Beef Stew @ Mandina's
Beef stew has all but disappeared from New Orleans menus. Even if you ask for it by its French name (boeuf bourguignonne), it's rarely found on menus. But the dish manages to survive as the Tuesday special at both locations of Mandina's. It's a hearty plate of cubed beef, carrots, potatoes and peas, all served in an abundance of brown gravy over rice. The presence of both rice and potatoes troubles people from other parts of America, where the conventional wisdom is that you can't have two starches (potatoes and rice, in this case) in the same dish. Mandina's beef stew proves this a fallacy.
