Jot this down in your travel notebook, your vacation planner, your dream journal, or last year's Jazz Fest ticket: reserve a table for Sunday brunch at Patois next time in New Orleans.  If you're into local, good, and hidden, Patois is your dream spot.  The brunch menu (not to mention the dinner version) is so good, you'll spend about 15 minutes deciding what to order while you're nibbling the biscuits and muffins from the bread bowl.  We looked over many brunch menus before deciding to meet up at Patois, and I think it was one of the best brunches we've had in the city.

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I love little fried bits of things--shrimp, hushpuppies, onion rings, green tomatoes--but I've found a new favorite thing to satisfy that crunch-crunch, home-fried crispy urge.  It's fried okra.  Growing up, I never used to go for it, while the rest of my family inhaled it by the handful, especially when it came from my Southern-cooking grandma's kitchen.  I think okra had too much of a deep, earthen,  brown taste...it was bitter, like Brussels sprouts. It seemed, to my palate accustomed to raspberry Zingers and spaghettios, almost burnt.  Of course now I can't seem to get enough, and I think it's the oddness of okra that I find so wonderful.  There's really nothing else quite like it.

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Before the intense heat of this summer drives us all inside to eat nothing but cold sandwiches and ice cream, and before every last tomato has been incinerated by the sun, I want to share a special creation with you that we concocted at the beach: shrimp and okra stew with a secret.  The secret is chipotle pepper. (Italics is the typist's whisper).  Not that chipotle peppers in adobo sauce haven't been popularized in recent years--they're showing up in everything from hot wing sauce to salad dressing--but they're not indigenous to New Orleans cuisine.  But they really put this shrimp and okra stew over the top, I tell you!  Wowza!

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I'm going to keep this simple: I believe it's impossible for anyone to not like Mondo.  Susan Spicer's intent with this new restaurant, located in Lakeview, was that every diner would find something to his or her taste, and the carefully crafted menu accomplishes this task.  It might be true that any restaurant serving pizza can boast that it satisfies even finicky eaters.  But what Mondo does is sneak subtle culinary lessons into even the tamest plates, so that nonadventurous patrons will feel satisfied and enlightened at the same time.  Here are some examples, from our first Mondo visit, of the easy-to-enjoy twists put on comfortable classics.  First, our snack of caramel-bacon popcorn:

Do you like caramel corn? Then you like caramel-bacon corn.

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Note: The title of this post is not a report card.  It's just my attempt at being clever. The report card would be all A's, for real.

It's been a little busy around the Food Orleans household this month, but that doesn't mean we haven't been eating.  Here are some photos and brief reviews of places we've checked out over the summer.

B #1:  Butcher.  Donald Link's Butcher is located next door to his Cajun-oriented Cochon, in the warehouse district.  It's a true butcher shop, where you can buy delectable pork cuts, poultry, lamb, beef, foie gras, and housemade sausages of all kinds, but it also has a bar and little tables and fantastic food.  Butcher has become one of our must-try places we like to take out-of-town guests to, and everyone loves it.  They have a full sandwich board (and the best muffaletta in town--you heard me), but my favorite thing to do is order three or four of their small plates--usually $6 each--and a plate of their boudin with mustard and pickles--only $3.  The menu changes constantly, but always includes a couple of options for those who don't eat pig and is always seasonal.

Butcher: boudin-stuffed quail atop braised greens and creamy mustard.

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