Slurping wetly and noisily at the nourishment that is New Orleans
Chinese New Year starts just a few days after Mardi Gras this year on Friday, February 16th, kicking off the year of the brown dog, hence my snarky title. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I am no stranger to the festivities which include elaborate red and gold […]
Over the past several years I have formed a somewhat unhealthy addiction to king cake. It’s an affliction you can chalk up to loving “all things New Orleans,” but I think it also goes deeper than that. The mammoth brioche-like rolls heavily iced with purple, green and gold seem to […]
Great gods of gluttony! As tried and true New Orleanians, are we truly expected to put aside our Bacchanalian behavior in the spirit of a New Year resolution? Are we honestly making promises for a more healthy tomorrow when less than a 144 hours later we’ll be celebrating Twelfth Night […]
Destination: Metairie With seemingly endless rows of well-manicured lawns, cul-de-sacs brimming with playing kids, tidy homes and neat gardens … Metairie, Louisiana is a lot like suburbs all over the country. Strip malls hug the edges of orderly communities and schools are wrapped securely within residential zones. Small neighborhoods pour […]
Originating in Quebec, poutine was once considered something of a joke like ambrosia salad, deep fried butter or loose meat sandwiches. But over the past decade or so, poutine has become so popular that even discerning Canadians are finally admitting their love for this formerly debased dish. In case you’ve […]
It’s one of those things, you either love it or you hate it. Personally, I am in the camp that believes that, like bacon, mushrooms can make almost anything better. Just think about it for a minute. Burgers are better with sauteed or grilled mushrooms, pizza is better with mushrooms, […]
Everyone has their favorite view of the city. For some it could be the brief glimpse you get when crossing over the twin-spans from the West Bank or for others the way the city rises up around you when arriving on I-10 from Slidell. What I wouldn’t give to be […]
Almost like a film reel playing back in my head, I can clearly remember my Halloween-elated, costumed-self collapsing on the green shag carpeting in our family room after a hard night of trick-or-treating, dumping out my loot-filled pillowcase with friends and siblings to meticulously sort through our haul. After calculating […]
With workdays getting longer and lunch hours getting shorter (especially a lunch “hour” that only lasts 30 minutes!), it’s more important than ever to ensure we are getting all the nutrients we need to keep moving along. While shakes and smoothies may have all of the nutrition we need, they […]
I’ve lived my entire life surrounded by water. From the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, great bodies of water have always been close to me, intermixed into everyday life. Oh the nights I spent dancing around bonfires on the […]
Rich and golden, often herbal, sometimes fruity and always sweet, honey is probably the single most fabulous food humans eat. Why so fabulous? Well, for starters, the earliest depiction of honey harvesting is an 8000 year-old cave painting in Spain showing “hunters” gathering honey from wild bee colonies, but this […]
By far one of the most attractive aspects of living in New Orleans (and other regions of the Deep South) is the endearing atmosphere of genuine hospitality. Locals go out of their way to make newcomers feel welcome, whether it’s the courteous cries of “Good morning!” and “Where y’at?” or […]
It’s understandable that many have developed an almost insatiable need for the occasional dozen Krispy Kremes still hot from the fryer, but there are plenty of reasons why not jumping on the nationally-acclaimed, hot-doughnut bandwagon is a sinfully sweet way to go. Aside from the obvious anti-corporate, community-oriented drive to […]