Homecooked Sauteed Bitter Squash (2009.04.26)

Bitter squash is a type of squash that tastes bitter. It looks kind of funky. It has grooves in it, unlike the smooth skin of American squash. Bitter squash is typically a light green color, about 8-12 inches long, 3-4 inch diameter. This is the 'brown sauce' version where the bitter squash is cooked with ginger, black beans and anchovies. Bitter squash is like any squash and takes some time to cook before it is completely cooked. It also takes time for the flavor to be cooked into the squash. The flavor is a mixture of bitter and salt. Good stuff and very healthy.

Homecooked Dinner (2009.04.14)

Ham sauteed with green peppers and onion (spicy). This isn't the most exciting dish, rather plain and ordinary but it has a nice assortment of colors.


This is napa soup cooked in ham broth (as evident by the big ham bone). There are also carrots and straw mushrooms in the soup. It's rather light and yummy.

Cuisine of China - Lava Shrimp (2009.04.11)

Lava Shrimp can only be found at Cuisine of China. It's a simple dish. The concept behind it is simple as well. The idea of 'Lava' is that the food is piled over rice. Lava shrimp consists of a generous amount of baby shrimp in a brown sauce over a bowl of white rice. It's simple and yummy.


Total cost: 5.95 + tax

McDonald's - Fish-O-Filet (2009.03.28)

"The Filet-O-Fish contains a battered fish patty made mostly from Pollock and/or hoki, half a slice of processed cheese and one ounce of tartar sauce made with dill relish, and seasoning on a steamed bun." (from Wiki) French fries provide a nice decor for the boring looking sandwich. Obviously this was from McDonald's.


Total cost: 1.19 + tax (this was a promotion that has already ended)

Popeyes (2009.04.04)

Um, because I really didn't eat much of a dinner at SLICE, I walked around looking for food. I decided to get Popeye since I could get biscuits and eat them for breakfast the next morning. Well, I really wanted mashed potatoes with the biscuits, I think I got ripped off with the half a scoop they gave me. I ordered 6 biscuits and started eating one before I took the picture. I ordered fries because E said she wanted some earlier. Good cajun fries, a bit cold by the time I to them though. I like my food hot, it tastes much better!

Total cost = 1.49 + 1.49 + 3.54 + tax = $7.

SLICE Pizzeria (2009.04.04)

Day three's dinner was at SLICE Pizzeria located on 1513 St. Charles Ave, a block behind the B&B. E ordered spaghetti and meatballs, it doesn't get simpler than that. Those are some huge meatballs! There was a choice of linguine, angel hair or something else. This is angel hair. Actually just looks like thin spaghetti to me. Right.


So apparently Shrimp and Andouille pizza looks like below. If you notice there are ham/sausage like objects. Um, didn't know that's what Andouille was. It never occured to me to ask the waitress either... It was topped with carmelized onions, yellow corn, tomatoes and green onions. This was actually a cheese pizza with those toppings reheated so it "stuck" on the pizza. It was all right...


This was a cheese calzone with red onions, mushrooms and peppers. Well, it was a tad raw where the inner circle was. Um, I asked for it to be re-cooked. When it came back I was still a bit iffy about it. It became really soggy because of the veggies... I ate the middle and left the outer crust. The marinara sauce was ok, I've had better marinara sauce, like at Sbarro's. Ah, I miss their Strombolis!


Total cost = 5.50 + 5.95 + 2.55 + tax + tip = $13

Praline Connection (2009.04.04)

Day three lunch at NO was at the Praline Connection located somewhere. It was highly recommended by the locals. Many of us hadn't had real LA food so it was decided to get a large appetizer platter rather than separate entrees. This was called the Connection Platter. It consisted of Fried Alligator Sausage, Spicy Chicken Wings, Fried Okra, Fried Pickles and Bite Size Catfish. As you can see the catfish were a bit short of "bitsize." Everything was pretty good (your regular fried stuff), except for the chicken which I didn't eat. E said it tasted like spicy chicken so I decided I wasn't missing out. There was 4 different sauces to dip in: Barbeque sauce (not like the one from Oceana Grille, but the normal kind!), tartar sauce, a tomato based sauce and a tartar-like sauce without the pickles.


E and I split another appetizer, BBQ Oysters with garlic toast. The oysters were very fresh, plump and tender. The sauce was, well, BBQ sauce. I'm not a fan of BBQ sauce, so it was all right.


Someone else's meal came with cornbread and I decided I wanted some too. It was your regular cornbread, nothing too special. I think I still liked the one at Vidalia's more. Ha.


Total Cost: $25 split amongst 6 people = $4 + $5 +tax + tip = $12.50

Ye Old College Inn (2009.04.03)

Day two dinner was a team outing at Ye Old College Inn at some location in New Orleans (I don't have the address). No appetizer today, just plain old entrees.

E ordered the Grilled Mahi Mahi atop a bed of sauteed spinach with a lobster beurre blanc and garnished with mashed potatoes, tortilla sticks and shrimp. I only tried the mashed potatoes, they were a bit cold. Bleh. The dish looked good though and E seemed to enjoy it.

I decided I needed to turn on the flash. I ordered the Fresh Fish (Redfin) Meuniere, grilled and topped with a creole meuniere sauce over a sauteed medley of fresh asparagus, baby spinach and chopped tomatoes. It was tangy and good. I don't really like tomatoes with my food, but it tasted pretty good in this dish. I enjoyed this dish but it wasn't alot, a bit more like the upscale dining in MD and not the big platters of LA.

This is why I wanted to order dessert. I don't remember the actual name since I didn't take a picture of the menu. However, it's something like "Fried Bread Pudding PoBoy". Everything in LA is "poboy" style, aka fried. Well, we kept thinking they meant poboy to mean in a sandwich, as all poboys are, but our server, Jimmy, cleared it up for us. They take the bread pudding, cuts half of it and deep frys it. Then they put it back on the original bread pudding and puts rum sauce over it with confectionate sugar on top. It was good. It looked better than the regular bread pudding a couple other people got. The funny thing was AJ mentioned bread pudding on Wednesday when I saw her. And I told her then I never had it before and asked if it was like rice pudding, she gave me a funny face and told me she couldn't describe it. Now I know. It's not that hard to describe!! LOL


Total cost = 17.95 + 4.50 + tax + tip = $30

Oceana Grille (2009.04.02)

Day one in New Orleans. As soon as we got to the B&B we went out in search for Lunch/Dinner. We had a gift certificate for Oceana Grille (739 Conti St). The GC was worth $25 but we purchased it for $2. The stipulation? Had to eat over $50 for two people, excluded alcohol, not that we ordered any.

So we ordered two appetizers and two entrees. Yes, lots of food for two people, but we managed. This first one is Louisiana Crab Cakes in a crawfish cream sauce. E and I each ate one. It had a lot of breading and really wasn't that special. The sauce was very creamy and had a remoulade hint to it. I still like the crabcake at King's Contrivance or G&M's.


The other appetizer was Cajun Alligator Sausage "Atchafalaya." I never had alligator before, and no, I don't consider it "meat." It wasn't very special, acceptable. It tasted like a cross between pork and beef, texture-wise.


Next came the entrees, E ordered Redfish"Amer" which was sauteed redfish topped with crawfish and mushroom cream sauce, served with potatoes and vegetables. It wasn't really "sauteed" - there was breading on it and it seemed fried or grilled. I tried some, it was ok...


I ordered Barbequed Shrimp - New Orleans Style. The menu states that it is barbequed in a buttery pepper sauce cooked in their shells with cafun french bread for dipping. Well, no shells (and I assumed it to be large shrimps) and that yellow-orange stuff if grease...yuck... The tiny gritty stuff was probably garlic, but it tasted funny. I didn't like it. I ended up putting all my shrimp around the plate so the grease would drip off and picked the garlic off. My plate looked pretty funny as I was eating. No, not as tasteful as I wanted it to be.


Total Cost = 12.50 + 8 + 18 + 18 = 56.50 - 25GC = 31.50 + tax + tip (based on 56.50) = $45
LA tax is 9%, what fun...
With the GC it wasn't a bad deal for two people. Though, the taste, was... =/

Oh, and though it was 'alot of food' - I manged to finish off all the shrimps, the 3 alligators, 1 crab cake and 1/4 of the red fish and some potatoes. No, I wasn't really stuffed either! =P