Chinese New Year!

Since yesterday I wrote about the Vietnamese New Year, I figured I should also mention that it's also the Chinese New Year! Moreover, it's the year of the dragon! How awesome if that!?!?!?

So to celebrate this momentous occasion I decided to reflect on some lovely Americanized Chinese food you can find in New Orleans. One of my favorite spots to go is Hoshun on St. Charles. Their portions are enormous (as you can see above) and they serve a variety of pan-Asian cuisine, including sushi (which is okay, good, not great), Vietnamese, and Thai. One of my favorite dishes they serve is their Thai curry soup, yummmmmmmmmm!

East Buffet

Are you tired of eating at home? Can you only afford an appetizer at most restaurants? Don't worry, me too! That's why I've been on a serious hunt for affordable dinning in this city. In my most recent OffBeat Magazine tell-all A Buffet Revival at East Buffet I wrote about my rediscovery of all-you-can-eat buffets.

I was always a bit on the snobby side of the pan-asian buffet scene, but my tight budget led me down to Severn in Metairie and right to East Buffet. I was stunned to find some really tasty food displayed  under the glaring heat lamps.

  East Buffet carries all sorts of different delicacies and cuisines including Chinese, Japanese, Korean Hibachi, American, and tons of boiled Seafood.

Their salad bar had a wide array of different ethnic salads including Japanese seaweed salad, Vietnamese pickled carrot and Daikon and Korean Kimchi.

East Buffet had all the usual Chinese-American dishes including lo-mein, fried rice, and as many different styles of chicken as you can think of. 

They also had Tempura fried vegetables, green beans and many other hearty green vegetables (covered in super unhealthy sauces of course).

I was a little hesitant to try the sushi... something about all-you-can-eat and raw fish just doesn't seem to mesh well in my mind, but I decided to try it anyway and it was actually pretty good, not great, but good. And they have an entirely deep fried spicy crawfish roll that I think should definitely be at the next Louisiana State Fair!

Watch out Texas! This might be more unhealthy than deep fried butter!

 The best roll I had was the tiny seaweed salad and cucumber roll shown above... it actually was better than the seaweed salad itself.

 

Aside from sushi and Chinese, East Buffet is well worth your money for the seafood alone. Crawfish, shrimp crab, clams, octopus, everything!

 

The octopus salad was great with some soy sauce!

They even had pork buns!

And fried food galore!

Definitely not a healthy place to eat, but very tasty.

And their dessert is not much healthier: Chinese Doughnuts and Froyo! Yummmm!
 

 So don't let being on a budget be a buzz kill. Find out more about prices, hours and location (and what I thought of the food) in A Buffet Revival at East Buffet.

Cheap Priced Shrimp Fried Rice

For my newest OffBeat article, Rice Behind Bars I decided to share one of my favorite corner store delicacies: Shrimp Fried Rice. Since Katrina the city has seen many changes, including a menu shift in most corner stores. With an increase of Vietnamese shop owners, Chinese food seems to have replaced Soul food.

You can't drive down Claiborne for more than 5 minutes without seeing a Chinese and Po Boys sign, and though it may sound like a strange combo, I am a huge fan.
If you want to get some really incredible fried rice and po boys head over to Vicky's Supermarket on Magazine St and General Pershing conveniently across the street from Ms. Maes,
cheap drinks + cheap food = awesome.

To find out more info about Vicky's and these Chinese food deals and steals check out  Rice Behind Bars.

You don't want to miss this spot! Read Rice Behind Bars for more details!