Sweet Willie
Oct 4, 03, 5:31 pm
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Alligator
Hillbilly Bar-B-Que, which knows its way around plenty of forms of animal flesh, serves up alligator two different ways: alligator sausage and on a bun as a (very cheap) sandwich. The Corner Cafe offers alligator sausage as well, with its own barbecue sauce, as an appetizer. Jacques-Imo's Cafe, whose chef-owner Jack Leonardi is one of the more fearless in town, creates the ever-popular shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake; it's a light but filling quiche-like souffle filled with alligator sausage, shrimp, roasted peppers and Gouda cheese and topped with a tomato-cream sauce. Another favorite, this time on Bourbon Street, is the Tricou House's fried alligator appetizer, with a seasoned cornmeal breading and served with a homemade barbecue sauce.
More locally flavored approaches can be found at Sugar Magnolia, whose alligator sauce piquant appetizer features Louisiana gator tail fried and served with a Creole piquant sauce. The Gumbo Shop also offers alligator sauce piquant in a light and spicy tomato sauce, though it's offered both as an appetizer and entree. Uptown landmark Franky & Johnny's offers both an alligator soup and alligator pie for starters. Back on Bourbon Street, the Red Fish Grill prepares its barbecued alligator legs by grilling Atchafalaya alligator legs over hickory with an Abita Amber barbecue sauce and serves them over a warm apple-smoked bacon potato salad.
Bread Pudding
Itmay well be New Orleans' most popular dessert, and everyone's got their version. Start with something as simple as the Hotel Monteleone's Le Cafe version of bread pudding served up with a rich caramel sauce. But then you've got Cafe Rani's CCW Bread Pudding (its signature dessert), where they offer cappuccino-infused bread pudding studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips and served in a cappuccino cup and then drenched in Rani mocha sauce and frothed with Viennese whipped cream.
Rene Bistrot's white chocolate bread pudding is baked with buttery croissants and white chocolate and accompanied with white chocolate sauce. Bon Ton Cafe keeps it delightfully simple with its bread pudding parfait, cut and fit into a parfait glass and then topped with whiskey sauce followed by a scoop of pecan crunch ice cream and drizzled with creme de cacao. The dessert at Cafe Reconcile is a bananas Foster bread pudding with rum sauce, while the Ritz-Carlton Hotel's FQB serves up a melted chocolate bread pudding with caramel ice cream.
And we'd expect no less from Commander's Palace, whose bread pudding souffle ("The Queen of Creole Desserts," its menu notes) is whipped feather light with whiskey sauce added table-side.
Catfish
Charley G's serves its pecan-crusted catfish with Abita barbecue butter, topped with bay shrimp, while Mulate's The Original Cajun Restaurant sticks to its Acadian roots with catfish Mulate's, topped with crawfish etouffee. The menu at Adams Catfish House includes a whole catfish on the bone with hush puppies and steak fries, while the Cajun Catfish Restaurant offers catfish steamed or fried with either corn meal or corn flour. Aft Deck Oyster Bar offers the classic blackened catfish with almond butter sauce, with jambalaya on the side.
Bring a big appetite to Trauth's Lake House and Steamery for its all-you-can-eat country-fried catfish dinner and the standard sides. The chef's special at Smilie's is the catfish Smilie: a fillet of catfish topped with shrimp and baked with white wine and butter. The Cajun Grilled Catfish at the St. Charles Tavern is seasoned with Cajun spices, grilled 'til it's juicy and served with a loaded baked potato. Catfish Kelly comes from Russell's Marina Grill and features a seasoned and grilled fillet of catfish served with the potato du jour and vegetables.
Crab
Pacific Bar and Grill has a great appetizer in the Hot Lava Crab Dip, a cheesy jalapeno crabmeat blend, baked and served with crispy fried won tons. A signature item at River 127' is its Barataria Bay crabcakes, made with jumbo lump crabmeat and fresh herbs, pan-fried in butter and served in a crab sauce.
The stuffed crabs at Zeke's use Louisiana crabmeat, butter, seasoned bread crumbs, sweet onions, celery and bell pepper, all in Zeke's signature blend of spices. Cafe Pontalba's crabcakes are a blend of Louisiana crabmeat with onion, peppers and Creole seasoning topped with a homemade remoulade. La Riviera's prize-winning crabmeat ravioli is stuffed with lump crabmeat and topped with white cream sauce and parmigiano cheese. The "crab steak" at Franky & Johnny's is a big, hearty fried crabcake with jumbo lump crabmeat, and the crabcake salad at Wall Street Grill and Taproom places two lightly fried crabcakes over a bed of greens, tomatoes and avocados, topped in a white remoulade dressing.
Marisol takes crabcakes to the tropics in its Hawaiian Blue Prawn Crab Cakes with red onion, creme fraiche and Sturgeon caviar. China Blossom offers crab by way of its spicy crabclaws stir-fried in a black bean sauce with minced pork, Szechuan peppers and diced white onions. Midi South of France serves crabcakes with corn maque choux: Louisiana crab mixed with seasonings, red bell peppers, zucchini and shrimp mousse, then breaded and fried.
Crawfish
We'll never know which resourceful bayou-dweller pulled one of these homely mudbugs out of the silt for the first time and thought "I wonder what this tastes like," but we'll be forever grateful. You can get fried seafood at Lama's Seafood Restaurant Inc., but its hot boiled crawfish is what keeps this joint hopping. Legends Bar and Grille also offers boiled crawfish at 99 cents per pound on Fridays during the summer. Add a couple ice-cold beers, and that's what we call a summer meal.
Crawfish and pasta seem to go hand-in-claw, too. One light option for the summer at Cafe Marigny is the crawfish pasta salad -- crawfish tails and garden rotini pasta in spicy Creole sauce. Stingray's Bar and Grill offers its crawfish Esplanade entree: two pastry shells stuffed with crawfish dressing, deep-fried and smothered in a spicy crawfish sauce. You'll find a double dose of crawfish lunches at Home Furnishings Store Cafe. In this unlikely Cajun trove-in-a-furniture store, you can order the Creamy Crawfish Supreme: a linguine dish with spicy cream sauce, crawfish tails and carrots. And the crawfish Gagliano at Frank's Restaurant is one of "Frank's favorites" -- crawfish tails sauteed in butter, garlic, sweet onions, fresh sweet basil and chef's special seasonings, served over angel hair pasta with Romano cheese.
While you're grooving to the music at Lounge Lizards, don't miss its signature crawfish spring rolls appetizer, an Asian-meets-Cajun fried delight. Embassy Suite's Sugar House offers Seafood Cakes Atchafalaya, a blend of crawfish, shrimp, crabmeat and seasonings, all sauteed and placed on a red and yellow pepper coulis and served with pigeon pea rice and vegetables.
Crawfish samplers are popular with restaurants who like to show off their chefs' flair for preparing this accommodating crustacean. The crawfish dinner at Star Steak and Lobster consists of crawfish boulee, pie, etouffee, bisque and fried crawfish. Bon Ton Cafe's take on a crawfish dinner offers generous portions of crawfish etouffee, Newburg, omelette, jambalaya and bisque. Ralph & Kacoo's Crawfish Festival features fried tails, etouffee, bisque and fried crawfish balls, all with your choice of salad or coleslaw and your choice of Cajun-stuffed potato, French fries, baked potato or steamed vegetables.
Duck
One creative take on this abundant fowl can be found at the French Table, where the Maigret de Canard Framboise places a grilled duck breast atop a bed of demi-glace topped with caramelized onions and raspberry coulis, served with Gratin Dauphinois. Another is the cinnamon-spiced duck breast at Sazerac Bar and Grill: it's a double duck breast rubbed with cinnamon and glazed with a Plaquemines Parish orange sauce on wild rice. The Bistro at Maison de Ville serves its house-smoked duck breast with a leek, Roquefort and pecan corncake, andouille sauteed greens, and a sun-dried cherry and foie gras jus. Mat & Naddie's Tea-Smoked Lacquered Duck is served with shiitake mushroom and rice noodle lo mein and a ginger orange glaze.
The roasted duck at Dante's Kitchen comes with cornbread dressing, Barq's root beer candied sweet potatoes and a red currant duck sauce, while Wolfe's offers a slow-roasted Steen's cane syrup duck with confit onion-goat cheese beggar's purse, foie gras stuffed apple and tarragon-crusted sweet potatoes and Calvados duck reduction. At Bella Luna, the oven-roasted Maple Leaf Farms duckling half is topped with Grand Marnier orange sauce and served with mashed sweet potatoes. Salvatore Ristorante also offers a roasted duckling in its signature duck reduction with green pepper corns and wild rice, finished with sweet butter.
China Town Gourmet features a hot and spicy sauteed duck Szechuan-style, while the Pelican Club's Trio of Duckling is a duck leg confit, grilled duck breast and Chinese barbecued duck with a Louisiana navel orange and honey glaze, served with coconut curry rice. Red Star Chinese Restaurant's house specialty is the Peking duck with 10 crepes, and Upperline offers its Tom Cowman's Famous Roast Duck with garlic port or ginger peach sauce. The smothered roast duck at Alex Patout's Louisiana Restaurant is slow-cooked, placed on a bed of oyster dressing and served with sweet potato praline casserole, Cajun rice and macque choux. One of the standout entrees at Zea Rotisserie and Brewery is the Twice-Cooked Crispy Duck -- a Maple Leaf Farms duckling that's roasted, crisped in peanut oil and garnished with green onion, cilantro, sesame seeds and a honey-soy glaze, served with Thai green beans and dirty brown rice.
Fish
New Orleans' proximity to a major lake, river and gulf can only mean great things for lovers of fish of all stripes: fresh seasonal choices are available all over town. Case in point: the Giachino Pesce at Ristorante Filippo, a pan-fried fillet of red snapper topped with shrimp, crawfish, crabmeat and mushrooms in a white wine sauce with pasta. At Mike Anderson's Seafood Restaurant, the Howard is fresh red or black drum (whichever is in season) marinated in olive oil, herbs and seasonings and baked skin down. The pecan-crusted baby drum at Muriel's Jackson Square is served with oven-roasted pecans and crawfish relish (substituted with crabmeat from July through December) and topped with a lemon-butter sauce. An exotic flair on mahi mahi comes in the form of the fish bhuma at Taj Mahal -- it's sauteed with fresh onions, peppers and spices. At Casa Garcia the fillet of fish "a los Cabos" is a tilapia fillet cooked in a sauce of wine, cilantro, herbs and spices. Mr. Tai's offers a Chinese take on local catches with its Sweet and Sour Fish with Pine Nuts: a deep-fried fillet coated with housemade sauce and topped off with pine nuts. Louis XVI serves up a French twist on fresh fish with the Filet de Poisson du Jour Louisiane: a fillet of whatever's fresh and seasonal, topped with sauteed banana and red bell pepper.
For a true local flavor, try the whole Gulf flounder at Middendorf's; it's stuffed with crabmeat dressing in a lemon-butter sauce. There's also the whole flounder at Bruning's: this perennial favorite is a one-and-a-half pounder that's either fried or broiled. The Fox and Hound offers a traditional British pub favorite in its fish and chips basket: Newcastle beer-battered fish, deep fried and served with tartar sauce and fries.
The Gumbo Shop does more than just its signature dish: its fresh fish Florentine is the catch of the day on a bed of seasoned spinach and topped with hollandaise. Sid-Mar's grilled amberjack is served with fettuccine or a steamed vegetable and hush puppies. At Noble Asian Bistro, the pan-seared and baked Chilean sea bass is served with three pieces of jumbo shrimp and tamarind sauce. And the special grouper is a house favorite at Jazz Seafood and Steakhouse: it's topped with crabmeat and almonds.
Frog
Kenner Seafood puts eight fried frog legs on platter, served with a choice of two sides and dinner bread.
Start your Herbsaint experience with fried frog legs with herbs. Fury's seafood dinners include frog legs broiled or fried. Gamay Bistro offers Abita Beer Battered Frog's Legs with corn Creole and a chipotle aioli. And no less than The Grill Room presents a civet of sauteed frog legs, Jerusalem artichoke veloute, fresh morels with pan-fried foie gras, and sauteed gnocchi and shaved black truffles.
Gumbo
Mid City Lanes offers its "Super Bowl" of gumbo, packed with turkey, andouille, smoked sausage, shrimp and oysters. Morton's of Madisonville takes pride in the housemade roux base of its seafood gumbo, while The Funky Butt offers a unique twist with "Gumbo-laya," a mound of jambalaya with gumbo poured around it. Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar uses its mollusk namesake in its seafood gumbo, along with some fat crab claws. At Liuzza's By the Track, sauteed shrimp and oysters are added to a traditional Creole gumbo teeming with sausage and chicken. For a hearty, rich version, Zoe Bistrot cooks up a duck confit gumbo with andouille. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Java House offers housemade chicken and sausage gumbo.
Jambalaya - Coop's Place takes the traditional Creole rice-based recipe and fills it with boneless rabbit, smoked pork sausage and tasso, along with shrimp for good measure. Feed the whole crew with the Jambalaya Shoppe's Family Meal deal, which feeds five to seven people with a bucket of jambalaya (your choice of chicken and andouille, or seafood) and sides of red or white beans, green salad and rolls. The Corner Oyster Bar & Grill spices up its jambalaya with blackened chicken complementing andouille, while Jerry's Jambalaya at Mother's Restaurant features the traditional pairing of chicken and sausage. (Look for shrimp jambalaya at Mother's on Fridays.) Olive Branch Cafe puts its own spin on the standby with pasta jambalaya, featuring chicken breast and smoked sausage simmered in a garlic cream sauce and tossed with penne pasta. Howl at the Moon's traditional andouille and chicken jambalaya comes with a side of coleslaw.
MIRLITON
The Red Maple Restaurant stuffs its mirliton with andouille, shrimp and crab and tops it with a fried oyster bordelaise. At Marco Polo's Market, mirliton is stuffed with shrimp and sausage before it's covered with buttered bread crumbs and Creole sauce. Fried shrimp shares equal billing with stuffed mirliton at La Cuisine Restaurant & Bar; La Cuisine's mirliton overflows with crabmeat, shrimp and Creole seasonings. If you'd like a lighter mirliton dish, Belle Forche's mirliton salad appetizer contains shaved peppers, toasted almonds, watercress and lime.
MUFFALETTA
Oscar's version of the muffaletta is dubbed the Oscaletta, served hot. At World Deli, you can eat your muffaletta in-house or get an order of 50 cocktail muffalettas catered for your next party. Johnnies' half muffalettas are a meal unto themselves, while Luigi's Fine Foods makes its own Italian olive salad to complement ham, salami, and provolone on round Italian bread. The house specialty at the Napoleon House is the Italian muffaletta, packed with ham, genoa salami, pastrami, Swiss and provolone cheese and topped with olive salad. For a break with tradition, Mr. Ed's Seafood & Italian Restaurant serves up a seafood muffaletta bursting with your favorite fried Louisiana seafood. Head to Rocky's for the muffaletta pizza, topped with olive salad, ham, salami, and mozzarella and provolone cheese.
Of course, Central Grocery remains muffaletta headquarters, as the venerable Decatur Street store is known for its traditional muffaletta, served with olive salad, provolone cheese, genoa salami, and capicola ham on a round Italian loaf.
OYSTERS
The true sunken treasure of Louisiana, these salty, slurp-friendly bivalves are being reinvented in new, inspired dishes across the city. Drago's in Fat City offers its famed charbroiled oysters, as well as the Parabola & Oysters, sauteed oysters with bordelaise sauce on top of a marinated, grilled portobello mushroom. At Riccobono's Peppermill, the oysters Riccobono come baked in a casserole with mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, bread crumbs and Italian cheese, and served with a spaghetti bordelaise sauce. At Bozo's, the oyster bar never closes. Desire Oyster Bar & Bistro pairs oysters with shrimp for a combination of 12 fresh shucked oysters and 12 boiled shrimp.
The fried oyster pirogue at New Orleans Food and Spirits comes loaded with local oysters coated in a Cajun-spice batter and fried. The whole table can enjoy the fried oysters at Pere Antoine Restaurant, where they're ordered by the dozen for appetizers or entrees. Kelsey's features Danny's Grilled Oysters, which come prepared with Stilton cheese and artichoke au gratin. Just a tease, we admit, since Casamento's is taking its annual hiatus through August, but we have to tell you about their famous oyster loafs, with fried oysters dressed or not dressed on pan bread or a sliced sandwich. One of Mimi's seafood specialties is the oysters Mimi, with the oysters baked with Romano cheese, Italian bread crumbs, bacon and garlic.
The Red Fish Grill offers barbecued oysters, with a half-dozen from the Gulf flash-fried and tossed in a barbecue sauce made with Crystal hot sauce and served with housemade blue cheese dressing for dipping. At Galley Restaurant, fried oysters are added to a traditional Caesar salad. Restaurant Indigo creates a salad made of hot smoked oysters and shiitake (mushrooms) bruschetta, served with a basil, pecan and bacon vinaigrette. Find oysters Verdant at Hillery's on Toulouse, an appetizer choice served with baby spinach and Pernod cream. And, of course, Acme Oyster House offers raw oysters, oysters remoulade, fried oyster salad, oyster and artichoke bisque, and fried oyster po-boys.
PO-BOYS
The styles of po-boys offered around town are as flexible as a chef's imagination. One example: VooDoo BBQ's list of Jamm'in Po-Boys, all served with lettuce, tomato and "reggae" coleslaw; a popular choice is a molasses and pecan chicken salad po-boy. At Ricca's Sandwich Shop, the Iris Po-Boy combines roast beef, turkey and Swiss cheese. Short Stop Po-Boys' varied menu includes the Four Meat Special: ham, lunch meat, bologna and salami on either French bread or a bun, coming in sizes of small, regular and king.
Among the many po-boys at Johnny & Josie's is Josie's Combo Special, which blends roast beef, ham and cheese on your choice of French bread, a bun or whole wheat. The famed Judge Bosetto po-boy at Johnny's Po-Boy Restaurant in the French Quarter consists of ground beef, Italian and hot sausage and Swiss cheese. On the list of "over-stuffed po-boys" at Danny & Clyde's is the D&C Special, which combines roast beef and ham on your choice of French bread, bun or sliced bread. The Jukebox Cajun Diner boasts the Sloppy Roast Beef Po-Boy, prepared in the traditional New Orleans style with housemade gravy.
Paul's Cafe in Ponchatoula offers a large variety of over-stuffed po-boys, with fried shrimp a popular choice. In Uptown, look on the wall for the menu at Domilise's Po-Boys, where'll find a shrimp po-boy on French bread dressed with mayonnaise, lettuce, pickles and the signature housemade sauce. At the Magazine Po-Boy Shop, hearty appetites will appreciate either a veal Parmesan or Italian sausage po-boy. The signature po-boys at Johnny & Jackie's in Gretna include the Italian Combo, featuring meatballs, Italian sausage, provolone cheese and red gravy. Guy's Po-Boys dares you with a fried potato po-boy. Go south-of-the-border with Cafe Hola! 's chicken fajita po-boy: seasoned chicken breast strips marinated and then grilled. The vast menu at R&O Pizza Place includes a roast beef po-boy served hot, with the beef chopped up and covered in a housemade gravy
RED BEANS AND RICE
So closely linked with New Orleans culture that revered musician Louis Armstrong signed his personal correspondence "Red Beans and Ricely Yours," this combo dish has moved from its traditional Monday slot to every-day menu at many eateries.
At the Half Shell, the traditional simmered beans are served over white rice with a length of grilled smoked sausage. Zachary's Creole Cuisine slow-cooks the spiced beans with ham and sausage in the pot, then serves it over white rice and pairs it with golden fried chicken and cornbread. Lafitte's Restaurant offers guests and visitors to the Pontchartrain Hotel its French Market Red Beans and Rice, beans simmered with onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic and sliced andouille sausage served over white rice. At Cafe Pontalba, diners get soulful with the Cajun Combination: red beans and rice with smoked sausage, jambalaya and a cup of gumbo.
Kabby's Sports Grill combines local favorites in its Bayou Combo, offering jambalaya with its red beans and smoked sausage as well as French bread to make sure you savor all the bean gravy. Polynesian Joe's gives purists a choice of red beans and rice alone or edified with smoked or hot sausage or a pork chop
SCALLOPS
New Orleanians do like their bivalves, and restaurants here have found delicious ways to serve these little mollusks, including the Scallops Picata at Maximo's, which are seasoned with garlic, capers, lemon and wine. Stella! gives its diver scallops a big culinary voice by pan-searing them and serving them with jumbo Gulf shrimp, truffle-scented new potato hash and caviar butter. Diners at 56 Degrees may not want to come up for air when they dig into the diver scallops sauteed with baby bok choy and served over crispy egg noodles. It is all topped with tomato-and-onion concasse laced with sesame oil.
At Kanno Sushi, the smoked scallops are specially prepared with sea salt in a soy sauce vinegar and stand on their own, while at Lola's they're combined with other water-bred delights in the seafood paella, which includes scallops, shrimp, fish, squid, mussels and vegetables that are seasoned with garlic, saffron and herbs, then cooked slowly.
SHRIMP
At Serrano's Salsa Company, Camarones a la Parilla features the popular shellfish grilled and topped with a spicy blend of Serrano peppers, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Don's Seafood serves fresh Gulf shrimp lots of ways, including stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat dressing, then fried golden brown and served with coleslaw and Cajun fries.
Deanie's Seafood Restaurant prepares its barbecue shrimp "the New Orleans way," starting with jumbo shellfish that are sauteed (with heads on) in a unique blend of seasonings that beg to be mopped up with French bread. For a totally non-traditional take, Tea Garden Chinese Restaurant sautes its shrimp and serves it with carrots and baby corn that have been cooked in brown honey sauce and surrounds it all with broccoli, then places crispy honey walnuts on top.
China Rose also likes to dress its shrimp well, offering several outfits such as sesame-crusted shrimp, a version of the shellfish served with garlic sauce, and another that features fresh jumbo shrimp that is spiced with salt and pepper, battered and deep fried, then served with red and green bell peppers. A coconut batter is used for the fried shrimp at Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar, then it is served on a bed of lettuce with Chinese mustard and marmalade-horseradish dipping sauces.
The versatile sea creature is given a grand toast at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro, which offers an appetizer of spicy jumbo fried shrimp with lettuce and tomato relish drizzled with basil-garlic dressing and served in a martini glass. Customers go mad for the Angry Shrimp at Doc Smith's Lounge, an appetizer in which a quartet of shrimp are coated with Cajun seasonings, grilled and served on a skewer. Basil Leaf also employs a skewer in its kebab, but adds grilled filet mignon to the shrimp, brushes it all with truffle oil and coriander and serves it with sauteed coconut pineapple rice.
For Stephos Bacon Wrapped Shrimp appetizer at Katie's, the chef puts water chestnuts in bacon and wraps that around peeled jumbo shrimp (with their tails on), flash fries them and serves them with remoulade sauce. The spring roll appetizer at 9 Roses blooms with shrimp, pork, lettuce, mint and vermicelli wrapped around steamed rice and dipped in peanut sauce. For a heartier shrimp craving, The Alpine's signature barbecue shrimp is served in the shell with a unique butter-pepper sauce and French bread for dipping. It comes with a house garden salad.
Those who like to mix it up a little bit can choose the stir-fry shrimp at Rag's Too Old Fashioned Po-boys, which puts broccoli, onions and teriyaki sauce in the pan with shrimp then serves them on rice or pasta with a side of French fries. Uglesich's Shrimp Uggie starts with marinated shrimp, then sautes the crustaceans with crushed red peppers, hot sausage, onions and bell peppers.
SOFTSHELL CRAB
Softshell crabs -- in which the creatures are caught after they've molted one shell and before they've fully grown another -- are known for their flavor and tenderness. Aurora Seafood & Steak House serves a softshell crab hollandaise, two fried softshell crabs on a bed of French-fried eggplant slices, garnished with large shrimp and topped with hollandaise sauce, served with a house salad. Carmine's Italian & Seafood Grill, "home of the famous seafood stuffed artichoke" also offers a softshell crab Parmesan. Tortorici's pledges fresh softshell crabs paneed and topped with a lemon-butter and garlic sauce, served with Italian roasted potatoes and vegetable du jour. Sugar Magnolia tempts the tastebuds with a mesquite wood-smoked softshell crab, finished over a hickory wood grill and served over vegetables, along with jambalaya risotto tapped with crawfish brim butter.
Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar serves a fried seafood combo featuring softshell crab, and Restaurant Des Familles offers a softshell crab Foster: a batter-fried softshell crab topped with green onions, artichoke bottoms and mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter and wine. At Panasia Thai Restaurant, the deep-fried softshell crabs come with three flavor sauces: oyster, chile and basil.
SWEETBREADS
A number of upscale area establishments offer the misnamed delicacy this summer. Bayona's sweetbreads come with sherry-mustard or a lemon-caper butter. Eleven 79 serves both classical Italian and New Orleans cuisine, and its Heart of Sweetbreads comes with capers and tomatoes. Peristyle's list of starters features the crispy sweetbreads: crispy veal sweetbreads, Parma prosciutto, and port syrup served over roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and port braised shallots. Wolfe's pan crispy sweetbreads are served on goat cheese topped with caramelized orange peels, citrus Brioche, Micro lettuces and balsamic caper butter sauce. Across Lake Pontchartrain, La Provence in Big Branch lures gourmets to its quiet, reclusive environs for the Ris de Veau Grenobloise, veal sweetbreads with lemon butter and capers.</font>
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2003-06-03/cover_story2.html
Alligator
Hillbilly Bar-B-Que, which knows its way around plenty of forms of animal flesh, serves up alligator two different ways: alligator sausage and on a bun as a (very cheap) sandwich. The Corner Cafe offers alligator sausage as well, with its own barbecue sauce, as an appetizer. Jacques-Imo's Cafe, whose chef-owner Jack Leonardi is one of the more fearless in town, creates the ever-popular shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake; it's a light but filling quiche-like souffle filled with alligator sausage, shrimp, roasted peppers and Gouda cheese and topped with a tomato-cream sauce. Another favorite, this time on Bourbon Street, is the Tricou House's fried alligator appetizer, with a seasoned cornmeal breading and served with a homemade barbecue sauce.
More locally flavored approaches can be found at Sugar Magnolia, whose alligator sauce piquant appetizer features Louisiana gator tail fried and served with a Creole piquant sauce. The Gumbo Shop also offers alligator sauce piquant in a light and spicy tomato sauce, though it's offered both as an appetizer and entree. Uptown landmark Franky & Johnny's offers both an alligator soup and alligator pie for starters. Back on Bourbon Street, the Red Fish Grill prepares its barbecued alligator legs by grilling Atchafalaya alligator legs over hickory with an Abita Amber barbecue sauce and serves them over a warm apple-smoked bacon potato salad.
Bread Pudding
Itmay well be New Orleans' most popular dessert, and everyone's got their version. Start with something as simple as the Hotel Monteleone's Le Cafe version of bread pudding served up with a rich caramel sauce. But then you've got Cafe Rani's CCW Bread Pudding (its signature dessert), where they offer cappuccino-infused bread pudding studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips and served in a cappuccino cup and then drenched in Rani mocha sauce and frothed with Viennese whipped cream.
Rene Bistrot's white chocolate bread pudding is baked with buttery croissants and white chocolate and accompanied with white chocolate sauce. Bon Ton Cafe keeps it delightfully simple with its bread pudding parfait, cut and fit into a parfait glass and then topped with whiskey sauce followed by a scoop of pecan crunch ice cream and drizzled with creme de cacao. The dessert at Cafe Reconcile is a bananas Foster bread pudding with rum sauce, while the Ritz-Carlton Hotel's FQB serves up a melted chocolate bread pudding with caramel ice cream.
And we'd expect no less from Commander's Palace, whose bread pudding souffle ("The Queen of Creole Desserts," its menu notes) is whipped feather light with whiskey sauce added table-side.
Catfish
Charley G's serves its pecan-crusted catfish with Abita barbecue butter, topped with bay shrimp, while Mulate's The Original Cajun Restaurant sticks to its Acadian roots with catfish Mulate's, topped with crawfish etouffee. The menu at Adams Catfish House includes a whole catfish on the bone with hush puppies and steak fries, while the Cajun Catfish Restaurant offers catfish steamed or fried with either corn meal or corn flour. Aft Deck Oyster Bar offers the classic blackened catfish with almond butter sauce, with jambalaya on the side.
Bring a big appetite to Trauth's Lake House and Steamery for its all-you-can-eat country-fried catfish dinner and the standard sides. The chef's special at Smilie's is the catfish Smilie: a fillet of catfish topped with shrimp and baked with white wine and butter. The Cajun Grilled Catfish at the St. Charles Tavern is seasoned with Cajun spices, grilled 'til it's juicy and served with a loaded baked potato. Catfish Kelly comes from Russell's Marina Grill and features a seasoned and grilled fillet of catfish served with the potato du jour and vegetables.
Crab
Pacific Bar and Grill has a great appetizer in the Hot Lava Crab Dip, a cheesy jalapeno crabmeat blend, baked and served with crispy fried won tons. A signature item at River 127' is its Barataria Bay crabcakes, made with jumbo lump crabmeat and fresh herbs, pan-fried in butter and served in a crab sauce.
The stuffed crabs at Zeke's use Louisiana crabmeat, butter, seasoned bread crumbs, sweet onions, celery and bell pepper, all in Zeke's signature blend of spices. Cafe Pontalba's crabcakes are a blend of Louisiana crabmeat with onion, peppers and Creole seasoning topped with a homemade remoulade. La Riviera's prize-winning crabmeat ravioli is stuffed with lump crabmeat and topped with white cream sauce and parmigiano cheese. The "crab steak" at Franky & Johnny's is a big, hearty fried crabcake with jumbo lump crabmeat, and the crabcake salad at Wall Street Grill and Taproom places two lightly fried crabcakes over a bed of greens, tomatoes and avocados, topped in a white remoulade dressing.
Marisol takes crabcakes to the tropics in its Hawaiian Blue Prawn Crab Cakes with red onion, creme fraiche and Sturgeon caviar. China Blossom offers crab by way of its spicy crabclaws stir-fried in a black bean sauce with minced pork, Szechuan peppers and diced white onions. Midi South of France serves crabcakes with corn maque choux: Louisiana crab mixed with seasonings, red bell peppers, zucchini and shrimp mousse, then breaded and fried.
Crawfish
We'll never know which resourceful bayou-dweller pulled one of these homely mudbugs out of the silt for the first time and thought "I wonder what this tastes like," but we'll be forever grateful. You can get fried seafood at Lama's Seafood Restaurant Inc., but its hot boiled crawfish is what keeps this joint hopping. Legends Bar and Grille also offers boiled crawfish at 99 cents per pound on Fridays during the summer. Add a couple ice-cold beers, and that's what we call a summer meal.
Crawfish and pasta seem to go hand-in-claw, too. One light option for the summer at Cafe Marigny is the crawfish pasta salad -- crawfish tails and garden rotini pasta in spicy Creole sauce. Stingray's Bar and Grill offers its crawfish Esplanade entree: two pastry shells stuffed with crawfish dressing, deep-fried and smothered in a spicy crawfish sauce. You'll find a double dose of crawfish lunches at Home Furnishings Store Cafe. In this unlikely Cajun trove-in-a-furniture store, you can order the Creamy Crawfish Supreme: a linguine dish with spicy cream sauce, crawfish tails and carrots. And the crawfish Gagliano at Frank's Restaurant is one of "Frank's favorites" -- crawfish tails sauteed in butter, garlic, sweet onions, fresh sweet basil and chef's special seasonings, served over angel hair pasta with Romano cheese.
While you're grooving to the music at Lounge Lizards, don't miss its signature crawfish spring rolls appetizer, an Asian-meets-Cajun fried delight. Embassy Suite's Sugar House offers Seafood Cakes Atchafalaya, a blend of crawfish, shrimp, crabmeat and seasonings, all sauteed and placed on a red and yellow pepper coulis and served with pigeon pea rice and vegetables.
Crawfish samplers are popular with restaurants who like to show off their chefs' flair for preparing this accommodating crustacean. The crawfish dinner at Star Steak and Lobster consists of crawfish boulee, pie, etouffee, bisque and fried crawfish. Bon Ton Cafe's take on a crawfish dinner offers generous portions of crawfish etouffee, Newburg, omelette, jambalaya and bisque. Ralph & Kacoo's Crawfish Festival features fried tails, etouffee, bisque and fried crawfish balls, all with your choice of salad or coleslaw and your choice of Cajun-stuffed potato, French fries, baked potato or steamed vegetables.
Duck
One creative take on this abundant fowl can be found at the French Table, where the Maigret de Canard Framboise places a grilled duck breast atop a bed of demi-glace topped with caramelized onions and raspberry coulis, served with Gratin Dauphinois. Another is the cinnamon-spiced duck breast at Sazerac Bar and Grill: it's a double duck breast rubbed with cinnamon and glazed with a Plaquemines Parish orange sauce on wild rice. The Bistro at Maison de Ville serves its house-smoked duck breast with a leek, Roquefort and pecan corncake, andouille sauteed greens, and a sun-dried cherry and foie gras jus. Mat & Naddie's Tea-Smoked Lacquered Duck is served with shiitake mushroom and rice noodle lo mein and a ginger orange glaze.
The roasted duck at Dante's Kitchen comes with cornbread dressing, Barq's root beer candied sweet potatoes and a red currant duck sauce, while Wolfe's offers a slow-roasted Steen's cane syrup duck with confit onion-goat cheese beggar's purse, foie gras stuffed apple and tarragon-crusted sweet potatoes and Calvados duck reduction. At Bella Luna, the oven-roasted Maple Leaf Farms duckling half is topped with Grand Marnier orange sauce and served with mashed sweet potatoes. Salvatore Ristorante also offers a roasted duckling in its signature duck reduction with green pepper corns and wild rice, finished with sweet butter.
China Town Gourmet features a hot and spicy sauteed duck Szechuan-style, while the Pelican Club's Trio of Duckling is a duck leg confit, grilled duck breast and Chinese barbecued duck with a Louisiana navel orange and honey glaze, served with coconut curry rice. Red Star Chinese Restaurant's house specialty is the Peking duck with 10 crepes, and Upperline offers its Tom Cowman's Famous Roast Duck with garlic port or ginger peach sauce. The smothered roast duck at Alex Patout's Louisiana Restaurant is slow-cooked, placed on a bed of oyster dressing and served with sweet potato praline casserole, Cajun rice and macque choux. One of the standout entrees at Zea Rotisserie and Brewery is the Twice-Cooked Crispy Duck -- a Maple Leaf Farms duckling that's roasted, crisped in peanut oil and garnished with green onion, cilantro, sesame seeds and a honey-soy glaze, served with Thai green beans and dirty brown rice.
Fish
New Orleans' proximity to a major lake, river and gulf can only mean great things for lovers of fish of all stripes: fresh seasonal choices are available all over town. Case in point: the Giachino Pesce at Ristorante Filippo, a pan-fried fillet of red snapper topped with shrimp, crawfish, crabmeat and mushrooms in a white wine sauce with pasta. At Mike Anderson's Seafood Restaurant, the Howard is fresh red or black drum (whichever is in season) marinated in olive oil, herbs and seasonings and baked skin down. The pecan-crusted baby drum at Muriel's Jackson Square is served with oven-roasted pecans and crawfish relish (substituted with crabmeat from July through December) and topped with a lemon-butter sauce. An exotic flair on mahi mahi comes in the form of the fish bhuma at Taj Mahal -- it's sauteed with fresh onions, peppers and spices. At Casa Garcia the fillet of fish "a los Cabos" is a tilapia fillet cooked in a sauce of wine, cilantro, herbs and spices. Mr. Tai's offers a Chinese take on local catches with its Sweet and Sour Fish with Pine Nuts: a deep-fried fillet coated with housemade sauce and topped off with pine nuts. Louis XVI serves up a French twist on fresh fish with the Filet de Poisson du Jour Louisiane: a fillet of whatever's fresh and seasonal, topped with sauteed banana and red bell pepper.
For a true local flavor, try the whole Gulf flounder at Middendorf's; it's stuffed with crabmeat dressing in a lemon-butter sauce. There's also the whole flounder at Bruning's: this perennial favorite is a one-and-a-half pounder that's either fried or broiled. The Fox and Hound offers a traditional British pub favorite in its fish and chips basket: Newcastle beer-battered fish, deep fried and served with tartar sauce and fries.
The Gumbo Shop does more than just its signature dish: its fresh fish Florentine is the catch of the day on a bed of seasoned spinach and topped with hollandaise. Sid-Mar's grilled amberjack is served with fettuccine or a steamed vegetable and hush puppies. At Noble Asian Bistro, the pan-seared and baked Chilean sea bass is served with three pieces of jumbo shrimp and tamarind sauce. And the special grouper is a house favorite at Jazz Seafood and Steakhouse: it's topped with crabmeat and almonds.
Frog
Kenner Seafood puts eight fried frog legs on platter, served with a choice of two sides and dinner bread.
Start your Herbsaint experience with fried frog legs with herbs. Fury's seafood dinners include frog legs broiled or fried. Gamay Bistro offers Abita Beer Battered Frog's Legs with corn Creole and a chipotle aioli. And no less than The Grill Room presents a civet of sauteed frog legs, Jerusalem artichoke veloute, fresh morels with pan-fried foie gras, and sauteed gnocchi and shaved black truffles.
Gumbo
Mid City Lanes offers its "Super Bowl" of gumbo, packed with turkey, andouille, smoked sausage, shrimp and oysters. Morton's of Madisonville takes pride in the housemade roux base of its seafood gumbo, while The Funky Butt offers a unique twist with "Gumbo-laya," a mound of jambalaya with gumbo poured around it. Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar uses its mollusk namesake in its seafood gumbo, along with some fat crab claws. At Liuzza's By the Track, sauteed shrimp and oysters are added to a traditional Creole gumbo teeming with sausage and chicken. For a hearty, rich version, Zoe Bistrot cooks up a duck confit gumbo with andouille. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Java House offers housemade chicken and sausage gumbo.
Jambalaya - Coop's Place takes the traditional Creole rice-based recipe and fills it with boneless rabbit, smoked pork sausage and tasso, along with shrimp for good measure. Feed the whole crew with the Jambalaya Shoppe's Family Meal deal, which feeds five to seven people with a bucket of jambalaya (your choice of chicken and andouille, or seafood) and sides of red or white beans, green salad and rolls. The Corner Oyster Bar & Grill spices up its jambalaya with blackened chicken complementing andouille, while Jerry's Jambalaya at Mother's Restaurant features the traditional pairing of chicken and sausage. (Look for shrimp jambalaya at Mother's on Fridays.) Olive Branch Cafe puts its own spin on the standby with pasta jambalaya, featuring chicken breast and smoked sausage simmered in a garlic cream sauce and tossed with penne pasta. Howl at the Moon's traditional andouille and chicken jambalaya comes with a side of coleslaw.
MIRLITON
The Red Maple Restaurant stuffs its mirliton with andouille, shrimp and crab and tops it with a fried oyster bordelaise. At Marco Polo's Market, mirliton is stuffed with shrimp and sausage before it's covered with buttered bread crumbs and Creole sauce. Fried shrimp shares equal billing with stuffed mirliton at La Cuisine Restaurant & Bar; La Cuisine's mirliton overflows with crabmeat, shrimp and Creole seasonings. If you'd like a lighter mirliton dish, Belle Forche's mirliton salad appetizer contains shaved peppers, toasted almonds, watercress and lime.
MUFFALETTA
Oscar's version of the muffaletta is dubbed the Oscaletta, served hot. At World Deli, you can eat your muffaletta in-house or get an order of 50 cocktail muffalettas catered for your next party. Johnnies' half muffalettas are a meal unto themselves, while Luigi's Fine Foods makes its own Italian olive salad to complement ham, salami, and provolone on round Italian bread. The house specialty at the Napoleon House is the Italian muffaletta, packed with ham, genoa salami, pastrami, Swiss and provolone cheese and topped with olive salad. For a break with tradition, Mr. Ed's Seafood & Italian Restaurant serves up a seafood muffaletta bursting with your favorite fried Louisiana seafood. Head to Rocky's for the muffaletta pizza, topped with olive salad, ham, salami, and mozzarella and provolone cheese.
Of course, Central Grocery remains muffaletta headquarters, as the venerable Decatur Street store is known for its traditional muffaletta, served with olive salad, provolone cheese, genoa salami, and capicola ham on a round Italian loaf.
OYSTERS
The true sunken treasure of Louisiana, these salty, slurp-friendly bivalves are being reinvented in new, inspired dishes across the city. Drago's in Fat City offers its famed charbroiled oysters, as well as the Parabola & Oysters, sauteed oysters with bordelaise sauce on top of a marinated, grilled portobello mushroom. At Riccobono's Peppermill, the oysters Riccobono come baked in a casserole with mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, bread crumbs and Italian cheese, and served with a spaghetti bordelaise sauce. At Bozo's, the oyster bar never closes. Desire Oyster Bar & Bistro pairs oysters with shrimp for a combination of 12 fresh shucked oysters and 12 boiled shrimp.
The fried oyster pirogue at New Orleans Food and Spirits comes loaded with local oysters coated in a Cajun-spice batter and fried. The whole table can enjoy the fried oysters at Pere Antoine Restaurant, where they're ordered by the dozen for appetizers or entrees. Kelsey's features Danny's Grilled Oysters, which come prepared with Stilton cheese and artichoke au gratin. Just a tease, we admit, since Casamento's is taking its annual hiatus through August, but we have to tell you about their famous oyster loafs, with fried oysters dressed or not dressed on pan bread or a sliced sandwich. One of Mimi's seafood specialties is the oysters Mimi, with the oysters baked with Romano cheese, Italian bread crumbs, bacon and garlic.
The Red Fish Grill offers barbecued oysters, with a half-dozen from the Gulf flash-fried and tossed in a barbecue sauce made with Crystal hot sauce and served with housemade blue cheese dressing for dipping. At Galley Restaurant, fried oysters are added to a traditional Caesar salad. Restaurant Indigo creates a salad made of hot smoked oysters and shiitake (mushrooms) bruschetta, served with a basil, pecan and bacon vinaigrette. Find oysters Verdant at Hillery's on Toulouse, an appetizer choice served with baby spinach and Pernod cream. And, of course, Acme Oyster House offers raw oysters, oysters remoulade, fried oyster salad, oyster and artichoke bisque, and fried oyster po-boys.
PO-BOYS
The styles of po-boys offered around town are as flexible as a chef's imagination. One example: VooDoo BBQ's list of Jamm'in Po-Boys, all served with lettuce, tomato and "reggae" coleslaw; a popular choice is a molasses and pecan chicken salad po-boy. At Ricca's Sandwich Shop, the Iris Po-Boy combines roast beef, turkey and Swiss cheese. Short Stop Po-Boys' varied menu includes the Four Meat Special: ham, lunch meat, bologna and salami on either French bread or a bun, coming in sizes of small, regular and king.
Among the many po-boys at Johnny & Josie's is Josie's Combo Special, which blends roast beef, ham and cheese on your choice of French bread, a bun or whole wheat. The famed Judge Bosetto po-boy at Johnny's Po-Boy Restaurant in the French Quarter consists of ground beef, Italian and hot sausage and Swiss cheese. On the list of "over-stuffed po-boys" at Danny & Clyde's is the D&C Special, which combines roast beef and ham on your choice of French bread, bun or sliced bread. The Jukebox Cajun Diner boasts the Sloppy Roast Beef Po-Boy, prepared in the traditional New Orleans style with housemade gravy.
Paul's Cafe in Ponchatoula offers a large variety of over-stuffed po-boys, with fried shrimp a popular choice. In Uptown, look on the wall for the menu at Domilise's Po-Boys, where'll find a shrimp po-boy on French bread dressed with mayonnaise, lettuce, pickles and the signature housemade sauce. At the Magazine Po-Boy Shop, hearty appetites will appreciate either a veal Parmesan or Italian sausage po-boy. The signature po-boys at Johnny & Jackie's in Gretna include the Italian Combo, featuring meatballs, Italian sausage, provolone cheese and red gravy. Guy's Po-Boys dares you with a fried potato po-boy. Go south-of-the-border with Cafe Hola! 's chicken fajita po-boy: seasoned chicken breast strips marinated and then grilled. The vast menu at R&O Pizza Place includes a roast beef po-boy served hot, with the beef chopped up and covered in a housemade gravy
RED BEANS AND RICE
So closely linked with New Orleans culture that revered musician Louis Armstrong signed his personal correspondence "Red Beans and Ricely Yours," this combo dish has moved from its traditional Monday slot to every-day menu at many eateries.
At the Half Shell, the traditional simmered beans are served over white rice with a length of grilled smoked sausage. Zachary's Creole Cuisine slow-cooks the spiced beans with ham and sausage in the pot, then serves it over white rice and pairs it with golden fried chicken and cornbread. Lafitte's Restaurant offers guests and visitors to the Pontchartrain Hotel its French Market Red Beans and Rice, beans simmered with onions, celery, bell peppers, garlic and sliced andouille sausage served over white rice. At Cafe Pontalba, diners get soulful with the Cajun Combination: red beans and rice with smoked sausage, jambalaya and a cup of gumbo.
Kabby's Sports Grill combines local favorites in its Bayou Combo, offering jambalaya with its red beans and smoked sausage as well as French bread to make sure you savor all the bean gravy. Polynesian Joe's gives purists a choice of red beans and rice alone or edified with smoked or hot sausage or a pork chop
SCALLOPS
New Orleanians do like their bivalves, and restaurants here have found delicious ways to serve these little mollusks, including the Scallops Picata at Maximo's, which are seasoned with garlic, capers, lemon and wine. Stella! gives its diver scallops a big culinary voice by pan-searing them and serving them with jumbo Gulf shrimp, truffle-scented new potato hash and caviar butter. Diners at 56 Degrees may not want to come up for air when they dig into the diver scallops sauteed with baby bok choy and served over crispy egg noodles. It is all topped with tomato-and-onion concasse laced with sesame oil.
At Kanno Sushi, the smoked scallops are specially prepared with sea salt in a soy sauce vinegar and stand on their own, while at Lola's they're combined with other water-bred delights in the seafood paella, which includes scallops, shrimp, fish, squid, mussels and vegetables that are seasoned with garlic, saffron and herbs, then cooked slowly.
SHRIMP
At Serrano's Salsa Company, Camarones a la Parilla features the popular shellfish grilled and topped with a spicy blend of Serrano peppers, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. Don's Seafood serves fresh Gulf shrimp lots of ways, including stuffed with shrimp and crabmeat dressing, then fried golden brown and served with coleslaw and Cajun fries.
Deanie's Seafood Restaurant prepares its barbecue shrimp "the New Orleans way," starting with jumbo shellfish that are sauteed (with heads on) in a unique blend of seasonings that beg to be mopped up with French bread. For a totally non-traditional take, Tea Garden Chinese Restaurant sautes its shrimp and serves it with carrots and baby corn that have been cooked in brown honey sauce and surrounds it all with broccoli, then places crispy honey walnuts on top.
China Rose also likes to dress its shrimp well, offering several outfits such as sesame-crusted shrimp, a version of the shellfish served with garlic sauce, and another that features fresh jumbo shrimp that is spiced with salt and pepper, battered and deep fried, then served with red and green bell peppers. A coconut batter is used for the fried shrimp at Dos Jefes Uptown Cigar Bar, then it is served on a bed of lettuce with Chinese mustard and marmalade-horseradish dipping sauces.
The versatile sea creature is given a grand toast at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro, which offers an appetizer of spicy jumbo fried shrimp with lettuce and tomato relish drizzled with basil-garlic dressing and served in a martini glass. Customers go mad for the Angry Shrimp at Doc Smith's Lounge, an appetizer in which a quartet of shrimp are coated with Cajun seasonings, grilled and served on a skewer. Basil Leaf also employs a skewer in its kebab, but adds grilled filet mignon to the shrimp, brushes it all with truffle oil and coriander and serves it with sauteed coconut pineapple rice.
For Stephos Bacon Wrapped Shrimp appetizer at Katie's, the chef puts water chestnuts in bacon and wraps that around peeled jumbo shrimp (with their tails on), flash fries them and serves them with remoulade sauce. The spring roll appetizer at 9 Roses blooms with shrimp, pork, lettuce, mint and vermicelli wrapped around steamed rice and dipped in peanut sauce. For a heartier shrimp craving, The Alpine's signature barbecue shrimp is served in the shell with a unique butter-pepper sauce and French bread for dipping. It comes with a house garden salad.
Those who like to mix it up a little bit can choose the stir-fry shrimp at Rag's Too Old Fashioned Po-boys, which puts broccoli, onions and teriyaki sauce in the pan with shrimp then serves them on rice or pasta with a side of French fries. Uglesich's Shrimp Uggie starts with marinated shrimp, then sautes the crustaceans with crushed red peppers, hot sausage, onions and bell peppers.
SOFTSHELL CRAB
Softshell crabs -- in which the creatures are caught after they've molted one shell and before they've fully grown another -- are known for their flavor and tenderness. Aurora Seafood & Steak House serves a softshell crab hollandaise, two fried softshell crabs on a bed of French-fried eggplant slices, garnished with large shrimp and topped with hollandaise sauce, served with a house salad. Carmine's Italian & Seafood Grill, "home of the famous seafood stuffed artichoke" also offers a softshell crab Parmesan. Tortorici's pledges fresh softshell crabs paneed and topped with a lemon-butter and garlic sauce, served with Italian roasted potatoes and vegetable du jour. Sugar Magnolia tempts the tastebuds with a mesquite wood-smoked softshell crab, finished over a hickory wood grill and served over vegetables, along with jambalaya risotto tapped with crawfish brim butter.
Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar serves a fried seafood combo featuring softshell crab, and Restaurant Des Familles offers a softshell crab Foster: a batter-fried softshell crab topped with green onions, artichoke bottoms and mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter and wine. At Panasia Thai Restaurant, the deep-fried softshell crabs come with three flavor sauces: oyster, chile and basil.
SWEETBREADS
A number of upscale area establishments offer the misnamed delicacy this summer. Bayona's sweetbreads come with sherry-mustard or a lemon-caper butter. Eleven 79 serves both classical Italian and New Orleans cuisine, and its Heart of Sweetbreads comes with capers and tomatoes. Peristyle's list of starters features the crispy sweetbreads: crispy veal sweetbreads, Parma prosciutto, and port syrup served over roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and port braised shallots. Wolfe's pan crispy sweetbreads are served on goat cheese topped with caramelized orange peels, citrus Brioche, Micro lettuces and balsamic caper butter sauce. Across Lake Pontchartrain, La Provence in Big Branch lures gourmets to its quiet, reclusive environs for the Ris de Veau Grenobloise, veal sweetbreads with lemon butter and capers.</font>
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2003-06-03/cover_story2.html