Cooking with Smoke and Direct Fire at Primitivo in the Garden District

What:

Primitivo
@EatPrimitivo
At this NOLA newcomer, our waitress explained that there isn’t really a theme or nationality that guides the menu Primitivo, just a philosophy. That philosophy is to use local, seasonal ingredients and prepare them in some manner that involves their gigantic open-flame hearth. Smoke is the key to nearly every dish they serve here.

Where:

Off-the-beaten path between the Garden District and Center City
1800 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. New Orleans, LA 70113
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When:

Perfect for dude’s night out in NOLA.

The decor has a masculine German beer-hall vibe with gothic calligraphy typography and distressed wood defining a majority of the aesthetic. Between the huge, hearty portions and very reasonably priced cocktails, this place was made for the bachelor party “nice-meal”. While I do really like the place, I wouldn’t necessarily tell NOLA first-timers to go on their first trip — there’s plenty of other places in the city I think are more essential to go to first (see: Cochon, Commander’s Palace, Red’s Chinese, Compère Lapin, or Sylvain for example). (more…)

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Emeril Lagasse Still Has A Few New Exciting Tricks Up His Sleeve

What:

NOLA
@NOLARestaurant
One of three Emeril-owned restaurants in his hometown of New Orleans. The menu is full of Cajun classics, with plenty of unique twists to keep things interesting.

Who:

A first name is all he needs: Emeril. The dude is a legend and one of the major pioneers in food television. He has somehow managed to stay both very relevant and lovable over all of these many drastically different years.

Where:

French Quarter
534 St. Louis St. New Orleans, LA 70130
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When:

Perfect for a cautious New Orleans first-timer’s first foray into Cajun cuisine. The menu is quite accessible, but everything is still executed really really well. There’s also plenty an experienced New Orleans eater can find to love at NOLA too. (more…)

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Nina Compton is Bringing the Caribbean Heat to Creole Country

I absolutely love how full of super old school places the New Orleans high-end dining scene is. There are tons of these places that remain as popular, famous, and incredible as they were when they opened well over 100 years ago. But, of course, that’s not all that New Orleans has to offer. There are plenty of young upstart chefs doing extremely innovative things, evolving the long-standing culinary traditions.

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Experience New Orlean’s Quintessential Muffuletta Sandwich

In the city of New Orleans, there are two contenders vying for the enviable title of most iconic sandwich. Sure, the Po’ Boy gets a majority of the attention with its vast variety of fillings and multitude of shops specializing in the dish (which all claim to serve the very best). But, for my money (and belly), I’d argue that the Muffuletta should be the NOLA specialty sandwich torch bearer.

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Mike Winston’s Best Meals of 2015

Yes, I know this year-end list is beyond belated. Actually, I’m probably over a month late. Normally, I’m not one to make these kinds of excuses, but my life has been pretty hectic lately.

As you may or may not know, I’m getting married in a couple of months, so my time has recently come at an extreme premium and I haven’t been able to commit as much attention as I’d like to this little publication obsession. With that being said, over the next couple of months, I’ll be playing around with post style and formatting a bit in an attempt to find new ways to rapidly pump out awesome food articles with fewer publishing limitations on my end. Please feel free to give me feedback on the new content — I’m planning to review this little experiment in a few months and we can take it from there.

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Experiencing NOLA’s Famed Ooey, Gooey, Crispy, Char-Grilled Oysters

Acme Oyster House is one of those old school places that been around for so long, it’s almost become synonymous with visiting New Orleans. It’s famous enough to have been featured on a multitude of food TV shows including a particularly memorable season 1 episode of Man vs Food in which Adam Richman took down their insane eating challenge and joined the 15 Dozen Club by consuming an absurd 180 raw oysters in a sitting.

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A Wild, Wacky, Happy-Go-Lucky Hot Doggery in NOLA

This is probably the most bizarrely happy-go-lucky place anywhere on the entire planet. On this day, torrential rain was falling from the sky, the shop’s WiFi was out so the normal music source was unusable, and many of the ingredients had not and were not going to be delivered. But, that couldn’t hold the Dat Dog staff down – it’s not in their nature. In fact, from the moment I laid my eyes upon that gigantic, two-story, neon, multicolored building on New Orleans’ Magazine Street, I knew there was something special about the place. I think passing through those Heinz mustard-colored doors functioned as a sort of portal to a comically super-happy alternate dimension.

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Mike Winston’s Top 10 Best Cocktails of 2014

You guys know I eat a ton of food. I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I’m also quite passionate about my cocktails. Some would even go so far as to call me a lush.

Well, this year provided no shortage of impressive and outstanding cocktails (and obviously food as I’ve already recapped). And since the end of the year is rolling around, it only seems fair to look back and remember the best of the best cocktails as well. I’ve even inclcuded a list of ingredients for each drink recipe so you can try to whip them up for yourself at home… if you’re particularly talented.

Warning: there are some really obscure ingredients in a lot of these, a lot of them are rather complicated to concoct. Also, I don’t have any of the proportions for the different parts… so good luck!
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A True Cajun & Creole New Orleans Experience at NOLA in Palo Alto

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For Stanford students, there’s only a few bars that everyone goes to. One of the biggest nightlife hotspots is NOLA, an aggressively Mardi Gras themed bar and restaurant that’s gaudily decorated with scattered dangling beaded necklaces. It’s the kind of place that I’d normally write off at first glance, assuming they’d only be able to make stupidly sweet and strong alcoholic punches and serve shitty bar food, but that assumption would be wrong.

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