Amidst a very rainy day here in New Orleans, as we continue our adventure in excess courtesy of Harrah's New Orleans. We started our day with beignets delivered in from Cafe du Monde (wisely informed later on by our excellent tour guide that really, beignets are nothing more than sopapillas served with sugar rather than honey). And like most fried doughs, it quickly loses its magic when it's cooled, and these were definitely cold by the time it got to us. But beignets served as my Hanukkah fried dish of the day.
After a "walking" tour of the French quarter (in a massive limo tank) - lunch was a K-Paul's, Paul Prudhomme's place. We ordered a bunch of things (necessary consequence of dining amongst Chowhounds) - the worst item was something called a Sunny Salad, which consisted of an amalgamation of cauliflower, raisins and broccoli, atop greens, sprinkled with garlic fried chicken bits, and served with a sweet apple dressing. The textures were all over the place, and the flavors centered on being overwhelmingly sweet. I dressed the salad with a very small fraction of the supplied dressing, and it still came out too sweet.
On the other hand, most of the dishes were quite successful. The fried oysters in the oyster po-boy were large, flavorful, and expertly fried. The addition of oyster mayo (yes, mayo) took it over the top. Chicken was moist, and paired well with the ravioli, although the dinner roll served alongside seems to timid to stand up to the flavors. The chicken and andouille gumbo was expertly prepared - dark, smoky, complex, spicy and rich. And, I am finding, not as texturally thick as I expected it to be. But the sweet potato fries simply blew me away. These were crisp, spicy, and tender - not the usual oily sad orange affairs I have tasted in the past. Dipped in the oyster mayo, this completely reinvents the idea of the Belgian frites into something distinctly New Orleans.
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