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!

Cream Puffs from Dollar Tree - Cheap$kate Video Review

What dessert do I bring to a patio BBQ? Well, I took a chance with Dolce Tuscano Miini Vanilla Cream Puffs that I bought for $1 at the Dollar Tree, down the street from my place. These confections reside in the frozen deli case, along with ice creams and frozen dinners. They are described as "Delicious creamy filling inside a flaky European-style pastry" - hey, they gotta be good enough for a party, right?

They needed defrosting, first, although I ate one that was semi-frozen, and liked it that way - the outer pastry was soft and the vanilla pudding inside was slightly frozen.

My neighbors were just starting to barbecue when I got there, so there was time for the Cream Puffs to finish defrosting.

BBQ Crew

Normally I would not subject friends to my filming (yeah right,) but Bob and Anne were game and I thought it would be a nice change of scenery to let them share screen time with me, plus it's always interesting to show how tastes vary. But overall I was not too surprised at the Cheap$kate Dining rating numbers given in the range of 1 to 9, 9 being best.

Cheap$kate guest reviewers: Anne & Bob

Bob and I were on the same page with an above average rating, while Anne liked the cream but dissed the pastry (see her revised rating* at end of this post,) thus dropping it a few points. I know what she means. The advertised flaky crust was not flaky, but slightly soggy -- that's the problem with frozen pastry desserts.

So I can't really blame purveyor Dolce Tuscano too much for that, they're handicapped right off the bat.

The pastry part was fine with a bread crust texture and taste, although slightly damp from defrosting. Maybe a solution is to make sure the pastries defrost out of the box so the moisture evaporates and the crust dries out.

Everyone agreed that the creamy filling was the best part of this cheap$kate dessert. It's light and fluffy, not too heavy. The filling is very sweet with strong vanilla flavor. And the cream is a nice contrast to the pastry.

You get 8 ping pong ball size pastries, so that's great value for a buck. The ingredient list is heavy on sugar, but it is a dessert.

Click on any photo to see larger

I have a comment on my YouTube channel that states they don't carry food items in their local Dollar Tree. I think for Los Angeles the competition is fierce for 99c and dollar stores, so Dollar Tree has to up it's game here and stock more food items. My local one carries all manner of frozen veggies, chilled eggs and cheese, dried pasta, canned beans and pasta sauce -- all for a buck each.

So how does my latest Deal of the Day rate to my guests, Bob and Anne? Well you will have to watch the video below to get their Cheap$kate Dining rating of 1 to 9, 9 being best.

But I will give you my rating right now. I thought Dolce Tuscano Miini Vanilla Cream Puffs are a decent Deal of the Day and give them a rating of 6! I, too, take of a couple of points for the non-flaky crust, and blandness. Maybe a better defrosting technique is needed to improve the rating? But for a buck this is a good deal and I would serve them again for my next patio BBQ gathering.

Cream Puffs from Dollar Tree - Video Review

Play it here. Video runs 2 minute, 7 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Dolce Tuscano is part of Smart Price food products.

*Anne and I have exchanged a few Facebook posts and she actually has upped her Cheap$kate rating by a couple of points when I mentioned the pastries are kept fresh frozen in the deli case - not just set out on the grocery shelf forever, jacked up on preservatives.