Man Versus Food New Orleans
Could The Travel Channel’s Man v. Food be the best show in the world? Probably not. But some might argue it just might be the best show on that network’s roster. Squeezed in between Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern, all Adam Richman has to do is squeeze as much as he can down his esophagus and reap the rewards of a hysterically conducted press conference while eyeing the quickest route to the drugstore for a dime sized bottle of Malox soon afterwards. The Big Badass Burrito challenge, the Mac Daddy Pancake Challenge, the Firebrand Chili Challenge. The network has hit it big. We’ll end with the last one only because it’s like a twisted dagger to the gut to mention anymore.
Although a repeat, last night I was treated to the New Orleans episode. Call me a homer (I lived 40 yards from the mardi gras route baby) but nothing was more eye candy and a gastric touchdown than seeing my city take center stage again. Yes there’s about 84,000 shows already done from the Crescent City. But what MVF spotlighted is simply New Orleans. Mother’s Restaurant just in the outskirts of the French Quarter is a hallmark. Crushed inside with a mixture of locals and convention visitors, the restaurant is an often sweaty gathering of smoke spewing from ovens saddled with the responsibility of serving culinary classics, a variety of parish accents, and a cashier who goes non stop. Strewn through its walls are black and white photos and press clippings of dignitaries, sports figures and legends who braved the chaos of a neighboring French Quarter to feast their teeth on some classics. The Ferdi Special is simply that… special. It’s nothing but a meaty extravaganza of sauted ham on a roast beef po’ boy dripping in piercing sauces and spices. But yet it’s the one dish that’s responsible for some of the longest work lunches in the area. I’m just as guilty. I was guilty on several occassions. And it doesn’t stop at that.
Straight from their website. In a single year, they serve up…
- No less than 175,000 pounds of ham and roast beef
- More than 40,000 pounds of turkey
- A staggering 30,000 pounds of homemade sausage
- Quarter of a million biscuits (and even more eggs!)
- A whopping 90,000 pounds of jambalaya
- Some 25,000 soft-shell crabs and even more shrimp
- Nearly 250,000 pounds of cabbage
- An incredible 150,000 loaves of French bread
- As many pies as there are ships passing through the
- port of New Orleans (3,500)
- A spicy 1,500 gallons of Creole mustard
- And an honest ton of hot pepper sauce
So worth the very long lines that form outside it’s authentic brick walls every morning. In fact after Katrina, the city’s anticipation for Mother’s to reopen was unbearable. It made front page news when it did happen. Bigger headlines than the mayor. And I’m serious.
So the next time you are in New Orleans, visit Mother’s. Tell the host some NOLA refugees send their best. And get ready to black out 2 hours in your schedule. It just might take that long from sidewalk to check. I leave you now with their recipe of their historically and incredibly tasty red beans. Dial up the Malox, because this dish will leave you on your knees. But the payoff is unlike anything you’ll experience anywhere else on the planet.
Mother’s Red Beans
2 lbs. Red beans
1 lb. Smoked sausage
1 lb. Ham, grade A
1/4 lb. Ham fat, rendered
1 Ham bone
1/2 lb. Onions, diced
1/4 lb. Green onions, diced
1/3 lb. Bell pepper, diced
3 oz. Garlic, minced
2 Bay leaves
1/2 tsp. Thyme
1/3 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Black pepper
2 qt. Chicken stock
2 qt. Debris Gravy
Render ham fat in skillet. Remove cracklins from the remaining fat. Sauté sausage and grade A ham. Add onions, bell pepper and green until tender. Add garlic, salt, pepper, thyme, bay leaves. Add red beans and stir into vegetables. Add stock and debris gravy. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until red beans are tender and become creamy.
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