New Orleans Eating

My biggest obstacle to eating healthy while visiting New Orleans is the salt. I try to drink two gallons of water every day I'm there. Maybe that means the biggest obstacle is the price of bottled water or the state of the bathrooms...

Lucy's on Tchoupitoulas and Girod: Gulf shrimp on blue corn chips with guacamole. I didn't eat the chips or the dipping sauce, which my companion didn't like either. The shrimp were delicious as usual.

I also had a salad with salmon and a ton of bleu cheese. The greens were fresh and the salmon was tender and cooked just like I asked.

For dinner that night at Desire on Bourbon, I had a dozen oysters and Creole shrimp (pictured). The tomato sauce had a kick that snuck up on me. My companion's dinner was too salty to finish.

Lunch the next day was at Sake Cafe II at 2830 Magazine, which is inside a converted church. The sushi was good and I had an unusual warm mushroom salad, drenched in butter. The mushrooms were fresh and tasty.

Dinner at the Red Fish Grill at 115 Bourbon was mixed. I asked for no carrots but they came anyway. I had lamb loin stuffed with lump crab, absolutely fabulous.

My friend had the signature dish, grilled red fish with lump crab meat and she loved it.

How I Tried to Eat Clean in New Orleans - Part II

The Louisiana oysters were tasty, large and mild. They were also quite reasonably priced (about $13 per dozen), especially compared to what I've seen in LA, but I suppose that's to be expected. We got these at Desire, a seafood restaurant on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. The service was excellent there. The oyster shucker was friendly and many people went up to check out what he was doing.
My entree was grilled snapper with green beans and red pepper, all topped with lump crabmeat. I thought that sounded safe and healthy-ish. I should have been thinking more clearly, as each element was literally doused in butter. I believe in butter but this was overkill. But I won't lie to you. It was fantastically yummy and I ate every single melt-in-your-mouth bite. I had to roll myself out of the chair and take a walk down Bourbon to recover.
My companion had shrimp and grits etouffee (sp?), which was also quite rich. I tasted it and it was thick with flour and rather buttery. She couldn't finish it.

How I Tried to Eat Clean in New Orleans

Here are two pictures of shrimp salads I enjoyed in New Orleans. The fresh Louisiana shrimp are tasty and a little smaller, quite different from the shrimp we get here in CA. For lack of a better way to describe it, their flavor is very "shrimpy." What I mean is that each bite is packed with rich shrimp flavor, no wateriness or muddiness.

To be honest, I overdid it on shrimp while in New Orleans! Bubba Gump's on Decatur in the French Quarter, supposed to be a shrimp lovers' paradise, was disappointing. Their shrimp were not cleaned very well at all (gross) and weren't as tasty. Were they not using real Louisiana shrimp?

The bottom pic is a shrimp Caesar salad from Lucy's Retired Surfers' place on Tchoupitoulas and Girod in the Arts District. There was plenty of dressing but it wasn't super salty, and the shrimp was seasoned quite well in the Creole style. Their service wasn't really up to what I would consider Southern standards, but it was basically a sports bar. Other places in New Orleans ended up having wonderful service and I will write about them too. I will try to "recreate" this dish with some Tony's Creole seasoning I bought there, maybe using a recipe for creamy dressing from the current issue of Clean Eating magazine.

The top picture is a shrimp wedge salad from the Green Goddess in the Exchange Alley in the French Quarter. It had hearts of palm, radishes, and cucumber slices as well as romaine lettuce and a milder dressing. The food there was fabulous but it took them three hours to get us our food, a mistake that our hosts assured us was rare.