Football Cuisine Battle Royale: Los Angeles Rams vs New Orleans Saints

It's the perfect culinary storm this Sunday when the Los Angeles Rams battle the New Orleans Saints in the football playoffs for a berth at the Super Bowl.

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.

Will it be an LA Street Hot Dog or deep-fried cornmeal crusted Alligator that spikes your taste buds? Well read on and cast your vote for the winning recipes and local eateries -- and go Saints, I mean go Rams!! Oh forget it!

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!

2018 Oscar Party Recipes

And the Best Oscar Entree goes to...YOU! Come and accept your award-winning chow and pass it around to your Oscar party guests.

And click on any Oscar Entree nominee name to be directed to the original blog post for all the award-winning recipe prose and cinematic culinary imagery.

Let's start things off with a bang, it's the Oscar Entree nominated "Dunkirk" Beanie Weenies!

Dunkirk - Movie Trailer

This rousing flick, directed by genre-hopping Christoper Nolan, is about WWII British soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk as the Nazis close in for the kill.

But don't worry. The British love their whistle-berries, so it's Baked Beans with Wieners to the rescue!

"Dunkirk" Beanie Weenies - Recipe

Rising from the murky depths, my next Oscar Entree Nominee, "The Shape of Water"Alligator Po'boy Sandwich, may give you the creeps.  

 After one crunchy bite, your head will swim with pungent Cajun spices and exotic reptile tastes. Alligator is very similar in texture and flavor to a pork chop, but with an extra seafood tang. An Alligator Po'boy Sandwich is typically dressed in lettuce and tomato on a slice of French bread slathered with mayo.

The Shape of Water - Movie Trailer

Is the main creature character, in this imaginative movie creation by Director Guillermo del Toro, a fish or reptile, or maybe a combination of both? 

While the alligator flavor may leave you scratching your head, this recipe is ready for its close-up taste test. So after viewing the recipe below, go ahead and give my Best Oscar Entree a big webbed green thumbs up!

"The Shape of Water"Alligator Po'boy Sandwich - VIDEO

My next Oscar-Nominated Entree is "Phantom Thread" Shepherd's Pie. Film director Paul Thomas Anderson weaves a quixotic yarn of a story, which is a part art-house movie and British costume drama.

And the director teams with actor Daniel Day-Lewis once again, who plays a proper gown couturier, set in 1950's London, England. His character falls for a young waitress, and soon enough, the sequins fly. 

The most English of entrees is a Shepherd's Pie, which commoners and royalty enjoy. It's simple pub food composed of ground beef or lamb, peas, and carrots cooked in a beef and tomato sauce, finally crowned with mashed potatoes. Click here to see how this Scrooge Yoeman does it.

Phantom Thread - Movie Trailer

My Oscar Entree, "Lady Bird" Curried White Chicken Deli Salad, is based on a Trader Joe's deli favorite that struggling students, like the movie's main character Lady Bird, would surely dine on. 

This chick flick is one that guys can get into. I saw it and totally got it. The mom and daughter dynamic starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, directed by Greta Gerwig, is indeed Oscar-worthy.

Lady Bird - Movie Trailer

If you don't know about our local Trader Joe's markets, they stock food that is cheap but high-quality. They carry specialized frozen and fresh packaged foods, locally baked bread, organic veggies and fruit, hormone-free meat, chicken, and fish, along with a huge selection of exotic beer, wine, and spirits.

My cheapSkate version of Curried White Chicken Deli Salad is so yummy, even Academy voters used to glitzy dining would cast their vote for this Best Oscar Entree. 

Twilight Zone influenced, Oscar-nominated Get Out is a black man's paranoiac nightmare come true when he visits his white girlfriend's family. This is not your "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" kinda movie, where everyone becomes enlightened about race relations.

Get Out - Movie Trailer

I can't give away too much about this flick - no spoilers here. But I can give you all the details for my Oscar Entrée: "Get Out" Black Beans with White Rice. 

My recipe's combination of the sweet and sour Cuban-style  Black Beans, with boring White Rice, is a miscegenation of flavors. 

So let's all get along and agree that this Best Oscar Entree is horrifically delicious.

"Get Out" Black Beans with White Rice - VIDEO

To misquote Sir  Winston Churchill: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, sweat, and cheap$kate ingredients."

And the Oscar-Nominated Entree, "Darkest Hour" Fish and Chips," delivers on all the above.

This stirring biopic of Sir Winston Churchill's leadership as Hitler swept through Europe is a rousing viewing experience. And lead actor Gary Oldman is the Best Actor to beat.

Darkest Hour - Movie Trailer

For the fish, I use cheap pollack fish that is beer-batter-coated and deep-fried. For proper chips or fries, I use a double-frying method on russet potatoes to get extra-crunchy fries.

So belly up to the bar and order Churchill's favorite drink, Scotch whiskey, along with the pub grub favorite Fish and Chips. Watch my recipe video below to see how this Cheap$kate Corker does it. My entrée will lighten any dark day.

"Darkest Hour" Fish & Chips - Video

Do try out any of my Oscar Party Entrees - you're sure to get a Standing O. So have your acceptance speech ready because the golden statuette for Best Entree at an Oscar Party belongs to you, the host with the most.

And I'll leave you with a video I made a while ago, where the Academy of Motion Pictures had an Oscar exhibit, along with a podium with a real Oscar. All you had to do was stand in line and take a picture with it -- well, you can be sure I showed up for that! Just check out the video below: