Which local cuisine will be the winner? Recipes from Los Angeles will shake and rattle your taste buds like an 8 point earthquake. Or a category 5 hurricane of spicy Cajun Cuisine swamping your tongue. Well, it's time to take sides!
I went to high school in Louisiana so grew up with the New Orlean Saints football team on the tv. I grew to love Cajun Cuisine as it became a part of my culinary DNA. My Mom, nephews Zakk and Matt, have made a slew of video recipes with this Cheap$kate Chef. Everything from Blackened Fish to Mom's Jambalaya, I even have a Red Beans and Rice recipe from good vegan friend Miss Patti.
After graduation, I knocked around a bit then heading to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the L.A. dream machine. First off Los Angeles is the Taco Capital of America. I've eaten my way from bustling Downtown LA to scenic Santa Monica bordering the Pacific Ocean. And I have the recipes to prove it!
So my loyalty is divided, oh boy.
The playoff game starts early so might as well have a Los Angeles pastry from DK's Donuts in Santa Monica. Okay, New Orleans let's see you top a Rainbow Donut!
Just as colorful, plus topped with a baby Fève figurine, is a New Orleans King Cake...hmmm I might have to have a huddle to determine the winner of this dessert scrimmage.
For the opening coin toss, heads it's a Tommy Burger from Los Angeles, and tails it's a New Orleans Shrimp and Oyster Po'Boy.
Let's hit the neon-lit streets of Los Angeles for, some would argue, the best fast food burger in town (sorry In-n-Out,) a classic Tommy Burger. It's all about the chili and a fat tomato slice. And I chow it down at one of the most visited landmarks in town, Uban Light located at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA.) Check it out and give the video extra points!
The Big Easy is all about the food and my Po'Boy Sandwich Tasting Tour is so good that even fans in the nosebleed stadium seats will get up and cheer!
Saints Purple or Rams Gold, spicy boiled orange Crayfish, or green Avocado Toast? Can you tackle peeling a Crawfish? If you have ever looked at a pileup of boiled Crawfish and wonder how to get through them, just check out the next video and you'll learn how I peel and eat 'em.
Hup one, hup two, hike a peeled avocado onto warm toast for the tastiest two-point ingredient conversion of an appetizer. Avocado Toast is my fave sack, I mean snack. It's as easy to make as a ten-yard extra point field goal.
Should I call Mom during the Sunday game? I'm sure to get my rear chewed out - nothing comes between her and her favorite football team, the New Orleans Saints - don't even think about getting her off her easy chair once the game starts.
Best to just throw in the towel when it comes to Mom's Cajun cooking. She wrote the rule book and let's see if L.A. can come back once she unloads her recipe of Jambalaya.
Whew, that recipe should be penalized for deliciousness. Well, Los Angeles has a reverse flea flicker of a recipe called, Carnitas. Hours of braising reduce a pork shoulder to a tender and succulent Mexican-style taco filling. I even throw in the pigskin for extra flavor. Carnitas are what I order for late night noshing at a taco truck.
Boy, all this tasty cuisine has me thirsty, and not for Gatorade either! But I know how to fix that - with a frosty Daiquiri from a local Louisiana Drive-Thru Daiquiri shop and make mine a White Russian! If that sounds too good to be true just take a gander here.
My recipe for a LA Street Dog is a freeway pileup of flavors that make an end run around any hot dog out there.
In Louisiana, I shop at the Dollar Tree and back home in Los Angeles I shop at 99c only Store. If you are too busy to cook then hit those dollar stores during halftime for some cheap ready-to-eat treats, like these right here.
Liver Cheese from a Los Angeles 99c only Store
Cream Puffs from a Louisiana Dollar Tree
A Los Angeles fan favorite is a California Roll. Like a stadium wave, this California spin on Japanese sushi has traveled to grocery deli cases all around the country. And it uses cheap imitation crab, so you will save big bucks on usually expensive seafood - hey, now you can afford an extra keg for your tailgate party!
New Orleans is right on the Gulf Coast so they know how to spike a seafood dish, and my nephew Zakk has a Blackened Fish recipe that will move the chain poles 10 yards for a first down!
For my vegan visitors, it's Legume Touchdown time! You'll want to pass around Gas-X or turn the fan to high in the dugout. Mexican-style Pinto Beans are stuffed into every Los Angeles Burrito and believe me I've had my share and here is how I make them out here.
Miss Patti, my good friend from New Orleans, is vegan and knows her Red Beans and Rice. She even came out to Los Angeles one time to show me how Cajuns cook them.
Okay, let's call a truce, listen up here to the menu from Little Jewel, a replica of a New Orleans deli market located right on the edge of Downtown Los Angeles, in of all places, Chinatown. You see, we can all get along after all, at least until kickoff time!
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