NOLA eats

Our gorge-fest started mid-day Friday at Liuzza's by the track - the "track" being the horse racing track at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.
Liuzza's serves the best barbecued shrimp po-boy in the city. Throw in a Barq's root beer and you've got a classic New Orleans hole-in-the-wall lunch experience.
Next was Commander's Palace for dinner.
It was my first visit to this classic Uptown haunt for dinner.

I started with the restaurant's signature dish - turtle soup - which totally lived up to its legendary reputation. For an entree, I had the pecan-encrusted drum fish soaked in what had to be an entire stick of butter and topped with sweet lump crab meat and hollandaise sauce. I could feel my ass expanding with every bite.

Dessert was an amazing bread pudding soufflé.
We ended the trip with lunch at Galatoire's in the French Quarter, the 103-year-old grand dame of the city's oldest and most revered restaurants. We didn't see any celebrities or Washington politicians, but there were plenty of French Quarter and Uptown bluebloods in the room.
I had a shrimp rémoulade followed by redfish topped with a crabmeat and shrimp meunière.
This was a flaming spicy brandied coffee that was prepared at the table.
I had to borrow a button-up shirt from Andy and a jacket from the restaurant's spare closet to meet Galatoire's strict Sunday dress code.

Some of us also managed to squeeze in a stop at Coop's Place on Decatur Street in the lower French Quarter where I had jambalaya supreme, a rabbit-sausage-shrimp-crawfish-and-tasso version of this Cajun classic that beats all others in the city.