France: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

We're one bite closer to the end of the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014! France is next on this delicious journey we've been taking! Known most for their breads, cheeses, wines and champagnes we're going to take a look at their simple street food and popular breakfast item the crepe and the even more familiar French 75.

Photo Credit: The Other F-Word

Most Americans have tried a crepe or five in their lifetime. It's a common street food in France and what we learned in Talladega Nights to be those "really really thin pancakes." They're incredibly easy to make and can be paired with almost any filling from savory to super sweet. This particular recipe is for Nutella Crepes. If you haven't had Nutella at this point in your life, I'm just not sure what you're doing. It's an amazingly scrumptious chocolate hazelnut spread that has a thick, but spreadable consistency and when heated, morphs into a hot fudge-like substance that is a million times tastier than hot fudge. I recommend combining any filling from Nutella to Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce in a crepe.

Photo Credit: Arnaud'sRestaurant.com

The French 75 is a popular cocktail in Louisiana and particularly in New Orleans. For a world class French 75 close to home head to Arnaud's French 75 in New Orleans and Chris Hannah will set you up! Arnaud's French 75 dates back to the 1800s and was originally for gentlemen only and in 1979 opened to the public. Featuring cognac and champagne, the cocktail is smooth, bubbly and slightly tart with a hint of fresh lemon juice. More common versions on the cocktail feature gin and champagne rather than cognac. Either way, it's a very simple, refreshing cocktail.

Portugal: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

It's time to sit down to another plate of the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014! Portugal, like many cities in Spain, is no stranger to great eats. Today we're going to take a look at something on the sweeter side with some Portuguese custard cups and a banging port cocktail, the Portuguese Daisy!

Photo Credit: leitesculinaria.com

Pasteis de Nata I are delicious little flaky pastry cups filled with a sweet custard. These may take a decent amount of prep work, but they're perfect for snacking while your watching the match or entertaining for special occasions and holidays. Take a break from those freezer quiche things and try making something fresh!

Photo Credit: matadornetwork.com

The Portuguese Daisy highlights Portugal's most popular product: Port. If you've never had port, it's pretty sweet, smooth, and makes wine look like a bandwagon soccer fan who doesn't understand offsides. Port is awesome and this cocktail combines port, brandy, and little citrus to make one heck of a drink! Try it out and let me know what you think by leaving comment or telling me about it on the Facebook Page.

Nigeria: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

We're taking a trip back to Africa for this edition of the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014! Nigeria is flooded with street food that is not for the faint of stomach. Like many African countries, there's plenty of whole grilled fish, barbecued meat, and plantains to be had. Today we're going to look at their famous starch and stew and the Chapman Substitute.















Starch and stew is pretty much what you would expect: a lot of starch and a heaping helping of stew. Most of Nigeria's population lives in poverty so getting a cheap bite that can keep you full for most of the day is the idea. This dish is cheap (about $3 a plate) and yummy with beans, spaghetti, and rice underneath a mountain of tomato based stew and a fried egg to top it off. Their stew is composed of intestines and other bits and pieces, but for your purposes feel free to use whatever you want!



Nigerians aren't big drinkers because of their mainly Muslim population. They drink a mocktail called the Chapman, so this particular recipe is for a boozed up version called the Chapman Substitute. Ginger beer with Campari, orange bitters, and flavors of citrus and pomegranate come together to make a drink that's beyond tasty and refreshing!

Whisk(e)y Wednesday tasting at Lock & Key while recording the Bite and Booze Radio Show presented by Calandro's Supermarket

LA1 at Lock & Key

A few weeks ago we recorded an episode of the Bite and Booze Radio Show while tasting whiskey and whisky for Whisk(e)y Wednesday segments on the blog. Talk about multi-tasking!

Around the table we had Arthur Lauck, co-owner of the Lock & Key Whiskey Bar, Charles Pierce, the producer and host of the Me and My Big Mouth Radio Show and Podcast, and Jeremy Spikes for the site formerly known as whisky bomb dot com.

We were treated with an excellent collection of booze capped with a cocktail. We began with the Knob Creek Rye, then moved on to the Green Spot Irish Whiskey followed with the Bruichladdich Rocks Scotch. To cap it all off we had a taste of the Whiskey Cane... and whiskey based Hurricane that is a must-try!

Take a listen to the show as we talk whiskey, drink whiskey, and enjoy whiskey at the Lock & Key Whiskey Bar!


Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by the Lock & Key Whiskey Bar. Lock & Key has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, Irish, and other whisk(e)ys available for on premise consumption. This WW feature was scored by Jay Ducote from Bite and Booze, Arthur Lauck from Lock & Key, Charlies Pierce, and Jeremy Spikes. Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own proprietary scoring system. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y (though not undrinkable) while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss and anything above 80 is rather extraordinary and anything above 90 is world class.

The Bite and Booze Radio Show presented by Calandro's Supermarket airs on Saturdays at 5 PM and replays Sundays at 8 PM on Talk 107.3 FM in Baton Rouge. The show is hosted by Jay Ducote and won a Taste Award in January 2014 as the best food or drink based radio broadcast in the country. The producer of the show is Chris Courtney at Guaranty Broadcasting and the field producer is Charles Pierce from the Me and My Big Mouth Show. It is also available on iTunes. The show's sponsors include Calandro's Supermarket, Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce, Visit Baton Rouge, Portico Restaurant and Bar, Lock & Key Whiskey Bar, Slap Ya Mama Cajun Seasoning, Mason's Grill, Donner-Peltier Distillers (Rougaroux Rums and Oryza Vodka and Gin), Louisiana Cookin' Magazine, Juban's Restaurant, the Tin Roof Brewing Company, the Louisiana Culinary Institute and Triumph Kitchen.

Mexico: Street Food Bite and Booze of the World Cup

Shall we make another stop along the street food guide to the FIFA World Cup 2014? Mexican cuisine may be something familiar to your palate, but try something outside of the normal Tex-Mex style restaurant and grab a bite and one of the authentic Latin-American restaurants in town! For today's edition of the street food guide we're going South of the border to Mexico for elotes and "Cocktail on the Attack"!

Elotes translated means, corn. Street corn can be found all over the place in Mexico and it is scrumptious! Grilled or steamed corn topped with salty, crumbled Cotija cheese (or queso fresco if you can't find it) and chili powder makes for a quick, easy-to-eat treat. The saltiness of the cheese goes hand in hand with the sweet, fresh corn. My favorite part about street corn (besides how easy it is to make) is the smoky chili powder, it really takes things to the next level. 

Photo Credit: taylortakesataste.com

Instead of going with the classic margarita, I found a recipe for another tasty tequila libation. The Cocktail on the Attack consists of tequila, vermouth, triple sec, and lime juice. It's what I imagine a Mexican martini to be. The tequila represents the majority and is brightened by the lime juice and triple sec. The vermouth kind of brings the flavor profiles together smoothing over the fiesta going on in your mouth. Give it a try and let me know what you think!