Union Market

Photo by sirmichael, on flickr

Union Market opened last year in the NE to great fanfare. It's a large hall filled with artisanal merchants and food vendors. I've been there a couple of times, but this was the first time I've been since it was kicking on all cylinders. It's a bit hard to get to if you don't drive; a couple buses pass nearby, and it's walking distance from the New York Avenue metro, but it's not actually close to the metro, and taking the bus home gets a bit complicated for us. But the shops there are all lovely.

Our first stop was Buffalo & Bergen, Gina Chersevani's new spot. It's a reasonable facsimile of a New York deli, with bagels (made with real New York water!), knishes, and sodas. Since it has two of the district's best bartenders, Gina and Rachel Sergi, it also has a number of very excellent cocktails. I haven't tried the bagels, but the knishes are very good. The Reuben knish I had could have been a bit tangier, but the short rib knish my wife had was right on.

Since I'm a bit of a cheese fiend, we had to stop by Righteous Cheese for a cheese plate. The plates are a bit expensive here, and I'm not sure what we got was quite a $24 plate. Not to mention that their insistence we both get something, and not just split a cheese plate, left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. That being said, though, the cheese plate was very good, and the beer pairings tasty and inventive.

Our third stop was Rappahannock Oyster Co. We went a little overboard here, but in our defense, mmm seafood. We got a dozen oyster, a crab cake, and a bit of salmon roe, and every bit of it was delicious. The crab cake was the best I've ever had, the salmon roe was like Gushers for adults, and impossible to do wrong. The oysters were great. They gave us three varieties, the middle of the road Rappahannocks, the briny Olde Salts, and the sweeter Stingrays. My wife had a glass of manzanilla sherry, and I had the Flying Dog Oyster Stout, both of which went great with the food.

Union Market was great fun to visit, even if logistics mean we're not going to be down here every week. If you've been to the butcher, let me know what you thought; I didn't get a chance to try any of their products.

New Orleans: Oyster Crawl

Not sure where this is.

On our second to last day in New Orleans, we spent the afternoon on an oyster crawl. We had been to a couple places for oysters, but none that really wowed us, so we thought we'd try a bunch of places and figure out who had the best oysters in the French Quarter. Bourbon House's were surprisingly good, but Royal House won out.

Bourbon House

Royal House

New Orleans, Day 2

The title may be a misnomer. Most of Day 2 we spent not in New Orleans, but a good deal west, in Iberia Parish. In Iberia Parish, on Avery Island, they have the Tabasco factory. We thought it would be fun to get out of the city and see where they make the famous hot sauce, but it was a bit of a bust. The 'tour' consists of  an 11-minute video, which is shamelessly commercial, even by the standards of this sort of thing. If we're at your factory, we're already fans of your product. You don't need to try and sell it to us! After the video, there was a short walk down a corridor where you could see the factory floor, and it was over. We grabbed some food from the food stand they had set up -- I had some red beans and rice -- splurted some tabasco on it, and enjoyed it a fair amount. The experience wasn't bad, but it wasn't worth the 2 and a half hour drive. If you happen to be driving through southern Louisiana, I'd do it, but I wouldn't go out of my way. (Shout out, though, to the really interesting Bayou Teche museum in New Iberia).

We went to Desire for dinner, a slightly-more-upscale-than-usual-for-New-Orleans restaurant inside the Sonesta. The oysters were not terribly memorable, though not the worst we've had in New Orleans. My wife had the Peacemaker po' boy, a po' boy with shrimp and oysters, and I had the Muffaleta. Both sandwiches were good, but neither was exceptional. At least the restaurant wasn't overpriced. Still aching from Halloween, we didn't go anywhere afterwards.

Pearl Dive Anniversary Party

Happy First Birthday Pearl Dive! Hard to believe it's already been a year, but Pearl Dive / Black Jack are celebrating their first anniversary on September 20th. Courtesy of Borderstan:

Pre-sale tickets are priced at $150 and include unlimited fresh seafood (including oysters, of course!) with signature dishes from Pearl Dive’s menu, live music, and an open bar. Proceeds from the event will be donated to Food & Friends on behalf of the Black’s Family Foundation.

 I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.

Life on the Half Shell

Photo by Yumi Kimura on flickr

It's springtime, and that always has me craving oysters. In that vein, Metrocurean has a list of 5 great oyster happy hours:

• BlackByrd Warehouse Great DJs and good deals on oysters: Sunday-Thursday, oysters are $1 from 5:30-7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.-1 a.m.
• BlackSalt This Palisades neighborhood joint offers a dozen oysters for $12 and half-dozen for $6, as well as other food specials, in the bar and cafe 4-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 4-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
• Hank's Oyster Bar Should the urge to slurp hit you late-night, the Dupont location of Hank's offers half price raw bar items nightly from 11 p.m. to midnight.
• Old Ebbitt By far one of the city's most popular spots for oysters and for good reason. The famous Oyster Happy Hour features half off all raw bar items Monday-Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m., and Sunday nights from 11 p.m.-1 a.m.
• Pearl Dive Oyster PalaceWith the breezy new patio and open window in front, Pearl Dive's bar is where I'm finding myself many evenings. Monday through Friday from 4-7 p.m., local oysters are two for one and select wines by the glass are $5.

Their choices are great, though for no good reason I prefer Clyde's to Old Ebbitt. They have the same deal as Old Ebbitt, but it's not as, I don't know, touristy? as Old Ebbitt. I wish I had had the chance to eat more oysters when I was in New Orleans. Brasserie Beck also has great oysters, half off during their late night happy hour. Readers, any other good places for oysters?