Salt and Pepper

400 Iberville St

New Orleans, LA

When you think of food in New Orleans, you probably think of dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and the omnipresent po-boy. None of which are things that I want to eat. This happens to me a lot. I love coastal cities, but I don’t dig on seafood. The good thing about this is that I often find restaurants that other people would pass by without a second thought. I discover out of the way places that serve awesome food without any regard for tourist expectation.

I was impressed and happy to find such a place in New Orleans, right on the edge of the Quarter. Salt and Pepper doesn’t look like much. Walking down Iberville, you see all kinds of flashy restaurants and bars clamoring for your attention. Salt and Pepper, however, just looks like a small diner. In this case, looks are not deceiving. The place is tiny. It might hold 20 people. Maybe. The lighting  is too bright. They sell cigarettes at the cash register.

But the food and service is spectacular.

My girlfriend and I split samosas as an appetizer. She had saag panir (spinach with cheese) and I had bhindi masala (an okra-based stew). We shared an order of garlic naan and paratha.

The samosas were some of the tastiest that I’ve ever had. They were crispy on the outside, having come to our table straight from deep fryer, and spicy on the inside. A small amount of curried chickpeas unexpectedly accompanied the samosa, and they were just as good.

My girlfriend thought that her saag paneer was too spicy. She had asked for mild but said that it set her lips on fire. I tried a bit and couldn’t detect any heat. That could, however, have been because I had asked for my dish very spicy. The cook had come through. I often find that native Indian and Pakistani cooks underestimate my desire for spicy foods, so they dumb it down too much. This cook, however, gave me exactly what I wanted: a stew with heat that pushed my taste bud’s boundaries without giving me a chemical burn.

Not everything was perfect. I thought that the rice was underwhelming and a bit dry. It had probably been sitting in a pot for some time. The garlic used in the naan didn’t taste fresh. More like they had used pre-chopped garlic that comes in one of those large jars. Aside from these two minor complaints, the meal was excellent.

Definitely recommended to anyone spending time in a touristy part of New Orleans but wants to avoid tourist traps.

(Image via: The Sydney Morning Herald)