Luke: Vegans beware...

If you've ever enjoyed a hearty lunch at Lüke, you know that it's not exactly vegan-friendly, nor is it for the faint of heart. A few weeks ago, John and I braved the meaty wilds at 333 St. Charles Avenue and lived...just barely.

We decided to start our adventure with the Boudin Noir appetizer served with a saute of potatoes, apples and onions on the side. This foray into blood sausage turned out better than either John or I could anticipate, and while the texture took some getting used to, the flavor was wondrous, especially balanced with bites of the apple and onion mixture.

Although they served the appetizer with small, warm loaves of French bread, John and I restrained ourselves for the more than bountiful entrees. John decided to go "whole hog" and order the Choucroute Garnie Maison with smoked pork shank, Mangalitsa belly, bratwurst, and house-made sauerkraut. This huge pile of pig meat is utterly delicious and could easily feed two, but because we're both little piggies ourselves, I ordered my own entree instead of sharing John's and we ended up with a large, heavy bag of leftovers.

I chose the Plat Lyonnaise featuring three different handmade sausages served with pommes lyonnaise and house mustard. Yes...more pig meat and yes, it was delicious. Plus, the potatoes (a..k.a. pommes lyonnnaise) that were hiding underneath the sausage were buttery blobs of heaven and I couldn't really be sure which I gobbled more aggressively, the potatoes or the sausages. By the way, the server informed us about what kinds of sausage were served, but at the time, I was too busy drooling over the "pork-ucopia" in front of me to pay much attention. What can I say? I was hungry.

Although were were literally stuffed "up to here" (I lack a visual representation of my hand held level with my throat), I had to order dessert. Didn't I? I chose the Dark Chocolate Bavarois with Devil's Food Cake, rich cherries and coconut ice cream. Unfortunately, this was the sad point of our meal instead of the delectable send-off it should have been. The ice cream was delicious, as were the cherries, but the "baravois" or Bavarian Cream was the texture of dried paste and the cake was also rather moist-less, the only saving grace being that the ice cream topped it. I believe it was one of the very few desserts we've ever neglected to finish.

The dessert was a bummer...so what? We made up for it later that evening when we feasted on our pork-laden leftovers.