Critic Discovers Duck Hearts ‘Showered in a Dust of Dehydrated Pig’s Blood’

Freund heads over to Warehouse gem, Sac-a-Lait, where she finds wife-and-husband team Samantha and Cody Carroll hitting their groove after three years with an “approach [that] is still very ambitious,” though it’s also “toned down,” “more fine-tuned and relaxed.” “Adventurous” items, like “delicious” veal brains coated in black garlic breadcrumbs, as well as purple duck hearts “showered in a dust of dehydrated pig’s blood” served with “swampy” gravy and goat cheese grit cakes, still anchor the menu. There are plenty of more accessible options too, like a deviled crab that is an “exercise in indulgence.” [GAMBIT]

Freund also visits Uptown institution, Gautreau’s (which was added to Eater NOLA’s 38 Essential Restaurants just last month), which she says hits all the marks of a “timeless” restaurant: an owner who is also the maitre d’, perfect lighting, a dining room “alive with chatter,” and food that is “classic but never stagnant.” Baruch Rabasa leads the kitchen, serving a fois gras torchon which is only classic up to the point it delightfully veers off course; a “delicate” hamachi crudo; as well as vegetarian empanadas that she proclaims “one of the best dishes on the menu.” She describes the service as a “well-oiled machine, unfolding like theater with the servers smoothly canvassing the dining room, aware of diners’ needs and respectful of their space,” and the crowd as “almost entirely local.” [GAMBIT]

Ian McNulty digs into the “familiar, foundational food” that is essential to New Orleans culture at Chef D’z, where he finds a Creole gumbo loaded with crawfish and more crabmeat “than any other in recent memory;” a $10 red beans and rice special “that fills half the table” with red beans, fried chicken, a veggie side dish, and another side with “cornbread sweet enough to double as dessert;” and yakamein with a “brassy” broth that accomplishes its purpose when a “whiff of the aroma alone feels restorative” for McNulty. He finds less familiar dishes as well, like a lobster sandwich. Though a breakfast at Chef D’z can be had for $2, McNulty suggests going for lunch, when the “true specialties come out.” [ADVOCATE]

Elsa Hahn likes the “clean and simple” “no frills” pho at Pho Cam Ly so much that she wonders how she can visit a restaurant “literally a hundred times and always order the same thing.” But she does. [OFFBEAT]

Jay Forman heads to Curio, where Chef Hayley Vanvleet introduces a “lighter, West Coast approach to New Orleans dishes.” Forman recommends the candied, fried pork ribs, which have a “crispy, indulgent exterior that yields to off-the-bone goodness.” He also applauds the roast duck and black eyed pea gumbo, the redfish, a “hearty” braised short rib that is “delicious on a cold evening,” and the mussels in coconut-ginger broth. [MY NEW ORLEANS MAGAZINE]

New York Times travel writer Christopher Hall didn’t miss the chance to visit (twice) what might be the most lauded sandwich shop of all time, Turkey & the Wolf, while he was in New Orleans recently. He points out that calling Turkey & the Wolf a sandwich shop is “misleading” since “standard lunchbox fare is just a launching pad for the high-flying imaginings of Mr. Hereford and his team.” The collard green melt “wowed” Hall’s group and a “crazy-looking sandwich of nicely chewy, fried bologna soared on the crisp vinegar-brined potato chips, melted American cheese and hot mustard also layered between its two thick slices of buttered-and-griddled white bread.” [NYT]

Brett Anderson searches New Orleans for jerked foods and finds jerk chicken that is “everything you want jerk chicken to be” at 14 Parishes, an “amazing” jerk chicken sandwich at Afrodisiac, his “favorite barbecue restaurant jerk on its regular menu” at Blue Oak BBQ, “spices [that] smudge the surface and resonate deep into the meat of both Boswell’s jerk chicken and pork,” an excellent jerk black drum at Compere Lapin, and a balanced jerk Gulf fish at The Franklin. [NOLA.COM]