Private Kitchens: Magnolia

The private kitchen phenomenon is something I was not familiar with until recently. I've heard of private kitchens in NYC charging upwards of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Here, you can find an indulgent meal at a very decent price.

You'll hear that Hongkers is a foodie town. I will beg to differ. People in HK love to eat, but that does not mean the food is always good. The cool thing is there are more restaurants here per capita than anywhere in the world, and it costs less to eat out than to cook. You can have a fantastic meal for pennies, or a crappy meal that will drain your wallet... it's all kind of a crap shoot. But an adventure nonetheless.

I think private kitchens are easy to come by here because it allows people to cook good food without going through all the red tape of opening up a restaurant.

My first private kitchen experience was a month or so ago at Magnolia Oh, sweet Jesus. My friend Willis, who happens to be from Los Feliz (!) organized a big dinner which needed to be rescheduled because a typhoon hit on our original date. But it was all worth the wait.

Magnolia happens to be in my neighborhood, and has gotten rave reviews. The chef is from New Orleans so it's real cajun/creole, which is otherwise non-existent here. Larger parties get their own room upstairs, and smaller parties will be seated together in a very family dining fashion. We started with some light appetizers and wine. Gotta love no corkage fees!


There was gumbo.


Salad


Crawfish pie. ::drool::


More crawfish pie.


Jambalaya.

Hmm, it's not a good idea to be lookin at these pics when you're on a diet.


Something wonderful. Not too sure exactly what this is.


Some okra/veggie/fabulousity


Mashed Sweet Potatoes. Oh. My. God.


For those of you who know my eating habits, I can get kinda weird when it comes to meat. If it's good, I'm all over it. If it's not so good, I get freaked out. And this... for someone who's not into ribs... was out of this world.


No proper southern dinner would be complete without it.

I didn't even want to think about dessert, but, since the menu is decided by the chef...





It was a fabulous, fabulous meal. I'll be there for Thanksgiving as well and I can't wait!!