Road Trip

We went on a little road trip this weekend to visit my mom, and had a bit of a kerfuffle, but it all worked out in the end.  On Friday evening we ate at Chianti, and then crashed early.

Saturday morning we ate at Poached.  

Christopher had crab cake Benedict, and I had a French omelet.

After breakfast we grabbed my mom some McDonald's junior chicken sandwiches (she loves those things) and some items from Safeway.  On the way to Safeway Christopher's front left wheel started making an awful noise.  When we tried to leave the Safeway parking lot, we couldn't.  The tire wouldn't turn at all.

We called a tow truck and luckily a really helpful tow truck driver showed up in no time.  He made a bunch of phone calls to see if someone could get the car into the shop that day.  Eventually Kal Tire, only minutes away, said that they could get us in right away, and he towed us there.  They handed us keys to a loaner car, and we were still able to get to my mom before her burgers got cold.  The car was then fixed in time for us to pick it up at the end of the day and head to my half-sister Kim and her husband Errol's place for dinner.

We had never been to their home before - it is gorgeous!  I was loving the wallpaper in the living room:

 

 

A love for cooking runs in the family.  Everyone I'm related to can cook! 

The appetizer was a beautiful combination of strawberry, basil, bocconcini cheese, 25 year old balsamic and truffle oil.

We then had cream of poblano pepper soup with bread.

The main course was rib roast, bacon barley risotto, and Brussels fried with bacon - ummmm, I think someone might know about my love for bacon.  I'm so transparent ;-)

The meal was fantastic!

I must have forgotten to grab a photo of the dessert, but it was a delicious trifle.  We had a fun evening and a great little "mini vacation" - I love to get away, even if it's only for two nights.

Do you like little road trips?  

Have you ever had car trouble while in another city?

The problem with the car was a broken tire rod, and some middle piece that it connects to.  It was over $800 to fix, but the whole situation could have been a lot worse - we were very thankful that it didn't break on the highway.

Lately

We did a lot of cooking last week, as we had just finished eating at restaurants for a week straight.  Last weekend we made delicious breakfasts both Saturday and Sunday:

 

We also cooked up some bee bim bop with pollock and shrimp:

 

We tried vegan cheese, using it on bruschetta - delicious!  It was so creamy and it melted perfectly.  I had no idea vegan cheese could be so good, but after seeing it on Allysia's blog so many times, I had to try it.

 

Other eats last week included meatloaf with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts:

Incredible fish burritos - stay tuned!

And we couldn't resist one dinner out, with my sister and bro-in-law at Bombay:

What have you been cooking lately?  How was your weekend?

No More Po Boys!!

You might think that after a week of eating (seemingly) nothing but po boys, we'd be rolling our pudgy selves off the plane, groaning, "Nooo more po boys."  Think again.

Within four hours of being home we had already gone to the grocery store, and were making po boys for dinner.  Seriously. 

 

 

We made shrimp po boys using the recipe I posted here.

 

We might need an intervention.

Just kidding.  Don't touch our po boys.  I'll cut you.

What food are you totally hooked on right now?

Goodbye New Orleans

We got home from vacation on Friday, but we won't be forgetting New Orleans anytime soon.  It is a beautiful city with a lot of history, and gorgeous architecture.

 

 

It's got a lot of character ...

And music everywhere ...

  

But what I will miss the most ...

Is that Christopher looked like this at pretty much every meal:

That's pure joy folks.  Or something like that ;-)

If you could go to any city for the food, which city would you choose?

In which city have you enjoyed the best food?

Po Boys, Alligator, Beignets & Other Thangs

I'm pretty sure we ate po boys every. single. day. that we were in New Orleans.  In addition to the places already posted about, we also ate po boys at Cafe Pontalba:

Court of Two Sisters:

And Emeril's favourite, Mahony's (also featured on DDDs):

 

These po boys were ridiculously huge.  Massive.  The pictures don't do them justice.  Christopher's oyster po boy cost nearly $30 (market price - wha?), and he would have eaten every last bite had the oysters been a bit better.

I left a little more behind, but I tried!

Believe it or not, we did eat other things other than po boys.  We had some fried alligator, and both loved it!  The taste was kind of a cross between lobster and chicken.  It tastes better than it sounds.

We also had gumbo (a couple of times):

We ate breakfast at Stanley's again because it was so good the first time.  Christopher ordered French toast, and I had a phenomenal egg sandwich.  We also shared some creole potatoes.

Near the end of our trip we visited yet another DDDs dive called The Joint (yes, we watched a lot of DDDs in the months leading up to this trip).  This place is still only frequented by locals, which was obvious when we showed up (and ventured quite a bit away from the touristy areas).  The cab driver seemed surprised that we "found the joint".  This place sells good-ole southern BBQ, all smoked out back.

They serve it up with a selection of sides.  We tried the mac and cheese, coleslaw and beans.  To drink - iced tea of course.

 

This food was worth the cab ride.  I'm still hearing about how good the pulled pork was ;-)  On the way out we grabbed a couple of bacon cookies.  

As we were waiting for our cab, Christopher decided to run back in and grab a cookie for Rico, our helpful, friendly hotel employee who gushed over The Joint when we told him that's where we were headed.

Some time during the trip we went to Cafe Du Monde, which is the largest, busiest coffee shop I've ever seen in my life.  It was absolutely insane, with more tables than most restaurants, each one full.  The take-out window lineup was ridiculous, but we waited anyway to try a famous beignet and cafe au lait.

I thought the beignets were pretty good, but the cafe au lait was just average.  In fact, I could not find a really good coffee in New Orleans.

We had even better beignets when we went to Cafe Beignet after a recommendation from some friendly strangers.

Have you ever eaten alligator?  Have you had a beignet before?  Are you concerned about the number of po boys we consumed?

Hotel Room Picnics

We did a lot of walking in New Orleans, and sometimes we just needed a little break in the room, perhaps for a nap, maybe to blog ... but almost always to eat.

One day for a snacky lunch we picked up some fried chicken from Brothers.  We were told by an old guy that lived in NOLA that this place has the best fried chicken, and it's where the locals go.  That was all the information we needed.

 

It is only take-out, so we brought it back to the room to enjoy.  

Maaaan was it good!

 

Most of the hotel room picnics were late night snacks after a long evening of music, dancing, and meeting new friends.

 

*I'd like to apologize to Omni Royal hotel for the crumbs, tomato sauce stains, and probably grease that may or may not have resulted from our hotel room picnics.  You should be proud though - you do take the cake for the most comfortable bed around.

Speaking of cake ...

Ummmm ... I blame the bourbon.