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The Sweet Side of
New Orleans
By Tori Phelps | Illustrations by Lucy Mashburn
The city may have invented jazz and, yes, throws one heck of a party every year for Mardi Gras. But some of New Orleans’s most important contributions have been to the field of desserts. NOLA knows sugar, y’all. And these are some top spots to get your fix.
Café Du Monde
800 Decatur Street
Beignets are technically an all-day food rather than a dessert. But these doughnut cousins make the list because they’re synonymous with New Orleans. The iconic Café Du Monde serves them up hot—along with lots of napkins for your inevitable powdered-sugar mustache.
Brennan’s
417 Royal Street
When butter, booze, and bananas meet fire, good things happen. Specifically, bananas Foster happens. And there’s no better place to get it than Brennan’s, whose original restaurant on Bourbon Street debuted the dessert in the early 1950s.
Debbie Does Doberge
1179 Annunciation Street
Birthday candles in New Orleans sit on top of a doberge cake (pronounced “doh-bash” or “doh-bearj”). This Big Easy original features thin layers of cake separated by pudding or custard. Though a standard doberge is chocolate or lemon, Debbie Does Doberge’s menu has a staggering number of flavor combos.
Bon Ton Café
401 Magazine Street
Bread pudding is a dessert-menu staple around the country. But the New Orleans French bread, which most restaurants use as a base, is what separates it from its peers. Bon Ton Café’s Cajun bread pudding with whiskey sauce is a legend in this city, and you need to taste why.
Hansen’s Sno-Bliz
4801 Tchoupitoulas Street
New Orleans sno-balls are not snow cones, thank you very much. They’re made with perfectly shaved ice, courtesy of a machine invented by Ernest Hansen in 1939. Today, people still flock to the family-run business for fluffy sno-balls, house-made syrups, and toppings.
Comme c’est sucré!
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![Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Crustless Quiche
By Sonja & Alex Overhiser, founders of A Couple Cooks | Serves 6–8
This crustless quiche is quite the heavy lifter; it works just as well at big family brunches as for make-ahead weekday breakfasts. The savory egg custard is baked without the traditional pastry shell, making it much simpler to whip up. Cottage cheese adds a boost of protein, and the custard is packed with nutrient-dense spinach.
Ingredients
10 oz [280 g] frozen spinach, thawed
6 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning or dried oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons feta cheese crumbles
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 9-inch round pie dish.
2. Use your hands to squeeze out as much excess liquid as you can from the thawed spinach, then break it into small pieces.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Stir in the spinach, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, 4 tablespoons of the sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, kosher salt, and a few grinds of black pepper.
4. Pour the egg mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle the top with the remaining sun-dried tomatoes and the feta cheese crumbles.
5. Bake the quiche until set in the center and golden around the edges, 28 to 30 minutes. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before cutting into pieces and serving.
Tips
Leftover quiche keeps well, and you can eat leftovers cold, at room temperature, or warm. Try it on a sandwich; it’s especially good on bread with Dijon dill spread.
If possible, look for bagged frozen spinach rather than boxed. It thaws easily in a colander under warm water.
Storage
Leftovers will keep, refrigerated, for up to 5 days.
See more festive recipes in VIE: www.viemagazine.com/article/the-holiday-table
Excerpted from A Couple Cooks: 100 Recipes to Cook Together by Sonja and Alex Overhiser © 2024. Published by Chronicle Books. Photography © Shelly Westerhausen Worcel.](https://viemagazine.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
