Month of Salads: Lüke

by Sydney "Brown Nose" Blanchard

There is nothing like the taste of a real tomato, you know? One that grew up basking in sunlight, and wasn't picked until it was perfectly ripe on the vine.

As a kid, I loved the tomatoes my grandmother grew on our ancestral family farm. Picked, sliced, and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, homegrown garden tomatoes were all I ate in the summer.

Now, I mostly only have access to grocery store tomatoes. And they just don't cut it for me. They're pale and they taste like nothing.

But recently at John Besh's Lüke (located on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans), I had the pleasure of eating the best tomato salad of my life.

Heirloom tomato salad at Lüke in New Orleans

Lüke's heirloom tomato salad consists of sliced heirloom tomatoes, garden herbs, burrata, and country ham.

Heirloom tomatoes just taste better. In recent years, this non-hybrid tomato has become more readily available, and I can't get enough of them.

The burrata adds a nice touch. For the uninitiated, burrata is an Italian cheese made from combining mozzarella and cream.

It's simple, but it works. And it tastes like my childhood.

Month of Salads: Mansurs on the Boulevard

by Sydney "Brown Nose" Blanchard

I've only recently begun eating duck, and it's quickly become a menu item I gravitate toward.

Recently when Team Bite and Booze ventured to Mansurs on the Boulevard for our month of salads, I spotted the Warm Duck Salad, and it spoke to me.

Grilled duck medallions, along with pecans, bleu cheese, and dried cherries, sit atop a bed of spinach drizzled with a rosemary raspberry vinaigrette. It's the perfect combination of sweetness, warmth, crunch, and cheesiness. 

Warm Duck Salad at Mansurs on the Boulevard

Unlike other salads, this one goes for warm and hearty over crisp and refreshing, and the combination of the duck and spinach kept me full until dinner! This is a great option for the meat eater trying to get some greens in their diet (me).

Curious George: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Lock & Key

by Blair "B-Rex" Loup

The Curious George at Lock & Key Whiskey Bar in Baton Rouge

An old fashioned made with Scotch? Oh yeah, Lock & Key went there.

The Curious George, appropriately named, is one of several amped up versions of the class cocktail on the menu at Lock & Key.

Three simple ingredients come together to make for a solid, stiff drink:

Monkey Shoulder Scotch
Bitters
House-made Ginger Syrup

This particular blended scotch has a little smoke game going on, which is great, because smokiness is something I love.

I’ve even had a drink served to me at Restaurant Cotton in Monroe in a dome full of smoke: epic.

The ginger syrup gives the drink a snappy element. It’s sharp, sweet, and fragrant. I would definitely recommend you try this and all of the different off-the-wall old fashioneds Lock & Key has on their menu!

Month of Salads: The Salad Shop

by Sydney "Brown Nose" Blanchard 

The Salad Shop has endless salad options

Ah, August. It's the month I look forward to the most. Not only because it's my birth month (and Jay's), but because it's the much-anticipated MONTH OF SALADS at Bite and Booze.

What is the month of salads, you ask? It's a time when Team Bite and Booze reflects on all the unhealthy food we constantly shove into our faces for the sake of food blogging and tries to correct that with nothing but GRASS for an entire month.

I'm generally of the opinion that salad isn't real food. Carrots? Spinach? Heck, that's rabbit food!

Jay's salad

But this month may change that opinion. Especially after we dropped in for lunch at The Salad Shop on Perkins. Oh boy, have I ever been missing out.

Jay and Blair went with custom salads.

Jay went with a spinach and arugula mix topped with beets, carrots, craisins, walnuts, and Hanley's avocado dressing.

Blair opted for romaine and arugula mix topped with red onion, edamame, sun dried tomatoes, bacon, sunflower seeds, feta, avocado, and Hanley's Sensation dressing.

I hate building my own anything: salads, sandwiches, wraps, you name it. It stresses me out to have too many options!

That's why I went with the Fiery Fiesta, one of The Salad Shop's creations. I swapped out the spinach for romaine, but I kept all the other toppings the same: avocado, pico de gallo, red bell pepper, black beans, corn, and tortilla strips topped with jalapeño ranch dressing.

My take on the Fiery Fiesta

I actually finished the whole thing.

The Salad Shop is great because you can build your own salad if that's your thing or you can pick a deliciously crafted salad of their menu.

Barbecue Bites: Crawfish Nachos

Peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Cookies and milk.

What's missing from these classic combos? 

Nachos and crawfish, duh.

Crawfish Nachos

This recipe by Chef Eusebio Gongora combines two of our favorite things, crawfish tails and nachos. With high quality, local ingredients from Indie Plate, and Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce, of course, this recipe makes for a perfect appetizer. Pair with a cocktail, a glass of wine, or a beer and enjoy!

Check out more delicious dishes made with Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce online. You can purchase a bottle of sauce here.

Crawfish Nachos

1 lb crawfish, cooked from favorite boil

1 bag Tortilla chips

BBQ Queso (see recipe below)

½ cup red onions, diced

¼ cup jalapeños, diced

1 cup tomatoes, diced

2 tbsp Lime juice

¼ cup cilantro

Sour cream (optional)

Place one layer of chips on a serving tray. Ladle half of the queso over the chips and place more chips over the queso. Top the second layer of chips with more queso and scatter the crawfish tails around the nachos. In small mixing bowl combine the tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, cilantro, and lime juice. Top the nachos with the vegetable mixture and sour cream if desired.

BBQ Queso

2 onions, julienned

2 jalapeños, minced

2 tbsp roasted garlic

½ stick butter

¼ cup flour

1 cup Jay D’s Louisiana Barbecue Sauce

2 cups milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups cheddar cheese

Heat a medium-large pot on medium high heat, add the butter and allow it to melt. Add onions and jalapeños to cook for 3-4 minutes until the onions become translucent. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly. Add in BBQ sauce and roasted garlic and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and cream and allow the mixture come up to a simmer. Add the cheddar cheese 1/2 cup at a time, whisking continuously. Whisk until all the cheese has melted completely into the sauce.