Guest Author: Lisa

And now, on to the defendant's case......We visited K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen on Chartres Street in the French Quarter. Although the "Paul" part of the restaurant's name is self-explanatory, our waiter informed us that "K" refers to Paul's late wife and business partner, Kay. Compared with Emeril's, K-Paul's is a smaller, less modern and homier restaurant; but both fit into the areas of the city where they are located.

To start, my brother ordered the gumbo, which was absolutely fantastic. I had never had gumbo before, but Mark, a Louisiana resident for the past two years, declared this the best gumbo he had ever tasted. Just look at that picture -- doesn't the gumbo look great???:

I had the turtle soup to start, which was fine but unexpectedly tastes like chili.

Most of my dining party/jury raved about their main course. My mother ordered veal medallions and my brother ordered steak. They didn't need to tell me how much they liked it; I could tell that they because they virtually licked their plates clean. Although I have some genes in common with these two, they usually (unlike me) eat like birds, so cleaning their plates is therefore an unequivocal endorsement. Jessica ordered the soft shell crab, which came atop creamy seafood pasta. She enjoyed it but also seemed to indicate that it was a little rich. I ordered the drum, which I found tasty and mild, but my brother thought it was salty.

For dessert, we had the bread pudding and sweet potato pecan pie. Neither is my preferred dessert in a regular meal (dessert means chocolate for me), but I wanted to try more traditionally Southern food while I was in New Orleans. Both were quite good, especially the bread pudding, which I normally do not care for.

My jury seemed loathe to announce a verdict. They found it difficult to compare the two restaurants because the places and their food were very different. Ultimately they returned what amounts to a split verdict -- they seemed to prefer the service at Emeril's, but liked the food at K-Paul's better. However, under my home-cooked Lisa law, I am going to render what we lawyers call a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and judgment is for the defendant. At the outset, this case was meant to determine which restaurant would provide the best New Orleans dining experience, and I believe that K-Paul's does that. Emeril's throws some Louisiana-type food on its menu, but really, it's trying to be something more than a Louisiana restaurant. What that "more" is, I'm not sure, but I was looking for something more authentic than what is becoming one in a chain of high-priced restaurants. Truthfully, if I went to a similar restaurant in Manhattan, I probably would have been disappointed. However, K-Paul's achieves the New Orleans authenticity I was looking for -- it is not pretentious, the environment is cozy, the menu is centered on cajun food, and the food was outstanding. Thus, my judgment is for Paul Prudhomme, with sanctions against the plaintiff for overuse of the word "Bam!" I just can't tolerate obnoxious signature exclamations in my courtroom.