Angels and Dumplings

My cousin Erika has co-authored a book about Angel Island named Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America. She was in New York as part of her book tour to promote the book. Tonight she was in Chinatown for a reception and then a talk about her book with her co-author Judy Yung.

Most of the family on the east coast came into town to see her talk. It was also scheduled to start at 7pm. But knowing traffic in New York City, we left home at 4:30pm. Sure enough there was plenty of traffic and then there was the time spent looking for a parking space. What really made things slow was that the Feast of San Gennaro was going on in Little Italy. Many streets were blocked off and the GPS kept directing me to those streets.

But before we went to the reception we made a stop at one of my favorite dives for some dumplings, Prosperity Dumplings. There was an article on the Internet a few years ago listing the top dumpling places in New York and this was number 2 on the list. Being number 2 you are supposed to try harder or you can just have dirt cheap dumplings. And I mean dirt cheap, 5 dumplings for $1.

This place is really small with a counter along the side of the wall to comfortably seat 4 people. Most of the space in the tiny place is taken up by the kitchen and basically all they sell are dumplings. The dumplings can be served boiled or fried. Of course I got the fried dumplings, 15 in fact. The dumplings are plump, hot, and juicy. There is plenty of meat in them and the dough is not too thick like some other dumpling places.

With a price point that low, the place can be packed but since they just serve a few items the line moves quickly. There is a school across the street from the place and when the kids are let out, the place gets packed. And it is quite interesting to see all types of kids go to the restauran t, all races and all sizes. It is quite funny to see a kid that can just barely see over the serving counter step up and slap a dollar on the counter and without saying a word get their box of hot dumplings.


It was a good thing that we got some dumplings before the reception, it was held at a restaurant called the Red Egg. The Red Egg is a high-end Chinese restaurant. Fancy decor and plates and high prices. They served appetizers and while they were quite good, not enough to fill up on by themselves. In contrast, across the street was a dumpy looking cafeteria style Chinese restaurant that was serving 4 dishes plus rice for $4.50 if you eat there. For take-out it was only $4. At the Red Egg you can get a scallion pie for $4.50.

After the reception, everyone went across the street to MoCA, the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. The talk was held in a small auditorium of the museum and it was standing room only. My cousin and Judy spoke for about an hour and it went quite well. Basically the significance of Angel Island is that it was the Ellis Island of the west coast. Thousands of immigrants from all over the world but mostly Asians came through and their experience was a bit different than those that came through Ellis Island.

The talk ended around 9pm and we were all pretty hungry. Unfortunately the cheap Chinese restaurant was closed by then and a quick stop at Prosperity Dumpling found that they were closed too. In retrospect, we should have walked a few blocks over to the Feast of San Gennaro as there would be plenty of great street food there.

Layover

My initial response to buying the Jet Blue "All You Can Jet" ticket was wow, I can fly all over the United States. But after rushing to buy the ticket which sold out in 3 days, I soon found out that they don't really fly all over the place directly. Many flights usually go through their hubs New York City or Long Beach, California. Using New York as my home base was not going to be a problem but my trip from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon was going to be.

The quickest way to get to Portland was to take a 90 minute flight to Long Beach for a 3 hour layover before getting back on a plane for a 2 1/2 hour flight. This basically shot the whole day, the one redeeming point was that I did pick up an hour by being in a different time zone. Instead of losing 6 hours to travel, it was only 5.

When I landed in Long Beach, I did leave the airport to walk around to see if there was anything to see or do or eat, but didn't get too far. The airport isn't very large but it was mostly commercial businesses in the area and too far to walk carrying my laptop. I guess I could have been more adventurous and took a cab but there was nothing around that I was interested in to rush around town for. If I have a whole day there, I would have like to have gone to the waterfront area.

One good thing though, the weather in southern California was gorgeous. The sun was high in the sky with very few clouds and it was very warm. It was a beautiful day and so I spent it outside on a picnic table working on my laptop. (So, I'm a geek).


Long Beach airport is very small and it is like a hold over from the past. In order to get on and off an airplane you have to walk across the tarmac.


I landed in Portland after 6pm and took a courtesy shuttle to Rodeway Inn. The reason I selected this motel was not just the price but that it had a shuttle and most importantly was near the Portland light rail system. The motel is owned by the same company but the complex is shared with another motel, Quality Inn. The 2 motels share the same reservation desk and when you check in they ask which motel your reservation is with. I had to ask was there a difference and was one better than the other. They said there was a difference and Quality Inn was better though the 2 motels are kind of connected physically to each other.

Since it was late and all I have to eat all day was the snacks you get on the airplane I was pretty hungry. When I planned the trip I did look for places to eat in the area and one place that seemed quite interesting and had gotten some good reviews was Jim Dandy Drive-In. It was like a 50's style drive-in.


I was kind of expecting more of a diner but their menu consisted of mostly sandwiches. I ended up getting a chili dog with a side order of onion rings. The meal was pretty disappointing. The chili dog was mediocre. The chili had beans which I don't really like on a chili dog as it makes it more messy to it and the hot dog itself was pork and beef and was pretty bland. But all was not lost as the onion rings were very good. There was thick slices of onions and they had a crispy coating on them. Reviews on the web were generally pretty good for the place, but Guy Fieri didn't go here, maybe that should have been a clue.


I was still kind of hungry and decided to walk around the area some to see if there was something else to try. I walked around a mile and saw mostly gas stations, motels, and a few bars. There was a Mexican restaurant that looked interesting but I wasn't hungry for another full meal. I did pass by a nondescript building that was a Chinese restaurant. I am always interested in trying Chinese food in non-traditional places plus I knew I could always get something like an appetizer to snack on instead of a meal.

The place was called Good World. The people there were very nice but the place was empty at 8pm, usually not a good sign. The restaurant had been open for about 1 year and the building used to be a bank. They used the vault for storage. I got an order of potstickers to go and ate them in my motel room. The potstickers was quite tasty, but you really can't mess them up that much. With my snack came the ubiquitous fortune cookie. My fortune was: "An enjoyable vacation is awaiting you near the mountains". Since I just came from the mountains in Utah, maybe the fortune was a little bit too late?

Heading to the Hospital

I remember watching the tv program "The Best of" on the Food Network in which Jill Cordes was doing a segment from a cafeteria. Not just any cafeteria, but one in a hospital. And not any hospital but at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. It sounded different and the reviews on the Internet were pretty positive. This sounded like a non-typical place to go to eat and something that piqued my interest.


The cafeteria is called The Point and is located on the 6th floor and is open to the public. The hospital itself is a fairly new building with nice aesthetic features on the outside as well as the inside. They had a nice lobby that seemed more like a comfortable library than a medical institution.

I was wondering if I was in the right place but when I got off the 6th floor the menu board is right near the elevators. The cafeteria was set-up as most cafeterias where you get your tray and walk along the serving stations. They had your typical burgers, sandwiches, soups and wraps as well as some specials. The special I chose was the Sambuca seared pork tenderloin. The dish consisted of an anise flavored pork tenderloin served with roasted garlic mash potatoes, fresh mixed vegetables, and natural jus. All that for only $7.00.


Once I got my food I went to the table area and this was not your typical cafeteria. They had a large screen tv on the wall, a piano, and some couches to relax in as you listened to the music. The eating area was surrounded by windows and the view was very pretty. The building looked out towards the mountain range on one side and on the other side you had a view of downtown Salt Lake City.


As for the food, it was really, really, good. The pork loin was tender and the sauce added some sweetness to it. The vegetables were fresh, not canned and consisted of steamed broccoli, yellow squash, and carrots. It was fine dining where you had to clear your own table. I would highly recommend this place.
I have to say that I was kind of surprised by the quality of the food as the prices are quite reasonable and restaurants highlighted on "The Best of" are not always that good. I found out the hard way that many places that they showed were big on the story of the place and not so much on the taste of the food. My experience was that it was a 50-50 proposition as to whether a place was good or not.

After lunch I drove downtown to see Mormon's Temple Square. But I soon found out that parking was kind of tough to find in that area. I decided to go to the state capitol instead. The capitol building is quite large and ornate on the inside. I was surprised by the opulence in the place, especially when you consider that the state's legislators only work 45 days a year. The building is on par with the state capitol of Texas in Austin. Now one can understand Texas having a fancy building, but Utah? Where did they get all that money to build something so big and used so little.
I wasn't hungry but I did take a peek at the cafeteria in the capitol. It was more of your typical cafeteria style set-up and food. But I did feel more at home as they had White Castle cheeseburgers in the vending machines.

After walking around the capitol I found out that Temple Square was within walking distance. It was pretty hot outside but I had a good parking spot and decided to walk.

The Temple Square consisted of many building that are part of the Mormon church. Many are opened to the public but not all. Surrounding the area was a gate and there were quite a few beggars just outside the gate. At one point a well-dressed businessman walked past one of the beggars and stopped to talk to her when she asked for money. He said that she knew that he worked there as they have seen each other pass by everyday for the past few weeks. He said that if she really wanted help that she knew where his office was and if she came up to visit him, he will try and help her out. But she refused and so he kept walking.

On the grounds was a museum on the history of the Mormons and how they ended up in Salt Lake City. The history is quite interesting and the exhibits were well done, though they do gloss over a few historical points.

Also near by is the church's genealogy research library. This is also open to the public and they provide lots of resources for you to trace your family's roots. They allow you access to their compilation of historical documents as well as to their database. The place was quite busy and all of it is free.

For dinner I chose to go to Navajo Hogan. It is kind of a hole-in-the-wall place that served what they called Navajo tacos. What it was, is a chili salad in Indian fry bread. I have been hooked on Indian fry bread since the first time I had it in North Dakota. When I got to the place, there was a sign on the door saying that they had stepped out and will be back at 5pm. I had about 20 minutes to kill when I decided to go to a Crown Burger restaurant that I had passed about 5 blocks back.

I was interested to try the place that had invented putting pastrami on hamburgers but I was also still going to get my Indian taco, so I ordered a smaller burger. The burger was
pretty good but just a little bit better than the burger I got from Apollo the day before. The pastrami really didn't add a whole lot to the flavor but what really stood out was that these burgers are char broiled and you really taste the difference. Too bad Burger King's burgers don't taste like this anymore.

I went back to Navajo Hogan and got my Navajo taco. The lady made the fry bread to order and it only took a few seconds in the oil to cook. She then put the chili, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and cheese on the fry bread. Though they call it a taco, it is more like a salad on a thick piece of greasy bread. It was pretty good with the freshly made fry bread and the fresh vegetables, but the chili was pretty pedantic. It is a place that I would go to when I wanted some Indian fry bread, but mostly because it is hard to find fry bread almost anywhere.

I See Dead Animals

Today my mission was to drive in a big counter clockwise loop and visit Wyoming and Idaho. By visiting those two states I will have visited 49 states with Hawaii being the last state left. Originally I was planning on going clockwise with a stop at Eccles Dinosaur park in Ogden, Utah. The park has over 100 life-size replicas of the pre-historic creatures. Like many kids, I was always fascinated by dinosaurs and knew most of the major dinosaurs by species. And I am still waiting to grow up.

But while researching for something interesting to see, do, or eat in Idaho and Wyoming I came across the town of Evanston, Wyoming. This small city of 11,000 had a few museums and even had an exhibit on the small Chinese population they had at the turn of the century. Most of those Chinese were railroad workers but they were forced out by the early 20th century.

From a food standpoint there were 2 Chinese restaurants in town and one of them had some reviews on Yelp that I thought was quite intriguing. The restaurant was Hunan Garden and the reviews were terrible, but mostly it was about the service. The reviewers complained that the owner could not delegate the work and so people were left waiting for service and food despite there being other workers there. Normally I would see this as being a definite red flag to not go there. But no one really commented on the food, the reviewers got tired of waiting and walked out. Still, the restaurant has been around for years so it couldn't really be that bad...or could it?

I decided at the last minute to change my plans and go to Evanston first. This way I could go visit the town early and have enough time to visit the dinosaur park which closed at 7pm on the way back to the hotel.

I didn't realize it but the drive to Evanston was going to take me through the mountains and boy was it cold! Salt Lake City was around 70 degrees in the morning with the temperature to hit the 90's in the afternoon. I dressed according to that forecast and wore shorts and t-shirt. I did not bring my windbreaker. I didn't notice the weather change until I took a brief stop at a scenic turn-off. The view was breath taking but so was the cold weather. The car thermometer registered 50 degrees.


The drive to Evanston was pretty scenic but there were lots of dead animals on the highway. Animals of all kinds and sizes were littering the road from elks to badgers to carcasses unrecognizable.

When I got to Evanston, my first stop was the Uinta County Museum. I was met by a volunteer at the door who asked if I needed any help. I told her that I was interested in the Chinese joss house museum which was next door. Since the museum was locked she walked with me to the one room building and gave me my own personal tour.

Uinta County Museum

A joss house is a religious building, similar to a temple. When the Chinese were living in Evanston they built the structure in their section of Chinatown. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1922 but many artifacts from the joss house were saved and are now on display in this replica built in 1990.


After walking through the joss house, I was given a tour of the Evanston train depot. The depot is no longer used as a train station but it was refurbished and is now a historic landmark that is also used for events. They did a really nice job in fixing the place up. You feel like you are standing back in time. One thing that was kind of funny is that the original train station was segregated by sex. Men were on one side of the building and the women and children were on the other side, the side with the fireplace. But when they refurbished the building they put the men's room on the women's side of the building and the ladies' room on the men's side. So much for historical accuracy.


It was around lunch time and I decided on going to the Hunan Garden. I asked my tour guide and she said that her son went there quite often and liked it. The restaurant has been in town for years and they even donated money for some of the exhibits on Evanston's Chinatown. Not the greatest ringing endorsement but interesting enough to give it a try. But just my luck they were closed as they went on vacation starting today.

There was a steak restaurant that had gotten good reviews but I was kind of set on having Chinese food and eating some vegetables. I find that my diet lacks vegetables when I go on these road trips but I can usually get a couple of servings of veggies in a stir fry dish. Since this Chinese restaurant was closed the only other option was to try the other one in town which was a buffet, the Dragon Wall Buffet. The restaurant was in a small strip mall and there were a few people eating there. The selection was decent and the food was mediocre, but I was able to get my fill of green vegetables from broccoli, string beans, and peppers.

After lunch I headed over to Great Bear Lake in Idaho. The drive took over an hour and a half. The lake is rather huge looking on the map, but I was taken aback by the beauty of the lake when I got there. I found out that there is a lot of limestone in the area and that mineral gives the lake its color. From certain standpoints the water is a deep rich blue and at other sites the water is an aqua green that reminds one of the Carribean.


I drove to the town of Fish Haven and stopped at a little store called Gladys Place. I had noticed lots of signs touting the raspberries from the area. Unfortunately most of the places with these signs were now closed. At Gladys Place they said that the limestone in the area plus the weather was responsible for delicious local raspberries and currants but were now out of season. In fact most of the town's business were closed. And despite the nice weather that day the town was kind of like a ghost town. The lake is a resort area but after Labor Day the tourists all go home. They do come back when it snows to use the snowmobile trails.


The store did have some of the raspberries left in their refrigerator to be used to make milk shakes, so I ordered one. The clerk made it right in front of me. She used local ice cream and then took a few scoops of the raspberries and added them to a metal cup. She then spent about 3 minutes blending the ingredients in a milkshake mixer. I went outside and sat down to enjoy the shake. It was pretty tasty. The ice cream and the raspberries were a perfect combination of sweetness and just a little bit of tartness. It was a totally unexpected treat.


The drive back to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful. Because I had spent more time than I planned in Evanston and in Fish Haven, it was too late to go see the dinosaurs. Besides I was pretty tired for all of the driving.

I got back to Salt Lake City around 8pm and using my GPS looked to see what the closest restaurant that I had loaded into my favorites. Greek Souvlaki 1 was the closest and was rated well for Greek food. The restaurant is more of a fast food place. It was started in 1972 and they claim that they introduced the gyro to Utah.


I am no stranger to Greek food and do love a good gyro, so I ordered the gyro platter. The platter comes with rice, french fries, and a Greek salad. I was kind of taken aback when they asked me whether I wanted red or white sauce. I figured that the white sauce was tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt) but had never heard of a red sauce. It turns out that the red sauce is their own special recipe which is tomato based. I probably should have ordered selected the red sauce to try it out but I wasn't feeling too adventurous at the time so I got the traditional tzatziki sauce. Being in Salt Lake City, they also gave me fry sauce with the french fries.

Even though it was a lot of food, I could not pass up on getting the spinach pie, spanokopita. I took my bundle of food back to my motel room and brewed up some Luzianne iced tea. It made for a nice dinner but wasn't worth writing to home about. The portions were pretty good and it was nice to eat some more vegetables today from the salad, but it was not better than most places on the east coast.

Evening At The Apollo

No, I wasn't heading up to Harlem, I was jetting my way to Salt Lake City. I took an afternoon flight to the capitol of the Beehive state and arrived at 6pm. The original plan was to stop at the Red Iguana to get some Mexican food. The Red Iguana is a place that many locals rave about on Yelp.com and it has also been mentioned on Roadfood.com as well as being a segment on Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives.

A pattern has started to emerge where many of the places that I was thinking of going to have been shown on Triple D. At this point I would prefer to not go to a place that Guy Fieri has shown but those places do seem to have very favorable write-ups and seem quite interesting to try. On the other hand, one of my favorite shows that was on the Food Network, The Best of... was enjoyable to watch but their restaurant choices did not always lead to good food. That program was more interested in a good story than in good food. That is not to say that they didn't pick some really good places, but my experience was the food was good only about 50% of the time. Not that the other 50% meant the food was bad, but it really wasn't worth making an effort to go to.

Anyhoo, it was getting kind of late by the time I got my rental car and checked into the motel. It was only about 8pm local time but 10pm back home in New York. I decided to just stay close and go to Apollo Burgers which was right next to the motel. I walked over and ordered the Apollo Burger combo.

For those who don't know and I was one of them, Salt Lake City has a unique hamburger tradition. It all started with Crown Burgers which is still around and I still might go to, with a pastrami/burger creation. The hamburger is served with lettuce, tomato, onions, and topped with pastrami. Another custom out here is they serve their french fries with a fry sauce instead of ketchup. The fry sauce is kind of like a spicy Russian dressing.

I took the food back to my room so I could take some photos but they did not come out too clear. Instead of trying to get better pictures I ate the evidence instead. This is sometimes getting to be a problem. If I am too hungry or get excited about the food I will start eating before remembering that I was supposed to take a picture of it.


The Apollo Burger was pretty good. It was a char broiled 1/4 lb. patty with fresh lettuce, onions, and tomatoes on it. The pastrami was a nice touch to it. It wasn't the type of pastrami you would get at a good New York style deli but it added some nice saltiness to the sandwich. Overall it was a good meal and really filled me up. I would get it again but not really go out of my way for it. Definitely better than a McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King hamburger but that really isn't saying a whole lot either.

Who Dat!

To get the most out of my trips I spent quite a few hours researching where to go and what to do. I even came up with a spreadsheet with an hourly schedule of what I plan to do. Of course this is all subject to change and I will re-work the plan during a trip.

For today the schedule was to spend the day in New Orleans by starting off the morning with some beignets at Cafe Du Monde, take out some muffulettas at Central Grocery, and then have lunch at Willie Mae's Scotch House. The rest of the afternoon would be spent back in the French Quarter with dinner plans at either Mother's or Crabby Jack's.

But figuring that I didn't want to waste a lot of time looking for parking by making two trips to the French Quarter, I decided to start the day in New Orleans first by having lunch at Willie Mae's and then drive into the French Quarter to walk around.

After reading the reviews on Willie Mae's, I planned to get there just before they opened at 11am as I didn't want to wait a long time on line nor have them run out of fried chicken. But I was up by 8am and was wondering what to do for the next few hours when I looked at my GPS and saw that I had programmed Laplace, Louisiana in it. Laplace is the Andouille sausage capital and was only about 20 minutes west of where I was staying. I made a few phone calls and found out that the meat markets out there were already open so I changed plans again and decided to head to Laplace.

When I drove out there I was actually looking for Jacob's World Famous Andouille but I turned into the wrong parking lot next door of a small strip mall. There I saw a large sausage man sign which looked awfully familiar. The sign was for Bailey's, another butcher shop that makes andouille sausage. When I went in, I then figured out why it looked familiar. Food Network personality Alton Brown had been there when he taped a segment of Feasting On Asphalt, a show that I really liked. Well if the place was good enough for Alton, I would get some of their andouille too.
Andouille is a smoked sausage that is often used in Cajun recipes. Coming from the northeast, I was surprised to see what the real stuff looked like. You don't often see andouille sausage in the supermarkets back home and for that matter, I didn't see it in the supermarkets that I had been to on this trip. I thought the sausage would look similar to other Italian sausages or even a kielbasa but it was more darker and dense in texture. It kind of reminded me of those really good salami's you see in the specialty section of a grocery store. And even though they were shrink wrapped, the smell of garlic was just oozing out of the package. I bought one pound to bring back home with me, so I didn't get to try it yet. I had brought a cooler with me so I put the sausage in there as I made my trip back east to New Orleans and to Willie Mae's.

I got to Willie Mae's by 10:30am and found a parking space right in front. The restaurant is in a run down neighborhood but there was hardly anyone outside. Across the street from the restaurant looked like an abandon school and on the other corner was an empty lot. Being a bit paranoid after reading one of the reviews, I called the restaurant to see what their hours were for today. Someone said that they had gotten to the restaurant early only to wait an hour outside before they opened up. Another review had mentioned that people start lining up about 15 minutes before they open but only one other person showed up at 11am. Needless to say I was the first one in the door at 11am.

Everyone has raved about the fried chicken so I had to get that. I had a choice of a side dish and asked the waiter whether the red beans and rice was better or the butter beans and rice. He said the butter beans and so I went with that choice. He also mentioned that since they just opened up, they just started cooking and it may take a little bit longer for my food.

The restaurant is on the small side with 2 rooms and about 15 tables total in the place. It was a friday so I would have suspected that there would be a big lunch crowd but by 11:15am it was just me and another couple in the place. But by around 11:30am people just started pouring into the place and a line started forming by noon time.

As I waited for my meal, the waiter asked if I would like bread or a corn muffin. I chose the corn and he brought out a nice warm muffin. It looked like it was just baked and not just heated up. It had a nice grainy texture and was pretty good, but it didn't really have a strong corn flavor. I would even go as far to say it was kind of bland. I did enjoy eating it as I had to wait about 25 minutes for my fried chicken to come out.

When the fried chicken came out, it looked really good. It had a dark crispy coating on the outside and the chicken was juicy and moist on the inside and of course really hot just coming out of the oil. A lot of people liked the batter as it was different than other places I have had fried chicken like Stroud's in Kansas City or Price's in Charlotte. The batter kind of reminded me of tempura, light, crisp, and airy. It was nice and crunchy but did not have much seasoning. While it was tasty, I didn't get what all the fuss was about. If anything, the best part of the meal was the butter beans and rice. It had a nice creamy texture and complemented the fried chicken as the waiter had said.
People must really like it as the place was very busy and their prices are a little on the high side. The fried chicken was a little bit pricey considering the neighborhood, but what got me was that they charged for little things. They didn't mention it, but the corn muffin cost another 75 cents and the iced tea was $2 a glass, but they did not give you free refills. I thought charging for refills of iced tea in the deep South was sacrilege.

I would assume that the place was more for tourist than for locals. The neighborhood looked predominately African-American and there were very few eating in the restaurant. In fact there were many more Asians eating there carrying little guide books with them. Overall it was an enjoyable meal and I would give them 3 stars out of 4 but in no way was that the best fried chicken I have ever eaten. The food was fine and the atmosphere was interesting and I would recommend someone to try it at least once, but I wouldn't be heading back there anytime soon. Especially when there are so many other places to eat in New Orleans.

After lunch, I headed to the French Quarter. The night before the NFL had their opening day in New Orleans when the Saints took on the Minnesota Vikings. They had a parade and concert in the French Quarter area that day but now they were busy breaking down the stage and seating from the festivities. This made for a congested drive through the Quarter and there were still plenty of Saints' fans walking around. I went to a parking lot and made my first stop at the Riverwalk.


The Riverwalk is a shopping mall right along the Mississippi river. The main reason I went there was to get out of the humid and heat of New Orleans but to also visit the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. The museum was kind of on the small side but had some interesting exhibits on the cuisines of New Orleans from Cajun to Creole to the po boy.


From there I walked around the Jackson Square and got an order of beignets at Cafe Du Monde. At first when they gave me the bag, I thought they had only given me one beignet and not an order of three. But I quickly opened up the bag and sure enough there were three but it looks like they had gotten smaller. I ate one and it was still great. Hot, light, chewy texture, and lots of powdered sugar on it make for a great treat.

I then walked across the street to Central Grocery to pick up 2 muffulettas to take home with me to New York. After spending a few hours in the French Quarter I headed back to the hotel. There I put the sandwiches away in my cooler and used the ice from the hotel to keep them chilled for the flight home tomorrow.

Later in the evening I went back to Crabby Jack's for dinner. This time they stayed open until their normal closing time of 5pm. I wanted to try their duck po boy. I like to eat duck and have never heard of a duck po boy before so this should be interesting. The place is a little on the run down side and is in an industrial area of New Orleans. The inside is decorated with all kinds of eclectic stuff. Like Bozo's, they had a sign on the wall saying that they did not have oysters. I guess the oyster problem was a lot bigger than you hear on the news.

It didn't take long before I got my duck po boy and I took it back to the hotel with me for my dinner. I had that and the rest of the beignets for dessert. The duck po boy was dressed and had plenty of duck in it, but it was shredded. The sandwich was good but the texture was more like pulled pork and I would have preferred chunks of duck meat. Also it was kind of messy as the meat would come oozing out of the bread. I would definitely go back but probably try another kind of po boy.

No Oysters For You!

I checked out of the hotel around 10am. I was a little bit miffed that they hit me with an additional resort fee. I had gotten the room through Priceline at a decent price but they did not mention any additional fees that would have to be paid. The fee wasn't too bad at an additional $5 per day, but that represented an increase of 10% over the original cost.

The plan was to hit an early lunch at The Shed in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, about 30 minutes east of Biloxi. This would give me plenty of time to take a leisurely drive back to New Orleans. The Shed is a barbecue place and again was highlighted on Drive-Ins, Diners, and Dives. It sounded good but I did have some apprehension about the place not because Guy Fieri did a segment on them but that they had about 3 other stores and were going to open a branch in Austin, Texas. It smelled of franchise. Still I am a sucker for good barbecue and it did sound interesting. The Shed in Ocean Springs is the original restaurant and the story goes that the original building was a shed and that they kept adding to it.

At first I wasn't sure if I was in the right area as the restaurant is located in a trailer park. It is right off the road and there are trees blocking the view but you can easily see the sign for the place. The parking lot is a gravel road but even though I got there before they opened, there were people already waiting to get in.

I walked around the outside of the restaurant as I waited for them to open and you can quickly tell that this is a fun place. They had plenty of tables and chairs for outdoor eating but they also had a small stage for musical acts that play there on the weekends. The fun doesn't stop outside but continues inside the restaurant.

When you enter the place, there are dollar bills stuck to the ceilings of the building. The bills are signed and sometimes they are taped to the ceiling, stapled to the ceiling, and quite often impaled on a plastic fork to the ceiling. Plus people have written on any spare piece of space on the ceiling, walls, and tables.


After doing some research, I decided to try their spare ribs with macaroni salad. I chose the macaroni because it is described on the menu as being a favorite and they ate it on Guy's tv show. I asked the cashier which other side dish that she would recommend and she said the baked beans.

It only took a few minutes to get my food. Sorry to say that the barbecue was only good. I was expecting much more but a lot of the nice smoked meat flavor that I like was absolutely drowned in their sauce. Plus their sauce was very much on the sweet side. This excess sweetness pertained to the baked beans as well. The food was tasty and I would recommend the place, but I wouldn't go out of my way again for just the food. I would give the place 3 out of 4 stars, but 2 1/2 for the food and another 1/2 star of the atmosphere. Sorry about the lack of pictures of the food, it was dark inside and the photos came out quite dark despite the use of a flash. Plus with all of the sauce on the ribs, you really couldn't see much of the meat.

After lunch, the original plan was to hang around the Biloxi area to hit another restaurant called Aunt Jenny's for their fried chicken before heading back west to New Orleans. I was also thinking of hanging out in the area due to the congestion that was happening in New Orleans. The Saints was playing in the NFL season opener and there were lots of festivities, parades, and street closings in the New Orleans area that I would rather avoid. I didn't know about this when I had planned my trip but the coverage on the Saints was all over the newspapers, tv, and radio in the area.

But after doing some sightseeing and walking around some casinos, I got bored and decided to head the New Orleans. My stomach wasn't going to mind missing out on some fried chicken. On the 90 minute drive back to New Orleans I did make a stop at a supermarket just to do some sightseeing. Next to the supermarket was a Chinese restaurant.

The Chinese restaurant was called 5 Happiness and they were offering a lunch buffet for only $6. The place was pretty small and a little worn down. There were about 6 customers eating at the time. I was still pretty full from The Shed and I only wanted to see what a Mississippi egg roll tasted like. It was kind of pricey, $3.50 for 2 egg rolls, but I placed my order anyway. The owner said that for a just a few dollars more I could have the buffet. I declined saying that I was just interested in a snack. She then went to the buffet table and put 3 egg rolls into a box and charged me $2.
I did not eat the egg rolls right away, instead I continued my drive but did stop at a place to get a bottled Barq's root beer. I have never seen Barq's in glass bottles before so I had to try one. I guess it shouldn't be too unusual as Barq's was invented in Biloxi. At that point I did try an egg roll and it was OK. Not very crispy on the outside but plenty of vegetables on the inside.

I got to New Orleans around 5pm and headed over to Crabby Jack's to get a roast duck po boy for dinner. But when I got there, they had closed early so they could watch the New Orleans Saint's home opener. The backup plan was to go to Bozo's for an oyster po boy.

It was kind of early for dinner and the place was not very crowded, plus I suspect that many people were away to watch the football game. I placed my order for the oyster po boy but was told that they didn't have any. Due to the BP oil spill, many oyster beds were still closed and they could not get oysters that met the quality that they demanded. They did try to use oysters from Washington but they said they weren't good enough.

As they explained to me the lack of oysters, the phone rang and they had to tell them that they had no oysters either. The lady then said that they have been getting quite a few calls about oysters lately since it was the beginning of oyster season again but they had to tell their customers no. She then went to the white board and wrote in big red letters, "No Oysters Today". Until recently they had been using frozen oysters that they had stockpiled but that supply was now gone.

I then decided to order a shrimp po boy "dressed" with lettuce, tomatoes, and may. Within 5 minutes they had one ready for me and I took the po boy with me to go. I checked into the hotel and feasted on the shrimp po boy and the rest of the egg rolls for my vegetable. The po boy was very good, but I did have my heart and stomach set for oysters but as I went around New Orleans, oysters were in scarce supply.