New Orleans Trip #9: Demonic Pear Almond Tarts

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I can't stop thinking about this pear almond tart at Satsuma Cafe (3218 Dauphine St., New Orleans, LA; 504-304-5962), in the laid-back, treasure-strewn Warehouse District Bywater District. God. [Do not click above photo. You've been warned.]

Here's demonic tart poised innocently next to a very good lemon muffin and two exemplary citrus juice blends (blood orange/satsuma, and satsuma/lime)

The morning after I die, if I don't wake up to a sight like this right next to my cloud bed, please send me to "the other place", where at least the music's good.

Satsuma Cafe is the bomb. And I didn't realize until this very moment that they offer dinner. Gotta try it. Bet it's good.

I must say, though, that it's possible the tart's the only great thing here - in which case you've just been given an incredibly skewed view. That's why blogging is a very different thing from restaurant reviewing, which involves much more thorough and objective treatment. Blogging's fun, but no one in their right mind would ever do serious, disciplined restaurant reviewing for free. For one thing, it requires trying menu items you know won't be the best things. What fun is that?

Moving on...

My philosophy with po' boys is a bit complicated. First, they're really just sandwiches. Subs. Hoagies. Grinders. Same thing! Second, they have nothing to do with any of those other things. Nothing. A proper po' boy is a whole other thing...though I'll be damned if I can figure out the distinguishing factor (again, place inevitably gets into food).

NOLA Grocery (351 Andrew Higgins Dr., New Orleans, LA; 504-302-9928), near the convention center, looks like a generic deli. But while these guys aren't show-offs, they're incredible sticklers, and in-the-know locals go here for variations seldom found elsewhere. Such as the "fried shrimp and debris" po' boy (debris being the stuff that falls off a cooking roast beef). Behold:

Yup. This ain't no sub.

NOLA Grocery offers another miracle: real, honest-to-goodness boudin (sausage; it's just sausage....leave it at that). Normally you must trek to Cajun country to find good ones (New Orleans is notorious for it's execrable boudin), but these guys go to the trouble of bringing in the good stuff. But, alas, they were all out that day.


Read the next installment (#10)