LOS ANGELES: Fried Chicken

As I prepared for my return to Ithaca for my last semester of college, my request for my "Last Supper" at home was FRIED CHICKEN:

We marinaded the chicken breasts, legs, wings, and thighs in buttermilk for 24 hours (to tenderize the meat and impart moisture). We then rubbed the marinaded chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder, cayenne, and paprika, and dredged the chicken in flour...

We used two methods of frying: skillet frying (in a cast iron pan shown on the right) and deep frying (shown on the left). We used lard combined with canola oil to fry in for both methods...

We then put the fried chicken on a rack in a 250 degree oven to let the remaining grease (though there wasn't much) drip off the chicken. The chicken came out crispy, juicy, and delicious...

Golden Fried Success...

More glamour shots...

Since we had the fryer out, we though we might as well make sweet potato fries and regular fries, sprinkled with parsley flakes and sea salt ...

Feeling accomplished due to my family and my chicken frying abilities, I got on a plane headed to Ithaca, potentially a few pounds heavier, and incredibly satisfied.

Mo' from NEW ORLEANS: King Cake

I'd like to think I'm open to all kinds of new cultural phenomena and traditions. But when my roomate first approached me and told me that there is a tradition in Louisiana where you bake a baby into a cake, I appropriately thought this was a little strange. "A LIVE baby?" I said. She entertained the idea for a while and then divulged that it was, in fact, a small plastic baby. Ok this is slightly more appropriate, I thought. Well, as you could imagine, I just had to see this baby-in-cake tradition for myself. I ventured with my roomate down to her hometown of New Orleans, where her mom had bought us a KING CAKE (similar to the galette de Rois in france), with- oh yes- a plastic baby hidden inside. A brioche-like cake decorated in purple, green, and gold (the traditional Mardi Gras colors), this cake screams fun, deliciousness, and ridiculousness. And the best part is, you don't have to bake a real live human child in the center!

New Orlean's King Cake from Zoës Bakery in Covington, LA

My roomate and my attempt at recreating the King Cake. Not as visually appealing, maybe, but oh so delicious. More dense and cookie-like with cinnamon praline sugar swirled through.

NEW ORLEANS: Parasol's

It's mardi gras. It's 3PM. You're feeling great but you need some sustenance. Not just any sustenance, you need a roast beef Po' Boy, specifically from Parasol's. What is a Po' Boy you might ask? Any NOLA native will tell you it is a submarine sandwich on French bread, filled with magical things like fried oysters, fried shrimp, or in this case: fall-apart tender braised beef. Holy Rex, this sandwich is everything one could want from a sandwich. The bread is perfectly soft and fluffy and soaked with beef gravy, the beef is tender, juicy, and flavorful, and the sandwich is minimally dressed with mayo, tomatoes, shredded lettuce, and pickles. This is not prim and proper high tea sandwich bullshit...this is a messy, gravy dripping down your arm, slurping beef out the sides masterpiece. I think I'll move to New Orleans now.

"Best Roast Beef Po' Boy on Earth" -Gourmet Magazine April 2009

ROAST. BEEF. PO. BOY...stop it, it's so good.

Fried shrimp Po' Boy.

So charmingly grungy and worn-in. A dive with character.

2533 Constance Street, New Orleans (In the Irish Channel)