Easter Fun

We had an amazing time catching up with family and friends over the Easter holidays and eating our way through the past two weeks. That's not exactly a hard thing to do in a city like New Orleans, and I never tire of the amazing food Louisiana has to offer. For Easter Sunday instead of the traditional dinner most people are used to,  we celebrated with a huge crawfish boil. Traditionally an over-sized stockpot is filled with all your seasonings: onion, celery, garlic, lemons and seafood boil and allowed to steep for about 20 minutes, then the potatoes are added to get a head start. After the potatoes are in for 5 minutes the crawfish are added and the water is brought back to a boil. Once the water reaches a boil, you shut it off, add the corn on the cob and mushrooms and let it all soak 30-45 minutes. The result is pure heaven.

Experienced hands cleaning the crawfish

stirring the pot

ready to be devoured

Paw Paw Jake and Louis- a while ago while we were living in San Diego and sorely missing crawfish Louis called to get the secret to his success......his recipe started with a 6 pack of beer- put the water on to boil and drink your first beer, once the water is up to a boil add your seasonings and have two more beers, and so on. The man knows his stuff.

During our visit home I made it my personal mission to eat as much seafood as I could get my hands on. I think I did a pretty good job. Here is a list of some of my favorite things we had while in town. If you ever find yourself hungry in New Orleans, you can't go wrong with any of these pics!

Cafe Giovanni- Eggplant LoCicero- grilled eggplant with shrimp in a lemon, caper, artichoke and mushroom sauce

Cafe at the Square- Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict- holy heart stopping breakfast, I cleaned my plate!

ACME Oyster House- charbroiled oysters, raw oysters, shrimp po-boy and crab and corn soup

Seither's Seafood-  Blackened Shrimp Po-boy, boiled crabs and boiled shrimp- if you don't get invited to Paw Paw's house for crawfish, this can fill in as a close second

The Delachaise- goose fat fries with a bottle of prosecco- yes, it was as good as you are imagining and yes I shared (a little)
R&O's -  this is the only restaurant that I consistently get the exact same thing every time I go because it's consistently that good- an Italian mixed salad with olives and a dressed shrimp po-boy

Red Fish Grill- Shrimp and Grits, Calamari salad and BBQ Oysters which make you want to lick the plate 

Venezia's- stuffed artichokes, Eggplant Vatican- a fried eggplant shell stuffed with a creamy seafood sauce

Angelo Brocato's - Caramel Cafe Au Lait ice cream in a little traditional Italian bakery/ice cream shop

Pinkberry- Mango Pomegranate Swirl with Pineapple and Raspberries, and the second trip was Mango Coconut swirl with Captain Crunch cereal, Pineapple and Raspberries

Blackened Shrimp PoBoy from Seither's