Parish Foods & Goods, not so goods

A friend and I arrived at Parish at 5:30 pm to an empty restaurant. That’s fine because who eats that early? People who are at work at 7:30a, leave at 4 and have no place else to go, and no other thoughts in their mind but delicious food on their minds, that’s who. Let me tell you my expectations to begin with…

Previously at work, I had glanced, nay stared at the menu, and I have to say I was impressed. Cajun/Southern/American/local/organic…. AND, I realized that the head chef was the ex-boyfriend of one of my friends, an ex who my friend said cooked really good food, no matter whatever the circumstances of their breakup.

So my expectations, I would say on a scale of 1-high, at about a strong 7. I wasn’t expecting new flavors, but I was expecting a meal of solid quality, artistry, and flavor explosions.

BTW, here was the menu:

Course 1

Choice of:
A: Smoked Ham Hock Hushpuppies w/ Black Eye Pea Caviar and Goat Cheese Buttermilk
B: Pimento Cheese Bisque w/ Pickled Celery “Chow Chow”
C: Georgia Creamed Grits w/ Sherried Shrooms, Applewood Smoked Bacon and Poached Yard Egg

Course 2

Choice of
A: Lemon Pepper Roasted Pork Shoulder: Creamed Collards, Warm Potato Salad, Natural Jus
B: Kenny’s Fish Fry: Buttermilk Fried Catfish, Garlic Potato Wedges, Tart Coleslaw, Malt Vinegar Butter
C:  Roasted Eggplant and Smoked Tomato Jamabalaya

Course 3

Choice of
A: Chocolate Pudding w/ whip cream and nilla wafers
B: Spiced Apple Cake w/ Brown Sugar Icecream

I love choices and all of these looked worthy of considering, except for the veg choice on the entrees because who’s kidding who here, I’m not paying $$$ for eggplants, dude.

The service was interesting. The server had a trainee shadowing him. I felt as though he was overly cheerful trying to demonstrate the definition of good service. I liked him enough but he was a chatty Cathy. I wish I remembered his name. I probably shouldn’t have waited so long. But I needed something to think about today and this is going to be it.

Before we got our food, we each ordered a drink, I ordered a Pimm’s cup and Leana ordered a glass of wine. Pimm’s cup = delicious spring treat! We were each served a single slice of bread that looked like it had just been pressed inside a George Foreman…questionable but who turns down free carbs? In retrospect, I wouldn’t have eaten this.

Leana ordered the hushpups and I ordered the grits. These grits I loved. Creamy smooth with mushrooms, I loved what I could taste. The poached egg was a little bit overdone, but I don’t mind, that’s my preference. If you want a perfectly poached egg you should go to Momofuku Noodle Bar, David Chang has a $1000 perfect egg poacher. Obvi Parish doesn’t have that bad boy. I dug around in the dark looking for the applewood bacon, I found more mushrooms, which I’m not complaining about… but… bacon probably could have made this even more divine. The bite of hush pups that I got were a bit dry. I definitely won on the appetizer order.

Main course, I ordered the pork shoulder, Leana, the fishfry. I didn’t bother to taste hers, it looked like Long John Silver’s catch of the day, and she said as much. Mine was interesting. On paper I ordered the “Lemon Pepper Roasted Pork Shoulder: Creamed Collards, Warm Potato Salad, Natural Jus.” What I saw on my plate were two slices of pork on top of potatoes and creamy greens. After some oral experimentation, the pork, too dry in some areas, just right in others, was over salted. That was just my first bite. The potatoes had been soaked in lemon jus or something for TOO long, I literally couldn’t put that stuff in my mouth and the collard greens were creamy and delicious. I devoured the creamy greens, choked down the pork, and deserted the potatoes.

For dessert, I ordered the apple cake and Leana, the pudding. My apple cake seemed like an apple tart, very dry at the tip, similar to what a tart tastes like when it’s stale. Mixed with the vanilla ice cream, we were able to eat it.  Meanwhile, Leana’s pudding was made like a mousse, with the thick consistency of a pudding. It was too rich for this bitch… and the “nilla” wafer… was more like a greasy cookie that unsettled the stomach.

Overall rating: C+

Likes: Pimm’s Cup, Grits

Dislikes: Everything else, including, sadly the service.