One of the Dr.’s colleagues who is also a Tulane graduate wanted to show me the best po-boy in New Orleans. I couldn’t refuse his offer; the Dr. was going to be occupied with work anyway. The colleague considers himself a local, but we got lost a couple of times and ended walking up and down Magazine Street to try and find it. Not surprisingly, people we asked in cabs and on the streets had no idea which place we were talking about. When we finally got the correct directions, we had to take the sad public bus to the other end of town because there were no cabs picking up passengers. I had just eaten lunch but the shenanigans we had to go through to get po-boys made me hungry again.

The most common story I’ve read about po-boys is that the term comes from the term “poor boys” because the traditional sandwich was meatless and only dipped in meat juices to remain affordable for the blue-collar working men of the 20s and 30s. Ask any Southerner and they will tell you that the secret to a good po-boy is the bread: flaky and crusty outside but light and airy inside. The more crumbs you leave after eating a po-boy, the better.

Domilise’s is one of those hole-in-the-walls left by time to rot. The thin wooden walls are covered with old-school photographs and outdated signs. The stained ceilings hover above the bar that looks like it could be found in someone’s dank basement. Except for the young hipster guy behind the counter, Domilise’s looks and smells like what I imagined the old days looked and smelled like.

Domilise’s is at 5240 Annunciation Street. The area is a sleeper town so call 504/899.9126 before you drag yourself over there to make sure it’s even open.

Related post/s:
Domilise’s and po-boy photos on Flickr

Delmonico changed my erroneously-informed impression of Emeril Lagasse and of New Orleans cooking in general. I’ve never been a fan of the man but I realized later, while attending a cooking demonstration at the New Orleans School of Cooking, how much he has contributed to the food and culture of the city. Throughout our stay in New Orleans, we had a lot of rich and fatty foods. It was at Delmonico’s where we had the right balance of good food, drinks and ambiance.

I was in the city crashing the Dr.’s appointed time at the annual anesthesiology conference. Wherever we went, we would run across some of his colleagues. At Delmonico, there was a big table of them, so even though we had reserved seats, we opted to stay at the bar for dinner because it was more casual sitting by the piano man in the middle of the room than being surrounded by other doctors. (Can you blame me? I can only take a few of them at a time!)

After a round of sparkling wine and cocktails, we started with the sausage served with shiitake mushrooms. Delmonico has a whole menu of house-made charcuterie and artisanal cheeses but we controlled ourselves to leave room for the rabbit, the crab and the pork cheeks. The rabbit itself was pretty bland like chicken, but the broth surrounding it was well-seasoned. I couldn’t stop myself from clearing everything off with the freshly baked bread that kept coming in from the kitchen. The soft-shell crab was great with our drinks. The tartar sauce was thick, but light in taste and did not overwhelm the crispiness of the fried crab.

Dirty rice has never tasted this good. True to its Creole roots, the rice was cooked in the juices of the meat it was served with and it shared the rich brown color of the crispy pork cheeks. The golden beets salad was awesome in data molasses, pine nuts and homemade yogurt underneath, but we still needed a side of green beans tossed in garlic and some lemon juice to cut through the richness of our entire meal. Now if only they weren’t cooked in butter…

The dessert choices were not afterthoughts. We ended up going for the earl grey panna cotta with poached Seckel pear sprinkled with pine nut streusel. For my first visit at an Emeril Lagasse restaurant, I have to say that Bam!, I’m now a fan.

Emeril’s Delmonico Restaurant and Bar is at 1300 St. Charles Avenue. Reservations are essential, but walk-ins are accommodated. Call 504/525.4937 anyway so you know how long the wait is. Drink and eat at the bar–it’s perfect.

Related post/s:
Emeril’s Delmonico Restaurant and Bar photos on Flickr

The Dr. and I both woke up with a hangover. We have been in New Orleans for less than two days and we’re already learning what it’s like to legally walk the streets with drinks in hand at all times of the day. Hangovers like this one call for a hot bowl of pho to calm our stomachs down and stop the pounding in our heads. Enter the town of Gretna, one of the largest enclaves of Vietnamese agricultural workers southeast of the city, on the other side of the Mississippi River.

It was the day of the Giants-Saints football game and none of the cabs we stopped were willing to cross the bridge for less than $40 round-trip. Eli Manning, who plays for the New York Giants, is a New Orleans hometown boy, so whatever the outcome was, the locals were meant to celebrate. (The Saints later destroyed the Giants.) It’s more difficult to get a return fare from small town Gretna so our grouchy cab driver tacked on a few extra dollars to our fare for disrupting his football time.

The cha gio here, or crispy spring rolls, were unlike what we usually eat in Vietnamese restaurants in New York City. They use a different kind of rice wrap that’s more thin and they bubbled up after frying. They weren’t cheap on the filling either. They were excellent wrapped in lettuce leaves and then dipped in nuoc mam, or the sweet and sour fish sauce that’s always on the table. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

We ordered two kinds of pho to compare, one with a clear broth, and another–the Dr.’s preference–with a thick and stewy soup. Both hit the spot for sure because we nearly had to roll ourselves back to the city after eating. Of course, my eyes were hungrier than my stomach, so I ordered a plate of pork chops with rice that I ended up packing to go and eating in our hotel room later that night. The $40 ended up being worth the trip because we had the best Vietnamese food we’ve ever had outside of the island of Palawan, a Vietnamese refugee enclave in the Philippines.

Tan Dinh is at 1705 Lafayette Street right off the Belle Chasse Highway in Gretna, Louisiana. Call 504/361.8008 before you spend a hefty fare from New Orleans just to make sure they’re open.

Related post/s:
Tan Dinh Restaurant photos on Flickr