Staycation Part II: Arnold Palmer and Green Goddess

I woke up on day 2 of the Staycation forcing Powerade and 5 hour energy down my throat (the perfect hangover cure). Forgoing the formal jazz brunches, we got off the beaten path and traveled from shade to shade down Dauphine to EAT. The southern porch roof colored walls (don’t act like you don’t know what color I’m talking about) and the smells radiating from the open kitchen were very relaxing. We poured ourselves a few mimosas (EAT is BYOB) while studying the overwhelming weekend brunch menu. It didn’t take long before we were inhaling Eggs Daumaine- a scratch biscuit topped with grillades (slow roasted beef), poached eggs, and hollandaise- and a creamy herbed ricotta, and caramelized onion omelet like we were the cookie monster in chocolate chip rehab.

We wandered down to the Riverwalk, partly because we hadn’t been there since our 6th grade field trip (yes Erin and I were on the same field trip and didn’t know it), partly because its air conditioned and this is the middle of August, and partly because we wanted to check out the Southern Food and Beverage Museum.

The museum explores several facets of southern cooking with an emphasis on Louisiana cuisine. Exhibits range from early Acadian and Cajun fare to Louisiana seafood to historic Galatoire’s. The museum is fairly new, and some exhibits are incomplete. However, the museum makes up for its lack of content by also housing the Museum of the American Cocktail (MAC). The MAC chronicles the evolution of the cocktail, starting with its birth right here in New Orleans.

As planned, we were hungry as soon as our tour was complete. Somehow we both came up with the most touristy and best tasting midafternoon snack- an order of beignets from Café du Monde and a hurricane from New Orleans Original Daquiri. Run tell dat homeboy.

The combined sugar rush we experienced would turn out to last long enough to carry us through the rest of the long sultry New Orleans night, but we couldn’t pass up a free sample of the pomegranate frozen yogurt from Pinkberry. But since today was the actual day of our first year anniversary, we decided it was time to stop playing around with yogurt and beignets, and go on an all out New Orleans-style binge eating and drinking evening.

The Brennan Family has a stronghold on the dining scene in New Orleans, and rightfully so. As with our previous visits to Bourbon House and Ralph’s on the park, Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse impressed us with its elegant interior, excellent service, and ridiculously good food. Since we did just eat a pound of sugar, and the night had more in store, we just ordered a small appetizer of artichoke and crawfish dip and a few Arnold Palmers (Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and lemonade) at the vast old school style bar, and finished them off like John Daly.

We then made our way just a block or two over to the Carousel Bar at the historic Hotel Monteleone.

Just as the name implies, the bar is an actual carousel that slowly turns around the bartenders (about one revolution every 15 minutes).

The hotel has become a New Orleans landmark, so we figured we might as well drink the landmark house drink, the Vieux Carré, a strong concoction of rye whiskey, cognac, vermouth, Benedictine, Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters.

While spinning around the bar, we got to do some serious people watching- 3 girls slapping each other, a strange guy creeping on them and getting shut down, and a mother-daughter team of champagne drinkers. And, as usual, some unsuspecting couple tried to make friends with us. Since we got to share Mississippi State stories and talk football with alumni from 1962, it turned out to be a positive befriending this time. We finally parted ways with our new found friends and stumbled (not sure if it was the alcohol or the carousel) over to the greatest restaurant in the city.

It’s hard to label the style of food Green Goddess offers in its very small and intimate location on Exchange Alley. Chef Chris DeBarr mixes southern soul food, with south Louisiana staples, and infuses dishes with offbeat, eclectic worldwide ingredients. His unique style was very evident in both the food and cocktail pairings of the tasting menu on our Anniversary night. Chris’s treatment of each ingredient showed just how detail oriented he is and how knowledgeable he, and his entire staff, is, including exactly where and how each ingredient made it from the farm to the menu and onto your plate. Chris’s friendly and personable demeanor also shined during our tasting menu. Chris would come out and thoroughly describe each ingredient of each dish and then explain the pairing. He then would come back out, and just hang out with us and the other guests in the small back room, a couple making a 3 week road trip throughout the entire south, and a couple from England doing the exact same, and talk food and drink. Chris even took the time to sign the night’s menu in honor of our anniversary. I’ll just let the pictures and ingredients do the talking.

Chilled Persian Cucumber Soup – Turkish yogurt, heirloom cucumbers, sumac, onion, and Pimm’s infused Kaffir Lime (we at demolished this one before we could get a picture of it, but did get a picture of the Kizakura Sparkling Sake before it was gone)

Paired with: Kizakura Sparkling Sake

Green Goddess Rice Cake – bamboo rice, nori seaweed, wasabi-seaweed furikake, with LA blue crab (same thing with this one, this is the postdemolition shot)
Paired with: Kizakura Sparkling Sake “Tumblin Dice” Seared Tuna and Watermelon- yellowfin seared with fennel pollen, local watermelon, 7 spcie togarishi, avocado oil, and 9th Ward sprouts
Paired with: Nicodemi, Cerasuolo Rose

Quinoa- Stuffed Tomato- tomato stuffed with heirloom Peruvian quinoa and mushrooms, over Creole macque choux, fermented black garlic, pumpkin oil
Paired with: Markowitsch, Carnuntum Cuvee

Golden Beet Ravioli – beet ravioli, truffled chèvre, pomegranate molasses, Sardinian saba, avocado oil
Paired with: Markowitsch, Carnuntum Cuvee

Sultan’s Nest – pistachio gelato, whipped cream, shredded phyllo, saffron infused honey, candied yuzu peel, orange blossom water
Paired with: Bayou Teche LA 31 After a meal, or should I say experience, like that, we decided to take a quicker stroll down Bourbon Street than the night before, which included a stop at the Dungeon on Toulouse.

The secret bathroom that you can only access by pulling the right book on a bookshelf was the only highlight of this dingy bar. The rest of our short time at this gothic bar was spent making sure the death metal heads weren’t trying to rip our hearts out of our chest while we weren’t looking. The last stop of the night was purely coincidental. We just happened to walk by a bar called Sneaky Pete’s, and since Erin is, well, Erin, we had to stop and take a picture of the sign because she has a dog named Petey.

Inside the doorway, stood a lanky guy who could barely stand up. As Erin was taking her picture (about as slow as my great-grandmaw used to), he threw his hands up and uttered something that remotely resembled English. We thought he asked why we were taking the picture, so Erin replied that she had a dog named Petey. Our lankier, drunker version of Ochocinco then replied with the a long, drawn out quote of the entire weekend, “but you can’t send them to college, you can’t send them to college….”.