Last time on Eat Your Plate, our hero(s) embarked on a culinary mission in the grand city of New Orleans. Today we pick up where we left off - Jacques-Imo's.
Now, when Dad was describing Jacques-Imo's to Kyle and me, I was sitting there thinking '...man, it's a shame we won't be going there while we're here... this place sounds really cool...' Then it turned out that this was the place he'd intended on taking us all along. He told us about the course procedure while we were at breakfast at Huevos New Orleans; and even as I was chowing down, I was drooling over this restaurant.
If you don't get to Jacques-Imo's before about 5:30 for dinner, you're going to be on the waiting list for at least an hour. Luckily, though, there's a bar called the Maple Leaf right next door where you can chill and sometimes catch a little bit of a show before your meal. The two establishments have absolutely nothing to do with one another, but if you know that you're going to be waiting, you can let the hostess know that you'll be next door and when it's time for you to be seated they actually send someone over to fetch you. It's a nice little "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" hand-off.
You can instantly start to recognize the hip atmosphere of the joint, not only for the number of people spilling out of the front door and onto the sidewalk, but by the very first table the restaurant has to offer. The most romantic seat... erm... out of the house. It's a little 2 person table that sits in the flatbed of a beat-down, decorated pick-up truck right in front of the entrance.
The very experience of getting seated is pretty awesome. Obviously, the place was probably once a house - my guess is that it was a duplex shotgun style number. Needless to say, there isn't much elbow room, but it's all a part of the experience. The ceiling in the entry way and bar area is comprised entirely of framed artwork, pieced together like a giant Tetris game. If you're not the lucky party to dine in the truck, then you're lead through the kitchen to your table in the back of the building. Watch your step going through there, because that juggling act doesn't stop for anything.
We were smart to get there early; it was a rare occasion of walking in and being immediately seated. We sat down and the first thing on our table was water and cornbread muffins. I'm the type that could happily make a meal out of croutons if they were decent enough - these muffins were the bomb.com. Simple, but sweet and did exactly what an appetizer should: make you want more.
Before coming, Dad and Ginna talked about a dish that to Kyle and me sounded awful.
Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake.
I don't blame you at all for passing negative judgment.
Yes, this dish sounds like it would be absolutely putrid, however when you think of it as an appetizer and not as a dessert it's a little bit easier to swallow. It's not sweet like you might think it would be. It's almost more like a flan or a souffle. And the gator tasted like the proverbial chicken.
We ordered the soft shell crab appetizer, but they were out so they brought us stuffed shrimp on the house. It more than made up for the lack of crab.
And to complete the trio of appetizers, a plate of hard fried cheese grits were served. If you ever thought you liked grits before, good lord, you ain't tasted nothing yet. The outside was crispy, almost like tempura, while the inside stayed velvety and creamy. Kyle, who doesn't even really like grits, went back for a second bite (and maybe a third... but who's counting?).
Dammit, this was all before we even ordered our entrees.
I opened my menu and was tempted to order one of everything; even the things I couldn't pronounce. Dad and Ginna split the Scallops (my first choice), Kyle decided on the Pan Fried Drum Fish with Shrimp (my second choice) and after much debate with myself, I chose the Stuffed Quail and Mushrooms.
When we put in our orders, Dad asked me again what I picked...
"...stuffed with what?-"
"I dunno. I don't really care. I'm sure it'll be good."
Kyle remembered what it was stuffed with, "... foie gras..." (fwah grah)
Dad looked at me as he's done many times before with an "are you serious" expression...
"Liver...?"
I still didn't care. I like trying new things, and this would certainly be a first.
Each entree at Jacques-Imo's comes with a very small but very delicious spinach salad with a vinaigrette dressing and a single fried oyster right on top. The whole salad is great, but the star that could easily sing solo is that little oyster.
It took a while for our food to come out, partly because my quail took more time to cook, but we're pretty convinced that other things must have happened in the kitchen that made our order come out so late. Even still, the food was incredible. The foie gras didn't bother me in the least. As a matter of fact, in tasting all of the dishes that came to the table, I'd say that the quail was my favorite. Lucky me.
Typically, as an act to politely turn a table so that the next party could be seated, Jacques-Imo's will perform something called a "lagninappe" (lan-yap - "something extra"). A lagninappe is when your meal is over, and you've not yet receieved the check (or maybe sometimes you have) and the waiter brings you 1 or 2 desserts without asking. It's all complimentary and it's all top notch. This, like I said speeds up your leaving process. Fine by me. Unfortunately, though, this time, we weren't bombarded with desserts, but it was all the better, considering we were pretty full.
Well, it was Sunday. This is always the hardest day for me because it's the Day of Good-Byes. But by hook or by crook, I was going to have some decent craw fish before going back to Houston. Dad had a little place in mind not too far from the house where it's said to be the best in the neighborhood. As far as I'm concerned, every little place in or around New Orleans is the "best in the neighborhood" for some reason or another and you're always lucky if you can even get in.
We did have to wait for a while to get a seat, but we preoccupied ourselves by putting up bets if I could finish off 30lbs of craw fish by myself.
No one had any faith.
I'm still thoroughly convinced that I could do it.
We beat the Church Crowd by about 30 minutes, which is lucky, because they sure did pile in after us. Including the backrooms and kitchen, Fisherman's Cove might be about as big as the 3 bedroom apartment I live in right now. But that didn't stop them from providing an excellent send-off meal of mud bugs. I was happy (and about as messy) as a pig in slop with spice juices running down each arm as I ebbed away at the 10lb pile (and my very own head of garlic) on the table. And it couldn't have been washed down with a better drink than a cold bottle of Barq's Root Beer.
I didn't want to leave for many reasons. I don't think I'll ever really get enough of New Orleans if I'm to experience it 1 weekend at a time. Mostly I love the culture that comes with its cuisine. You just can't find it anywhere else.
I'm already making plans to go back ASAP.
The latter half of this entry is dedicated to Ginna - thanks for the making it great.
-k
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