One word only: PLAN

The last thing you want to do is hop in the car and end up at a truck stop serving canned soup and frozen hamburgers. Know where you're going, and where you're going to eat.

The sauce was definitely mayonnaise based, traditional Europe. No ketchup on fries in Europe. Other than that, I'd say dry yellow mustard, and various herbs and seasonings. I don't remember it being "spicy", in a cajun way, but it was very good.

As far as the fries, I understand they are quite common at the old-school NOLA restaurants, but no clue how they're prepared.

Confession time: I grew up less than 5 minutes from Stroud's and I have never been there. I always feel so bad about myself for that because everyone says it is so great. They just have like an hour and a half wait time every night to get a table. One day it will be in my belly.

On the other hand I had Rosedale BBQ for lunch today for the first time in a few years, and it was not as good as I remembered. Have you ever go there when you were in the KC area.

I can confirm that the soufleed potatoes at Arnaud's are as awesome as they look. I know that they are fried twice, the second time in very hot oil. As a native of the area I'm ashamed to say that I've never done a legit jazz brunch in NOLA. That pic at Brennan's has inspired me to correct that.

The shrimp dish is Arnaud's version of shrimp remoulade, which is my go to appetizer almost anywhere it's available. Also, crawfish season has just started!

My first reaction was, seriously? wtf? But if your "perception" is that you're always going to wait an hour and a half for chicken, then it is far, far easier to just head to KFC and be eating in 10 minutes.

In reality, we arrived between 6:30-7:00 on a Wednesday night and waited a half hour, at most. I grabbed a beer, walked around the grounds a bit, and boom, we were in.

Once you're sitting, you don't wait long for your food. I think we were in and out of there in far less than an hour and a half, including wait time. Far different than your perception. You really need to get there. You will not be disappointed.

Awesome to hear from someone who's been to Arnaud's! So, I missed crawfish by 6-8 weeks. fml. What IS fresh crawfish season down there?

I was also a little surprised, as a native, that you didn't comment on my use of "NOLA" in some of my posts. It's my experience that unless you've lived in or around New Orleans, you have no idea what "NOLA" means.

Excellent thread RG your TR and stories never disappoint.

those shrimp in the second pic look awesome

still gazming over that monte cristo earlier

I haven't stopped drooling for the past 30 minutes.

That trip sounds awesome.

I guess spring would be considered prime crawfish season here. I'm just starting to see them pop up in a few places. Usually at this time they're pretty small and expensive. Around early June their shells start to get dark red and hard and they become a pain to peel.

I was just going what I had heard from people around that had been to Strouds. I haven't ever tried because I heard those wait times. Although, even if it were true, I understand that the food more than makes up for it. I don't have any excuse for not going there yet, given how close I am to the place.

I live a little further away now than I used to , but, maybe I'll try to get down there this week.

Off to Memphis, and back to BBQ:

Day 10 Dinner

A landmark in Memphis, and seen on many travel/food shows on TV. Neely's Interstate BBQ:





Here, it's all about the pork ribs. Don't even consider anything else. They also "invented" BBQ spaghetti, which you can now get everywhere in Memphis, but this is the original:





This was the full-slab, which PRG and I split, along with the BBQ spaghetti, cole slaw, and BBQ beans. These ribs are two layers deep, and were by FAR the best ribs we'd had on the trip.

I have to recommend Interstate to anyone who loves pork ribs, period.

Yelp?

RG,

So much deliciousness in this thread!

It's been awhile but I found that Yelp was good in NYC and a few other large cities but not that useful for a lot of places.

jj,

Yelp is marginally useful in big cities. It's pretty good for identifying reasonable/decent places, but beyond that there are too many fake or idiot reviews to find the really best places or hidden gems.

Yelp is worthless in smaller places.

I may do an analysis at the end, but the majority of places we ate I found on TV (Food Network or Travel Channel) websites, or on Southern Living Magazine's website.

yeah foodtvmaps.com

you can narrow it down by shows to find things in areas you're traveling to, then find YouTube videos of the episodes.

Day 11 Lunch

In the planning process of this trip, I knew we had to get back to reality at some point, and go with something "normal". It took until day 11 to do it. When you think a "normal" lunch, there is really only one option -- a double cheeseburger and fries, of course.

This was the perfect place, at the perfect time. Dyer's on Beale St. in Memphis:





If you don't know the story, this place frys its burgers in a pan full of 90-year old grease. Yeah, awesome, right? You can find out more on the internet, but they have literally been straining, cleaning, and re-using the same oil from day-to-day for 90 years.

You KNOW what this is gonna look like:





Yes, that is 90-year old grease glossing the bun, and soaking through the wax paper. Indescribable.

Only one fail here, we didn't order two. Seriously, when, not if, you get to Dyer's, just go ahead and order two double cheeseburgers right away. They'll get eaten, guaranteed.

awesome thread and how is 90yo grease not a health concern? it sounds dirty but that cheeseburger looks awesome

What could be the health issue? Certainly not bacteria. When oil breaks down, are there issues with stuff? I have no idea...

good restaurants never fry with 100% fresh oil. they always add a little old oil back after they clean the fryers out for flavor and color.

idk, my un-educated mind saw "90 year old grease" and immediately thought of death.

Yeah. I don't think I've ever gone wrong with a 4-star+ review with a sample size of a couple hundred or more reviews. But obviously thats not that common and is no help with the hidden gems.

Weeding out the stupid yelp reviews is pretty simple to do.

when you see a place with a 3.5 ish rating and a decent sample size, I like to scroll through the negative reviews and check out the profiles of the people who gave it 1-2 stars and read their other reviews. Usually its just pompus hipster douche bags who like to **** on any establishment for kicks.

I ran the Google, yelp, and Facebook page for a local bar where I used to work, and it was difficult removing 1 star reviews which were dishonest, false, and borderline slander. It can be a real detriment when someone says the bar staff is racist and the owners are cokeheads. Running a page can be extremely frustrating as yelp is pretty much unwilling to remove false reviews unless you pay for their service.