Restaurant Review: This Little Piggy... (Part II): Cochon

I promised you guys a follow-up post to the adventure at The Publican, my trip to The Publican's fraternal twin, Cochon.

For those of you who don't speak French (like me), Cochon means "pig." Despite the name, Cochon isn't quite as "pig-centric" as Publican seemed to be. They're focused on Cajun cooking, which is this hybrid of southern, country cooking with French tradition (note, this is somewhat distinct from Creole, which is apparently Cajun food's city-bred cousin). But they can still throw down with the pig. But the places have some similarities. First, they've got big-time chefs at the inspiration. Publican is one of Paul Kahan's ventures, and is definitely good. Cochon is run by Donald Link, who is the chef at a highly regarded Herbsaint here in NOLA (which I haven't had a chance to check out, yet). Both are James Beard award winners, and both restaurants have gotten national recognition. But more importantly, they both serve darned good food.

And since I had focused on the pork aspects of Publican, I was going to do the same at Cochon.

One thing that I loved was that the first thing that showed up wasn't even on my order. I was sitting at the kitchen bar, which overlooked the wood oven, which was worth the price of admission. And when my starter showed up, it arrived with an order of the terrine (quail and fois gras, if I recall correctly), which was served with some berries and a little salad. Very nice, and good enough to pay for. My actual starter was the boucherie plate, basically a plate filled with cured meats pickles, and some mustard. This wasn't quite the massive plate that we got over at Publican, but it was nice. Some house cured tasso, mortadella, and chorizo, plus some rillettes. The cured meats were all tasty, and the rillettes were awesome. Completely different style than Publican - much creamier, whereas the rillettes at Publican had chunks of meat. This was more like a spread than a meat dish. Both versions were great, though.

I also couldn't resist getting an order of fried pig ears. I have to say, this was a bit of a miss. In Chinese cooking, you'll see braised pig ears served cold (sliced into long strips). You get some of the soft, fatty richness, as well as some crunch from the cartilage. When I saw that they were going to be fried, I figured that you'd get some crispiness on the outside, the richness from the skin/fat, and still some crunch from the cartilage. Somehow, it was only one texture - just the soft. The taste was still nice, but I was hoping for some crunch in there, as well. Oh well. On to the entree.

My entree was the ham hock, which was served with some mashed sweet potatoes, some pickled greens, and a black-eyed pea and ham broth. This is a great, simple dish. Balanced flavors - a little sweet, a little sour, some smoke, some salt, and some earthiness. The ham hock was tender, and the skin and fat added some richness. This was definitely good eating. It's the sort of thing that you can make at home, and probably should from time to time.

I actually decided that I wanted some dessert, and I ordered the pineapple-upside down cake. It was solid, but not game-changing. Cornmeal cake. Nice caramel and pineapple action. It was served with some coconut-lime sorbet, which was also nice. All in all, it was something that I was happy to eat, but I'm not sure if I'd order it again.

In any case, Cochon is a great place to get some legit down-home food. It's not exactly cheap, but it's one of these pay-for-quality deals. And when I'm looking for a high-end choice, this place will definitely be on my radar.

-foodgeek