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Regrettably, my nose started running a few hours before I got on the plane to New Orleans, and I spent the entire weekend with a horrible cold/virus/flu/something that just won't die. But I had a really good time, anyway.
The vast amount of this vacation was centered around food, including a walking culinary tour and a tour of a rum distillery. We managed to try turtle soup, gumbo, jambalaya, fried alligator, oysters in absinthe, so many forms of crayfish (etouffee, fried, in cake form, in ball form, in gumbo, in curry, in bisque), muffalettas, beignets, brisket with cocktail sauce, shrimp remoulade, pecan brittle, pralines, rabbit and dumplings, cochon, deviled crab, red beans, fried catfish, crab omelets, multiple bread puddings including a bread pudding souffle, and po'boys of the fried shrimp, fried chicken, and turkey-and-roast beef varieties.
Best drink: Hurricanes. Rum and fruit juices and more rum. Mmm.
Worst drink: Hand Grenades. Not as strong as advertised, and an increasingly vile melon base.
Best food: Pork belly braised in root beer with preserved peaches. O.M.G.
Worst food: Not sure there was one.
Lessons learned: It's worth getting reservations for the really good high end restaurants. It's not worth standing in line for the famous places: Cafe du Monde and Mother's were both good, but plenty of other places seem to do their signatures as well or better. I still think Central Grocery's muffalettas are unappealing, but the hot pressed version at the little Italian place on Pirate's Alley is just amazing.
We did a bunch of really cool things, many of which I'd recommend.
- Culinary tour was awesome. It took us into the dining rooms and kitchens of a bunch of the legendary restaurats which we didn't have time to eat at. It really helped with us getting to try all the signature foods, which we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd had to have a full serving per meal.
- Rum distilleries smell amazing.
- I think Chuckro is going to babble more about the business model of the float makers, but in general it was cool to see where the Mardi Gras floats are made (and remarkably similar to work).
- The WWII museum is one of the better organized and curated museums I've seen in some time. Really interesting and informative, excellent use of AV and exhibitry. Near the end, the never-ending descriptions of the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific becomes grueling, but I suppose so did the war itself.
We missed Mardi Gras by a week (which I think I'm grateful for), but we were in the city for both St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day. These folks love any excuse at all for a parade. The St. Patrick's Day parade took something like 6 hours, mostly because there were designated pubs to stop at. By the time we saw them, it was a mass of drunken Irishmen in tuxedos handing out mounds of beads. (I have quite a collection. Dunno what Mardi Gras is like, but you don't actually have to do anything to get them--if you stand still long enough, some will hit you in the head.) Most of the floats were either mobile bars (literally with taps) pulled by tractors, or porta-potties pulled by tractors. Which makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose. St. Joseph's Day was a little embarrassing, in comparison--they had real floats (not Mardi Gras level, but cute) and some marching bands and dance teams. Also, if you're a girl of Italian descent and you're anybody at all, you ride a float. There were at least six floats full of teenagers in white dresses before we got bored and went back to the hotel.
Bourbon Street is...umm. Kinda like the Fifth at Reunions with more advertised nudity? A strange place. Not really quite my thing, but it was interesting to see.
The street performers are amazing. Which was nice, given that I was usually feeling like crap by the end of dinner and not terribly interested in going out in search of music most nights. But we actually got to hear some very nice jazz and zydeco just walking down the street, which was cool.
I don't think I could live there--looking around in mid-March, you see the architecture and the food and realize how incredibly devastating the summer heat must be. And I had a feeling similar to when I visited Hawai'i, in that I kind of wish I were the kind of person who is laid back enough to enjoy living in a place where the hours seem to be 10:30am to 2am instead of 9am to midnight, where everyone is kind of laid back and fatalistic about everything, but I'm not. But the people are incredibly charming. The weather was amazing--77 and sunny pretty much every day. The azaleas and wisteria were already in bloom. Rather idyllic, really.
(Yes, I'm aware of the crime and the crushing poverty and the fact that large swaths of neighborhoods are still condemned. But you do have to admire the survivors who seem determined to protect their traditions. Also, it's very weird to feel virtuous for dropping large sums of money on tours and food and so on, but the folks there are so enthusiastically grateful and encouraging for you to come back and tell all your friends that you feel like you're a good person for having just stuffed yourself silly. Which sounds more condescending than it felt--most such interactions were with people who felt like they were like me. Middle class and well-traveled. Not like a begging relationship so much as an idealistic farm stand owner who's trying to support themselves doing a good thing, and is grateful for your business.)
The vast amount of this vacation was centered around food, including a walking culinary tour and a tour of a rum distillery. We managed to try turtle soup, gumbo, jambalaya, fried alligator, oysters in absinthe, so many forms of crayfish (etouffee, fried, in cake form, in ball form, in gumbo, in curry, in bisque), muffalettas, beignets, brisket with cocktail sauce, shrimp remoulade, pecan brittle, pralines, rabbit and dumplings, cochon, deviled crab, red beans, fried catfish, crab omelets, multiple bread puddings including a bread pudding souffle, and po'boys of the fried shrimp, fried chicken, and turkey-and-roast beef varieties.
Best drink: Hurricanes. Rum and fruit juices and more rum. Mmm.
Worst drink: Hand Grenades. Not as strong as advertised, and an increasingly vile melon base.
Best food: Pork belly braised in root beer with preserved peaches. O.M.G.
Worst food: Not sure there was one.
Lessons learned: It's worth getting reservations for the really good high end restaurants. It's not worth standing in line for the famous places: Cafe du Monde and Mother's were both good, but plenty of other places seem to do their signatures as well or better. I still think Central Grocery's muffalettas are unappealing, but the hot pressed version at the little Italian place on Pirate's Alley is just amazing.
We did a bunch of really cool things, many of which I'd recommend.
- Culinary tour was awesome. It took us into the dining rooms and kitchens of a bunch of the legendary restaurats which we didn't have time to eat at. It really helped with us getting to try all the signature foods, which we wouldn't have been able to do if we'd had to have a full serving per meal.
- Rum distilleries smell amazing.
- I think Chuckro is going to babble more about the business model of the float makers, but in general it was cool to see where the Mardi Gras floats are made (and remarkably similar to work).
- The WWII museum is one of the better organized and curated museums I've seen in some time. Really interesting and informative, excellent use of AV and exhibitry. Near the end, the never-ending descriptions of the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific becomes grueling, but I suppose so did the war itself.
We missed Mardi Gras by a week (which I think I'm grateful for), but we were in the city for both St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day. These folks love any excuse at all for a parade. The St. Patrick's Day parade took something like 6 hours, mostly because there were designated pubs to stop at. By the time we saw them, it was a mass of drunken Irishmen in tuxedos handing out mounds of beads. (I have quite a collection. Dunno what Mardi Gras is like, but you don't actually have to do anything to get them--if you stand still long enough, some will hit you in the head.) Most of the floats were either mobile bars (literally with taps) pulled by tractors, or porta-potties pulled by tractors. Which makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose. St. Joseph's Day was a little embarrassing, in comparison--they had real floats (not Mardi Gras level, but cute) and some marching bands and dance teams. Also, if you're a girl of Italian descent and you're anybody at all, you ride a float. There were at least six floats full of teenagers in white dresses before we got bored and went back to the hotel.
Bourbon Street is...umm. Kinda like the Fifth at Reunions with more advertised nudity? A strange place. Not really quite my thing, but it was interesting to see.
The street performers are amazing. Which was nice, given that I was usually feeling like crap by the end of dinner and not terribly interested in going out in search of music most nights. But we actually got to hear some very nice jazz and zydeco just walking down the street, which was cool.
I don't think I could live there--looking around in mid-March, you see the architecture and the food and realize how incredibly devastating the summer heat must be. And I had a feeling similar to when I visited Hawai'i, in that I kind of wish I were the kind of person who is laid back enough to enjoy living in a place where the hours seem to be 10:30am to 2am instead of 9am to midnight, where everyone is kind of laid back and fatalistic about everything, but I'm not. But the people are incredibly charming. The weather was amazing--77 and sunny pretty much every day. The azaleas and wisteria were already in bloom. Rather idyllic, really.
(Yes, I'm aware of the crime and the crushing poverty and the fact that large swaths of neighborhoods are still condemned. But you do have to admire the survivors who seem determined to protect their traditions. Also, it's very weird to feel virtuous for dropping large sums of money on tours and food and so on, but the folks there are so enthusiastically grateful and encouraging for you to come back and tell all your friends that you feel like you're a good person for having just stuffed yourself silly. Which sounds more condescending than it felt--most such interactions were with people who felt like they were like me. Middle class and well-traveled. Not like a begging relationship so much as an idealistic farm stand owner who's trying to support themselves doing a good thing, and is grateful for your business.)
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Date: 2011-03-22 03:34 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 11:17 am (UTC)From: