Chasing the Eclipse: Gastronomic Notes from a Trip to New Orleans and Dallas.
Wherein we discovered that Po-Boys are just subs
I had meant my trip to New Orleans to be a foodie trip of sorts, and I wanted to make sure we tried most of the most typical dishes of the city, a rather hard task for a two day trip as there are many. One of them are po’boy sandwiches. I had had po’boys before, at different restaurants in California, but I was never quite clear as to what exactly they were. Well, it turns out that they are just a version the New Orleans version of sub sandwiches: hot sandwiches served in half-loaves of French bread. There are different stories as to where they got the po’boy name in New Orleans and clearly different ways to spell its “poor boy” name. The most famous po’boys in New Orleans are generally those featuring oysters or shrimp/crawfish (the latter are basically just fresh water shrimp), but they can have almos any filling you can imagine. Johnny’s Po-Boys probably has one of the most extensive selection of po-‘boys in New Orleans. They also serve seafood platters and New Orleans specialties such as jambalaya and red beans and rice.
Johnny’s Po-Boys is a very casual eatery. It’s the oldest family-owned po’boy restaurant in New Orleans, now in its eight decade of existence. It features a handful of tables covered with plastic tablecloths and a counter where you order your po’boy. It gets pretty busy at lunch time. Prices are pretty high, from the mid-teens to low twenties for a sandwich. But this is the French Quarter and they mostly cater to tourists.
I wasn’t yet hungry enough for lunch, so Mike ordered a Vodoo Shrimp po’boy for himself ($20) with lettuce (and additional 25-cents!). He thought it was awesome. It had a generous amount of shrimp and a very tasty, and only slightly spicy, sauce. He gave it a 10/10, which is extremely unusual for him. He would definitely order it again.
Johny's Po-Boys 511 St Louis St New Orleans, LA Th-Su 8 AM - 3:30 PM
New Orleans is famous many dishes, with savory and sweet, but among the latter beignets reign supreme – at least, among tourists. I can only imagine that it’s the fun of eating a pastry that is guaranteed to cover you and everything around you with powdered sugar that makes them so appealing. And fun they are, even if they otherwise were rather disappointing.
Among the establishments serving beignets in the French Quarter, the two most prominent ones are Cafe du Monde, which has been selling beignets since 1862, and Café Beignet, a mere 30 year old restaurant which makes up for its youth by having actually four different branches in the city. We visited the one on Decatur St. for breakfast our first morning in New Orleans, though we twice stopped at the one on Bourbon Street to rest our feet and listen to some live Jazz. The garden at the latter site is glorious.
The Café Beignet branch on Decatur Street has a fun dining room, somewhat evocative of la Belle Époque. The wooden bar is beautiful. Outdoors, there are only a couple of tables on the sidewalk by the restaurant. It’s not particularly picturesque, but it allows you to people watch as you eat.
You order at the counter, and food is brought to your table. The menu consists of omelettes, sandwiches, breakfast items and Creole specialties like jambalaya and crawfish etouffee. And, of course, beignets and other pastries. They have a bunch of coffee dishes, but not fresh orange juice.
I’m not a breakfast eater myself, so I ordered the beignets ($4.50 for 3). These were relatively large squares of fried dough covered with powdered sugar. As the powdered sugar is the same everywhere, it was all about the fried dough. And this fried dough was not great. It was dense and chewy and not particularly flavorful on its own (thus the need for powdered sugar). Basically, they were heavy – and the last thing you want in the morning is a heavy piece of fried dough. I ate a beignet and sort of nibbled on the second one. Mike took a bite, and was done.
Apparently, the problem with New Orleans beignets is that they are made from a leavened dough instead of the choux pastry used in France. The latter makes them far lighter and enjoyable.
Mike ordered the Andouille sausage omelette ($12), which came with grits and a slice of French bread. Miked liked it. The sausage was very tasty, spicy and flavorful, and it was well mixed with the omelette. The omelette was on the small side, but it wasn’t very expensive. The grits and herbed toasted bread was a disconcerting choice – Mike would have preferred a biscuit.
Café Beignet 600 Decatur Street New Orleans, Louisiana M-Th 8am-6pm F-Su 8am-8pm
Napoleon Houseis one of those “must go to” restaurants when you visit the French Quarter. Not only is it famous for its muffulettas – a sandwich invented in New Orleans, albeit at an Italian deli, not here -, but it’s located in a beautiful, historical home that convenes in one place the whole spirit of the French Quarter, itself a magical place.
As the story goes, the house was originally built in 1797 and enlarged in 1814 for Nicholas Girod, then mayor of New Orleans. A large three story brick building with plaster covered walls, the house reflects French architectural influences with its hipped roof , dormers and French doors and Spanish ones, as shown in its internal patio and wrought iron balconies. In 1821, Girod seems to have devised a plan to rescue Napoleon, who was then on exile in the island of St. Helena after his defeat at Waterloo, and bring him to live in this home. While Napoleon died before Girod could undertake this scheme, the house inherited Napoleon’s name. In 1914, Italian immigrant Joe Impastato turned it into a bar and the business slowly evolved into the restaurant it is today.
And a beautiful restaurant it is. The smallish, dark dining rooms still display those discolored stucco plastered walls, evoking a long ago feeling. They are decorated with old pictures and Napoleon memorabilia, and you can imagine yourself plotting up a secret mission or a pirate raid on its tables. The patio, where we didn’t eat, is more conventionally beautiful and relaxing, though it still conveys an old world feeling.
Napoleon House is a casual place with a casual menu. It serves salads and sandwiches, with a few ubiquitous appetizers and sides. Like most restaurants in New Orleans, it offers beers and wines as well as local cocktails. They are particularly known for their Pimm’s No.1 drinks, though I didn’t realize that until later, so we didn’t try them.
What I did have was the muffuletta – or at least a quarter of one ($8.5). It wasn’t until we got to the restaurant that we realized we weren’t that hungry after all, and we wanted a light dinner. A quarter of a muffuletta seemed perfect – in particular, because I was very apprehensive about them. A muffuletta is a sandwich of deli meats and cheeses typically covered with a thick layer of olive salad. Neither Mike nor I are fans of olives, so we were afraid we wouldn’t like it. Watching the videos of how they’re made at Central Grocery & Deli, the place where they were invented, I still think that’s likely to be the case there, but the one at Napoleon House was just perfect. It had enough olives to give the sandwich a kick, but not enough to actually taste them individually. At Napoleon House, the muffulettas are served hot and the melted cheese deliciously brought the whole sandwich together. In all, it was a delicious sandwich and just the right size for my light hunger. I’d definitely have it again.
Mike ordered the Boudin sausage ($8) which was served with bread and mustard. I was surprised that it wasn’t a blood sausage – I usually think of that when I hear “boudin” – but in Louisiana, a “boudin” sausage typically refers to one made of pork and rice. This gives the sausage a disconcerting soft texture, but it had a pretty good flavor. Mike liked it though he wasn’t awed by it.
For dessert, I tried a New Orleans classic: chocolate Doberge Cake ($8). This consists of a multi layer chocolate cake with chocolate pudding filling. I wasn’t thrilled with it. It just tasted like your typical, overly dry chocolate cake. Warming it up and adding ice cream might have helped, but as it was, it was a waste of carbs.
As we didn’t know about the Primm’s, Mike ordered a Sazerac with absinthe ($13), another traditional New Orleans cocktail. Alas, he didn’t really enjoy it, and it was too strong and bitter for me to do anything more than taste it. This doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great Sazerac, but it was enough to make it our first and last experience with the drink.
We had no complaints about service, and we didn’t feel any pressure to leave even though I think we stayed until closing time. In all, I’d recommend Napoleon House to anyone visiting the French Quarter.
Napoleon House 500 Chartres Street New Orleans, LA (504) 524-9752 Su-Th 11am-10pm F-Sa: 11am-11pm
A decent blue cheese burger & an unmemorable salad at San Diego International Airport
No one goes to an airport to eat, but flight schedules sometimes make you have to rely on whatever food you can find at the airport for substance – particularly if you’re flying a no-frills airline which doesn’t even offer meals for purchase. While in recent decades airplane food has gotten better, it’s usually disappointing and overpriced. Our recent experience having lunch at the San Diego International Airport might have been that, if we hadn’t come with lowered expectations. As it happened, the burger I had The Counter was decent enough.
The Counter is a small gourmet burger chain that has a smattering of locations across the US – including at three different airports. I used to visit the Fremont location back in the day, before gourmet burgers were even a thing, and I was a fan of their fare. So I was happy to see they had a branch near the Southwest gates in Terminal 1 at the San Diego airport, where we stopped on our way to New Orleans. For better or worse, our plane was late, which gave us time to eat before we embarked.
I had the blue cheese burger. On its website, The Corner describes the Beef & Blue burger as having “danish blue cheese, organic mixed greens, tomatoes, bacon onion jam, garlic aioli, brioche bun” and it might, indeed, have had all that, though I don’t remember the tomatoes. The burger was fairly good. The beef patty itself was dry and overcooked, but the blue cheese sauce was fantastic, it almost made up for any deficiencies on the meat. The burger was expensive, I think upwards of $16, but it was quite large, I had trouble finishing it. For an airport burger it was as good as it gets.
Mike ordered a salad. He doesn’t remember what salad it was, but you can see it in the photo. He thought it was OK. He didn’t rave about it at the time, but I don’t remember him complaining either. It was just an unmemorable salad.
Still, for an airport dining experience, this was fine.
The Counter San Diego International Airport 13225 N Harbor Dr Terminal 1 San Diego, CA
The other night I had a craving for a burger, which had me thinking: where can I get the best burger in San Leandro? We are not a city known for burgers. There are lots and lots of places to have burgers here, to be clear, but none that are particularly noteworthy. Still, I haven’t visited many of those places for years and I thought trying the different burgers available in San Leandro might be a fun project for the upcoming year (or two). I had planned to start with Rocky’s Charcoal Grill – a place beloved by many in San Leandro. I have not liked their burgers in the past, but it’s been fourteen years since my last visit, so they may have changed. My old review is definitely ready for an update. Alas, Rocky’s wasn’t open (it was a Sunday) and Nation’s is very close by, so Mike went there instead.
I like Nation’s burgers. As far as fast food burgers go, they have always been my “default” for over three decades – though they now share this “honor” with Habit Burger. At 1/3 lbs, the burgers are fairly large, they ooze with American cheese and they are very generous with veggies and toppings – though I always get mine with just tomatoes, while Mike prefers his with lettuce and onions. The burgers are smothered in mayo, probably enough to cause a heart attack to someone with cardiac issues. For this reason, I feel that they mostly taste of mayo and American cheese, though enough to not really be able to forgo it. But I like them. If I had to grade them – and I do, because this is a project about finding the best burger, I’d give them 8/10 as far as “fast food burgers” go, and a 5/10 as far as all burgers go. Indeed, I will make Nation’s my standard for an average burger, and grade others accordingly.
In addition to burgers, Nation is known for its pies. These are of a similar quality to their burgers: enjoyable. On this occasion we got the blueberry pie which was on season, and we liked it.
Nation also has breakfast items, which also are totally fine as far as a fast food place goes.
Taco Bell, like sister companies Habit Burger, KFC and Pizza Hut are on the boycot list, as their parent company, Yum brands, invests in Israel. Please help stop apartheid and genocide by Israel by not doing business with companies that financial benefit from the killing, torture, maiming and oppression of Palestinians and who de facto support crimes against humanity.
A1 Pho is the latest iteration of a series of Vietnamese restaurants that have occupied the same space on the corner of East 14th and Estabrook for the last decade and a half. The space, which hosted a video store when we first moved to town, is large, with windows looking onto the sidewalk plus two different parking , and features flat ceilings. The atmosphere never managed to be anything above cafeteria-style dining. The big TVs, often tuned to sport shows, don’t help with the ambiance. Mostly, these restaurants serve as utilitarian stops for hearty, not very expensive meals. The menus doesn’t seem to change as frequently as the ownership and names of the restaurant, and features pho, grilled meats with noodles or rices and Vietnamese shakes.
We have visited these restaurants from time to time, but as it’s never the sort of food I crave nor is the place nice enough for a dinner out, we frequent them less often than you would imagine, given the location so close to my house. After getting takeout from A1 Pho, I don’t think this will change much. The food was good but not particularly compelling.
Mike ordered the Bánh Mì Bò Kho (beef stew with bread – $16). It came with a small loaf of French bread, similar to the one in the bánh mì sandwich below. He enjoyed the stew very much. He thought the broth was rich and tasty. The beef was tender and fatty, though you expect that from stew meat. The portion was very generous and he was quite happy with the dish.
I had the Bánh Mì Bò (beef sandwich, $9). The flavor of the beef was good, though it was a little overwhelmed by the vegetables. However, as is the problem with most bánh mì sandwiches, the real problem is the bread to filling ratio: there was just too much bread. The bread itself, while very light, felt dry and wasn’t particularly tasty. I’m not sure I’d order this again.
We also shared an order of Chả Giò (fried egg rolls, $9). These were OK, pretty average and unremarkable.
I had a Sinh Tố Dâu & Xoài (strawberry and mango shake, $7). This was also tasty, but not compelling and I wouldn’t rush to order it again. It seemed a bit overpriced – but then again, everything is nowadays.
A1 Pho
2089 E 14th St #A
San Leandro, CA
510-357-6888
M-Su 10 AM - 8 PM
There is something comforting about a solidly average American-style pizza
First, let’s get this straight: Chicago Pizza in San Leandro does not serve Chicago-style pizza. Not even close. What they do serve is very typical, American-style pizza. Their “deep dish” pizza, which is available only in a 14″ size, what I prefer, is only slightly thick. But the dough is pretty spongy and flavorful, and while it won’t win any contests, it won’t be at the bottom either.
This time I got a mushroom and Italian sausage deep dish pizza ($24). It was pretty good. The sauce was there, but did not overwhelm the other flavors. It had plenty of cheese and a good amount of mushrooms and sausages. The pizza, dough, as I mentioned, is not particularly thick, however. I enjoyed it for what it is, your typical American pizza.
Chicago’s deep dish pizza used to be thicker, this one seems more like their “hand tossed pizza” of yesteryear. But the store was sold several years ago, the menu changed (some Indian toppings have been added) and their plethora of coupons and deals went away.
Chicago Pizza is a take-out/delivery joint, I don’t think they have seating though there might be a couple of odd tables around. They have been around since I first came to San Leandro, 24 years ago, and I used to order frequently back in the aughts when my husband still liked pizza. I do appreciate that Chicago pizza continues to have its own delivery ($3), so that you don’t have to order through one of the apps.
Chicago Pizza
14278 E 14th St Ste D
San Leandro, CA
510-357-2415
Su-Th 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
F-Sa 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Our closest Indian restaurant is usually a good bet.
For many years, really the first decade and a half of our life here, San Leandro was an Indian food desert. We had the best Indian grocery store ever – Santos Spice Market -, and yet somehow we didn’t have even a single Indian restaurant. That started changing when Bella Italia (now closed) started serving Indian food, in addition to Italian fare, but their heart really wasn’t in it and it wasn’t that great. Fortunately, in the last decade several actual Indian restaurants have opened both in San Leandro and nearby localities, and most of them have been quite good.
I’m really surprised I haven’t reviewed Indian Grill before, as we’ve been satisfied costumers ever since it opened at the old Ploughman’s space back in 2019. The food, if at the time slightly more expensive than its competitors, was consistently among the best Indian-American food I’ve experienced. We visited the restaurant itself a couple of times before the pandemic, and I’ve been there a couple times since – it’s done a good job of looking classy in a coffeeshop space -, but mostly we get take out from there.
Last week, it was just Mike and I so we only got a couple of dishes, and the results were unfortunately mixed.
I had the Lamb Korma ($19), and it was as delicious as ever. Their korma is not particularly sweet or nutty, but it has a fairly deep, complex flavor – albeit milder than the tikka masala sauce -, that I enjoy. The lamb was tender and not particularly fatty. I enjoyed it very much.
Mike, meanwhile, ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala in butter chicken sauce ($17) and this was a dud.
Chicken tikka masala, at least in local restaurants, refers to usually boneless chicken, cut in large bite-size pieces, that is seasoned with tikka spices and grilled or cooked in a tandoori oven. It’s then immersed in a curry/masala sauce, invented in England, that is reminiscent of the curry from butter chicken. The chicken in butter chicken, on the other hand, is usually shredded or cut into small pieces and is cooked in the sauce. This is meant to be a combination of both dishes: grilled chicken tikka served in a butter chicken sauce.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t very good. I don’t know if the sauce was off that day, or the recipe doesn’t quite work, but the sauce had an off flavor, while lacking depth. The rich tongue feel was there, but not the flavor. We both agreed we didn’t like it. Indian Grill has one of the best tikka masala sauces out there – with a very intense, bright flavor – so we’ll continue ordering that in the future.
Rice is not included in the meals, and it’s an extra $5, which seems excessive. Still, when eaten with rice, there is enough food on each other fort two meals. I usually prefer to eat it with naan ($3 each), which are good, but not remarkable.
Food is usually ready on time and is still hot by the time it arrives – and my husband usually walks to get it.
Indian Grill
1600 Washington Ave
San Leandro, CA
(510)-878-2704
W 10:00 am - 9:30 pm
Th-Tu 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, 4:30 pm - 9:30 pm
New York is an amazing food city. We were lucky to get a taste of it.
I will be brutally honest, I had never had much interest in going back to New York City. I’d been there twice, both times piggybacking on events in nearby Pennsylvania (a wedding, the 2016 Democratic Convention), and I had already seen all the big *must do* tourist spots. None of them, not even the Met, was calling me to return. So when Mike got tickets to see a live taping of the Stephen Colbert show at the Ed Sullivan theater in New York City and asked me to plan the trip for him to go see it, I didn’t immediately imagine me going with him. However, as I started to look into flights and hotels – and discovered the New York City is remarkably affordable in February – the idea of joining him grew on me. Mike and I had been thinking of taking a romantic trip alone for a while – after twenty one years of raising kids, we’re finally empty nesters of sorts – and while I had been fantasizing more along the lines of the Croatian coast, New York City could do in a pinch. Particularly, given that the trip would during St. Valentine’s Day week and would allow us to celebrate our anniversary early.
In previous trips, I had seen everything I wanted to see in New York City – but I had not had the opportunity to eat everything the City is known for – so slowly, the idea of turning this trip into a Foodie adventure crystallized. I haven’t used that word to refer to myself for ages and this blog has mostly been dormant, but I haven’t really discovered any new interests, so why not revisit my old ones? Plus, if there is one thing that Mike and I enjoy doing together is trying new restaurants and new foods.
My goal for this trip was to try New York City classic dishes, as well to explore the current culinary scene. We were only going to be there for six days, so obviously I wasn’t able to fully accomplish this. For example, I really wanted to try a traditional “red sauce restaurant” – I heard that Italian-American food in New York City just tastes different than elsewhere -, but I was unable to manage it. I also never made it to a speakeasy or got a black & white cookie. Still, I accomplished most of my goals – and blogged about it:
