Time to enjoy good company, good food, the ability to stretch out my body and go for a run under the shady trees of Audobon park or explore the city. But first, I sleep in and then I have brunch.
I had a buddy in town this weekend and we went to brunch this past Saturday at Dante’s. I have been frequenting this spot recently and enjoy most items on the menu.
We recently had new Viking appliances installed in the test kitchen. We’re excited to to try these out and I wanted to show you how great everything looks!
Chef Emeril and the team will continue to bring you tasty recipes
As always, I intend to do more on these trips than I can actually accomplish. Any personal desires get thrown out the window, but eagerly traded in for time with friends and family (as I ought to do during the holidays). I had an agenda of different places to eat and was hoping to share them with you…I was able to accomplish a few (but was only able to document one in my last blog). However, I hope you can accept homemade dishes (I’m sure you can and to me, they were exquisite). All in all, I had a wondeful Thanksgiving in California and hope you did too - wherever you were.
Picture 1 from 8: My dad told me last minute that I was doing the turkey for thanksgiving...grrr. I really didn't mind, but the problem is I usually start planning my trip before I even arrive, so knowing this beforehand would've helped...dad :). I was lucky enough to grab one of the two last turkey's at Trader Joe's.
I’ve hit the ground running and literally haven’t stopped since I’ve arrived. The weather hasn’t been exactly favorable, as it’s been raining non-stop in conjunction with the quintessential, cool-crisp Northern California weather. However, it was just the perfect backdrop for my first meal at Chow’s, since they serve comfort food.
This time I’m heading back to my hometown for Thanksgiving. As usual, I’ll let you know about my culinary adventures in the Bay Area.
I’ve already got my first stop planned. The travel from New Orleans to Oakland usually works up a good appetite, for a quick fix and nolstagic’s sake, I usually hit up the In and Out near the airport en route to my parents’ house (as I’ve stated in the past, I don’t normally eat fast food, this is an exception).
This time, I’m craving for an all around experience, while keeping it casual. I did my homework and searched for a place that didn’t detour too far off of my destination and found Chow. They have four locations: two are in San Francisco, one in Danville and one in Lafayette (this is the one I’m trying). I’m hoping it’ll fulfill my expectations; good comfort food to welcome me home.
Yesterday I headed out to the Po-boy Festival not as a reveler but as a vendor. My cousins are potters and had a tent in the Artist Village to sell their wares. I volunteered to go out and give them a hand.
The Po-boy Festival is now in it’s third year and is more popular than ever. The fest is on Oak Street which has won awards and accolades for historic preservation and main street revitalization. Oak Street is hip, funky, chic, dirty and downright eccelctic. In just a few blocks there is an upscale wine bar, several yoga studios, coffee shops, resale boutiques, the local hardware store and residential property. Maple Leaf bar, one of New Orleans’ most famous music venues, is also located on this little stretch along with a barbecue joint, sushi bar, and a panini shop. It’s got a little bit of everything, some more shabby than chic but definitely cool.
This Sunday almost 40, 000 people walked up and down this little stretch of street stuffing themselves with the best po-boys New Orleans has to offer. This year there were 36 food vendors!! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to taste everything and I am pretty sure that would be impossible to do. There are no tasting portions here only regular size po-boys. I had a shrimp po-boy to start, good but ordinary. Then I moved on to the fried lobster po-boy which was out of control delish and I ended my day with outrageous fish tacos from Woody’s. Sadly, I missed out on Delmonico’s pork cheek po-boy, the booth was too far away. Maybe next year I will plan my eating strategy a little earlier.
The rebirth of Oak Street has been amazing and The New Orleans Po-boy Preservation Festival has considerably boosted the revitalization project. Each year the festival is more streamlined and more crowded but so far has been a great addition to Louisiana’s long list of festivals.
Kamili and I volunteered to work with the Lagasse team preparing the dinner for Carnivale du Vin. Last week we had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the guest chefs at the event. They were here at Homebase prepping for parties and events leading up to the big night. It was so inspiring to have them in the kitchen with us and loads of fun.
Behind the scenes at Carnivale was pretty exciting if not a little daunting. The event was held at the Hilton hotel here in New Orleans. As soon as I arrived at the hotel to report for duty I was completely overwhelmed. If you have never been in the under belly of a large hotel it is something to see. Mainly because under these huge hotels is a labyrinth of kitchens, wine rooms, pastry shops and garde manger kitchens, room service, you get the picture. I quickly found Chef Chris Wilson and the rest of our crew and set to work getting organized. Kamili and I worked with Chef Dana D’Anzi setting up the raw bar, which by the way looked amazing. The Grand Raw Bar consisted of entire tables, bowls and sculptures made of ice designed to show off a grand spectacle of at least 6 varieties of raw oysters, both bay and sea scallops, local shrimp, lobster, mussels, octopus and tuna.
From here Kamili and I headed over to the pastry kitchen to set up cheese plates and mignardise that would be the final course of the evening. There is virtually an army of chefs working behind the scenes to make this event happen. Kamili and I joined our predesignated team and began the process of plating up a five course dinner for 700 people.
Dinner moves quickly, there is about 15 minutes between courses, which gives us just enough time to clean our stations and watch each guest chef give a demonstration on how to plate their course.
Picture 1 from 5: Justin, Phil and Chris discussing the third course Pastel de Choclo
Once dinner has been served Kamili and I along with many of the other chefs take a sneak peak into the ballroom. The event has gone very well and it seems the guests have had a great evening.
Congratulations to the entire Emeril Lagasse Foundation and to everyone who worked so hard to make this event happen.
Just as I promised here are a few photos from Po-Boy Fest weekend - to no surprise - it was another huge success. Our driveway leads right onto Oak Street, so family and friends were in and out of the house all day. We walked around, grabbed some po-boys, went back to the house to eat, trekked back out to listen to music and repeated.
I’ve been going to Po-Boy fest for the last couple of years and I’m looking forward to sampling the various po-boys again this year; I’ve blogged about it before (here’s the link http://www.emerils.com/cooking-blog/3539/preservation/).
Each year it gets bigger and better and I’ve just moved to Oak Street (which is where it takes place). So, all I have to do this Sunday (when it happens) is walk out my door to enjoy the food and music. I’m having family and friends over…so hopefully, the weather will be perfect, because that’s all I’ll need. And even though there’s going to be a whole bunch of po-boy’s in my frontyard…I’m making a pot of chicken and sausage gumbo. I’ll be sure to take some photos to share with ya’ll come Monday. Have a great weekend!
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