What I've Eaten This Week

It's been a while since I last posted, and of course, I have a couple of excuses. First, I'm in Food Science now and while the subject matter is often interesting, writing about it in detail would likely bore you to tears. Second, we've been out of town - just got back from a long weekend of eating like crazy with Zack's family in Louisiana!

Here's Zack and his dad, Wally, with the seafood tower that kicked off our three-hour Friday lunch at Luke, John Besh's casual brasserie in downtown New Orleans. In the forefront are the flutes of champagne with fresh peach puree that Zack's mom, Candy, and I thoroughly enjoyed:



My Louisiana redfish amandine with unbelievably fresh jumbo lump crabmeat was also outstanding, and a reminder of how much I love the food in this city:



Luke also served the sweetest, freshest asparagus I have ever tasted. We had already mostly devoured them by the time I realized that I needed to document them with a photo:



These super-crispy french fries were pretty fabulous, too:



Here's Zack's sandwich board, with half of the "cochon de lait" pressed pork sandwich and half of the highly-regarded Luke burger. I stole bites of each:



A few of Candy's girlfriends were also enjoying a leisurely lunch at Luke that afternoon. Here's their spread of desserts, which prompted us to order the wonderful brioche bread pudding with pecans even though we were beyond stuffed:



Once we finished this feast, I chatted for a few minutes with chef Philip Lopez and told him how much we loved everything. He's John Besh's second-in-command at Luke and runs the kitchen day-to-day since Besh has several other restaurants to attend to (August, Besh Steak, La Provence):



We eventually did leave the restaurant and took a few hours to catch our breath before our next meal. Over the next few days, we ate at a steakhouse in Baton Rouge, tailgated with Bloody Marys and the best chicken tenders ever from the Louisiana chain Cane's, went out for authentic Mexican, and breakfasted on buttery grits, biscuits, and pancakes at a true small-town dive in Bogalusa.

It was a blast, but when we returned home to Atlanta, I was definitely ready for healthy-eating mode. Last night, I marinated and grilled chicken breast and lots and lots of veggies:



It was a meal that the authors of my nutrition textbook would be proud of, and very flavorful to boot. More on week 2 of Food Science and (hopefully) more healthy home cooking to come...