Dunbar's Mustard Greens with Ham Hocks.Dunbar’s Creole Cooking
Few dishes epitomize the economical, yet delicious nature of Southern cooking like greens. Whether they be mustard, collard, turnip or kale, greens are inexpensive, tasty and nutritious. Greens tend to be high in protein, fiber, iron, and calcium plus low in calories and fat...at least until they are stewed with ham hocks or bacon.
To find greens in New Orleans, one could come up with the usual suspects, but there are some gems that haven’t been visited by a president or two. On Pine Street, hidden inside the Broadway Activities Center building lies Dunbar’s Creole Cooking. After the floods, the owners of Dunbar’s made a new home on Loyola’s campus and they seem quite contented to stay put.
Every day Dunbar’s provides hot plates at a great price like fried chicken and red beans, gumbo with potato salad or cabbage with chicken. But, on Thursdays, not only can you get a healthy pile of mustard greens stewed with delicious ham hocks, but you get smothered pork chops, candied yams, a nice hunk of cornbread and rice all for $7.95! It might be time to go back to school...
Boucherie and more...
In the Riverbend just off Carrollton Avenue on Jeanette Street, you can find a fancier shade of greens at the charming Boucherie. A native of North Carolina, Chef Nathaniel Zimet has mastered the art of elevating the Southern food experience to a whole new level of dining without elevating the price.
Among other stunning dishes with a Southern Louisiana soul like Boudin Balls with garlic aioli or Crispy Duck Confit with Hazelnut Brioche Pain Perdue, Zimet offers a simple appetizer of fresh Collard Greens and Grit Fries. These incredibly creamy and fresh tasting greens are lovingly prepared with their own house-cured bacon and topped with crispy fried grits in the shape of large, chunky French fries.
To be perfectly fair, greens can be found all over the Crescent City and prepared in as many different ways as there are varieties of bread pudding. Another Riverbend favorite, Dante’s Kitchen, offers a side dish of Smothered Collard Greens with house made bacon, onions and cane vinegar and on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny, The Praline Connection has mustard, collard or cabbage greens and rice.
It’s up to the greens connoisseurs to discover which ones they like the best whether it be presented under candlelight on a white linen tablecloth, piled onto a paper plate in a school cafeteria or served in yourneighbor’s kitchen.
