American food
Saturday, December 10, 2011
CHRISTMAS is fast approaching and like a sled towed by ten speeding reindeers, the days zip fast, finding me with still no place explored on the night before deadline. Panic!
It was providential that there is one relatively new place that escaped exploration the past weeks simply because we were in some other areas. The target: New Orleans Cafe along J.P. Laurel Avenue in Bajada right across the Davao City Water District (DCWD).
There was not a single regular goin’ places buddy and Gigie just happened to be available. Alleluia. The date was set, 7 p.m. at New Orleans. I arrived first since I have just popped in Abreeza for a quick purchase of a techie thingamagig to go with my laptop and had nowhere else to go.
New Orleans has a lot.
A lot of coffee, a lot of sandwiches AND paninis, all-day breakfast and regular set meals, and pastas!
I ordered Muffulleta simply because it is recognized as the signature sandwich of New Orleans in Louisiana (US). It’s a round bread (muffuletta bread that originates from Sicily) with some layers of cold cuts and cheese and topped with olive salad. I ordered the single serve (made of two slices) for P150 since the whole round bread costs P650 and I cannot imagine myself being able to consume such huge sandwich for dinner.
I also ordered guacamole salsa to spice up my tastebuds. But my magic was in full effect, they didn’t have that in store. Ugh!
Still I didn’t want to settle for just one order. I need to try one more.
The “Baker’s dozen” caught my eye not because it sounded yummy (I wanted guacamole and was craving for guacamole) but because I wanted to see if they know what a baker’s dozen is.
I asked the waiter what baker’s dozen and he said it’s much like doughnut in small squares.
Okay, give me one, please.
My Muffuletta arrived first and it was, pretty okay except that I was craving for some really zingy dinner. It tasted too American for my poor Bisaya tastebuds (I need more salt, but I resisted the urge because I wanted to savor how the place originally intends it to taste; that didn’t mean I didn’t want more salt). I’m sure I’d have enjoyed it more, too, had I got my hands on that guacamole.
The baker’s dozen came next, which I quickly counted. Yes, there are 13 squares.
A quick lesson first, a baker’s dozen isn’t about specific breads. It is about the number of pieces. We have the dozen, which is 12, from the French word douzaine, which means a group of 12.
A baker’s dozen, also known as devil’s dozen or long dozen is one more than the standard dozen -- 13.
Thus, it’s not necessarily the bread that tasted like our doughnut before all these queer flavored and cake-like doughnuts grabbed the centerstage, it’s the number of pieces. But apparently at New Orleans Cafe‚ that’s what you will get if you ask for a baker’s dozen.
Gigie finally arrived and ordered another other food I was eyeing, the salad pasta described as curly pasts with capers and olives and tuna flakes in vinaigrette. Tasted American as well.
We topped our dinner with coffee. Gigie got the hazelnut, I got the plain iced Americano (with no sugar, please). I was wondering though why it cost P150 per order. Pretty expensive by regular Davao standards, really.
Our coffee orders arrived in tall glasses. By the time we sipped them all up, we were already too groggy from our super-stuffed tummies. Time to go home.
I say, very dainty place. It has a second floor too and a tiny meeting room.
