Dig into your favorite meal, and then pack your bags. “We Live to Eat” is sponsoring a photo contest on its Facebook page beginning today through midnight on Friday, February 3, 2012.
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Need a reason to get into the gym? Uniquely New Orleans dishes will give you several. At the beginning of 2012, the last thing you want to do is eat more calories than you burn while exercising. Achieving a balance between calories in and calories out is certainly within your reach.
Below, our top three food choices for this month which are worth an extra trip to the gym:
cal children.
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Between Christmas, Chanukah, and New Years, there is definitely more than one week’s worth of ways to celebrate and have a good time in the Big Easy. Below are our top picks for a fantastic holiday season NOLA style. Read & tell us, does your holiday tradition make the list or are there any you’d like to try?
Day 1: Cheat & eat dessert first. Many of New Orleans’ finest restaurants are serving up holiday sweets and treats. This is just another excuse to treat yourself to something special.
Day 2: Sports in the Big Easy! The Sugar Bowl, the Saints, LSU in the BCS Championship Game… Great food is a must to fuel up for the exciting games in the Superdome during the holidays. Stop by a restaurant close to the Dome. And get fueled up before the big game.
Day 3: Walk through City Park at night to take in Celebration in the Oaks, and then after have a great meal at one of the many Mid City restaurants.
Day 4: Make reservations for a Reveillon dinner. Originating in France and traditionally held on Christmas Eve, Reveillon dinners consist of several courses usually served with wine or champagne. New Orleans continues the tradition of Reveillon dinners due to the city’s strong French influence, and several restaurants offer special menus throughout December.
Day 5: Those celebrating Chanukah or just looking to sample some of the delicious food can make reservations for uniquely themed Chanukah dinners at restaurants like Domenica. A restaurant by Chef John Besh, Domenica is featuring potato latkes, spinach and Parmigianino gnocchi, ossobuco veal, and jelly donuts on their Chanukah menu.
Day 6: If you believe the best gift is the one you give, make sure to drop off some food items at Second Harvest food bank this holiday season. Second Harvest recognizes that 1 in 8 people in Louisiana is struggling with hunger and collects food to help address this urgent need.
Day 7: Fireworks over the Mississippi River are a stunning way to ring in the New Year, but make sure you have your dinner reservations and or party tickets in hand well before the big day. Tons of tourists will be in the Quarter gearing up for the Sugar Bowl, so to get in on the best New Year’s celebration, choose a venue you’d like to celebrate at and call ahead.
There are too many possibilities for enjoying great food during the second half of December and beginning of January in New Orleans for one person to try. The city’s reputation for culinary excellence is especially evident during this time of the year. Take advantage of the season by partaking in your favorite culinary tradition, or by trying one of our suggestions.
Tell us about your holiday dining experiences at www.facebook.com/WeLiveToEat.
Written by guest Blogger Taylor Geiger.
The best type of meeting to attend is a meeting featuring great food. In New Orleans, getting together over great food is not hard to do. The multitude of restaurants offering a wide scope of unique food items allow no excuse not to locate a place where everyone can easily find something that they like on the menu. Right before the holidays, women often try to do everything for everyone, and don’t take time to rest and have a good time. Getting together with some close girlfriends can be a fantastic way for ladies to unwind during the holiday season. The culinary options for girlfriends to get together and have fun while bonding over food and drinks are endless.
To fuel up before a full day of shopping or other obligations, girls can head to a wide variety of restaurants in different locations around the city and different price ranges for a scrumptious brunch. With offerings like bananas foster French toast, eggs Benedict, shrimp and grits, turtle soup sherry, seafood mousse, oysters Benedict, strawberries with heavy cream, and freshly squeezed juice with champagne, what more could a girl ask for? New Orleans brunch offerings include something to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters; and several restaurants include live jazz band performances; especially during weekend brunches.
To see how successful girlfriend-get-togethers in New Orleans can be, I spoke to Gia Sausse about her group of ladies, the Lu Lu Krewe, who meet up over food frequently. The Lu Lu Krewe of New Orleans started after Katrina because the original group of ladies wanted to catch up and see what was going on because they felt disbanded after the storm. The group started meeting at restaurants around the city very informally, but now their Facebook group has more than 200 members.
Lu Lu Krewe at Ralph's on the Park
The emphasis of the group is on eating, drinking and catching up as well as meeting new friends, catching up with old ones, and networking amongst members. As the founder of the group, Sausse says that the most important factors which she considers when scouting out a restaurant to meet at is if the cost is affordable for all members and if the restaurant allows customers to bring their own wine. The ladies always have a fun filled time wherever they meet and many new friendships have been formed through the group since it serves as a convenient way to meet new people.
A culinary adventure with girlfriends in the Big Easy wouldn’t be complete without the perfect dessert or drinks to top it all off. Confectioneries, bakeries, and other shops and restaurants offer original desserts unique to the area such as praline parfaits, bread pudding soufflé, banana cream pie, baked Alaska, or beignets. For those counting calories, the city has caught on to the frozen yogurt trend and offers Italian gelato as well. Almost every bar has a ladies night to get the girls together, but any day of the week girls can saunter up to the bar and order a sweet tea or a passion fruit martini, a watermelon mojito, or a cocktail with names like Dixie Crown and Centerfold. Groups of ladies consisting of two or of ten or more do not have to look far to find the perfect uniquely New Orleans culinary experience, perfectly accented by shopping and spa treatments that are sure to satisfy.
Written by guest Blogger Taylor Geiger.
New Orleans, LA— Christmas will come early this year for a group of ill children, who currently reside at Children’s Hospital, when Chef Duke LoCicero of Café Giovanni and his band of merry elves spread holiday cheer and gifts to children in need. Chef Duke Foundation’s for Kids recently raised nearly $10,000 during its annual fund-raising gala. On Monday, December 19 beginning at 2pm, Chef Duke and other restaurant industry representatives, decked in festive holiday attire and accompanied by Santa Claus, will distribute gifts to truly deserving ill children. To date, Chef Duke’s Foundation for Kids has distributed over $190,000 in toys to local children.
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The table is set for Thanksgiving and the oysters, shrimp, gumbo, jambalaya, cornbread, mirliton, sweet potatoes, green beans, crab cakes, and more are all displayed. Looking for the turkey? You might find turducken or fried turkey on the table, but we rarely conform to the regular Thanksgiving traditions here in New Orleans, preferring instead to elaborate on the basic foods and make our own improvements. Turducken is one of these improvements; it involves a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey and can be purchased at some local grocers. Or, if you have 2 days or so to spare, you can also create one yourself. Hard work, but those who know say it’s worth it.
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An American staple, the hamburger has been a popular food since its introduction into American culture around 1895. White Castle was the first major fast food hamburger vendor, followed closely by McDonalds, but the American public would not settle for simple burgers, they demanded more. Thus, the introduction of the gourmet burger into some fast food locations and the creation of many specialized sit down restaurants dedicated simply to the burger and its many variations.
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NOTIONAL, LLC IS NOW CASTING CHEFS* to compete in the ultimate dinner
party challenge for Bravo’s new competition show, “Rocco’s Dinner Party.”
Notional is searching for professional or aspiring chefs with a keen palate and a flair for entertaining—chefs who want to prove they can throw the best dinner party out there for acclaimed Chef Rocco DiSpirito and his celebrity friends.
Can you cook for the most discerning palate? Do you dream about planning the details of a dinner party from soup to nuts? Bring us your signature dishes, your competitive drive and your proven passion for entertaining.
Metairie, LA— The Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation (LRAEF) is proud to announce that John McDonogh High School will launch a culinary academy—the first of its kind in Louisiana for high school students—beginning next year.
It will be an expansion of the LRAEF’s successful ProStart® program, a two-year culinary management program designed to teach students culinary techniques and restaurant management skills, already being offered at John McDonogh and 48 other high schools across the state.
12/1/2010 by Staff Blogger
December in New Orleans has always been jammed packed with great parties, meals, music and rituals—and we are definitely on the up tick this year with more great offerings.
We Live to Eat is particularly excited about the Creole holiday tradition of Reveillon Dinners throughout December. What was once a home-based celebration after midnight mass on Christmas Eve was reawakened by French Quarter Festivals Inc. and passed along to the professionals—our fabulous restaurateurs in the 1990s.
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