St. James Cheese Company

My name is Jenny and I have a problem. I am addicted to cheese. It all started at a young age with an innocent block of cheddar, but its is truly out of control now. I love goat and brie, and I even like cottage cheese. Burrata can literally bring tears of joy too my eyes. So when I'm feeling compulsions to relapse and enter cheese bliss there is only one place I go, St. James Cheese Company. Like myself, both the staff and guests here struggle with cheese addiction. Michal, my best friend from summer camp (who serendipitously went to Tulane with me and now lives in New Orleans!) is one of their best customers, and may have the worst case of cheese addiction I have ever seen. So of course, this is our favorite place to go together.

As you can tell from the menu above, this place truly is heaven for cheese lovers like me. But whether you can't live a day with out parmigiana or you really couldn't give a flying hoot what type of cheese is melted on your sandwich, you will love St. James.

It's friendly and charming in all the right ways. Surrounded by mounds of beautiful cheese, it's hard to not be happy in this light blue cafe. Not to mention their adorable balcony and courtyard seating.

You really can't go wrong with any choice at St, James. I'm usually a panini or pressed sandwich type of girl, but the meat on the hardy bread pictures above was phenomenal. So good that it made me question whether I liked it more than the sandwich below. This mozzarella panini is served with pesto and salami (and I dip mine in honey). If the prosciutto above came in the ciabatta panini below it would be perfect. And luckily the staff at St. James is incredibly friendly and always willing to accommodate all my strange requests (even a side of honey to dip my savory sandwiches in).

My all time favorite sandwich at St. James is not currently on the menu but will hopefully be back come Christmas time. The "Noel" is a baked brie pressed sandwich, served with sweet mustard and fruit chutney and of course ham. But this isn't any ham, this is warm delicious rosemary ham. I know, right?!?!?! They seriously make my wildest cheese fantasies come to life!

However, this is not Michal's favorite sandwich, and as she is a more regular customer, and has less strange taste in food, a lot of people might find her advice more helpful. Michal's go to number 1 pic is the Gruyere, really just a fancy grilled cheese made with swiss and carmalized onions on pressed multigran bread. Very simple and incredibly scrumptious. It'll make you wonder how you ever like craft singles as a kid! I usually try to order the strangest thing on the menu wherever I go, but whenever I try a bite of Michal's sandwich (as I always do) I remember why people say, "less is more."

So the next time you need your brie fix, you know where to go!

PS If there are any lactose intolerant folks reading this I'm sorry for teasing you, take a lactade and head on over to prytania, believe me it's worth it!

Proof I'm Not a Food Snob

As the writer of a food blog, I catch a lot of people writing me off as a "foodie," aka a pretentious food snob that can never quite be pleased with their meal. However, if you read this chronicle (as I am assuming most people reading this now do) it is likely clear to you that I am no such thing. First of all, I LOVE food, almost all food; whether it comes from a five star fancy shmancy establishment or McDonalds, I usually find something I quite enjoy. In fact, many of my favorite fried chicken and po boy joints in the city are gas stations! Now what kind of snob would I be if I were to find myself in a Kwicky Mart grabbing dinner???? Not a very good one, I'll tell you that.

So here is my proof that I am not a food snob!!! Sweet Things and Grill. This adorable pink dinner is about the size of my bedroom and as bright as the lights I grew up with in Vegas. Between the pink roof and the cute name I have had my eye on this gem for quite some time. But I finally took the plunge and tried this Metairie dive a few weeks ago.

I immediately knew it was my kind of place as soon as I walked in. Tucked inside this humble dinner were six older adults, jolly and silly huddled around a tiny counter playing poker for pocket change. I kid you not, there were dimes and nickels everywhere! And everyone was incredibly friendly. I felt like I was in a scene from a Sandra Bullock movie in some quaint town where everyone knows each other and waves hello on their way to work. It's the type of place that just makes you feel nostalgic for times that frankly I wasn't even alive for.

Served up on a lovely styrofoam plate, this dinner makes all the kinds of food you wanted as a kid, cheeseburgers, french fries, grilled cheese, and yes... they have castle burgers! These teeny tiny patties made famous by Harold and Kumar are actually good. I know, I was surprised too! And super cheap, if my memory serves me correctly, one baby burger was 49 cents. Not bad at all. And of course, I almost forgot to mention the doughnuts! I'm pretty sure most people come for the doughnuts and coffee but I enjoyed my burger and grilled cheese more than my sprinkle doughnut. It might be because I went at the end of the night, but if you're torn between eclair or castle burger choose the burger!

In summation, this evidence clearly proves my innocence and takes me out of the food snob category and into the food lover section, where I rightfully belong. My friend Nick brought a great article to my attention that I think expresses how I feel perfectly. Jonah Campbell the writer of a blog called Still Crapulent wrote an article for Food for Thinkers, in which he writes, "i do not much care for the term "foodie," but to claim that my political analysis is greater than my aesthetic distaste for it would be disingenuous; i just think there's something both precious and pernicious about the marketing logic that transforms a love for food and the eating thereof into a conspicuously subcultural marker. i don't mean to startle anyone, but such folk have always been among us, some notorious epicures, gourmets and gourmands; others perhaps recognizable only to those of like mind, the goinfres, goulus, or plain old great eaters—those, in any case, devoted in their own ways to the pleasurable embellishments and stylistic flourishes of the art of self-preservation (especially the pickles, confits and ferments thereof)."

Ironically, his bombastic writing style makes him sound a bit pretentious, the very thing people seem to dislike about "foodies" but I do agree with his message. Read more here.