Musings on food, cooking, and dining by a New Orleans Foodie

Well, Christmas is over and the results are in. Fortunately for me, Christmas day came and went without a problem. However, this was one of the easiest years for Christmas shopping. I knocked out almost all of my shopping in one hit. Yes, a bunch of friends and family got the same thing, but I'd like to think they appreciated something homemade - a book that I wrote and published.

It all started a few weeks ago while I was in the shower (that's where I think of all of my good ideas). I don't really enjoy the Christmas season and I never feel like my gifts are any good, so I began to think about what I'm good at: margaritas! I came up with all kinds of gift-basket ideas that I could assemble with minimal shopping and fuss, but it didn't seem too unique since it was a gift that would have an obvious shelf life. Once they drank the tequila, would they remember the gift that I gave them? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks: give a man a margarita and he drinks for a night; teach a man to make a REAL margarita and he drinks for a lifetime.

I had already assembled some basic info on my margarita page, but this was going to be the real deal. So I got to writing; and writing; and editing; and re-writing. And finally I was finished my part. I was proud of what I had written but wasn't quite sure how I could make a nice finished product. I called a friend for advice and she helped guide me in the right direction. As a graphic designer, she had done many projects of this caliber and after giving me a little advice, I talked her into spending a couple hours designing and doing the layout for my book.

When she finished the book and e-mailed me the final draft, I was blown away. It turned out to be far better than anything I had envisioned. I took the file to Kinko's and had fifteen copies printed out. The end result was a book that my friends will enjoy for many years to come. At the moment, I am re-designing my margarita page that will have the book as a free download, so keep an eye out. As for the gifts I recieved? I'll start working on that list right now.

Ok, off the top of my head:

Superior Grill - decent house margaritas on the rocks. They continually cheapen the ingredients, now using Javalina tequila, still charging $5.25. Too expensive, but they do put some real lime juice in them. They have the best tequila selection in the city, but their bartenders don't really care about margaritas enough to make them properly. Order a top shelf, and they don't even shake it. They are getting lazier by the day.

Taqueria Corona - A little too sweet. They use too much sour mix in theirs. The prices aren't bad, but the margaritas aren't that great. Tastes too much like a commercial made mix.

Taqueros - Some of the best in the city. They use fresh limes (as of last time I was there), but they add water and sugar to dumb down the tartness (as needed). They know how to do it right, but there prices are a little excessive and they aren't marketing their drinks very well, especially for a place on St. Charles Ave. I am a bit worried about their business plan.

Juan's Flying Burrito - entirely too inconsistent. The quality changes depending on who is making them. Still a little too sweet, as they use a sour mix to make them. Decent little tequila selection and the prices are just right.

Vera Cruz - not very good at all. They cater more to the college crowd and they show it. How can you really offer specials on pitchers of margaritas and have a quality product? They aren't very good, but they don't need to be, the restaurant is still making money. Don't even get me started on the food...

Vaquero's - They used to be the venerable margarita king back in their early days on Prytania. Unfortunately their previous owners let the restaurant slip, along with their drinks and their crowd. They use an entirely too sweet sour mix and some of their bartenders don't even shake the drinks. When I go in there, I am careful as to who makes my drink. Too much inconsistency. They do have 2-for-1 house margaritas for happy hour, but they aren't any good anyway. With a new owner and a new menu, I see a lot of promise. They have THE best bar setup in the city. Now all they need is a new margarita recipe and a little marketing and they can return to their heyday.

Bandito's - as I mentioned, these are my favorites at this time. Not too sweet and the ingredients are good. They do mix them in a glass then shake them. They do them right. I think the best margarita is going to be with 100% pure ingredients (juice), but I can see from a profit standpoint where it makes sense to add in some sour mix. The prices are just right, and they are made to sell. You can get a quality margarita on the rocks for under five bucks. Good deal, they have my endorsement.

Last night I joined some co-workers for drinks and appetizers at Applebee's. The occasion? Mrs. Picky Eater (as mentioned earlier) is leaving town and we all wanted to get together for one last hoorah. Since she was leaving, we left it to her to choose the restaurant and that is why we ended up at the chain restaurant of all chain restaurants.

I figured since we were at Applebee's, we should partake in the usual suspects of the chain restaurant menu. Between the five of us (well, only three of us ate) we had some spinach & artichoke dip, queso dip and a plate of chicken wings. Yum. To wash it down, I started with a giant 23 oz. Coors Lite draft and followed it with a "Perfect Margarita," made with 1800, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, lime juice and sour mix. The shocking part was that it was actually good! It was better than some of the other margaritas found around New Orleans. Speaking of margaritas in New Orleans, I typed up this little impromptu list of margaritas at restaurants in NOLA. Check out the next post.

As for this post, I know it is kind of short, but how much can I really write about Applebee's?

After attending a Louisiana Tech Council Christmas party last night, I convinced some friends to walk down the street to Bandito's. Since I'm a mexican food fanatic and a margarita connoisseur , I've had this place on my list since it opened. I was nervous about convincing people to go to a new place, since they had all wanted to walk across the street to Lucy's; my reputation was on the line.

I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Although we were there late and the crowd was almost non-existent, we still felt welcome. We all sat at the bar and were waited on by a great bartender, Val, who consequently, was our bartender at the Brewhouse Grill for the last Foodfest happy hour. I tried a couple of different salsas, guacomole, shrimp quesadillas and beef fajitas (not all by myself). All were excellent, but I was blown away at the quality of the margaritas. I tried about four different varieties and was pleased with each one, but Val gave me a taste of a couple of the frozen margaritas and I found them to be disgustingly sweet. Not my bag, but good for those who like the super sweet frozen drinks.

As for the food, the prices were VERY reasonable and the portions were smaller than I expected. But that is a good thing. No one needs obscene amounts of mexican food; it'll give you the opportunity to have some appetizers. Anyway, I'll do a full review when I've been there a couple more times, but I was just shocked that the margaritas were really good. I'll be back there very soon.

As I mentioned in my last post, I work with a girl that we'll call "Mrs. Picky Eater." I don't call her that to her face, in fact, I just made up the name this morning. She does however know my disdain for her eating habits. Her and her husband are from different areas and over their lifetime have lived in several different locations; only recently in New Orleans. She knows how I feel about her eating at places like Olive Garden and Red Lobster, but she keeps on doing it!

Unfortunately, Mrs. Picky eater will be leaving us soon and moving to North Carolina. Her going-away dinner will be at Aplebee's restaurant Wednesday evening and yes, I will be there. To this day, I feel like a failure because I can't get her to start eating at some good places. She knows my frustration and I think she finds it amusing. Yes, she is the same picky eater who didn't try the gumbo and didn't even want the tortilla soup.

Why do I feel like a failure? It has been my mission for months to convert her into a "good food" lover, to no avail. She and her husband continue to visit the Olive Garden. Well, at least they are moving to North Carolina, where the food sucks. They will have a good time. So do I despise Mrs. Picky Eater? Nope, it has been a great pleasure working with her for the past year and I will miss her dearly. Not sure if it is because we get along so well despite our culinary differences, or maybe its because I feel like I have unfinished business. One day, I promise she will quit eating at Red Lobster, I just don't know when.

My gumbo last week turned out great. I think the last time I posted here was while I was cooking, so I figured I would give a little update. Soon I'll post a gumbo recipe (as has been requested before) but I still need some time to type it up. While the gumbo was good when I finished cooking it, I think it got better the next day. My intention was to cook a lot of it and bring it to feed my staff at the bank. That plan worked out well and everyone enjoyed it. I got one complaint because it was a little spicy and two people mentioned that there wasn't enough salt, but overall it was a success. There was only one person in the branch who chose not to indulge, but I'll cover that later. The best part of the day was as I was leaving with the very end of the gumbo in tow. One woman questioned me about leaving some for her (she already had some for lunch) as a snack. I was so flattered that I left the container so she could finish it off. I was just happy I had such a fan of my gumbo.

The gumbo went over so well that I decided to cook once again. The only problem is that I couldn't find any one thing to cook that everyone would eat. One girl (mentioned above) doesn't eat anything unless it could've been cooked at Applebee's and one girl doesn't eat anything that contains beans. And my number one gumbo fan doesn't like anything too spicy. My original plan to cook red beans and rice didn't really pan out, but I had about three quarts of good chicken stock left in the fridge. What to do.

Oh well, I wanted chicken tortilla soup, so that's what I made. And this one was entirely for me. I figured I would cook the soup and enjoy it and bring the rest to work for anyone who wanted to try it. The soup turned out fantastic (yes, the recipe is coming - this was my second trial for the recipe) and I brought the rest to work the next day. I knew Mrs. Picky Eater wouldn't try it, so I wasn't surprised and I was sure that Mrs. No Beans wouldn't give it a second thought but the best compliment was that Ms. No Spicy Food gave it a try. Sure, the soup seemed to clear out her sinuses, as I sat there splashing hot sauce into mine, but she enjoyed it. And I was happy that someone did. I did end up with a lot of leftovers, but that's not a problem around here. As for the method?

The soup was super easy to make. I used the stock that I had mad a couple nights before and the chicken came right from a cooked rotisserie chicken I picked up at Sav-A-Center. The rest was simple and as I mentioned, the recipe will be here soon. And as for Mrs. Picky Eater, see my next post.

I used to date this girl that played a game. Well, thinking about it now, I dated a lot of girls that liked to play games, but that's beside the point. Her game was a food game, and my lack of grocery shopping this week almost lured me into her sick twisted idea of a game. She wasn't too big on food or eating. The plus side was that I never had to take her out to eat, but on the downside, she was much happier consuming mass quantities of vodka and skipping the meal. So you see, she didn't really appreciate good food, hence the game.

She was a girl who hated more than anything in the world to go grocery shopping. I would say it was even bordering on a true phobia. Instead of going to the store to get food, her thought process went a little like "hmmmm, how long can I put off a trip to the grocery store while living on the miscellaneous scraps of food in my pantry and fridge." Sounds funny? It was. I am not positive, but I'd be willing to bet that I could live three or four weeks on the food that I have in my house, but her pantry was a different story. It would usually get down to a turkey sandwich, and if there wasn't any turkey, a bread sandwich. Or maybe some partially stale chips with her cocktail. Now don't get me wrong, this girl was not destitute, she just hated going to the grocery store.

The sad part about this story is I'm sure we've all done it. Hell, I've been doing it for three days. I've had peanut butter and crackers for lunch every day this week. Today I just finished off the last peanut butter. I didn't buy any lettuce or salad mix this week, no sliced deli meat and not even fresh bread. I just didn't feel like going to the grocery store. Why not live on the basics?

I did make it to the grocery store this evening, but the only item I picked up related to lunch was a jar of mayo. Now I can make some....damn, I forgot the relish.... ummmm, tuna salad for lunch tomorrow. But fear not, the only reason I went to the grocery store was to pick up a few things to make gumbo. Sometime this afternoon I blurted out that I wanted to make gumbo. Next thing I knew I was making lunch for my whole staff tomorrow. Oh well, I can't eat all of this gumbo alone.