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Restaurant Review: Cochon
Posted by perle0 on 2009-01-22 14:08:19
(6410 views) 
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[Editorial]
[New Orleans] |
 After hearing about it for a while, I have finally eaten at Cochon, a restaurant in New Orleans that somewhat specializes in meaty dishes. It had been on my "eat here someday" list for at least half a year. |
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They have several "small plate" dishes, which was nice because you can try a few things instead of getting a gigantic main dish. Although I was a bit tempted by the rabbit & dumplings entree, I went for the small plates instead to get more variety.
I got the wood-fired oyster roast, the fried rabbit livers with pepper jelly toast, the iceberg lettuce with ranch dressing, bacon & radishes salad (which I shared with my dinner companion), and a side of creamy grits. My friend got the eggplant and shrimp dressing, an okra cornmeal fritter with chow-chow, and a side of lima beans (no doubt to get back at me for the rabbit livers). My food was all very good; my friend's food was marred by consisting mostly of things I don't like much. (Hate lima beans, never cared for dressing of any kind.) The fritter was good, but there was a bit too much chow-chow involved to suit me. Tastes differ, though, and my friend seemed pleased with those dining choices.
So, the roasted oysters were good, they had some sort of slightly tangy juice flavoring them that was nice, but I still I prefer them raw. The fried rabbit livers were delicious--if you like liver, of course--but they were perched on little squares of toast spread with pepper jelly, and topped with some thin slices of pickled onion and lots of fresh mint leaves, and the combination was wonderful. I can't recommend it to anyone who hates liver, but if you like it even a little bit, this is a great dish. The mint added much more to the dish than I thought it would. The salad was okay; I think the menu may have said something besides ranch dressing on it, but it was ranchlike and that's not my favorite. The grits were amazing--very creamy, yet with lots of internal texture--there were sort of little lumps of something in it, but they were not bad lumps, just more like textural variation and I liked 'em. Otherwise they were very creamy and rich and had a nice amount of butter on them--far less than I would put, but it worked on these. Even the bread was tasty...it reminded me a lot of the soft rolls at Piccadilly, but a bit more upscale. Besides, I like the soft rolls at Piccadilly.
For dessert, I had the chocolate cake, which was a flourless chocolate cake (shaped like a wedge of cheesecake and about a half-inch high) topped with creole cream cheese mousse (closer to cheesecake in texture, and more like an inch high) with little squares of (I think) poached pears, or maybe apples, beside it. It had a drizzle of caramel or something as well. My friend got the carrot cake with Steen's cane syrup butter pecan ice cream...the cake was good, but I loved the ice cream and rather wished I had just gotten a big bowl of that. I love cane syrup.
We also got 4 drinks between us--that accounted for $20 worth of the bill, right there. It was my last binge before a two-week alcohol fast necessitated by some antibiotics. I had something described as a sort of pineapple caipirinha. It was interesting, but too strong and not sweet enough for me, despite the pineapple, lime, and cane syrup. With dessert, I had the Cochon Royale, a variant on a champagne royale using some sort of pomegranite liquer instead of Chambord. This was more to my taste; if you like a champagne royale, champagne, and fruity drinks, you should like this one. It's not super-fruity, though, so if you don't actually care for the taste of champagne you might prefer something else.
Overall, Cochon was a very enjoyable dining experience. I recommend it, especially for diners who enjoy meats of all types with the influence of local traditions and locally-available foods. |
Cochon Restaurant
930 Tchoupitoulas St.
New Orleans, LA.
Corner of Andrew Higgins Dr.
Phone: (504)588.2123
E-mail: "info@cochonrestaurant.com |
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