New Orleans
For my 40th birthday my dear husband Ken surprised me with a quick trip to New Orleans. Sure there is plenty to see and do, like walking tours of the French Quarter & Garden District, boating tours of the swamps, perusing the antiques at the many shops or the floats at Mardi Gras World. Yet what one really does in New Orleans is eat and drink.
For three and a half days we did the sightseeing and thankfully lots of walking. And we ate and drank and ate some more.
Our first dinner was at Muriel’s in the French Quarter. Ken claimed it his best meal ever. Ever! I agree that it was extremely tasty. We dined on turtle soup, seafood gumbo, escargot in creamy leek sauce, pecan crusted puppy drum and dirty rice duck confit. The rice made me swoon and Ken was in ecstasy over the puppy drum.
The next day was a busy one, so we started it off right at Cafe du Monde with beignets and cafe au lait. Hot powdered sugar is delightful.
Then we dashed over to Central Grocery to get a muffaletta sandwich to go as we needed to catch our ride for the swamp tour.
After a few local recommendations, we decided on pre-dinner cocktails at the carousel bar at the Hotel Monteleone. There we enjoyed a local classic drink, the sazerac. Boozy, tart and tasty. Thanks to You Tube for this video.
We stumbled out of the bar, wanting a lighter, simpler, cheaper dinner. Our tour driver said we had to try the seafood platter at Deanie’s in the French Quarter. We ordered the HALF platter. While inexpensive on our pocket-book, we believe it took a toll on our bodies. The photo and video tell the rest of the story.
The next day was my birthday and lunch at Commander’s Palace was the plan. It is the oldest restaurant in New Orleans and quite possibly the swankiest and most popular, especially for tourists and old school New Orleanians. It did not disappoint. On offer at lunch were 25 cent martinis. Limit four! We braced for the challenge. We ate turtle & crab soups, duck confit salad, fish with winter vegetables, gulf shrimp over andouille sausage grits and their shatteringly crisp french bread.
We saved room, barely, for two of their signature desserts. Strawberry Shortcake and Bread Pudding Souffle.
And we made it through 3 martinis!
After that decadence, we chose to walk back to the hotel instead of using the streetcar. We thought it was not possible to be hungry after a meal like that, yet pangs for jambalaya set in. So later that eve we headed to Coop’s, a divey bar in the French Quarter, for their Jambalaya Supreme and a Po-Boy.
And because it was my birthday, we stopped at the piano bar at Pat O’Brien’s for the famous hurricane cocktail. It was a little gross that about 100 of these were pre-made behind the bar. They just added ice and water. Bottoms up!
The last day we managed one more po-boy before we headed to the airport.
It was a lovely way to celebrate 40 years of my life. I truly hope all the eating and drinking will allow me to celebrate another 40 more.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!
