Taste of Tabasco Week Ends Soon

While quite a few cities are in the midst of Restaurant Week, New Orleans restaurants are celebrating the 150th anniversary of Tabasco with Taste of Tabasco Week. It’s like Iron Chef, but the secret ingredient is Tabasco and diners have a week to find out how 41 restaurants approach this iconic Louisiana-grown hot sauce with special dishes and prix fixe menus.

Tabasco Week is quickly coming to a close (it ends on February 3), so here are a few of Eater’s favorite menus. That said, there are many, many incredible menus worth checking out this week.

The Grill Room at the Windsor Court

The Windsor Court has an extra-fancy Cajun seafood boil with smoked sausage, herbs and potato hash, grilled butter corn, lobster, Gulf shrimp, crab and crawfish, and beurre monte as part of its special luxe prix fixe for a $15 upcharge.

Tableau

Tableau has had a close and personal relationship with Tabasco this week. Adjoining La Petit Theatre, Tableau hosted the preview party last week for the hotly anticipated Tabasco burlesque opera, which hasn’t been performed since 1894 and should definitely be given a longer run at La Petite (Please?). For $34, the three-course menu includes seafood gumbo, an entree, and dessert (even the brownie dessert gets spiked with Tabasco). The stunner though is the braised short ribs with local honey and Tabasco sauce, celery root purée, and green tomato chow chow.

Maypop

Maypop has a three-course menu for $39/person. It includes options for each course, like blue crab gumbo with fermented black beans, andouille, and crispy sticky rice; Gulf shrimp in okra curry with mirliton marinated in Tabasco; and charred broccoli and citrus salad with a vinaigrette made with Tabasco pepper mash.

Cafe Adelaide

Cafe Adelaide’s Tabasco Week offering is a quail glazed with Tabasco pepper jelly. The quail gets stuffed with goat cheese and served over over greens, pickled golden beets, pecans, bacon, and Tabasco pepper jelly–spiced vinaigrette.

Bayona

Though most well-known for its traditional hot sauce, Tabasco churns out a pretty big variety of sauces. Susan Spicer explores those in her Tabasco Week menu at Bayona, which is three courses for $50/person. The fried shrimp and papaya salad has a Tabasco Sweet & Spicy Sauce-infused nuoc cham. A pork chop comes with Tabasco jalapeño pepper sauce–infused chow chow, and the final course, appropriately, a vinegar pie with whipped cream and Tabasco-infused grilled pineapple.