Vacation 2008: New Orleans!!

Boy was this fun! I'd been to New Orleans once before in 2004 for Mardi Gras. I had a blast then, but man this time was SO much fun. I think it might have been more fun than the last time. The last time we were there we did the Mardi Gras thing with parades and all that. We hit Bourbon st but it was really crowded it was hard to really move. This time, while it was definitely HOT HOT HOT (and humid) it was less crowded and the city wasn't on party mode 24/7. Not to mention this time we had 7 days instead of the 3-4 we had during Mardi Gras. We saw many many funny shirts while we were there. One of which was just too good not to take a picture of it. Not worthy really of purchasing b/c it's not the kind of shirt I'd actually wear, just something to document! heh!

Anyhoo, the rest of the trip... We definitely did some drinking on this trip. There were many things we did besides partied though while we were there. :) One of the first things we did was go on a swamp boat tour of the bayou. We got to see what it looks like out there and the one thing I was hoping we would see, we saw plenty of! :)










We even got to hold one! :)



The food down there is incredible. We had some WONDERFUL meals. The restaurants are really incredible there, and I'm sure before Katrina there were even more that were beyond description.
One of the places we went that I TRULY enjoyed was Brennan's. They are famous for their breakfast, so that's what we went for there. I think I absolutely adored everything I put in my mouth there. I started off with fresh OJ, which was just delicious. Then I had some coffee. Then for the food, I started with simply perfect strawberries that were sitting in double cream which when I ordered it, I thought it was just whipped cream, but this was actually not it. It was just sweetened cream. When it arrived, I wasn't sure about it, but as I tasted it, oh my was it incredible! The next thing I had was our 'main course' - Eggs Benedict! I'd never had this before but it sounded delicious. Eggs, ham, bread, hollandaise sauce, ::sigh:: that was just heaven. :) We ended our breakfast/brunch with dessert. Jeremy had bananas foster and I had chocolate layer cake. Needless to say after this meal we didn't eat again for QUITE a while. :) While I'm on the subject of food, while down there this time we got the opportunity to go to a cooking class at the New Orleans school of cooking.

This was a class where we observed the cooking of jambalya, gumbo, pralines, and bread pudding. So essentially we watched someone cook a full cajun/new orleans style meal. :) Man was this good. The woman that was cooking for us and showing us all how things were done was a hoot. She had such a wonderful personality and was full of all kinds of stories. She was a native of New Orleans. When she was done cooking we got to eat what was cooked and man was it good. We also got copies of the recipes of the food made. I think my favorite was the gumbo. Jer and I definitely plan to try out some of the recipes. :)

Still on the subject of food, we got to go eat at the place where Emeril Lagasse got his start: Commanders Palace!

The food here was amazing. While Emeril is no longer the executive chef here, the food was outstanding, and it was great to get to see where he got his start. :)

Another place we ate while we were down there was the Acme Oyster House.

This was an awesome great place for seafood. Jeremy had oysters, raw and chargrilled. I actually tried an oyster shooter and a chargrilled oyster. The chargrilled oyster wasn't too bad. With the seasonings they had on it, really made it taste kind of good. Now the oyster shooter, eh, that's probably not something I'll do again... at least not anytime too soon. heh :) Jer got some crawdaddies and they are 'kind of' like shrimp, though there eating a bit differently. You can get stuff with just the meat of the tail which is really tasty! But you can also get them whole, yes, heads and all. They look like little lobsters. hehe! So Jer got some and we decided to try eating them the way they do down there. "Suck the head and pinch the tail". Which is really what you do. The head was a bit weird, but the tail meat was delicious, though it's way too much work for so little meat. :) Here's how I documented our experience with this! :)

Our final food stop was the Cafe Du Monde. ::sigh:: The famous cafe au lait. Half coffee, half steamed milk. For those who like creamy coffee (such as myself) this is just heaven in a cup. They have this awesome coffee with chicory. Without milk/creamer and sugar, the stuff is probably the strongest coffee you'll ever have however the way that Cafe Du Monde fixes it is perfect for me. Add some sugar and it's simply divine! Then you add a plate of their famous beignets (which are really just fried dough or DONUTS!) and I'm not sure you could make me happier. :) Everyone knows I simply adore donuts!!

I'm pretty sure this draws our food journey to a close. In fact my trip is almost done. One thing I failed to mention earlier was while we strolled down Bourbon St, we stumbled upon a karaoke club. So of course we went in. What's better than watching people do karaoke when alcohol is involved. ha! :) So after a drink, I gathered up the nerve to go up there myself. I ended up doing 2 songs by the end of the night. Both were great fun and here's documented proof of it:

And wonder of wonders, there is actually documented video footage of me karaoking! If you'd like to see that, feel free to visit my youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/abclos

Well, in conclusion, the most recent vacation to New Orleans was a total blast and I can't wait to go back! Maybe next time we'll have some of our friends with us to enjoy and share the fun! :)