American Restaurants @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: American

South Restaurant (Cajun, Creole and Soul food), Neutral Bay

Please allow me to do a bit of housekeeping. Not Quite Nigella has been nominated in two categories for Well Fed Network’s awards! Thankyou so much for the wonderful people that nominated me And if you would like to vote you can do so on:

Best Food Blog – Post (for my Freeganism story)

Best Food Blog – City

Lots of love and happiness,

Lorraine aka NQN

xxx

And now onto the story…

I’ve always wanted to visit the South in America. There’s something about the lilting accents, the heat, the fabulous array of delicious and richly historical food imbued with legend that sparks my interest. I also do a mean Southern accent on occasion but so far I’ve only visited via restaurant or via the ingestion of cake. My friend Teena sent me the link to South on eatability knowing that we all love Southern food, particularly my friend Gina, whose birthday we were celebrating. I was a little suspicious given the rave reviews with particular mention for Leo, the owner, from people who had only written one review but hey it’s in a neighbouring suburb so I was willing to give it a try and aid in Gina’s quest for Chicken Wings and Pumpkin Pie from back home.

Bread and melted butter

On busy Military Road, South is a small restaurant with red and white checkered tablecloths, a (faux) possum sitting on top of the inside awning, a dessert case full of home made desserts and a bright, eyecatching mural. We are seated and the owner Leo comes over and introduces himself. Ah ok, this is why everyone mentions him by name. It’s also slated to be featured in next week’s episode of Food Safari on SBS.

Lemonade $4

We order Lemonades (very sweet and not fizzy but quite refreshing nevertheless). The menu is a mix of all things Southern, Cajun and Creole and features items such as crab cakes, BBQ Ribs, okra, Gumbo, catfish, Crawfish Etouffe, country fried steak, Jambalaya and of course the desserts (my favourite part of Southern cuisine-I am after all the person that had a Red Velvet Wedding cake).

Photos of our Red Velvet Wedding cake (photography by ViL Photography)

Hot Wings $16

Now as I mentioned, the reason why we’ve chosen this place is for Gina, as she’s Canadian and many a time she would cross the border in search of good chicken wings and pumpkin pie. Having tried chicken wings everywhere, she is always trying to find ones like back home (well technically back home and a bit south) so she and her fellow chicken wing loving husband Hot Dog hone in on these. She notes that they’re a bit pricier than your average wings so there’s a lot riding on them and we all wait to see their reaction. Hot Dog is too busy eating but gives it a big thumbs up as does Gina. The wings are spicy, with a vinegary tang and are juicy and delicious and served with celery sticks and a blue cheese sauce.

Crab Cakes $31

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34 comments | January 22, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Social Experiment: Who goes to Hooter’s on Valentine’s Day?

After a recent visit to Carne station in Parramatta, we were driving back home and passed Hooters, to which we immediately screeched with laughter. Once our laughter subsided we realised that we just had to come out for a visit. More for morbid curiosity than anything else. Hooters is an American phenomenon that hasn’t quite made an impact here with just the two locations in Sydney and one in Queensland. We wanted to know whether the “image” of Hooters was anything like reality. Would it be like a down, down home version of the Playboy mansion much like the show Blokesworld? I haven’t known a single person that has visited, due to its location being rather far away and the reputation being that of a busty, bawdy, blokefest.

We needed to convince my food adventure friends Queen Viv and Miss America that this was indeed, something we should do in the name of research. Miss America was more than amenable, she even threatened to bring along her own inflatable swimming pool and lime jelly. Getting the regal Queen Viv to agree was another thing. We asked if she was busy and that we were thinking of having another food adventure out to a place that has a certain charm. Once we had ascertained that she was free, we told her that it was called “Oouteurs” suggesting that it was a chic little French bistro. I gave the game away as I couldn’t keep a straight face and Queen Viv was a good sport and thought that there was some merit to our morbid curiosity. We thought that it would be an interesting thing to see who would go there on Valentines Day and my husband, relieved of Valentines Day cooking duties, agreed. I didn’t mind giving up Valentines Day. After all, our wedding anniversary is only a few weeks later and we have planned something big for it.

I wanted to dress up as a prim and proper Victorian lady with high Victorian collar and lace parasol and ask in a haughty voice “Where are the OWLS?” but my husband, Miss America and Queen Viv said that I would be the only one

Ringing ahead to book I was told that it was indeed “singles night” where they match up a girl and a guy to go off and have dinner together. Half of the restaurant was booked up for this event with places running out but the other half was walk in traffic.

At 7.30pm on Valentines Day, we arrived after fighting some insanely awful traffic. Miss America and Queen Viv have just arrived too and are looking a little distressed. “Its very LOUD music in there!” Queen Viv exclaims and we walk in to an aural assault. They have our booking and we’re led to a high table with menus on the side, a caddy of squeezy bottles of tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and American mustard and something that makes us laugh, a paper towel dispenser, with the last towel decorously folded over modestly.