The start of the new year has moved very quickly. Since the start of the year, I've spent a third of the days on an airplane and half the nights sleeping in beds that are not my own.
For the last four days, I've been at the annual math meetings. This year, it was held in New Orleans. This is the second time I've been to New Orleans. I gave a talk, and it went well, but mental energy I want to expend right now will be about the food.
I feel obliged to point out that most of the food adventures were spent with my former roommate, Andre, who did all the work of looking up and picking out the places to eat.
I arrived on Thursday night, and that's when the eating began. Somewhat appropriately, the place is called "Eat." I had a cup of gumbo (perfectly spicy), a stuffed pepper (in which the pepper was an afterthought and it was all about the stuffing), and a bowl of red beans and rice. Sadly, I think this is my first bowl of red beans and rice even though I've been to New Orleans before. At least, I don't recall having red beans and rice. But now I know what it is, and that all the things that I've made in the past under the label "red beans and rice" are completely wrong.
I've always looked for easy recipes for red beans and rice, and they had always turned out as red beans in a broth. But now I know that red beans and rice is much thicker, almost like a rich, hearty stew. So my conception of what this dish is supposed to be has been completely reworked. And I guess that means I need to try to make it again.
The next morning was breakfast at Cafe du Monde. This is a well known local chain that sells beignets almost exclusively (you can also get coffee or hot chocolate, boxes of beignet mix -- but if you don't want food they do have plenty of merchandise). For about $2.50, you get three little pillows of slightly chewy deep fried dough covered in about a cup of powdered sugar. My best attempt at describing the dough is that it's like a Chinese long doughnut, except not quite as crispy. The interior texture is chewy, but with an open structure (large chambers). Andre and I would return to this place several times for beignets and hot chocolate.
That day's lunch was an adventure. We walked about 2.5 miles in each direction to visit Parkway Bakery and Tavern. This a very famous local restaurant, and I understand why. The po'boys are very, very good. I had the alligator sausage (because I wanted to make sure I had alligator something on this trip), and Andre got the fried shrimp po'boy. The alligator sausage was good, but it's hard to really identify the alligator-ness of it because like all good sausages, it was a heavily spiced mixture. I was very impressed with the taste texture of the fried shrimp (I sampled one that fell out of his sandwich).
Dinner was at a place called Cochon (which is French for pig). Now there's a story here about trying to chase down more beignets while we waited for our seat, but I won't recount it. It's not that funny, although it does involve about another two miles of very fast walking and missing our table (and not getting any beignets). Andre ordered a bacon and oyster sandwich (which he raved about) and a plate of smothered greens (I sampled it, and I must say that *now* I know what deep greens should taste like). I had the fried alligator in chili aioli with mint leaves and macaroni and cheese. The mac and cheese was tasty, and rich and creamy, but it's just a straight-forward dish. The fried alligator gave me a chance to really taste alligator meat. And it doesn't taste like chicken. It's a different type of meat that has its own flavor. I couldn't compare it to any other meat that I've had. The texture is a little bit tougher and firmer than most other meats, but not in a way that made it difficult to eat. I wish I could say more to describe the meat, but I can't.
The next day's lunch was a BBQ oyster po'boy at Red Fish Grill, which was right around the corner from the hotel. It's not that the oysters were BBQed, but they were fried and tossed in a spicy BBQ sauce. I actually don't have much to say about this one. I liked it, and would order it again, but it also doesn't stand out for any reason except that I don't know when the next time I'll have a chance to eat a fried oyster po'boy will be. Maybe I'll have to make one of these, too.
Dinner was at a small place called Coop's Place. The atmosphere was very smoky, but like a smoke-house smoky and not a dimly lit pool room smoky. The food came out fast and was good, but I not as good as the previous couple nights. Although I will say that they had a sausage and rabbit jambalaya, which was interesting, but I had hoped for something a little more... something... out of it. I had what amounted to a sampler platter, and one of the items was called shrimp creole. It was basically a tomato, peppers, and okra stewed together. It was quite tasty as a simple, rustic sort of dish, and it played well with the other flavors going on. The other items were some red beans and rice, gumbo, and a piece of fried chicken. Now that I think about it, the fried chicken was excellent. The texture was pretty close to perfect, and it was well seasoned. I only got a single wing, which doesn't amount to much eating, which is probably why I almost completely forgot about it.
That covers all of my meals in New Orleans.
My talk went well (getting back to the real reason I was there). There were between 30 and 40 people in attendance, and they seemed to think positively of the ideas I put forth. I gave one person a business card (she wants to pass it along to someone at her school who was trying to do the same thing, but ran into problems with their administration) and I already have a request in my email box for a copy of the presentation. We'll see what develops from this.
After my work was all done (and actually, all of the eating), I went to play poker for 5 hours at the Harrah's which is a couple blocks from the hotel. It's somewhat ironic that I live in Vegas and don't play poker, but when I leave Vegas I do. According to my notes, in 2007 at that casino, I played for about 4 hours and won about $350. This time, I played about 5 hours and won $123. There were a couple bad decisions that cost me at least $100, so I could have done better. But a win is still a win.
The next week will be busy, with looking at applications and getting ready to launch into the new semester. I have a few ideas of new things to try, but I want to let them roll around in my head a little while longer before saying anything about it.
