New Orleans Nov 2019 Day 6

Fly Day

Our flight got moved 4 hours earlier.

Decide to go do our last Beignet run with Cafe Beignet.

At the Jazz park in the AM

One of its location is a jazz park and it's quite a cool place with live performance at 8am.

Musical Legends Park

So we went there for breakfast and enjoyed the music till it's time to head to the airport

Cafe Beignet

After trying 3 beignets places, I can conclude Roger is wrong that all beignets are the same. The similarities end with all have dough that has to rise 6 hours with tons of powdered sugar.
Café Du Monde is the worst. I detected a hint of bitterness that I'm guessing is due to too much yeast to hasten the rising process. And it has less air pocket holes indicating the frying process is getting over-crowded. The lack of crispy exterior is also an indication of too low heat that could come with the overcrowding too. 

Café Beignet has good dough flavor but also has indication of low heat frying with collapse of air holes. But it's vastly better than café du monde. 

The Vintage during the food tour has the best Beignet. Perfect square, crispy exterior. It also took the longest time for the Beignet to be served. 

We also found Ignasius J Reilly statue that Bill has to pose with him =)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces

Wassup dude

And then going to the airport armed with Mahony po boy!

Final Po Boy for the road

We are nervous with the new airport as we heard horror stories of 1.5 hours security line. A local also told us they are not ready for the freeway exit. To get to the airport requires surface road causing 30 mins backup. 

There is also talk of lost luggage that's still lost after a month (aka we are not checking bags). 

In the end its not bad at all. We left the big easy when everyone is coming in for the bayou classic! So it's an easy ride to get to our gate! Whew. 

Fun captures of New Orleans

New Orleans Nov 2019 Day 5

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Chilling

Decide to venture into French quarters and the river walk and it's surprisingly crowded for Thanksgiving day

We stopped for breakfast at KingFish and enjoyed a Thanksgiving breakfast southern style.

Jambalaya Risotto, collard greens and sweet potato hash with sausage for Thanksgiving Breakfast

Then we head to Cafe du monde to get a touristy Beignet.
There are 2 lines, one for eating in and one for take out, both equally long. And Bill is pretty grossed out by the sheen of powdered sugar on the table.. hahaa.

eeeewwwww

And an indication this is now a tourist trap? all the waiters/waitresses are chinese. The dough is also under-fried and taste slightly bitter.

Cafe Du Monde

We then walk down the river front to the warehouse district

The selfie with the inverted letters

I like this pic. The fountain that appears to be spouting water under the bridge

Interesting sculpture

We were also told by at least 3 locals that Brothers (a provision store) near our apt has the best fried chicken. We had to compare with Willie Mae and hands down, Willie Mae wins. But it's also $15 for 3 pieces vs $4 for 3 pieces

Brother's fried chicken

That evening we went back to 30/90 and had an awesome time listening to music and enjoying happy hour oysters and shrimps.

Thanksgiving Po Boy, $0.50 oysters and $8 peel and eat shrimps. Yum

The band is very good and quite humorous as it's Thanksgiving and they are really just out playing for a good time. It's the first time the 2 of them duet together on the guitar and it's quite enjoyable!

New Orleans Nov 2019 Day 4

Museum Day
We always need a museum day to fend for rain
This trip the weather has been great for the most part. It's also interesting we had vastly different weather over the 5 days that we are there. And this is the only morning that we got caught by the rain.

View in front of New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).. yes, see the rain? 

Also it's starting to be hit or miss for places outside the touristy zone with Thanksgiving being so close. We strike out on finding a couple of good coffee places in Treme as they are closed for Thanksgiving. And the bus routes were changed due to the hotel collapse that we had issues trying to find the new bus stops.
We finally gave up and Lyft our way to the museum in the rain. Spent the morning looking at local art work and the sculpture garden

Beautiful entrance to the park 

New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA)

The museum has one of the largest bayou art and Southern plantation living exhibit.

Lousiana Art for the Bayou

Pieces that caught my eye

The locals from sake bar told us that this park is the 2nd largest park enclosed in the city. Central park in NY is the biggest one.

Sculpture Garden

Another beautiful oak tree in the Sculpture garden

After that we took the street car to find fried chicken!

New Orleans Street Car (hmm, what is the middle light for?)

Willie Mae scotch house
Easily the best fried chicken in my life. I'm not sure how they did it! The batter is flavourful yet light. The chicken skin sort of melted away as u bite into it. The chicken is moist and not greasy.. Superbly done.
The queue is about 15 mins for us to get in and be prepared to wait for an hour inside before getting the food. But it's worth it!

Willie Mae Scotch House Fried Chicken

We head out to Louis Armstrong Park.

 Read an article about how this park segregated Treme and created issues as they tore down beautiful oak trees for this park.

The birth of Jazz 

After that we went to Magazine Street and had dinner at Petit Grocery
We are still full from lunch but the shrimp and grits at this place is amazing. Also the blue crab beignets is great too.

Petit Grocery

For the night, we head out to Maple Leaf Bar for a live concert.
Unfortunately the venue and event is not that great but I have heard that they are more interesting during summer and Tuesday night. Maybe next trip!

New Orleans Nov 2019 Day 3

Plantation and Bayou Tour 

Off to another adventure

We want to do a plantation tour and to visit the Bayou. Finding a tour that does both seems to simplify the logistics and planning so we decide to go with that.

One thing we realized is our apartment turns out to the THE center for big tour buses to consolidate everyone as it's just outside the French Quarters and close to the freeway. Who would have guessed, except the 2 of us waiting for 1.5 hours for the pickup.. as we are the last ones to be picked up =)

Oak Alley plantation

Tickets

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Alley_Plantation

Lots of plantation around New Orleans

The plantation is known for their rows of 200 to 250 years old oak trees.
Beautiful!

Row of 250 year old Oak trees

The trees with the big House at the background

Had a good tour explaining the lives of slaves vs plantation owner.

How the slaves lived during that time

It's a window to how the locals lived during those times, for the empowered and the enslaved.

History of the plantation between the high and low point

A little Mint Julep to ease into the day

In NO it is allowed to drink alcohol in public, call the open container rule (no cans or bottles). This is similar to Vegas. So we walked around the plantation with a mint julep in our hand.

After the plantation tour we head to the bayou.
New Orleans is surrounded by swamp area and our tour brought us around this area

Map around Lake Silvador and the swamp area. We launched off in the channel to Lake Silvador

Getting to the dock and getting registered

Beautiful and creepy picture of the Bayou

It's a tad creepy with all the nooks and crannies.Not to mention the alligators and Spanish moss shadows. But it's also very pretty.

Captain Rocky and our Small Airboat

Captain Rocky is great, getting us very close to alligators and ensuring we are within touching distance.
Its winter times so the big ones are all hibernating and I'm mighty fine with that!And they are all lethargic with Rocky explaining how their body are like popsicles right now. Hence we are able to get really close.

Gator 1 sunning on the shore

Gator 2 in the water suntanning

The video gives you an idea how close we got to them.

The captain also explained the wild life and hunting permits, on top of the vegetation that grows in the bayou. It's a mixture of salt and fresh water and the mix is constantly moving. I have a deeper understanding of how the area works after the tour.

The Bayou

Tonight is our splurge night at Commander Palace.
https://www.southernliving.com/souths-best/commanders-palace
Reputed to be one of the best restaurant in the South, we picked this place to be our choice for experiencing high end Southern food. 

As we are quite early for our reservation, we end up going to a couple of bars including Sake Bar. Had fun chatting with some locals getting tips.
For example, i learned that you are not supposed to put the straw in the drive-through Daiquiris! ya rite.

the rows of famous people that ate at Sake Bar???

Commander Palace Tasting Menu

Menu at the Palace

We went for their tasting menu and added the 1-1-1 soup so that we can taste their gumbo, turtle soup and soup du jour

The turtle soup took me by surprise as it's definitely not gamey at all. But slightly sweet. (growing up in South East Asia I'm used to seeing turtles parts in turtle soup. This isn't quite the same. Hee)

Their 1-1-1 Soup Tasters

First course is raw scallop.

Raw Scallop with Endive

Very good and fresh scallop that's very enjoyable. I did find the orange peel too over powering. The other parts of the dish do work well together. 

2nd course Parpadelle with short ribs

My favourite dish for the night

Homemade parpadelle cooked al-dente with freshly made cheese, coupled with perfect short ribs make this an excellent dish. 

3rd course Spotted trout

Spotted trout

This sea trout is not my favorite as I can taste slight muddiness in the trout. And the skin is not as crispy as I would like it. 

4th course Petit Filet Mignon

Melt in your mouth Filet Mignon infused with Foie

I'm torn between favorites when this dish showed up! The filet mignon melts in your mouth without being greasy. My only complain is I don't taste the foie gras that's infused in the beef. Would be a perfect dish if they had left the foie on the side to go with the beef. And our server told me they just changed that presentation 2 weeks ago. Else the steak would be served with it.. Grrr.. 

5th course Spiced Satsuma Chiffon Pie

Wet orange pie =)

Unfortunately not my favorite but Bill likes it. I don't like pumpkin and cinnamon growing up so it's a personal preference..

New Orleans Nov 2019 Day 1 & 2

Day 1 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans
My first trip out to the Big Easy, Bill's 2nd trip. Been looking forward to the break as we haven't had a vacation in 6 months.

laissez le bon temps rouler

The travel day is uneventful except that our flight got in at 1.30am.

We found our apt and settled in for the night.

Our apartment

The apartment is great with a good view from the roof-top pool.

View of the city

NO at night

But the entire building has been rented for Airbnb and Vrbo so the comings and goings are a little chaotic.
Day 2

Went to merchants for breakfast. 

Great crepe and good coffee, near to the apt.

Good Crepe and coffee near our apartment (our only healthy meal for the whole trip ^_^)

Wandered over to the French quarters at 8am and saw the massive street cleaning from the party last night. whew..
I really like the view of the modern buildings creating a backdrop for Bourbon streets.
It's been rebuilt as fires has burned it to ground, TWICE. So while it's called French quarters, the buildings are Spanish.

Bourbon street contrasting the new and old, the AM and night

 Wandered over to Jackson square to tick the tourist card that I been there.

Iconic view of New Orleans

Went into the cathedral and saw the different flags of countries that had ruled New Orleans

I just need the right tree to grow a bit bigger so that this picture is balanced.. hmm

Inside of the cathedral

After wandering around the French quarter, we head to magazine Street to make sure we have plenty of time for the 11am food tour.
As we are early, we wandered around Magazine Street and the Garden District, looking at antique shops.

I love this picture of the dog sleeping with his toy in the shop

According to our tour guide Roger, the area is called Garden District as they have trees. The French Quarter are not allowed to grow vegetation after 2 fires. So families ventured out of the quarter and filled the  area with beautiful Southern Live Oaks and Southern buildings

Typical view of Garden District

After that we started our food tour at 11am.

Stop 1: Mahony Po Boy

See the Guy Fieri portrait on the wall? this is featured in DDD

The full size bloody Mary is a great welcome drink, our lagniappe for the tour. 

Followed by the roast beef po boy cooked debris style. Very good with prefect string onions

Roast beef debris Po Boy dressed

2nd stop: Dat Dog

Colorful restaurant

We tasted alligator hot dog topped with crawfish etouffe. the etouffe is created with a big block of butter, the bun is sour dough baked and steamed to release more sugar, making it taste like Hawaiian sweet roll.
I learned that alligators are declared as fish in New Orleans, so that folks can eat it on Friday =) 

They are also called the chicken of the bayou as they are so lean. Hence pork make up 25% of the hotdog

Alligator hot dog with crawfish etouffe

3rd stop: Basin

The talented chef at Basin

We tasted 2 dishes there. First is a chargrilled oysters which is good but I prefer raw oysters. Somehow the cheese killed the flavor. But we are admiring the hefty size of NO oysters.

Hot off the grill Chargrilled oysters

The next dish caught my interest. It's a Beignet stuffed with shrimp and blue crab meat, served with remoulade sauce on the bottom. It's basically a crab cake deep fried in Beignet dough! Definitely interested to see if i can recreate this dish

Shrimp and blue crab beignet

4th stop is an art gallery stop so that we can stop eating for 10 mins =) 

We went to an art gallery featuring an artist who has very cute art that represent New Orleans. There's a cute picture of the evacuation during Katrina that has New Orleans lifestyle featured in it!

Terrance Osborne gallery

Moving NO style

5th stop: Zoey K

Very good and cool building .. also featured in DDD

We tasted their awarding winning red bean and rice, another NO staple. Easily the best one we tasted for the trip,

Award winning Red Beans

They also have perfectly fried and soft eggplant medallion with fried shrimp, topped with gravy. Heart attack in a plate but soooo good

Eggplant and fried shrimp with gravy.. what's wrong with this picture? 

6th stop: The Vintage
This place is interesting as they do a bit of everything. Surprisingly the tour choose this place for beignet which we understood why after we tried both Cafe Beignet and Cafe Du Monde. More about that later.

Chill and relax settings

Beignet is a fancy doughnut without a hole. The one that we got is very nice and airy, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. We had options to do stuffed ones or original and we both stuck with original. And before you ask, yes, the powdered sugar quantity is normal. Trying not to inhale or blow powdered sugar is challenging eating this pastry.. or to stay powdered-sugar free during the eating process

Perfectly cooked beignet

After eating enough calories for the week, we decide to go home for a nap =)
That night we venture out to Bourbon Street & Frenchman street to get some live music.

Mississippi River at night

Our first stop is Pat O brien for the $9 hurricane that's yummy and strong!
Complete with the most photographed fountain in New Orleans (of course) in the restaurant courtyard

Pat O Brien's hurricane and NO most photographed fountain (check)

We went to a couple of places in Frenchman street before settling down at 30/90 as the band sound so good. We like the place so much that we decide to go back there on Thursday

30/90 band for the night Dapper Dandies

One thing to note is the Hard Rock Cafe hotel collapse did affect the local lives that also rippled into our trip.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2019/11/13/hard-rock-hotel-new-orleans-to-be-demolished/4180871002/
Buses and street cars are routed differently. And locals are very worried about Xmas, New Year & Mardi Gras parades. Chances are they need to go through canal street with the hotel not cleaned up.

Potentially a big mess and I have read articles of shops closing around the affected area as the foot traffic around there is affected. Hope things clear up soon for them

Oops