Culinarycolleen.com Website Review

now that it’s mardi gras week, i figured it would be a good time to finally talk about my new orleans trip last month. matt and i joined my mom and several of her friends for a big trip to celebrate a friend’s mother’s 100th birthday party (crazy, right?). i had never been to new orleans and was blown away by the city’s food, music, and overall vibe. since this blog is all about food, here’s a little summary of my very favorites from the trip. things regardless and it did not disappoint. i ordered the louisiana shrimp cavatelli with creole tomatoes, garlic, shrimp bu*ter. i was a matt ordered the crespelle of roasted winter squash with wild mushrooms, herbed ricotta cheese, sage. from the bite i had, it tasted like crepes that had been stuffed and then baked (with lots of cheese). it’s not usually a good sign for matt when there’s only one vegetarian option on the menu, but in this case it wasn’t a problem at all. i definitely want to try to recreate this at home – my mom ordered the jumbo louisiana shrimp “en cocotte” with roasted jalapeño cheese grits, andouille & green onion sausages. this little out of the way to get to, but our efforts paid off when we discovered that you can buy your wine in their wine shop and the front, order food when you check out, and then go sit in the beautiful patio out back. matt ordered the orecchiette with garlic, tomato, broccoli rabe, caciotta. it was as good as it looks, and my mom and i both stole my mom and i shared a few dishes, but our absolute favorite was the grilled squid with potatoes, fennel, olives, and saffron aioli. it was a nice way to break up all of the rich food we had been eating! we couldn’t leave new orleans without trying some king cake. mardi gras hadn’t officially started yet, but the city was definitely several friends. we started with the wood-fired oysters with chili garlic bu*ter and ordered a second plate of them right away once we i was more than pleased with my order of rabbit & dumplings, which was pure comfort food taken to another level.