Thursday, December 10, 2009

Purely arbitrary


Harrah's of New Orleans is taking a few bloggers along the next few days for something they call "The Greatest Weekend Ever". I've seen the agenda, which features such things as meals in Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico, or at KPaul's, and an interview with the head chef of Besh. No doubt my fellow bloggers and I are going to take our readers along for the ride by blogging, or tweeting about the experience, but Harrah's has also generously provided a two night stay as a prize to be given away.

First the disclaimer: The two night stay covers only the hotel stay, and does not include travel, meals, and other expenses, is open only to legal US residents, and must be redeemed by 12/30/2010.

Now, who gets it? I'm being purely arbitrary - the criteria are my whim. Write me a post about a good question that you'd like answered about the food in New Orleans. Or tell me how you'd use that weekend in New Orleans. But wait! The winning post must be done on Saturday, Dec 12, before 11pm. I'll announce a winner on Sunday. That's about it. Good luck.
Posted by at 12/10/2009 10:11:00 PM
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10 comments:

  1. I find it interesting that Louisiana has joined Houston as a place with a growing Vietnamese population,and other areas. How is the "new" ethinic food accepted in a town with such storied culinary traditions? Is it loved by the "natives", or is it eaten mainly by its main ethnic base? How are these new immigrant groups able to change the food culture in the area? (Vietnamese crawfish places and asian run po-boy places in Houston show that NOLA food has influence on our ethnic food here)

    Sounds like you three are on a pimping trip, enjoy it.
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  2. That is an excellent question. We have done a bit of a run around the area, and we didn't spot any immigrant ethnic eateries at all. Very odd, we may have to dig deeper to find them.
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  3. I hail from Baltimore, MD. I'll be home in New Orleans visiting family for Christmas, so I could really use the hotel stay. Now for my question...I am a fairly decent cook and my friends often ask me to cook up some New Orleans cuisine for them. I usually oblige. One friend in particular requested a gumbo. However, due to her religion, she doesn't eat any scavengers, including pig, shrimp, and crab. I can't even begin to make gumbo without a shrimp stock. I'm at a total loss. Can I make gumbo without shrimp, crab, and pig? Is that really a gumbo?
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  4. Welcome, jspenc20. I'll pitch the question to the chefs I'll meet today, but my impression is that gumbo is defined more by the roux and other thickeners (ie, filé or okra).
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  5. I miss LA and Nola so much. There is no where else I have been that has so much good food for so little money. Granted there are places like KPauls and Commanders Palace that are both pricey and good, but to be able to walk in to just about any random place and have a fantastic meal is something I have not seen in Houston. There are so many medicore places to eat here it is astonishing.

    Okay, so I don't really have a good question to ask. But I would definitely use the stay to be able to go back and hit my favorite places with my hubby, who courted me while we lived in South LA. Mini honeymoon, I suppose.
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  6. In response to Ken:
    Both Cajun and Vietnamese food have both been heavily influence by the French so it is not surprising to a Louisiana native that the two styles of food would be complimentary to each other. There is a was large immagration of Vietnamese to that region many years ago. Those immagrants brought with them their food styles and you can find the Asian ethic foods in good supply in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. A lot of the traditional french influence Vietnamese foods use many of the same ingredients as cajun foods. Though they do have curries which is a nice addition to spices.

    The thing I like about getting ethnic foods in south Louisiana is that the ethnic restuarants do not have to tone down their food in the region like they do here in Houston. Thai, Vietnamese, Americanized Chinese food places here in houston have to tone down their food here in Houston and the native population does not have as much appreciation for spicy flavorfull food. (Please to not take spicy to mean hot and the food not not always suppose to be hot.)

    I would love to be able to go back to New Orleans with my wife to get some good Cajun food as there are very few places here in Houston to get authentic south Louisiana style food.

    Now I want a good crawfish etouffee.
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  7. If you want me to get 2 nights :), you can find my email through my name the Houston Chowhound list. Never been to NOLA before, wold be great to have no excuse to get off my butt and drive out there for a few days.
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  8. Congratulations, Ken Downey, I see that you already won a hotel stay through Twitter.
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  9. I can be reached at sarasstuff on google. Congrats to Ken!
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  10. I can be reached at "adam dot hough at gmail dot com".
    ReplyDelete

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