It was a delicious sandwich, no doubt, but I gotta' say, Viviano's at home has a great muffaletta. Now that I've eaten one, I won't spend a meal for another. The olive salad is better than Viviano's, but the bread and meats are not.
After lunch, we took a small bus tour of New Orleans. Billy gave some great commentary about the area. We toured a small part of the French Quarter, Habitat for Humanity's Musican's Village in the 9th Ward, Treme, St. Louis Cemetery #3, the City Park, and the Garden District. we heard lot about New Orleans' history as well as its recent history with Katrina. New Orleans is known as the Hollywood of the South. Our tour guide told us about many of the movies that have been filmed here and pointed out several celebrity houses. It was a well-spent three hours.
After the tour, we went back to room to relax and clean up for 8:15 reservations at NOLA, one of Emeril Lagasse's restaurants. Here's the meal in a nutshell:
brioche and jalapeno corn bread
Miss Hay's stuffed chicken wings
catfish and dirty rice
shrimp and grits
chocolate bread pudding with a chocolate sauce, a caramel sauce, popcorn ice cream, and popcorn brittle
8 comments:
How did it all taste? What about the popcorn ice cream?
Yeah, how was the shrimp and grits? Are you using your super-duper camera or your iPhone? The photos are so clear, even in the swamp. My favorite one, besides the grits, is the alligator (or croc, whatever) head floating in the water. He almost looks friendly and cute, like you might want to reach out and pet his sweet, little head. But, not.
I went on one of those Gray Line tours, too. There's a lot of fascinating history down there, like the above ground cemeteries.
Starting with the appetizer--the stuffed chicken wings had a Vietnamese flair--I should have taken a pic of them once I had cut them open--the chicken of course, but then a few rice noodles, cilantro, some other things I couldn't distinguish, and a hoisin dipping sauce--all of that was stuffed into a de-boned chicken wing (minus the tip). It was delicous. Tim got the cornmeal crusted catfish with dirty rice and a tomato "jam." The catfish was perfectly fried--not at all greasy, and the dirty rice was flavorful with sausage. The shrimp and grits were not the best I've ever had. The shrimp was delicious, with a slightly spicy red sauce, bacon, and mushrooms. The grits, however, were overcooked and overpowered. I would like to have had less of the sauces and more of the grits. The dessert was really good. The chocolate bread pudding was just the right density for me, not too dense, not too spongy. Both the chocolate sauce and the bourbon caramel was good. I did enjoy the popcorn ice cream. It had a not too sweet (the bread pudding was plenty sweet enough) buttery flavor. The "popcorn brittle" was a lot like caramel corn. It was a nice crunchy compliment to all the richness.
How's that?
Mmmm. Sounds delicious. Certainly sounds better than the proverbial plain baked potato and glass of lukewarm water.
Deane, the restaurant in Panama City Beach Fl is Boar's Head. So Amy, this is restaurant we went to for Dad's family reunion. The tomato and mozzarella salad was the best along with the fried shrimp.
17290 Front Beach Road
Panama City Beach, FL
850234-6638
Deane reminded me of the donut place. Thomas's donuts and snack shop. Laguna Beach. FL...Yum... Yum...
Yum!
So, Amy...I didn't get to follow your blog during your roadtrip, but I'm looking at it now. Looks like you had a good trip.
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