"K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this month. For the occasion, they've created a summertime menu that may be the best deal since the restaurant's earliest days. For $30, you get a three-course dinner: appetizer, entree, and dessert, and a glass of wine to boot. The selections available for this deal are limited, but not tremendously. And impossible to specify, because the menu changes daily. Already they've run the blackened pork chop marchand de vin and a pan-fried flounder with shrimp and Brie cream sauce, so it's good stuff. They have another good deal, too. When you have dinner, they give you a card good for a free bottle of wine the next time you're in and have dinner for two. Forget about waiting in line: they take reservations now. The reasons to stay in New Orleans during the summer keep coming."
the pleasures of new orleans are myriad & diverse. anyone who's spent anytime there away from bourbon street knows this. i've been going there since i was 17 & i'm still finding wonder & excitement. lately, i started taking the ferry over to the west bank to spend a few hours walking around over there & having a drink or two at the old point bar. the first time i was there w/nan, a hound came bounding over to greet us & jumped into my lap, staying there to receive proper canine adoration for a while. when ann & i went, the locals invited us to share their lunch of 30lbs of boiled crawfish, potatoes, & corn that they dumped on the bar. "help yourselves," they said & were much amused by my annie's introduction to mudbugs. "ha ha...she only sucks the head on special occasions...ha ha," i mumbled. "i heard that!!!," one of the men yelled at the top of his lungs a la mike johnson.
another more subtle pleasure lately has been seeing chef paul prudhomme sitting outside his epochal restaurant, listening to the jazz band he's employed to play outside every night. seeing his pure pleasure in being there listening to this great old music in this great old american city is contagious & thrilling. it encapsulates everything good & magical about new orleans.
chef paul was there when katrina went through & was serving food(along w/john besh)just days later. emeril lagasse stayed away for nearly a year & only made a gesture to the city after being called out by local journalists. that's pretty much the difference between a local & a carpetbagger.
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