July 2006 Archives
"Morning Edition" this morning included a neat segment on Hansen's Sno-Bliz, the uptown snowball legend. It's worth a listen:
A Tasty New Orleans Tradition Lives Onby Jeff Brady
Morning Edition, July 25, 2006 "Snowballs" are a summer-time obsession in New Orleans. Snowballs are shaved-ice treats with flavored syrup that are sold from corner stands. One of the best is Hansen's Sno-Bliz. Ernest and Mary Hansen started their business during the Depression. Both died soon after Hurricane Katrina and their granddaughter, Ashley, has taken over.
The Hansen's sno-ball machine is the model for almost every other stand in town.
R&O's Pizza Place
(216 Hammond Hwy., Metairie
504-831-1248
I got back from Santa Clara yesterday evening and was in serious need of local food, so we went out to R&O's. I've been a fan of this place since the late 80s, back when they were a hole-in-the-wall around the corner from the present location. Fitzmorris would talk them up on the radio, and they had to move to a bigger place on Hammond Hwy. Then they got too big for that and bought the building they're in now.
R&O's is not just about pizza, they do pretty good po-boys as well. Their seafood is so-so, but hey, two out of three ain't bad. We usually get pizza when we go there, but everyone was in a sandwich mood last night. I had the "R&O Special," which is roast beef, ham, and swiss cheese, dressed, pickles on the side. Wife and teen both had shrimp po-boys, plain, with butter. Teen usually drowns his in ketchup, it was nice to see him not do this last night. Hopefully that means his tastes are refining a bit.
My sandwich was excellent. The bread was toasted and fresh, the roast beef hot and sloppy. The ham wasn't as good as the roast beef, though. R&O's is using seeded french bread, and they're the first place I've seen it at since the storm.
The shrimp on the other two sandwiches were huge. I can never remember when one shrimp season ends and the other begins, but we must be near the end of the season. They were nice looking, big, battered well--not too much, but a good coating.
Like many places, R&O's is still on limited post-storm hours, only open for lunch Thu-Sun, and dinner Wed-Sun.
Giovanni's
1325 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie
504.835.4558
One of my favorite po-boys to order is a hot sausage, dressed. The reason is simple: most po-boy places use Patton's Hot Sausage patties. While many places can be very inconsistent in their roast beef sandwiches, it's very, very difficult to screw up a hot sausage po-boy. All you do is grill up a couple of patties, put them on good french bread, and dress it up.
I was in a po-boy mood last week and mentioned it on LiveJournal, and a friend reminded me of Giovanni's on Veterans. I hadn't been over there since the storm, so I stopped by. Last time I was there, the entire kitchen crew was asian, today it was three white guys. It's hard to tell these days who owns a place and who just works there, since help is so scarce that many owners are actually in their own kitchens. No worries, though, because hot sausage is difficult to screw up.
I ordered a half a po-boy, and it came with two patties on it. That's between 1/3 and 1/2 pound of meat (it's probably half a pound pre-cooked, but sausage has a good bit of shrinkage). Patton's hot sausage fries up well, with a good crunchy crust. I didn't see where Giovanni's gets their bread from, but it was crunchy and fresh. Their lettuce and tomato were also fresh and well-chilled.
Top all this off with a Diet Barq's, and I had an excellent lunch!
According to a post on the Mid-City mailing list, Liuzza's on Bienville is back, Tuesday - Saturday, 11am-9pm.
I'll have a Frenchuletta and a Draft, please... :-)
Yesterday was the culmination of the FIFA World Cup tournament in Germany. France and Italy played to a 1-1 draw through 90 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of overtime. Italy won 5-3 on kicks from the penalty mark.
The boys and I were cheering for France, mainly because we're pretty partisan in terms of our support of team USA, and none of us are happy with Italy after DeRossi hit Brian McBride in the mouth in the two sides' first round match. So, no Italian food for lunch yesterday. :-)
Kevin (my 12-year old) wanted barbecued chicken, though, not something creative and French. I wanted to do something a bit special, though, so it would have to be a side dish. I had an eggplant in the fridge, which was perfect, since I had so many good eggplant dishes in France.
This was to be an on-the-fly sort of concoction, so I decided on a simple casserole. I peeled the eggplant (which was on the small-to-medium size) and sliced it thin. I made a little sauce: onion, garlic and green onion, sauteed in some olive oil, then added some flour to make a blonde-to-light-brown roux. To this mixture I added some white wine and chicken stock, keeping it fairly thick.
I put down a layer of eggplant slices in a 9" square pyrex dish, covered that with a bit of the sauce, then a sprinkle of bread crumbs to help absorb some of the moisture that was bound to be released in cooking. Then that was topped with some shredded mozzerella (OK, there's some Italian in this). This layering was repeated until the dish was full, and the rest of the cheese was heaped on top.
The dish was tossed in the oven at 350F for about 45 minutes. It turned out to be a tasty addition to the grilled chicken!
