Restaurant: Santa Fe

Santa Fe is a new place that opened up on the corner of Esplanade and Mystery in Fauborg St. John (where La Vita used to be). Apparently, this is a new incarnation of a restaurant that used to be down on Frenchman, and it’s being run by one of the original owners and utilising their pre-K menu.

Now, of course I never visited the first Santa Fe, so I can’t do a comparison, but I’ll admit I wasn’t particularly thrilled with my experience at Santa Fe Redux. None of the offerings really stood out as interesting to me, and I felt the menu itself was designed poorly. Under each heading (appetizers, salads, etc.) was written a wine suggestion that was supposedly meant to go with every dish in that section. I found that problematic for its generality–if you’re going so far as to suggest wine, do it for every dish, not every section; also, the way they worded the wine advertisements sounded a lot more like they were trying to upsell me rather than suggest the best accompaniment for my meal.

Our server was serviceable, but obviously inexperienced. None of the tables had salt and pepper on them, which I probably wouldn’t have noticed–I rarely use them when provided–but Brother O’Mara likes to salt his tortilla chips, and it turns out I did have to ask for salt once I got my entree, unfortunately.

The complimentary chips proved somewhat more oily than one would expect, and the salsa tasted a bit like canned tomato sauce. The food arrived, and was plated beautifully, but both Brother O’Mara’s beef burrito and my taco salad were unexceptional. Not bad, simply fine.

Now, I almost titled this post “Santa Fail”, but I know that it takes time for a new restaurant to work out its kinks, and I’m sure some of the things I didn’t enjoy about Santa Fe will resolve themselves in the coming months. Maybe I will give it another chance once they’re a little more settled, but for now I’m sticking with Juan’s Flying Burrito.

I’ll leave you with something postive about the place, the lovely presentation of my taco salad:

(photo by lafille)

Fancy Root Beer

Total impulse buy, but who can resist “Special Edition” root beer? In a rockin’ Grolsch-style bottle? With nutmeg BAVARIAN nutmeg?!

Not this lady.

(photo by lafille)

Creole Creamery

I know I’ve been slow to document last week’s culinary adventures, but there is just so darn much to document!

For our afternoon snack on Gluttony Saturday, we ventured uptown to the Creole Creamery on Prytania Street. I brought maman here when she was in town, and Cap’n Will requested it on her recommendation. Needless to say, I was more than happy to oblige.

I think Angelo Brocato is still number one in Brother O’Mara’s heart, but I must say, I’m partial to this terrific ice cream shop. They have such a glorious selection and strike a great balance between the tried-and-true standards and the rotating array of more adventurous offerings. Case in point, last week I tasted both avocado and lavender-honey ice cream. My all-time favorite there (so far, at least) is the Mexican hot chocolate, a semisweet chocolate with cinnamon and hot pepper. It’s not too sweet, nor too rich, and the slow burn that builds from the chiles is deeee-lightful!

This is Brother O’Mara’s dulce de leche milkshake, which ended up being too rich for him to finish.

I have never seen that happen.

Also, check out their website. They keep it updated with a list of EVERY ice cream they’ve ever had. It’s fascinating!

(photo by Brother O’Mara)

The Best Thing

Sitting at the table in the light of the setting sun, eating cheese and drinking wine, discussing the events of the day.

St. Andre triple creme

Cambozola blue

Honey

Marcona almonds

Pear

Venta Mazzaron tempranillo

(photo by lafille)

Public Service Announcement

Someone has purchased the last 6 bottles of Ojen at Martin Metairie. So if you still haven’t found any, don’t go there.

Gluttony Saturday: Dan Stein’s Deli

Stein’s Deli is one of my favorite places in New Orleans, for many reasons.

First and foremost, the food. They make the best Reuben I have ever stuck in my mouth, and everything else I’ve had there is mouthwateringly delicious. Case in point, this past Saturday when we went with Cap’n Will. Here’s what we ordered:

lafille: The Robért — Imported Prosciutto, House-Made Fresh Mozzarella, Aged Balsamic Vinegar on Ciabatta

— This was the first time I’d had the Ro-Berrrrre, and it turned out to be filling but not too heavy. The homemade Mozzarella was awesome, as were all of the other ingredients.

Cap’n Will: The Fernando — Imported Prosciutto, House-Made Fresh Mozzarella, Pesto on Ciabatta

— Great combination of flavors!

Brother O’Mara: The Kelly — Imported Prosciutto, Triple Creme Cheese, and Apple on Ciabatta

— One of Brother O’Mara’s favorites. The apple and triple creme go so well together!

Another great thing about Stein’s is the beverage selection, both alcoholic and non. Any time I’m craving an interesting or hard-to-find soda I head over there. Since Brother O’Mara and I have been enjoying drinking Dark and Stormies lately, we each drank ginger beer–Barritt’s for him and Boylan’s for moi. The Boylan’s is technically ginger ale, I think, and it was definitely not as spicy as Barritt’s or our current fave, Regatta. More in the Canada Dry style, know what I’m sayin’?

Barritt’s Ginger Beer and the Fernando

(photo by Brother O’Mara)

Stein’s also has –hands down– the best retail beer selection in the city. They don’t have an on-premise permit, so you can’t drink it there, but damned if Mr. Stein isn’t responsible for my current home collection of good beer. The man knows his brews. Whether you’re looking for a Belgian or an American microbrew, this is the first place you should look. They have beer classes on a pretty regular basis as well, which I highly recommend. I went a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Gluttony Saturday: Breakfast of Champions

Saturday morning, Cap’n Will and I went for coffee at Fair Grinds while Brother O’Mara slept in. We split a French press of Oromia, a blend by Dean’s Beans (out of Orange, MA) containing three types of Ethiopian beans. Oddly, it’s a dark roast, which I’ve never seen with Ethiopians. The beans have such a distinct and unique flavor that they’re usually roasted extra-light so you can taste it. The blend was tasty enough for me to buy some beans to take home, though, and we enjoyed sitting on the patio at the coffeeshop catching up.

Brother O’Mara roused himself a short while later to make waffles which, in the Brother O’Mara family, are a big deal. His father is the Waffle King of his hometown, making Brother O’Mara the Waffle Crown Prince, and they both definitely deserve the title. I can say they’re the best waffles I’ve ever eaten, and Cap’n Will enjoyed them as well. I can tell you that the base is Bisquick, but I believe there are some special tweaks to the recipe that give those suckers the most delightful taste and aroma. He also serves them with an array of accoutrements–butter and maple syrup of course, but also honey and Roddenbery’s Cane Patch Syrup, a Brother O’Mara family tradition.

(photo by Brother O’Mara)

The waffles gave us just enough energy to make it to Martin Wine Cellar, where Cap’n Will (longtime restaurateur and wine aficionado) spent a good while perusing the shelves and tasting things he can’t readily procure in his neck of the woods. Said waffles did not, however, fill us up too much to ruin our wonderfully-crafted sandwiches at Dan Stein’s Deli…

La Fille on Slashfood

A big thank you to Alex van Buren, who featured my Yam Neua photo on Slashfood this morning.

(Original post is here.)

Happy eating, Alex!

Friday Night Food- Hitting the Ground Running

I picked up mon pere (henceforth to be known as Cap’n Will, as per his request) from the airport early Friday evening and met Brother O’Mara back home for a cocktail before dinner. The Cap’n put down his bags while we opened a bottle of Spanish white wine and chilled out for a few minutes. Soon enough though, the call of the city became too much for our bellies to ignore and we headed over to the first place on Papa’s food to-do list, the Parkway Tavern.

I’ve extolled upon Parkway’s virtues before, so I’ll cut right to the chase. As always, the po’boys were terrific. Cap’n Will had the Surf’n’Turf–roast beef and fried shrimp on the same sandwich— Brother O’Mara had hot ham and cheese, and I had the barbecued beef, all dressed. Papa was super-pleased, and Yours Truly may have found her new favorite sandwich. Their barbecue sauce is fantastic: thick and sweet and a little spicy and oh-so-messy–just the way it should be.

In a modern day Good Friday miracle, my clothing managed to remain unsoiled by barbecue and we headed over to visit our friends at the New Orleans Creative Glass Institute to watch some rock and roll glassblowing for a few minutes. They have free demos semi-regularly, and I strongly urge y’all to drop by some Friday night and take a look. They are doing some truly beautiful work over there.

After digesting our sammiches a little bit, we walked over to Angelo Brocato, the Italian pastry and gelato shop on North Carrollton.

This is a perennial favorite for Brother O’Mara and I, and all visitors are required to partake in its confectionary joys. Usually Brother O’Mara gets a pastry while I go for gelato, but we were all three feeling the ice cream that evening: Stracciatella (Italian chocolate chip), mint chocolate chip, and Sicilian pistachio, to be precise. All three were terrific, but I specifically loved the pistachio–it was much less sweet than any other pistachio ice cream or gelato I’ve had, even the pistachio-almond they serve alongside it at Brocato. Sometimes sweet things can be too much for me, so it’s always exciting to find a dessert that combines sweet with savory, salty, spicy, or sour. Sicilian pistachio definitely brings a little salty to the table.

Feeling not-quite-uncomfortably stuffed, we headed home for a nightcap. The menfolk had fun comparing Herbsaint with Ojen and making cocktails thereof, whilst I enjoyed a Dark and Stormy with Regatta Ginger Beer and Gosling’s Black Seal Rum.

Cap’n Will was immensely pleased with the gastronomic delights of the evening, and we made it an early night in order to prepare both mentally and physically for the epicurean olympics in store for us on Saturday.

Nom.

Overindulgence, Anyone?

Le pere de la fille made a short trip to New Orleans this weekend and, let me tell you, we had a terrific time. I’m not quite sure how we managed to squeeze all of his food requests into 36 hours, but I fear it has something to do with the fact that at this moment I don’t want to eat anything but salad for the next week.

Individual posts on the deliciousness we experienced are on their way, but here’s the list of everywhere we ate and drank:

Parkway Bakery and Tavern

Angelo Brocato

Homemade waffles courtesy of Brother O’Mara

Shopping and wine tasting at Martin Wine Cellar

Lunch at Dan Stein’s Deli

Ice Cream at Creole Creamery

Dinner at Cochon

Drinks at Cure

I know it’s the official end of Lent today, but I may just have to start my own period of abstaining for the sake of my gastronomical health.