Cochon - visits 2 and 3...

Visit 2. A short quick lunch with a friend from DC who was visiting family in Louisiana.
(You know who you are...)

Ordered Crawfish Pie, the Grits and Sausage, and the Gumbo. The Gumbo is quite good but the crawfish pie is sublime. Flaky pastry in the shape of an empanada. The filling is a saucy seasoned (slightly creamy) mixture of rice and crawfish. There is a the distinctive smell of the swampiness of crawfish that is paired with some creole seasoned sauce. Divine. More delicate than a crawfish etouffee - but close. I would eat a bowl of the filling if they put it on the menu.

Visit 3. Dinner with colleagues. The new things we ordered included the ribs, the beef brisket with potato salad, the grilled shrimp. I revisited the boudin, the sausage/grits, the crawfish pie. The sauce with the beef brisket was delicious. The brisket was a bit fatty for my taste... The grilled shrimp was fine but nothing to write home about. The crawfish pie was sublime, still. And I wiped up all the housemade mustard with the boudin.

I think I'm going to make it back to Cochon one more time - perhaps for lunch tomorrow...

I also ate at a restaurant called Irenes - at the recommendation of the Cochon bartender. Charming French/Italian restaurant in the French Quarter but it manages to be patronized by a largely local clientele. The dish I'm going to try to make at home: Sweet Potato Soup with Andouille sausage.