Eating Out: Cochon

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time or know Patrick and me, you know that we have a healthy (unhealthy?) appreciation for all things pig. There are few foods that cannot be made magical by being married with some bacon. So when we heard there was a new restaurant in New Orleans that shared our obsession, we had to go.

Cochon is a bustling little place in a not-great part of town. Of all the places we visited, this reminded me of LA most. Not that this is a bad thing, but there was a certain element of seen-and-be-seen about it. But who wouldn't want to be seen at the restaurant that won the Crazy Bastard Special Achievement Award at the Golden Clog Awards? Or was named one of the New Your Times ten most significant new restaurants? And did I mention they constructed a special microwave that can nuke an entire pig?

I try and keep discrete notes throughout a meal but my notes from Cochon consist of one line: MOONSHINE = GOOD. Yep, Cochon stocks moonshine. Thank goodness I can't get Catdaddy on the West Coast. I expected a harsh mouthful of something like Everclear but found it unbelievably delicious, dangerously so, just slightly sweet and floral, an excellent accompaniment to my meal. Frankly, I can't think of any food a small sip of Catdaddy wouldn't improve.

The service at Cochon is hurried but not unfriendly. We started out with the wood-fired oyster roast. We ate a LOT of oysters one our trip but none were as good as these. I don't usually like cooked oysters but these were spicy, smoky, creamy and not one bit rubbery:

Can you guess what this next dish is? No? Pigs ear. I know, you're thinking this can't possibly be good but it is. I've been calling it the calamari of the pig. It's a shame that some might pass this up. It was crunchy, tender, the mild flesh paired nicely with a rough mustard sauce:

Next, came fried alligator with a chili garlic aioli. The exterior was perfect, the sauce was unbelievable but the chunks of alligator were just too damn big. Alligator is a virtually fat-free meat (and, no, it does not taste like chicken.) and these big chunks didn't achieve the right balance of sauce/fried exterior/meaty interior. Still, I'd be tempted to order it again, just to have the sauce:

Sorry this next picture is so terrible. Blame it on the moonshine. These were Patrick's pork ribs with watermelon relish and they were falling-of-the-bone tender but not mushy, sweet but not cloying, absolutely perfect:

Smothered greens. Tart and savory, very good:

Here's my soft-shelled crab, which I am kicking myself for today. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious. They know how to fry things here and I always get a kick out of having the whole of something but this was very close in style to the fried alligator and why didn't I order the cochon? I blame moonshine:

A revelatory part of the dish was the bacon mixed in with the greens underneath. Oh, such bacon! And we eat a lot of bacon round these parts. They make their own and I pray that the next time we go to Cochon (and we'll be back, there's no doubt about that) we'll be able to order a plate of bacon as a start to the meal. Heck, they could dredge it in a little flour and brown sugar and serve it as dessert.