The BBQ Nerd Hits the Big Easy!

Hey fans, friends, and fellow questers! So uh… I hope everyone is doing okay and is safe! If this blog can offer any sort of diversion, than I am glad. Before the lockdowns started, my wife and I took a wonderful trip to New Orleans, so I thought I’d detail some of the places we ate! Since this is a BBQ Blog, I’ll start with the BBQ!

Central City BBQ’s options were numerous. They featured boudin, burnt ends, candied pork belly, along with classics like brisket and pulled pork. Their sides also featured creole touches like their slaw and southern classics including Brussel sprouts and potato salad. With all the options, it was a bit dizzying, but luckily Central City offers a FANTASTIC deal. For $59 ($1 upcharge for burnt ends) you can get a 5 meat and four side plate with all the fixins. We selected the boudin, burnt ends, pork belly, brisket and pulled pork for our meats and settled on the pit beans, sweet corn spoonbread, mac and cheese, and potato salad for sides. Truly a large feast that we took home with us.

The only downside to this meal was the fairly forgettable pulled pork. It wasn’t bad by any means, just a bit of a let down for southern style BBQ. It did, however, pair EXCELLENTLY with the vinegar sauce. Everything else on the menu was top notch. The pork belly was delectably candied, with a savory rub that prevented oversweetness. The brisket and its superior form-the burnt ends- had fantastic crust with plenty of salt and smoke. The leaner brisket was very good, but not a game changer. The burnt ends though had heft, and their rich fat filled us up fast. The boudin was also excellent, with an expert blend of spices and rice to really give us that classic boudin flavor. Though no sauce was needed for it, it went well with the spicy sauce offered at the table.

In terms of sides, all four knocked it out of the park. The mac and cheese was creamy, cheesy, and decadent with the crispy bacon on top. The spoonbread had just just the right amount of sweetness and was fantastically buttery. The potato salad, while a bit pureed texture wise, had that fantastic mustard bite you expect from this city. Finally, the pit beans had spice, a dash of heat, and sweetness to spare, rounding out some truly excellent BBQ. I give Central City BBQ a BIG EASY 9.0/10 If you go, get this sampler!

Continuing to highlight the BBQ, though it occurred at the END of our trip, we stopped on the way back to sample some of Patillo’s amazing links along with a few of their other items, mainly ribs and chicken.

While the link was, once again, the highlight of the plate, the chicken and ribs fared far better than the sliced meats I had last time. While the skin could have been a bit more crispy, the chicken paired will with the chili powder heavy sauce. The ribs were a bit chewy at times, but they had a good, savory rub to compliment the sauce. All of the other items held up, and it was truly a pleasure revisiting this place, this time with my wife.

Moving away from BBQ, but still BBQ Adjacent, our second night in New Orleans was, at first, disappointing. The restaurant we wanted to eat dinner at would not let us in due to my wife’s license having expired, much to our surprise. We ended up at one of the few places open- Sylvain. Our night quickly turned around and Sylvain ended up our favorite place we ate the whole trip. My wife ordered the pan fried pork shoulder, and I opted for the Duck Arroz Caldo, Sylvain’s take on the Fillipino dish. The pork shoulder was perhaps the most unique take on pork I have seen. The dish looks like you will be eating pork burgers, but it is clear the texture inside the patties is closer to pulled pork, and it is accentuated by the mustard au jus and the hot sauce (ASK FOR THE HOT SAUCE).

The dish was elegant, and the portions were huge. My dinner was also delicious and paired very well with hot sauce. Additionally, we sampled their Southern Anti-Pasti, which was generously given on the house after a mix up prevented it from being our appetizer. I can’t recommend this enough, as the hummus, chicken salad, and beets were especially refreshing. And it has enough to fill 4 people up. The waitress also gave us complimentary bottles of their hot sauce, since we enjoyed it so much. The sauce is perfect, plenty of vinegar, garlic, and a few other spices.

In terms of Breakfast/Brunch, you can’t go wrong with French Toast or the Ruby Slipper Cafe. At the former you MUST get the Coconut Cream Stuffed French Toast with Bruleed Pineapple, candied macadamia, lemon curd, and maple syrup. It is exactly at sinful as it sounds and it LOOKS fantastic to boot.

Yeah so… you should get this if you are in town. You won’t regret it. Also be sure to snag their breakfast potatoes. At the Ruby Slipper, I recommend their three benedict sampler, where you get to try their comopsed Shrimp Boogaloo Benedict, fried chicken based Chicken St. Charles, and simply perfect Egges Cochon with apple-braised pulled pork.

We also ate at the fancy Arnaud’s and had a wonderful first dinner (I cannot reccomend the potato souffle enough, you MUST get them as an appetizer). The only place that really disappointed was Deanie’s. The portion for the fried plate was huge, and while the gumbo was pretty good, the fried food didn’t have much flavor. Enjoy the slideshow below, which starts at Sylvain, then proceeds to French Toast, Deanie’s Ruby Slipper Cafe, and then Arnaud’s. Finally you’ll get to see a few pics from the legendary Cafe Dumond and our river cruise.

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Stay safe everyone!!!