re: 10 best restaurants of 9th Ward & NOLA East

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Thai Lotus

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serves really, really good Vietnamese.

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I'm always suspect of these "catch all" Asian joints. The old Pho Bang in Biloxi was legit.

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Cafe Trinh Quyen

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ate there last night, it was very good and inexpensive. Will go back

Will do, but I've had Vietnamese three times this weeks already. I had a call in the East yesterday and I always stop at one of the three Vietnamese places when out there.

I'm going to make Glassman jealous tonight and grab some Restaurante La Profecia.

bringing a couple of Honduran friends, out the door now.

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Thai Lotus on 49

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I like Thai Lotus

Also Le Bakery in Biloxi is Vietnamese owned and we like their Banh Mi.

And Kim Long's in Biloxi has the best Pho

TulaneLSU, that is an excellent write-up. I grew up in New Orleans East (even though i'm in Baton Rouge now), and i can appreciate the respect and history lesson you gave. What's sad is that back in the day, even as recent as just before Katrina, there were many many more good eateries in the East.

As i stated in another thread, you're spot on with Castnet at the #1 ranking, but i have to be candid and disclose that i'm partial, as i used to work there, and all 4 of my little brothers have worked there, with my baby brother still working there today. I started working there in 1991 and stayed there for 10 years until i got off of my arse and came to BR to go to cllege. I watched that place grow from a shack to a megaplex.

LET ME STATE FOR THE RECORD THAT I HAVE ZERO OWNERSHIP OR FINANCIAL INTEREST IN CASTNET SEAFOOD.

However, because i worked there behind the scenes, even played a part in the development of the kitchen and some of the recipes, i can attest to the quality of the ingredients and preparation, and the owner's FANATACISM with the consistency of his product.

Some of the "under the radar" options from the kitchen that i would recommend:

The Tuesday lunch special .. paneed veal with baked mac-and-cheese (that's second only to rocky and carlo's) ... get it with the roast beef gravy/debris.

Fried Speckled Trout po-boy or plate ... they clean a speckle trout from the fresh market next door WHEN YOU ORDER IT ... best fried fish you can get.

ALL of the seafood is fried to order, even the shrimp ... and they shuck their own oysters on site, so they literally have the freshest fried oysters in the city.

They also make a mean 1/2 pound burger, and grilled chicken, both of which are flame grilled .. and they make a nice 6 inch muffaletta.

Probably the one thing i can attest to the most is the cleanliness of their kitchen. Everything in there is stainless steel and vinyl white-board, and is scrubbed and hosed down daily. It's also open where you can see everything going on as they make your food, ... no hidden kitchen.

No other place to find my writings. I just post here to inform those who want to be taught, to be taught myself, and to annoy those who think they know more than they actually do.

Some of the books about New Orleans that I've read over the years include:

Anything and everything by Richard Campanella
Rising Tide (Barry) - one of the best books ever written on the Miss River and the cities along it.
Great Deluge (Brinkley) - good book on Katrina by a self-important bloviater. Takes one to know one.
Lords of Misrule (Gill) - best book on understanding the politics and power of the ruling class
Beautiful Crescent (Garvey) - very outdated and limited
Creole New Orleans (Hirsch) - best book written on the changing meaning of the word Creole and racial dynamics of the city
The World that Made New Orleans (Sublette)
Hungry Town (Fitzmorris) - he knows more about food than this whole board put together. Hate him or not, listening to him and reading his stuff has formed much of my views of food in NOLA
New Orleans City Guide (Works Progress Administration) - want to know what NOLA looked like in every regard in the 30s and 40s? Read this.
Unnatural Metropolis (Colten) - besides Campanella, the best geographic book about this city
NOLA of George Washington Cable (Powell) - want to know how Calvinistic American Protestants viewed NOLA's Catholics and Protestants and the city in general?
River and Its City (Kelman) - academic but educational
Jazz (Burns) - NOLA cannot be understood without understanding jazz

I've done a lot of independent research in libraries and collections for my own gratification as well. Once you start digging in archives, it gets very interesting. A few outsiders who criticize me here think I Google all this information, but if I had done that, it wouldn't flow with the rhythm it does. Also, it would not be as organized and would also take me an inordinate amount of time. As it is, these essays take about an hour's time, if not less. It has taken me a lifetime of paying attention to the city to be able to type out these brief histories. I don't think I've added any new info so what I type isn't worth being published in paper form, but I have tried to put my own 2 cents in as I mold all my sources together into my own narrative.

I've also read the Times Picayune almost daily for the last fifteen or twenty years.

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TulaneLSU

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I give you crap, but if you were published I would buy it.

I didn't mean to demean your writing earlier. I was just saying that on the food board when you list places, a blurb about each helps the reader know why you feel that way. It is something you were doing and then just stopped as the essays got longer.

Also another book that is interesting for the area is "Historic Jefferson Parish from Shore to Shore" It's my current coffee table book, but it has a lot of good history on local food and culture. Including the Carrolton area, which used to be Jefferson parish.

Sometimes though I wish you applied those literary talents, and spent a little bit of time describing the places.

Late 90s into the early 2000s. I don't know if Boo boo and Keith have any older brothers... but I don't think so. Other than that, I can't think of anyone else besides Jon Boi and Kent as family working there.

Maybe a little later too... my timeline may be a bit jacked up from all the Crown and Heineken I consumed there.

Great thread