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.
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| 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.
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| Our apartment |
The apartment is great with a good view from the roof-top pool.
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| View of the city |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Iconic view of New Orleans |
Went into the cathedral and saw the different flags of countries that had ruled New Orleans
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| I just need the right tree to grow a bit bigger so that this picture is balanced.. hmm |
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| 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.
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| 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
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| Typical view of Garden District |
After that we started our food tour at 11am.
Stop 1: Mahony Po Boy
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| 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
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| Roast beef debris Po Boy dressed |
2nd stop: Dat Dog
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| 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
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Alligator hot dog with crawfish etouffe
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3rd stop: Basin
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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!
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| Terrance Osborne gallery |
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| Moving NO style |
5th stop: Zoey K
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| 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,
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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.
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| 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
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| 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
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| 30/90 band for the night Dapper Dandies |
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
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| Oops |
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