New Orleans #5: More Garden District and the Commander's Palace

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Our last full day in New Orleans. We had already done quite a lot during our stay in New Orleans, and we had something a little bit special planned for that evening, so we decided to take it easy during the day. We had done pretty much all we wanted to do and had booked cemetery tour for the following morning, so our first part of call was to head out for some breakfast. After doing some research online, we found a place that had good reviews and was a typical diner set up. I hadn't been to a proper diner yet, so wanted to get that checked off my USA to do list. The place we found was on Magazine Street so we headed back to the Garden District. It wasn't too busy as we entered 'Slim Goodies Diner' and we were shown to a table near the window. There was some outdoor seating in the back, but it didn't look too appealing. I liked the interior of the diner. The breakfast menu was quite extensive and we had a hard time pinning down our choices of what to order. Finally, we decided on the Tex Mex slammer, the Creole Slammer and biscuits with gravy and eggs. The Tex Mex Slammer consisted of homemade hash browns topped with black beans, Cheddar cheese, the diner's own salsa, sour cream, avocado, and plantains, and was serve with tortillas. It was really good, and I am glad we picked it. The biscuits with gravy and eggs were good, too. It's a pretty basic breakfast, but still very tasty. I enjoyed the Creole Slammer, too. This was a base of homemade hash browns covered with the diner's own recipe crawfish entouffee and a biscuit on the side for dipping and mopping up the sauce, delicious!

After breakfast, we wanted to spend some time outside so we headed to Audubon Park, which was nearby. The park is pretty huge and there is lots to see and do there. There is a zoo, aquarium and golf course to name but a few of the things you can do there. We just wanted to relax, so didn't go to see any of the things on offer. We just took a walk around the park. It was so pretty. There was a small lake with a water fountain that we along and there were some pretty statues and plenty of benches to relax on. We left one of my friends reading on a bench, while my other friend and I explored some more. We walked along by a small river and saw a turtle basking in the sun. We took the bridge and ended up by the golf course. That area was also very well cared for, everything was neatly manicured. Our favourite bit of the park was the trees, I don't know their name, maybe willow trees, with the long draping branches. These looked so cool. We had fun taking photos of them with different settings to make them look more mysterious and haunting. Such cool trees.

Since the weather looked like it was going to be a bit dicey, we headed back to our AirBnB and spent the afternoon just chilling out. It was nice to have some downtime and crack on with packing up in preparation for the start of our road trip, the next day. Also, since we were going out for a fancy meal, we took our time getting ready. It was nice and relaxing. as we got to listen to the rain coming down outside, safely dry inside. We had a reservation for the Commander's Palace so headed back over to Garden District that evening. This restaurant is considered to be one of the best in New Orleans, so we were pretty excited to eat there. It was also pretty fancy, so I had to look smart, not like my normal self.

We arrived and managed to get a parking space just across from the restaurant. I had read online that the area the restaurant is situated in, in the Garden District, isn't too pleasant at night, but we were only outside a couple of minutes and didn't notice anything sketchy. We were ushered into the restaurant and shown to our table. The interior was quite dark and cozy. The dining room is a good size, but doesn't feel too big. We got a surprise when we looked at the menu, the meal we wanted to order the Chef's tasting menu was a lot cheaper than we had originally thought. It's not often something like that happens and it meant that we could do the wine pairing, too. We were feeling very happy about that. We also had a few requests that the staff were more than happy to accommodate. The menu does say that the whole table should order the tasting menu and keep alterations to a minimum to ensure good service, but I think our requests were pretty normal ones that they are used to getting most days from tourists/out of towners, who don't get the chance to dine their regularly.

Our first course was a deviation from the Chef's Tasting Menu, as we had to try the Turtle Soup. Yes, soup made with turtle, I was really intrigued and this is a popular dish in Creole cuisine and a specialty of the Commander's Palace. The soup was served and when it arrived we were asked f we would like a big slug of dry sherry in it, it enhances the taste apparently. Well, it would be rude not to. The boozy turtle soup was a hit with me. I really enjoyed it. Now time to start our tasting menu proper. Our first course was a Red and White Shrimp Cocktail, the menu described it as a Latin style cocktail with grilled Louisiana white shrimps and pickled Argentinian red shrimps, Creole and heirloom tomatoes with chili, lime and garlic served with red wine vinegar homemade potato chips. It was utterly delicious! I love shrimp so that was always going to be hit with me and who doesn't love homemade crisps. Like Kettle Chips, but only better. This was paired with a sparkling wine, the 2012 Commander's Palace Cuvée Brut Blanc de Noirs from Green Valley of Russian River Valley.

Our next course was Sweetcorn Fritters and Caviar. Me eating caviar and in a fancy restaurant and not out of a tin, who would have thought it?!? This dish came immaculately presented pretty much as soon as we had finished the previous one. The waitstaff were definitely on top of their game. The fritters were described as smoky corn fritters and were topped with jumbo hump blue crab meat, Atchafalaya River basin and cantaloupe caviar, okra tartar sauce, smoked Parmesan, and pickled watermelon. It sounds like a lot of different stuff and that it might be combining too many things for one small dish, but it was really tasty. I definitely could have eaten more than one of these. This course was paired with the 2013 Melville Estate "Verna's Vineyard" Chardonnay.This wine comes from the Santa Rita Hills in Santa Barbara, California. We were only on to our second proper course and already I was struggling to keep up with the amount of alcohol I had to consume with the food. The waiters also kept bring more bread to the table when we had finished what we had. I love bread, but was trying my best not to eat too much of it, as it would make me too full to enjoy the good stuff.

Luckily, we had a small break, le Coup de Milieu, in which we were served a Watermelon Mojito. This was only a small glass of Appleton white rum, crushed lime, Louisiana sugarcane and mint, but it was perfect for breaking up the meal a little while still enjoying something flavourful. Now it was time for the more heavier courses, those with lots of meat. So far we had mainly fish, which is pretty light, but now we would be having red meat. The next course was Crispy Duroc Pork Cheeks, which consisted of Tasso brined and cracklin' crusted pork cheeks. Tasso ham is a specialty of Louisiana and Creole cuisine. The pork cheeks were served with bacony barbecued white beans cheese curds, pickled mustard seeds, and sweet & sour figs. I didn't really know what to expect with the pork cheeks, as I had never had them before, but I have to say that I did really enjoy them. It is not something I would normally pick to eat, but now if I saw them on a menu, I would probably have them again. I also loved the little bowl they were served in, it was like a little black cauldron. This course was accompanied by a 2013 Pinot Noir from the Sartori Family of the Veneto, Italy.

The last of the savoury courses was Black Angus Short Ribs. These were smoky braised Creekstone short ribs with pink peppercorn jus, sticky parsnips, cayenne ketchup, cowboy onion rings, and grilled whiskey drunk peaches. The short ribs were really delicious and I enjoyed them a lot. I love parsnips so I scoffed those happily. The one thing I didn't like about this dish was the onion ring. Me and one of my friends agreed that it was just too greasy and didn't compliment the other parts of the dish. This was the only real complaint that we had about all the dishes we had tried, so one thing not to our liking is okay. This was paired with the 2014 St-Cosme Cotes-du-Rhone, from the Rhône Valley in France. I was getting pretty full by this point, not only with food, but also with wine. I haven't drank this much in a long time, and it was definitely going to my head.

For the dessert, we had opted to switch the Chef's choice of dessert for Commander's Bread Pudding Souffle, which had to be ordered in advance as it would take a while to prepare and cook. The Bread Pudding souffle was massive! Just like the Turtle Soup at the start of our meal, this meal was also finished table side with a hefty portion of alcohol, this time it was warm whiskey cream. I really enjoyed it, but it was touch and go for a while as to if I would finish it. I was just so full. Of course, there was more alcohol to compliment the intended dessert, 2014 Govone "Terre Sabaude" Moscato d'Asti DOCg from Piedmont, Italy. The wine was a little too sweet for my taste. And that was it, we were done! I was so full, I could barely stagger back to the car. We are all so full and sleepy, that we just flopped into food comas when we got home.

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Photos

Tex Mex Slammer
Slim Goodies Diner

Creole Slammer
Slim Goodies Diner

Biscuit, Eggs and Gravy
Slim Goodies Diner