Have work, will travel... eat, walk, explore
New Orleans’ pleasure principle
You can’t escape that funky smell in the peak of summer....
The streets sometimes see unmentionable #.’!@&. Some of which go against my OCD tendencies and scare the slight germaphobe that I am, but dang, do I love New Orleans like that old but comfortable pajama you just can’t let go of!
Oh did I mention that there’s food involved in this love affair? There is always food involved...
The beignet at Café Du Monde, the bananas foster, shrimp étouffée, jambalaya, muffuletta, gumbo, king cake, the crawfish boil, boudin sausage, shrimp po’ boys, oysters... Culinary giants have definitely put New Orleans on the map. They have the heavy hitters and globally worshipped chefs like Emeril Lagasse and John Besh; and new favorites
like Donald Link - the executive chef of Cochon, where we had an intensely gratifying meal of woodfired oysters, fried alligator with chili garlic mayonnaise and fried boudin (a sausage common in Creole and Cajun dishes now made accessible and pedestrian by the Duck Dynasty matriarch Miss Kay).
After that gluttonous monologue, it’s a fitting segue to mention that New Orleans is a walking city. Well, that is if you stay at the French Quarter or the Garden District.
The French Quarter is not only an architectural marvel, but it also has a very gritty and raw vibe riddled with ironies and metaphors ... You walk through Bourbon Street lined with bars and voodoo shops as you see the silhouette of St. Louis Cathedral just a few blocks away. Somewhere in between the pious and the party goers, you will find the artists and the musicians. The gift Louisiana gave to the world with the immortal sounds of blues and jazz is so profound, I have a “You’re Welcome World” message to mankind from its legions of music icons. For purposes of name dropping, you can count Harry Connick Jr. as one of these icons.
Ride on one of their street cars and you can go to the outskirts of the city where all your fetishes will be catered to - cemetery tours, swamp tours, underground clubs, celebrity house tours (the Jolie-Pitts and a certain Miss Bullock at some point called New Orleans their home).
This very tame and expletive-free chronicle is just a sliver of the big heap of flavor in New Orleans. It is the place to be if you want to indulge in comfort food, especially those authentic Cajun and Creole dishes - an experience that’s uniquely Louisiana. (During our trip there, my noble but futile quest to eat healthy was shoved way down in the abyss of self deprecation).
When you’re in the “Big Easy”, restrain is not an option and the word sliver is unheard of. You must bite into it with reckless abandon. As I did (as I’m shamelessly wiping the powdered sugar off my nose).