where y'eat

From a walk-up counter, NolaNica serves Nicaraguan soul food, like chicken with rice and beans, and mash-ups, like Mombacho nachos, a dish with fried plantains and a name that makes me smile.

Blink and suddenly August is here. Summer is flying by once again. Where does the time go? But time is relative, and for New Orleans restaurants this is when time slows to a crawl.

The tomato sandwich is a summertime classic you can make in seconds, eat almost as fast and argue about forever.

It’s starting to sink in. The back-to-back deaths of Leah Chase and Dr. John feels like waking up to find that a pair of mountain peaks have vanished from the range of New Orleans culture.

The question now is whether New Orleans can still produce the legends it minted a generation ago. That is the gauntlet these greats lay at our feet.

Crawfish fanatics put more than just spice in their boils. They put time, effort, attention and maybe even personality and pride. It’s no surprise then that once they find a signature approach they’re bound to stick to it, and defend it.

But as a crawfish lover, as someone who is always hovering over the boiling pot and ready to wedge into a crawfish table, I’m fascinated by different techniques that give different results.



As another Mother’s Day rolls around, we hear a lot about restaurant brunches and special menus, like it’s some big combination of Easter and New Year’s Eve. Mother’s Day is indeed just that big for restaurants.

But when I think about Mother’s Day the food I think about is quite different. I think about frozen food, specifically the stuff that was home cooked by my own mother on the weekends and stashed away to get us through the week.

The food at Jazz Fest doesn’t change very often, and that means favorite vendors and dishes have become cherished parts of the event.  

But lately I’ve been experimenting. What would happen if I combined different Jazz Fest dishes from various food vendors? Eventually, I came up with a few Jazz Fest mash ups .

Created for one-day awards competitions at the Po-Boy Festival, some original riffs on the city’s famous sandwich have become menu fixtures year-round.

Clam chowder in Arabi? A pair of young transplants have a different plan for their neighborhood restaurant, starting with the location.

Cocktail sauce and crackers are great, but New Orleans chefs are getting more creative with how they dress up raw oysters, offering new alternatives for the beloved local bivalve.