Our holidays...what we 'done'...

A little bit about what we did on our hols to new Orleans but mostly about what we ate and drank....tried not to do food/cafe research but a lot of what I ate/tried/saw will/may feature on the menu on our return...when I

Getting there

We chose Continental and went from Edinburgh to Newark and then onto New Orleans.

The really bad thing about Continental is the food - it's dire.  I've only flown BA and Emirates as a comparison for longish haul but those are like Michelin starred restaurants compared to Continental.  Mr R., was still down on the system as needing a Hindu meal which means that it's half edible; two different types of veggie curry with yellow rice. I've not flown with them for over two years so my Hindu meal request had been lost and I had 'beef' lasagne; jeez, this was bad.  I ate a big bowl of salad and dressing. Blah.

The snack they give you in the last hour was always (for over 10 years) a warmed mini baguette thing of formed turkey and warm cheese which believe it or not, I would often eat (dipping it in their dijonnaise tub often helped).  You did often think that 'it couldn't ever get any worse than this'.  It did! They've changed the snack. Quelle horreur! It's now a softish heated tortilla with rice, 'chicken' in a cream cheesey oniony sauce - really really gross. 

Immigration queue was non-existent and we sailed through to baggage collect.  TMI but I had a quick pee in the baggage toilets and in my haste in attempted to avoid sitting on the seat (I'm a hoverer in public toilets), I banged my forehead on a stainless steel shelf on my way up and ended up with a raised egg and wee gash during the first few days of my holiday.  Dumbass. 


We were a little excited about our overnighter in New York and we had dithered about booking a hotel.  We'd be arriving at 12noon on the 31st and leaving the hotel again at 4am on the 1st but we're both a bit old and both a big bit tired so we booked.  Bonus was that I had quite a few hotel points left so I could book the hotel I used to stay in 3 times a year for work for free - hurrah!  The hotel isn't anything special but the location is fab; in between Chinatown and Soho and 2 seconds from a subway with loads of fabbie places within walking distance.


Saturday 31st December 2011 - we've arrived in New York!
Finally got to the hotel at about 2ish and went straight out to one of our favourite haunts for a quick beer.  Nolita House was recommended to me by a local I was working alongside a few years ago.  It's only a ten minute walk from the hotel and we'd been there a few times for their bluegrass brunch.  Lucky us, there was a bluegrass band playing (fiddler, banjoiest, guitar, double bassist, flautist & singer) so we settled down and had a couple of beers each.  In hindsight not a good idea given that we'd only had a few hours sleep since the day before and were both knackered after such a hard week but the beers were scrummy!

Two more empty glasses of Brooklyn Pilsners with the band in the background

a mini clippette of the band (difficult to hear) and Mr R looking mean and moody

As we wondered around, we went to the little cafe/2nd hand book store in the neighbourhood - lovely wee place that I used to buy a lot of my books from (new books are sooooo expensive in the USA).  Housing Works also has a great thrift shop next door.

Next stop on this gorgeously crisp cold day with blue skies was another favourite back towards the hotel, Balthazar on Spring Street. 

I've used this place quite a lot; I like the Frenchiness of it and whilst not being cool myself, there are some lovely cool and beautiful people that go there.  Let's not forget the food - I love it.  We wanted to eat dinner back at Nolita House later so thought we'd nip to the Balthazar Bakery take out bit at the side of the cafe to buy cawfee and croissant - c'est bon!  Bought a warmed jamon and fromage filled croissant and a chocolate chip cookie.

Back to the hotel for a scoff, a mini siesta in the hope that we can stay up until midnight.

Me looking forward to my coffee, jamon croissant and cookie (what's new?).  Croissant and coffee good, cookie crappy (quality of chocolate and nuts good but actually cookie not good).

I didn't sleep. I was too excited. We didn't really have a plan for Hogmanay. We had discussed a few things and the night before leaving I'd researched a few possibilities -


Times Square to watch the ball thing drop - yes once in a lifetime thing to do but I hate being in crowds of people that have been drinking (main fear is people being sick - seriously, I have a HUGE fear of this). Luckily Mr R., didn't want to go there either.


Gotham Comedy Club to watch funny people saying funny things.  I was up for it but Mr R., said we'd fall asleep (even if we went to the early show).  I think he's/he was quite wise.


Chuck Berry was playing somewhere but when I told Mr R., the cost of the tickets, he wasn't keen and said that he'd probably die before then just to spite us.


Sandra Bernhardt was doing a gig somewhere.  I quite fancied this one as I remember her stuff from the 80s but she's sort of disappeared off the radar but I was still curious.  No chance. He wasn't interested.


The Met Opera for about our 5th visit (oooh, get us!). It's a fabbie place to watch opera and they still had some reasonable (ish) tickets left for The Enchanted Island.  On a serious note (and this is completely true), I always fall asleep during the 2nd Act for some reason so I think if we'd gone to the opera, I would've missed most of it.


Although he sounds like he wasn't interested in anything, I think Mr R., was just being sensible.  There were still tickets available for everything but we thought we'd wait and see.


We headed back to Nolita House for an early dinner.  I had a cocktail (I had to, it was NYE) - I opted for an Asian Kiss (absolut, blackberry, pineapple and champagne)

Yes, my cocktail but he had a wee sip

I then went back to the Brooklyn Pilsner (scrummy) and Mr R., had some red wine.  For food, Mr R went for the Lobster and truffle mac cheese and I went for the caramelised onion, pear, rocket and gorgonzola pizza.

Lobster and truffle mac cheese!

Caramelised onion, pear, rocket and gorgonzola pizza

Midnight UK time came and went and I phoned home and was sad that I wasn't with my girls but they were having a fabbie time there.


As usual, Mr R. wanted something bad so he went for a chocolate pudding and eeeek, this is where it went wrong in that it was a bit crappy, so crappy that it was inedible so we sent it back - boo!

S'mores chocolate pudding...looks gorgeous but the chocolate puddingy part was blah : (

Still couldn't decide what to do next and by this time (not late!) I was a just a little bit happy/merry/pissed.  We decided to have a big walk around Soho - it was a gorgeous evening and there were a lot of fabulous people going off to what I think were lots of house parties.


I also took the (wrong) decision to do a bit of clothes shopping so headed into the big French Connection shop which was a stupid thing to do considering that I'm the biggest I've ever been (even bigger than I was at 9 months and 1 week pregnant) just now so shopping for clothes only served to depress me a little especially when your husband says, "no, they're not doing you any favours". No new clothes for me then.


Believe it or not, after being out for a couple more hours, we headed back to the hotel (BEFORE THE BELLS!!!!).  We both felt bad about this but were both ready to drop and we had to be up at 4am to head for the airport.  My lovely daughter has since shouted at me for going to bed before midnight (but mum you were in NEW YORK)....oops.


Sunday 1st January 2012
Woo hoo. 2012. Early start but only an hour earlier than usual but the jetlap hadn't started yet.  Newark to New Orleans.  Should have been an easy quick flight.  But no, a lady who'd had an operation the day before became ill on the flight and we had to divert to Birmingham, Alabama.  There for almost 2 hours which was a bit of a pain (lady was going to be ok but carted to hospital just to be sure).  I always try to look for the positive in things and oh wow, what a postive.  At least 6 airport fireman boarded the flight and it was like something from one of those firefighter calendars - I'm not kidding.  They were gorgeous ALL OF THEM!!!! My bloody husband wouldn't let me take a photo but I still have the images etched in my mind. Seriously.


Finally arrived in New Orleans and took a taxi to the hotel. Boiling hot weather and cos it was still early in the morning, we couldn't get out to the hotel so we headed straight out.

First day, boiling hot (yes, I'm in tights boots and jersey dress!!!) but this is me in the French Quarter in front of a typical French Quarter balconied house.

Mr R. on the first day.  See how STRONG he is!!!!

We were starving so headed for an early lunch.  Although I'd done some food research via chowhound (in my opinion the best place to research restaurants in the area you're going to), I hadn't printed everything out but I had a few notes.  Alex remembered one from the list as we passed it on Decatur Street (still in the French Quarter). He remembered the words dive bar and got excited. 


Coops Bar was just as everywhere had described, a bit divey and a bit dark but we wanted to give it a go and are sorta glad we did.



Coops blackboard menu. Click on it to see it a bit clearer.

 We had a list of foods that we HAD to try during our NOLA trip so we managed to strike at least one off our list during our first meal!

 Seafood gumbo and shrimp remoulade with creole sauce.

Close up of the seagood gumbo....yes, a snotty oyster (sorry, I like the taste but not the texture)... a Creole stew served with rice. Prepared with their dark roux, French Market vegetables, including okra, file powder (ground sassafrass leaves), shrimp, crabclaws, and oysters

Ok, so the gumbo was quite good (more ricey than others we tasted later in the week) but really tasty - gumbo of some variety is definitely going on the menu when we re-open.  The salad was good in that I am trying to go back to my old ways of eating lots of green stuff but to be honest, the shrimps (boiled - lots of menus seem to do them that way) were a little bit bland.  But with the remoulade sauce, they were ok.


Needless to say owing to the hot weather, owing to the fact we were in a bar, owing to the fact we were on our holidays, owing to the fact that we wanted to try local stuff, we had beers.... Abita Amber to be exact - yum (the good salad cancelled out the bad beer - that's how it works).


Huge walk around and then back to the hotel to check in properly.  Bit of a sleep and then out for the evening.


Monday 2nd January 2012
Today we did something two things we never usually do on our holidays -


1) Had breakfast in the hotel. The main reason is the fact that it seems such a shame not to try other options where you are but the hotel had given us a voucher for our first breakfast and it would be silly not to use it! We had the buffet which had everything you could imagine on it.  I had blueberry pork sausages, lots of crispy streaky bacon, cheesy scrambled eggs, hash browns and grits!!!  Then some fresh fruit to make me feel more virtuous.

2) Went on a tour!!! We've never done this as we usually like to explore by foot mostly on our own.  However, we couldn't escape the fact that every bit of advice (on line, from locals and tourists alike) had warned us that a lot of NOLA was out of bounds even in the day.  Bit of a bummer given that we usually walk for miles each day to explore the out of the way bits but we didn't want to ignore the advice.  We thought the best way to get a feel of the area was to take a tour! We took a Katrina/city tour by Grayline Tours and it was pretty good.  Expensive, just over $90 for the two of us but good to see.  Really sad to see the effects that Katrina is still having in certain parts of the city but very interesting...

Houses in the Ninth Ward; not a great area and further devasted by Katrina. Definitely not recovered yet.

Part of Brad Pitt's charity, Make it Right, where they're building a new neighborhood - affordable, eco friendly, housing for locals.

A closer view of some of the houses they're building

Fats Domino lived here until Katrina.  Seemingly he'd stayed for the two previous huge hurricanes but he moved out after Katrina

We then headed for one of the many huge cemeteries in NOLA, often referred to as cities of the dead.  This one was an above ground cemetery where generations of families are all placed in the same tomb.

Felt bit funny about taking a photo but I did and here it is.  Some of the tombs are beautiful.  Some less so.

We finished the tour via the Garden District which is all a bit posh.  Some gorgeous houses.  

Lunch today was getting ourselves some po-boys which is short for poor boys and is basically a 'piece', sandwich, roll etc etc.  Our little bit of pre-trip research led us to Johnny's Po-boys on St Louis Street (same street as our hotel - woo hoo) in the French Quarter.  We actually waited in a queue (I'm usually ok for queueing but him indoors doesn't usually do queues but I persuaded him. 

Bloody long queue with hardly any room to sit and eat but I'd say it was worth it

I'd also researched what to have via chowhound and a local food blog from NOLA and knew that I'd go for one shrimp po-boy and one roast beef po-boy and both should be 'dressed' which means you get shredded iceberg, sliced tomatoes, pickles and mayonnaise. 

Shrimp and beef po-boys - that plateful was all mine (one behind was Alex's).  Louisiana hot sauce sitting on the table too.

The shrimp po-boy was battered (think these folks from the south are secretly Scottish-they like to batter and deep fry everything) and the roast beef po-boy was sliced tender roast beef and gravy!  What was good about the beef one was that the gravy had smooshed into the bottom of the bread.  Oh yes, with hot sauce.  There was Louisiana 'hot sauce' on just about every dining table we ate on during the trip and they put it on everything.  Lovely on the shrimp po-boy.  Heaven.  Big fat heaven but I liked them. 

I was actually full by then but Mr R. had noticed a sign pointing diners upstairs to the sort of separate cafe for pudding.  He opted for a praline pecan coconut layer cake - look at it, it's HUGE! 

Big fat cake for big fat husband

Pre-mentioned big fat husband.....note the two forks, ie, to share.  Not to share with yourself you greedy bugger.  One of those should have been MINE!

I spotted something that could take away on route to our afternoon's siesta - saltwater taffies which are basically flavoured soft toffees so I bought a bag and off we went.

Music
What I've mentioned at this stage is music.  Music seems to be around every corner in New Orleans.  We were staying in the centre of the French Quarter and pretty much on every street corner, there was someone or a group playing.  Whether it be an older guy who looked a bit like Santa (who was amaaaazing)sitting on the corner every night playing his guitar and singing the blues.  Or groups like the Dirty Commies who looked like something out of (for those of you that are old enough) The Beverley Hillbillies but the music they were playing was fabulous whether it be a banjo or a washboard, they were great musicians (we bought a CD...hear it soon at T Ann Cake!). 

Back to the hotel for our siesta and then out to play! 

We went straight to Frenchman Street.  Although Bourbon Street has a lot of live music, it's not nice to walk in and around (sorry, just my opinion!).  Loud noisy bars with lots of drunks walking around and the quality of the music we heard coming out of the bars didn't seem to be the best - I sound like I'm being a right moaney pants here but I/we just didn't fancy going in.  Think of big touristy pubs in Leicester Square, London or Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the Royal Mile in Edinburgh (civilised compared to this), Times Square, New York or Wenceslas Square in Prague but less space so the crowds and noise are more intense.  So, Frenchman Street it was and wow wow, this was more like it.  A street of music pubs with at least two if not three different bands playing a night - heaven for me and even more so for my music-loving husband (I love it when he's happy!).  We opted for Maison.  We listened to a French 30s style Jazz type band first (I was in heaven now). 

Local SOS beer pitchers. Alex ordered a ginger pulled pork on griddled sliced French bread with colesaw and bbq sauce with griddled asparagus.  I helped him and it was bloody nice but again, a huge portion.

Another bad pic....pulled pork lhs at bottom.  bread at top. coleslaw on rhs. bloody tasty.

We bought another CD of their stuff and we've already uploaded it onto the ipod - it's great.  Happy Frenchy stuff; the sort of stuff that puts me in a nice mood in the morning.

Home. Good sleeps.

Tuesday 3rd January 2012
Usual holiday routine! I stay in bed and wonderful (yes I did say that) husband goes out and 'has a rummage for coffee'.  We've not been impressed by the coffee so far in NOLA.  This morning he brought back coffee and beignets from Cafe du Monde; quite a famous cafe where there are often queues.  Hmm. I am being so fussy but these beignets weren't good.  They were still warm but were quite dry and doughy - not light and fluffy as I've had them before in la belle France.  Coffee was pretty poor - the famous cafe au lait (all over NOLA where they add chicory to the milk but I just didn't love it.  Next.....

Mr R. outside a painted 'tin' building on the way to Elizabeth's

Our plan for the day was to have our first go on a street car (not named Desire but it was good fun!).  We then walked to the Bywater district to Elizabeth's cafe (another pre-researched cafe). It took about 45 minutes to walk there through a really interesting area - fabbie houses and the NOLA arts school and lots more.  I loved Elisabeth's.  In the middle of nowhere on a long dusty street but it was almost full!  We'd passed practially no-one on the way there.  Got a table and struggled with what to order.  We order praline roasted bacon (THIS WILL DEFINITELY BE ON THE MENU WHEN WE RETURN) and it was scrumptious. 

Alex then ordered the fried chicken lives that he had with their homemade pepper (chilli) jelly, hash browns (but were actually fried potatoes), biscuit (a savoury scone) and overeasy eggs. 

I had Fried Green tomatoes, boiled fat headed shrimp and remoulade sauce and some NOLA blonde beer. 

This was a lovely place and the food was scrummy. 

Funky lady and man on the toilet door

Even liked the toilet door (probably should get a sign made for ours but I don't want a 'normal' sign....only the odd customer gets the 'P' sign above the door.  Shame on them!  Definitely recommend Elizabeth's. 

Walk back was good too.  Went to the Cake Cafe (another recommendation) but hate to be a moaney pants again but the cafe was really rubbish - coffee was bad and the carrot cake was just not good - too dry, carrots too coarse and not enough frosting. 



Guess what I saw on the way back from Elizabeth's?  A real live lemon tree!

Bloody good photos of a lemon tree even if I do say so myself!

Back to 'the list' for where to eat that night. 'EAT' being the operative word so that's where we went.  Rather good. A big bit camp.  Actually restaurant beautifully decorated on the inside (can't say that for lots of NOLA) and the food was a good match.

OOOH, turtle soup, on our list...let's go!

OK, had camera on wrong setting but this is Alex's turtle soup, different cuts of turtle, chillis, mushrooms, peppers, onions.



My choice: their trio: stuffed peppers (green pepper stuffed with cheesy stuffy things), rice and beans, gumbo - yum! Rice and beans bit spicy but in a good way.  Gumbo with chicken and boudin.



Pud.  His pud. Banana cream pie. Another thing going on the menu on our return.

Christmas lights still up New Orleans style on our way home from EAT.

Wednesday 4th January 2012

Cappuccino and blueberry 'scones' for breakfast curtesy of Mr R., brought back to the room.  Coffee ok (La Boucherie on Chartres Street) and scones not like 'our' scones, slightly crumblier but perfectly fine. 

Today, we'd arranged to hire a car.  Good call.  As we left the hotel, one of the hotel staff let off a huge bunch of balloons into the air - lovely sight in the blue sky!

Left early and headed to a plantation.  This was a Creole plantation and seemingly a lot less 'posh' and smaller than other plantation houses but fascinating never the less.  Photos and stories....

Mr R. on the porch of the plantation house

Plantation house porch - very puurrrty

Read this....unbelievable

And again

Laura plantation house

Workers' houses on the plantation




Ok. Next stop. Lunch.  Tried to go to Boutt's in Lafitte but was shut so we continued along the hugely long riverside road until the end.  Most of the houses on either side of this thin roadway were on stilts.

We got right to the end and asked a couple of fishermen for their recommendations for lunch.  They were cutting up 'red fish' and were surrounded by pelicans hoping for titbits. 

The fishermen directed us to Jan's cajun restaurant which was friendly and fine.  Probably wouldn't recommend it.

Alex had broiled shrimp in a garlic butter sauce with salad, garlic bread, baked potatoes and cream cheese.

I had fried and battered catfish on toast with pickles, tomato, lettuce and mayo with fries and gravy on the side!!!  Rootbeer too.

We then headed to the Barataria Nature Reserve because husband wanted to see alligators but time wasn't on our side and it was closing soon. When we got there, the guide told us that they'd be sleeping in the mud at the bottom of the river beds but we walked round anyway and it was rather pretty.

Back home and boring night ahead. I'd woken up that morning with sore head, barbed wire throat and sore ears so we stayed in and Alex went out rummaging and brought back a feast of crackers (I wasn't that hungry), cheese, cucumber, wine for him and Jim Beam, lemons and honey for me - lovely toddy and good sleep.

Thursday 5th January 2012

Same place for morning coffee and scone and it's ok. Boiling hot weather early on.  Today's plan was for a bit of culture so we headed out onto the St Charles streetcar

and went to three museums (all next to each other).  The Contemporary Arts Museum was severely lacking in exhibits (and most expensive) but in a wonderful space.  Second was the Civil War Museum which was interesting but the exhibits were really badly put together so no timeline or anything for those ignorant of most of the Civil War dates etc. Third was our favourite. The museum for Southern Arts - great big modern space and great exhibits - a lot of modern stuff which is what we both like best.  The roof terrace was gorgeous but super hot by this point

Mr and Mrs R., on the rooftop taken by the camera's timer (I'm so clever!)

We then headed to Surrey's for lunch.  We'd read above this pre-trip and it got really good reviews.  It's in the lower Garden district and I loved it. I had an amazing fresh juice of mango, pineapple and orange, expensive at $6 but on a hot day like that, was worth every penny.

Alex's lump crab, brie and avocado omelette

My lumpfish, mozzarella, tomato, greens salad with lime cilantro dressing

Back to the hotel for a sleep then out that night back to Frenchman Street for more food and music.  We went to the Three Muses and it was more than fab.  A dark bar (always good for a lady of my vintage) with a great atmosphere.  Great music - Luke Winslow King, dressed in a 1950s style suit and singing through an old fashioned mike.  So talented. Just him on vocals and guitar and a pianist.  Wow.  Food.  Brilliant.  Smaller plates (woo hoo) and what a selection; a bit different from the usual NOLA stuff.

Took photos on my phone and not downloaded them but Alex had falafel crusted scallops with carrot puree and roasted veg including baby carrots and teensy little sprouts.  We also had roasted chilli salted cashews.  I had beef brisket filled ravioli with a pinotage beef reduction and cheddar popcorn with kale.  Bloody lovely.  More beer for both of us.

Friday 6th January

Different place for Mr R's coffee run today and I'd say it was the best. The Croissant D'Or.  He was being a trickster and told me that he'd bumped into Brad Pitt because it was very close to his house on Govenor Nicholl's Street...I didn't believe him....

This coffee was good and their pastries were scrummy.  A slice of frangipane tart and a sticky pastry.  We had a lazy lazy morning and didn't leave the hotel until around 10ish.  We headed straight to our lunch venue for the day but we walked.  Today, we were heading for Cafe Reconcile.  It's a cafe with a mission! Their mission is to train young people from 'severely at risk communities' in the hospitality industry.  This was in the Central area of NO, so there were a few streets on the way that looked a bit iffy but it was fine. 

The counter and serving area

I had fried chicken with 2 sides: mac cheese and okra with tomato and shrimp

Alex had their bananas foster bread pudding and oh my, the walk here was worth it just for that!  I usually hate bread puddings (blah) but this was amaaaaaaazing.

Alex had jambalaya

Me! Outside Cafe Reconcile

We got the bus towards somewhere I didn't want to go next but because I NEVER get my own way (ok, very occasionally), I went.  We were going to the bloody zoo because husband still hadn't seen a 'gator'.  On the way, I took some photos of the bead trees left over from last year's Mardi Gras - these beads are thrown down from floats and lots end up on trees - very pretty.

Off to the zoo then but first a nice walk through the beautiful Audubon Park - lots of joggers and families.  We also spotted a gentleman in a sweatshirt that either Alex or a certain Mr C. could easily wear every day....

Went to the zoo and it was diabolical and I hated giving them my money.  I was really really sad walking around it and couldn't even look at any of the sad animals in tiny tiny tiny spaces as we rushed to the alligators.  Got there. Their space was tiny too.  Took photos. Went.  Sad.

Headed back to the hotel.  Quick siesta. 

Yes, back to Frenchmen and yet again the Three Muses.  We hate to be boring by choosing the same place to eat but before you get to this pub/restaurant, you have to walk past at least another four with live bands on and none of them had anything that we liked - quite a lot of funky jazzy blues going on which isn't our favourite (we agree on some things).

Scrummy food YET AGAIN!

I had a roasted beetroot salad with a pomegranate (sp?) molasses vinagrette, goats cheese, rocket and candied pecans - oh my lord!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have these molasses in the store cupboard in the cafe - can't wait to do this one too!

Mr R.....lobster egg rolls with a sweet chile lime sauce - again - just scrumptitous

Saturday 7th January 2012

Was going to be another gorgeous day and we'd read about a Farmers' market in the Garden/Business district so we thought we'd walk.  We ended up in the middle of nowhere (this tends to happen on our holidays - we divert our route - usually on purpose - to investigate) and I couldn't help going into a huge indoor thrift store and I stocked up on a few books.  We got to the market and it was a bit small and if we had a kitchen at our disposal, we'd have struck hold (huge big fat prawns sold by the fishermen!) and great local veggies but no hint, sight or smell of the promised food stalls for a 2nd breakfast/early lunch.  I then thought we'd try Surrey's again but it's such a popular little place that we would have to wait at least 40 minutes to get in (Mr R. HATES queuing) so that was a big NO.

What we did stumble across was Alex's idea of food heaven - an icecream parlour with good ice cream (they don't always go hand in hand!) - La Divina Gelateria - oh my word.  I'm not as crazy about ice cream as he is but this place is good.

Yes, mine is the smaller one on the right - sweet potato and cinnamon ice cream.  Him indoors (larger one on the left) was praline bourbon ice cream!  Yum.

   

We then discovered that they had another branch very close to our hotel - thank goodness we didn't discover that on our first day!

We headed back to the French Quarter and came across lots of mardi gras beads in the street from a parade that had just past through. 

We then stumbled across yet more street music (music on every corner - it's heaven) and this band was the Dirty Commies - so good, we bought a CD - really good and it'll be on the cafe ipod when we get back.

 towards another luncherie on our original list - The Green Goddess. Loved it. Tiny little hole in the wall kitchen and hardly any indoor seats (by now it was boiling hot outside) so we managed to grab a seat outside - this is probably the favourite place for food during the trip. 





My gorgeous mojito

The start of the mardi gras season. I was busy with my mojito so Alex went to take a photo.  Hmm, if you look really hard, you can see crowds of people and ???

This may look like a boring toasted sandwich but it was THE sandwich. A Cuban sandwich to be exact.  Salami, pulled pork, machego cheese, pickled banana peppers, roasted pineapple and garlic aioli.  I think Alex got a miniscule corner.

An even closer look for you (well for me actually as this is going on the T Ann Cake menu).  It's making me hungry as I write this and I've just eaten dinner!

Mr R. had the shrimp and pork belly bahn mi.  Also with foie gras mousse (sshhhh), cucumbers, rocket, jalepenos, carrots, and loads more.  Bloody good.

With very full tummies and with me having had that rather strong cocktail at lunchtime, it was time for our siesta!

That night, we headed back to Frenchman Street and listened to the music coming from each restaurant pub but ended up yet again at the Three Muses.  Can't remember the name of the band but there were around 5 of them and they were a laid back talented bunch playing the sort of music that you want to listen to whilst you're in somewhere like New Orleans to make you feel a little laid back yourself!

That night, we headed back to Frenchmen Street but went somewhere new first.  We stumbled across a large open patio bar - Mojitos Rum Bar and Grill with great music (no surprise!).  Although there had been tourists in some if not most of the places we'd been in, this one was probably the most touristy but it was still ok and because it was such a warm night, it was lovely to sit outside and enjoy it.  More local beers (my waistband probably doubled during this holiday) were had too!

The bank playing were Emily and the Faux Bario Billionaires - very Frenchy jazzy stuff - just up my street!
 

Alex about to eat our snack

Our snack.  Alligator bites with their house dip.  Like chewy chicken and a tourist dish definitely.

Very attractive!!!!!

The band finished their slot so we headed back down Frenchmen Street and yes, back to the Three Muses!  But yet again, the music playing lured us in.  This was another favourite.  A young pretty singer with so much chutzpah that you don't know whether to be annoyed or jealous of her beauty and amazing talent.  I was just in awe and Alex pretended not to notice either her beauty or her talent....  Her name is Kristina Morales and we now know that she's a New Orlean's local, went to Music College in New Orleans and is now bringing out CDs and performing lots.  She and the band were fantastic! They did a lot of old blues/jazz numbers and she did a fabbie really rude version of 'I'll be glad when you're dead...you rascal you'!

Wow wow, ok. Duck confit, pear, rocket and caramelised onion AND tallegio - bloody good. The pears were just sliced so so thin.  The talegio was good and smelly.

This is Mr R blowing a kiss to his 'hookers'.  Hmm. 'Hookers on Flying Saucers' - so that's bacon wrapped Gulf oysters over plantains with celeriac remoulade!   LOVELY!

The other thing that we loved about this place was that they did these small plates.  Yes, New Orleans is not cheap - I actually think it's more expensive that New York - but I loved the fact that I could go for small plates for nice stuff rather than big plates of so so stuff!  We also usually filled our tummies up with lots of the local beers - lots of them brewed by Abita.  Not just blonde lager-type beers but some nice darker ones too.

So, this is what happens when you write down your food notes etc (I'm so sad that I'm not kidding!) and lose them. We also heard another band earlier in the week but for the life of us can't remember their name - yet again, another uber-talented bunch of rather handsome young men!

The drummer!  View from the windown as we were leaving!

On arriving back at the hotel quite late (well late for us), we headed up to the rooftop pool for a nosey.  It was a bit lovely.  We failed at taking a good photo of us with a view behind us but it was nice and we kicked ourselves for not making use of the pool in the hot weather or for just spending some time in the bar up there. 

Sunday 8th January 2012

Last morning and we weren't leaving until lunchtime.  Do I admit to what we did first on route to the market at the waterfront...I might in a minute (even though it'll mean you finally confirm what a sad and gullible individual I am).  We headed back to a second hand stall in the market to buy a couple of local cajun/creole cook books and I can't wait to try some recipes out.  On the way back, we walked via Govenor Nicholl's Street which is where Brad and Angelina have a house RIGHT ON THE STREET! And, given that my mean husband had been trying to convince me that he'd bumped into Brad in the coffee shop a couple of days before, I thought I'd meander past just in case - yes, a dumb ass.

By now it was getting really hot again and we were a bit starving so we headed to another one from the list - Stanley's on Jackson Square.  Ok but I didn't like the atmosphere - I thought they were just trying to get everyone that walked in fed and watered as quickly as possible so that they can turn the tables around quickly.  Food was good though.  

 

This was my choice.... a club stanley - chicken breast, smoked bacon, sliced ham, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, spicy caesar pesto and dressing on toasted French bread.

HUGE - yes, me and the sandwich!

Alex's brunch. Bad man. Bananas Fosters French Toast.....battered French bread, sliced bananas, vanilla bean ice cream, toasted walnuts and fosters sauce (rum!).

So that was our holidays that was.  Tried not to take photos and turn it into a cafe research trip but why change a bad habit?  It's times like this when I realise that space (both ingredients storage and prep space) just doesn't help with what I'd really love to do in the caff but we might get a bit more organised and go to the 'next level' this coming year!

xxx