Goin' to the Quarter, Visitin' the Green Goddess
I finally made it to the Green Goddess after nine or ten hours of wandering around the Quarter with a suitcase of loot in tow and I was tired and hot and sticky and so very happy to finally be there that I could have wept. I didn’t realize how much I missed not going last Spring. And the wonderful thing about eating alone is that the Goddess always has room for me, a solitary diner in their very small dining room. They had patio seating and some tables upstairs, they have expanded in the year and a half since I was there last, but it was SRO and two hours to wait all night. I am ecstatic that they are popular. Now if only they can expand without losing their wonderful little hidden location, that would be divine.
They seated me at the counter and Scotty the Barkeep who used to be Scotty the Cook came to get a drink order. I told him to make me a drink that was tall and cool and refreshing. He returned with something sparkling and iced and lemony and made with gin, which I almost balked at, I despise gin. Nothing should be made from trees that is isn’t maple syrup and books and cozy fires and cabins. But I didn’t want to send it back because he made it special, it’s not on the menu AND I am glad I tried it, it was fucking perfect. It had a bit of a sharpness without tasting like I’d gotten dumped into a juniper bush and the lemon was indeed refreshing and restorative. (It should totally be on the menu!) I sipped while I perused the menu.
There are things I just DO NOT WANT to put in my mouth or see on my dinner plate. This list includes escargot, oysters, unshelled shrimp, crawdads, anything that looks back at me (crustaceans with heads still on, fish with heads still on) anything I’d use as bait (crawdads/crayfish/crawfish/mudbugs/what the hell ever) and anything I have had before that has a texture that makes me want to vomit (octopus, oysters, most of the squash family, canned peas, frog legs do NOT taste like chicken). When the X finally talked me into trying calamari (I’d had it before and it was like eating deep fried gristle, yuk! And I really didn’t want to try either octopus OR squid ever again) and mussels though, it turned out I loved them, so hey, I can be taught, see? So when I got to the Green Goddess and the current tasting menu was read I was torn. I really love tasting menus because I get to try a little of a whole bunch of things and G2 is too wonderful to limit myself to one dish and miss out on trying as much as possible. I decided that if anyone could take foods that freak me out and make them yummy, it would be Chef Chris, because he is a magician in the kitchen. So I went ahead and ordered the tasting menu and loved EVERY BITE! I did indeed. But the bar is set pretty fucking high, I don’t think any other chef will ever measure up.
((as usual, my picture taking skills are made of suck, try to imagine how wonderful this really is!))
“Big Chief” Carnival Tasting Menu
Oysters Delacroix
Plump Louisiana oysters poached in a creamy horseradish
sauce, on griddled ciabatta with butter-braised
Romaine lettuce, and Nueske’s applewood bacon.
Oh my fucking gods, where the hell has THIS been all my life? Tender and buttery and rich like my imaginary uncle who wants to leave me millions, this melts in your mouth and tastes like warm cozy sex next to the fireplace.
Snails, Tails, & Tasso
Louisiana crawfish tails matched to beautiful,
basil-fed snails all sauteed with tasso ham, herbs,
and wild mushrooms over creamy grits.
This dish has a warm spice to it without being overpowering or burning a hole in my tongue and taste buds. The grits are a perfect background of texture to the richness of the meaty little snips and snails. AND OH YEAH SNAILS!! The only thing I can think of to compare them to is food from my childhood, chicken gizzards. They are both rich and strange and people roll their eyes when you tell them how good it is. You really have to experience it to understand.
Shrimp “Wearing a Grass Skirt”
Roasted Louisiana shrimp wrapped in shredded
phyllo, with New Orleans barbecue shrimp sauce,
roasted pineapple & young coconut slaw.
The cool slaw and the warm shrimp and sauce compete for attention in every bite and yet mix together to make a very yummy experience and then every once in a while you get a little zing of pineapple in there to wake up your taste buds with delight and confusion. A perfect balance. (and nobody said a thing about me cutting the WHOLE HEAD HALF OF THE SHRIMP OFF and setting it to the side of the plate and covering it with something. I just kept ignoring it trying to look at me)
Andouille-Crusted Gulf Fish
Our friend and local chef, Greg Sonnier, makes a smoky
andouille sausage we blend to make a topping for panroasted
thickly filleted Gulf fish. Served with Yukon Gold
potato gratin, rapini greens, and foie gras vinaigrette.
Oh, dear gods, fry me some thin sliced taters and I am yours forever, and here we are with paper thin potato slices fried crisp as hell, so delicious, and that is only the background for this dish. Honestly, the best fish I have ever had in a restaurant. It was solid and cut like a chicken breast not flaked into a pile of messy yuck like fish will often do, it was damn near perfect.
Armagnac-Soaked Mission Figs
These boozy morsels are stuffed with Strathdon Blue Cheese,
wrapped in Serrano Ham, quick-roasted, and finished with
Leonardi Balsamico aged 20 years in Cherrywood Barrels.
Oh, how many times can I say FUCK YEAH in one meal? I popped the first one of these into my mouth and instantly wanted about fifty more. I cut the remaining three up into the smallest bites possible to make them last. The tangy cheese and the soft warm fig mix with the smoky bacony-ham flavours and… oh fuck yeah. Sofa King Good!
Chef Chris stopped by to ask me how everything was and I told him the truth. I tried several things that I never liked and was afraid to try and ended up loving every one of them, all because he totally rules in the kitchen. And he does, master magician-chef that he is.
And then for dessert…
Our “Notorious” Bacon Sundae
Pecan praline ice cream with a creamy bacon caramel
sauce carrying a bit of both Pink Himalayan & Black
Lava Salts, & micro-planed Nueske’s Applewood
Bacon, layered with whipped cream, of course!
FUCK! This is ORGASMIC. The whole damn thing melts on contact with the air so you have to eat fast and be prepared to lick your fingers and the parfait glass and the entire spoon, over and over. I swear the more you eat the more it grows over the side of the glass. The salty and the sweet and the cold and the warm and the melting all come together to create the best food orgasm since the first mango I ever ate oh so many years ago.
KK asked me if this was better than my first dinner at the Green Goddess and I can’t compare them. My first will always be my favourite because it was my birthday and it wasn’t busy and I got to visit with Chef Chris and Brian the Barkeep and it was like a long relaxed evening with old friends I had just met. This trip was more like a frenetic rollercoaster of new and strange and what the hell am I thinking ordering weird things that I end up loving. I would so order this all over again, it was beautiful and perfect and totally lived up to my expectation of magic.
Waverly expressing my *is ded of squee&yum* after dinner...
They seated me at the counter and Scotty the Barkeep who used to be Scotty the Cook came to get a drink order. I told him to make me a drink that was tall and cool and refreshing. He returned with something sparkling and iced and lemony and made with gin, which I almost balked at, I despise gin. Nothing should be made from trees that is isn’t maple syrup and books and cozy fires and cabins. But I didn’t want to send it back because he made it special, it’s not on the menu AND I am glad I tried it, it was fucking perfect. It had a bit of a sharpness without tasting like I’d gotten dumped into a juniper bush and the lemon was indeed refreshing and restorative. (It should totally be on the menu!) I sipped while I perused the menu.
There are things I just DO NOT WANT to put in my mouth or see on my dinner plate. This list includes escargot, oysters, unshelled shrimp, crawdads, anything that looks back at me (crustaceans with heads still on, fish with heads still on) anything I’d use as bait (crawdads/crayfish/crawfish/mudbugs/what the hell ever) and anything I have had before that has a texture that makes me want to vomit (octopus, oysters, most of the squash family, canned peas, frog legs do NOT taste like chicken). When the X finally talked me into trying calamari (I’d had it before and it was like eating deep fried gristle, yuk! And I really didn’t want to try either octopus OR squid ever again) and mussels though, it turned out I loved them, so hey, I can be taught, see? So when I got to the Green Goddess and the current tasting menu was read I was torn. I really love tasting menus because I get to try a little of a whole bunch of things and G2 is too wonderful to limit myself to one dish and miss out on trying as much as possible. I decided that if anyone could take foods that freak me out and make them yummy, it would be Chef Chris, because he is a magician in the kitchen. So I went ahead and ordered the tasting menu and loved EVERY BITE! I did indeed. But the bar is set pretty fucking high, I don’t think any other chef will ever measure up.
((as usual, my picture taking skills are made of suck, try to imagine how wonderful this really is!))
“Big Chief” Carnival Tasting Menu
Oysters Delacroix
Plump Louisiana oysters poached in a creamy horseradish
sauce, on griddled ciabatta with butter-braised
Romaine lettuce, and Nueske’s applewood bacon.
Oh my fucking gods, where the hell has THIS been all my life? Tender and buttery and rich like my imaginary uncle who wants to leave me millions, this melts in your mouth and tastes like warm cozy sex next to the fireplace.
Snails, Tails, & Tasso
Louisiana crawfish tails matched to beautiful,
basil-fed snails all sauteed with tasso ham, herbs,
and wild mushrooms over creamy grits.
This dish has a warm spice to it without being overpowering or burning a hole in my tongue and taste buds. The grits are a perfect background of texture to the richness of the meaty little snips and snails. AND OH YEAH SNAILS!! The only thing I can think of to compare them to is food from my childhood, chicken gizzards. They are both rich and strange and people roll their eyes when you tell them how good it is. You really have to experience it to understand.
Shrimp “Wearing a Grass Skirt”
Roasted Louisiana shrimp wrapped in shredded
phyllo, with New Orleans barbecue shrimp sauce,
roasted pineapple & young coconut slaw.
The cool slaw and the warm shrimp and sauce compete for attention in every bite and yet mix together to make a very yummy experience and then every once in a while you get a little zing of pineapple in there to wake up your taste buds with delight and confusion. A perfect balance. (and nobody said a thing about me cutting the WHOLE HEAD HALF OF THE SHRIMP OFF and setting it to the side of the plate and covering it with something. I just kept ignoring it trying to look at me)
Andouille-Crusted Gulf Fish
Our friend and local chef, Greg Sonnier, makes a smoky
andouille sausage we blend to make a topping for panroasted
thickly filleted Gulf fish. Served with Yukon Gold
potato gratin, rapini greens, and foie gras vinaigrette.
Oh, dear gods, fry me some thin sliced taters and I am yours forever, and here we are with paper thin potato slices fried crisp as hell, so delicious, and that is only the background for this dish. Honestly, the best fish I have ever had in a restaurant. It was solid and cut like a chicken breast not flaked into a pile of messy yuck like fish will often do, it was damn near perfect.
Armagnac-Soaked Mission Figs
These boozy morsels are stuffed with Strathdon Blue Cheese,
wrapped in Serrano Ham, quick-roasted, and finished with
Leonardi Balsamico aged 20 years in Cherrywood Barrels.
Oh, how many times can I say FUCK YEAH in one meal? I popped the first one of these into my mouth and instantly wanted about fifty more. I cut the remaining three up into the smallest bites possible to make them last. The tangy cheese and the soft warm fig mix with the smoky bacony-ham flavours and… oh fuck yeah. Sofa King Good!
Chef Chris stopped by to ask me how everything was and I told him the truth. I tried several things that I never liked and was afraid to try and ended up loving every one of them, all because he totally rules in the kitchen. And he does, master magician-chef that he is.
And then for dessert…
Our “Notorious” Bacon Sundae
Pecan praline ice cream with a creamy bacon caramel
sauce carrying a bit of both Pink Himalayan & Black
Lava Salts, & micro-planed Nueske’s Applewood
Bacon, layered with whipped cream, of course!
FUCK! This is ORGASMIC. The whole damn thing melts on contact with the air so you have to eat fast and be prepared to lick your fingers and the parfait glass and the entire spoon, over and over. I swear the more you eat the more it grows over the side of the glass. The salty and the sweet and the cold and the warm and the melting all come together to create the best food orgasm since the first mango I ever ate oh so many years ago.
KK asked me if this was better than my first dinner at the Green Goddess and I can’t compare them. My first will always be my favourite because it was my birthday and it wasn’t busy and I got to visit with Chef Chris and Brian the Barkeep and it was like a long relaxed evening with old friends I had just met. This trip was more like a frenetic rollercoaster of new and strange and what the hell am I thinking ordering weird things that I end up loving. I would so order this all over again, it was beautiful and perfect and totally lived up to my expectation of magic.
Waverly expressing my *is ded of squee&yum* after dinner...