New Orleans 2013 - Rest of Saturday

This is the final post from our recent weekend trip to the Crescent City.  If you want to read about our visit to Mardi Gras World, what we did on Friday, or our excellent dinner at Cafe Amelie, click to your heart's content.

DB~ found an interesting 5K race that would go through Audubon Park, located in the Garden District.  I signed us up for it the week before.  DB~ really just liked the logo on the T-shirt and thought it would be a cool way to see some of the city.  So we planned on Saturday being our time to run the race in the morning, change clothes after the race, then cruise around the Garden District in the afternoon.

We woke up at 6:30 am (this was a vacation, right?) in order to catch the 7:10 streetcar out St. Charles Street to Audubon Park, in time for the 8 am race.  We were greeted by charcoal gray skies, thunder, and sheets of rain.

We went back to bed.

But at 7 am, the rain stopped and the skies turned light gray.  So with no shower, we threw our race clothes on and ran out to get the streetcar at 7:20.  Long story short, the tracks were under re-construction on St. Charles, so 3/4 of the way there we had to get off and get a bus transfer the rest of the way.  Then we had to walk 1-1/2 miles to get to the start line of the race...for which we were late.

As we were walking to the start line, the racers were running towards us.  We registered and half-heartedly jogged/walked the race.  Then we ate steaming hot crawfish etoufee at the end.  Naturally.

We didn't bring a change of clothes, thanks to our last second departure, so we were walking around the Garden District feeling gross and sweaty.  With the temperature in the 80's and the humidity high, DB~ selected a pub called the Bulldog for our lunch based solely on their air conditioning blasting out on the sidewalk.

After lunch, we went to a great bakery called Sucre based on a recommendation from DB~'s sister, who was there during a work conference a couple of years ago.  Sucre (French for sugar) is known for their macarons, just like Jean-Marc Chatelier in Millvale, so we wanted to see what all the hot fuss was about.  We bought 8 of different flavors and ate 6 of them (I had 4) on the streetcar ride back to the hotel.  They were quite awesome, but we both still liked Jean-Marc's better.

Sucre and The Bulldog, I failed to mention, were located on Magazine Street which runs parallel (but a few blocks away from) St. Charles Street.  Magazine is a lot like Shadyside in some ways and could have been in any city.  There were a lot of great looking restaurants and some fun shops -- we went into a store that specialized in antique locks and hinges, but we were pretty sweaty and starting to get irritated at each other.  It was time for a recharge.

Rather than wait for a bus, we walked back up to St. Charles to catch a streetcar back into town.  As is our way, we randomly selected Washington Street to walk up.  Halfway to St. Charles, we happened upon what is only the most respected restaurant in all of New Orleans known as Commander's Palace.  It is an old money, grand dame type of restaurant that helped launch the culinary careers of Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse, among others.  I never knew where it was located and we just randomly walked up on it.  What are the odds?

Right across from Commander's Palace was Lafayette Cemetery, which is kind of creepy in a Scooby Doo sort of way, so we wandered through that to check off another thing from DB~'s list.  This wasn't as old as say St. Louis Cemetery in the Quarter, but it was still old and still in poor overall condition, so it was a typical N'awlins graveyard.

After our showers and recharge at the hotel, we went down to Bourbon Street and got on a balcony overlooking the street.  It was around 5 pm, but there were still people milling on Bourbon, still freaky street performers to shake your head at, and other oddities to ogle.  We had some cheap drinks and lorded over the "commoners" below our balcony for an hour.  Then we left to go to Cafe Amelie.

After Cafe Amelie, we had some final drinks (Olde Absinthe House and a return trip to Pat O'Brien's) and said our farewells to one of my favorite cities.

New Orleans 2013 - Cafe Amelie

We were leaving New Orleans on Sunday morning, so for all intents and purposes Saturday night was our final night in the Big Easy.  We had our fancy dress up night on Friday night at Broussards, so for dinner on Saturday the goal was to check off DB~'s final culinary box on the checklist -- Shrimp and Grits.

We did some online research at various sites like Urbanspoon, Chowhound, and Yelp and the consensus seemed to be either Cafe Atchafalaya in the Garden District or Cafe Amelie on Royal Street in the French Quarter.  Since we were already in the Garden District during the day on Saturday, we went with Cafe Amelie.

When I called to attempt to make reservations early in the afternoon, the hostess said they were full , but we could try our luck as walk-ins.  After spending some time on Bourbon having a pre-dinner drink (or three), we went one block over to Royal Street.  The variation between Bourbon and Royal is amazing.  Bourbon is a cacophony of noise, booze, and general debauchery.  Royal is a serene street of art galleries, bookstores, jewelry stores, and restaurants.  You can't even hear the dull roar of Bourbon when you're on Royal.

DB~ and I walked about 5 blocks up Royal until we got to our destination.  Just a very small sign hanging above an ever-present wrought iron gate announced Cafe Amelie.  This restaurant also had a courtyard, but it was an outer courtyard instead of an inner courtyard like many establishments in the French Quarter.  Additionally, it was a slate courtyard, rather than brick.

There was no doubt on what DB~ was going to get, but I had a few choices to make.  I ended up going with the bone-in pork chop, laced with maque choux sauce, and bedded on some creamy grits of my own.  DB~ paired her dinner with an Amelie Mixed Salad.

Maque choux is a Cajun side dish, typically, that involves the trinity (onion, bell pepper, celery), fresh corn, and cayenne pepper.  Some render some bacon or tasso (smoked Cajun ham) into the recipe as well.  The vegetables all sweat and stew together to give a creamy taste.  Here's my dish:

And here's DB~'s Shrimp and Grits:

The grits truly were fantastic and both of us agreed that they were among the best we've had.  We wondered why more restaurants in New Orleans didn't serve them and she said that it is primarily a Low Country Dish (the Carolinas) and is just starting to get a footprint in New Orleans.

For me, my dinner experience at Cafe Amelie was a Top 10 all-time.  The food was fantastic, but not the best I've ever had.  The restaurant was gorgeous, but not the fanciest place I've ever been.  I think it was just a wide combination of things that made it for me.

Being with the girl I truly love.  Being in one of my favorite cities.  Having the weather be just right in terms of temperature so that I felt like I was in perfect harmony in my surroundings.

I was at peace.

I didn't have 46 things running through my mind all at once like I usually do.  I wasn't thinking about posting a Pirate-themed blog post or when was the last time I posted here on DBS.  I wasn't worried about my family or friends or any external pressures.  Didn't have to think about what to make for dinner, either.  Didn't have to worry about driving anywhere.

It was just me and DB~.  The only decision I had to make was what type of cocktail we wanted to drink after dinner (answer -- whisky and rye for me, beer for DB~, followed by a final Hurricane for each of us).

Of course, all that ended on Sunday morning when we had to come home, but for one night I was at peace and truly happy.  That's a hell of a pork chop.

New Orleans 2013 - The Rest of Friday

 Prior to our trip to Mardi Gras World, DB~ and I ventured out into a very rainy New Orleans last Friday (first stop was a CVS to buy an umbrella).  DB~ had a little checklist of things she wanted to do and tops on that list was eating beignets at Cafe du Monde, next to Jackson Square.

Beignets are little French donuts.  Essentially, they're French funnel cakes that are dredged in powdered sugar.  A typical order in the Big Easy is 3 to an order.  We ate our beignets and DB~ had her hot chocolate as the rain poured outside on Decateur Street.  We had a few minutes before our scheduled shuttle would arrive to take us to Mardi Gras World, so we walked up Decateur to Canal Street to get a lay of the land in terms of things to do later in the day.

After the trip to Mardi Gras World, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, so we perused various bookstores in the French Quarter.  These stores are all jammed floor to ceiling with dusty old books and dusty old booksellers.  I had hoped to find a good old timey map of New Orleans to take home, but there wasn't a lot of variety and the ones that were there were crazy expensive.

We had po' boys at Huck Finn's -- I had fried crawfish and DB~ had fried shrimp.  It was a solid restaurant that had a nice selection of po' boys.  There's no shortage of restaurants, in general, and restaurants that serve po' boys, but we made a good choice.

We crisscrossed the French Quarter all afternoon until we wound up at Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo.  At least on the surface, the voodoo in New Orleans professes to promote positive energy and are amulets to bring either luck or money or love.  I'm sure that in some backroom or back swamp, there are old school "sacrifice an animal to curse your boss" voodoo priests and priestesses.

DB~ loved the handmade dolls so she bought this one to bring love and patience.

After our purchases at the House of Voodoo and various other FQ establishments, we decided we stimulated the economy enough and headed across the street for some afternoon drinkin' at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.  Said to be the oldest bar in the United States, it is said to have been open since 1772.  The interior is lit only with candles and lanterns, even at night time.  We had a few drinks and people watched for a while.  The rain returned and we didn't much care.

We went back to the hotel and got cleaned up for our "classy" dinner (that's right...black blazer in the house!) at a "grand dame" restaurant known as Broussard's.  We had reservations for 7 pm, but had to take a cab, because of the rain, and were 10 minutes late.  It didn't quite matter as the restaurant was fairly empty.

We were skeptical because of this, but DB~ said it best "It's like Mallorca back home -- it needs freshened up".  The food was great and the service was fantastic -- we had an actual French waiter who, you could tell, was a career professional waiter.  Rather than just ordering a standard dinner, we went with each of getting an appetizer, soup, and salad in order to get a wide breadth of the restaurant.

I got Shrimp Remoulade, Chicken and Andouille Gumbo, and an Applewood Smoked Bacon Salad.   DB~ got Crabmeat Broussard, Sweet Potato and Shrimp and Corn Bisque, and a Blue Cheese Salad.  She had the better of the selections, as the hot crabmeat topped with brie and Herbsaint spinach was fantastic.  The real stunner was the Sweet Potato soup.  Its velvety texture was due to the puree on the sweet potato and the introduction of cream.

After dinner, we looked too good to go home, so we journeyed down to Frenchman Street to check out some live music at the clubs.  At the Spotted Cat, we saw a trio featuring a guy on the washboard and a guy on harmonica.  We walked down the street to Club Negril (a Jamaican bar) to see a blues-rock band (American) and had chicken tacos in the back made by a Honduran in a city that prides itself on being French.  The final stop was a club called Vaso, I think, to see the final two songs of a set by high school playing upbeat jazz, including a cover of Bell Biv Devoe's "Poison".

And oh yeah, we walked right through the set of a commercial being filmed for Jeep featuring a traditional jazz band and an old man in a crazy tophat.

The sad part is that as we were connecting through Atlanta on Sunday, we heard about the Mothers' Day Parade shooting that took place about 10 blocks from where we were on Frenchman Street.

But that's what New Orleans is to me.  Great on the surface, maybe a little edgy if you scrape off the top layer, and gritty all around you.

New Orleans Trip 2013 - Mardi Gras World

This past weekend, DB~ and I took a long weekend trip to The Big Easy, perhaps known to you as New Orleans.  It was my fourth time there (it's one of my favorite towns and a town that I think everyone should experience at least once), but it was DB~'s first.  To that end, I had to balance being a good "tour guide", but also finding some things for us to do that I haven't done before.

We got in on Thursday night around 9:30 p.m. and immediately dropped our bags in our hotel room and headed to Bourbon Street so DB~ could see a touch of that spectacle.  After doing some time traveling at Pat O'Brien's, thanks to the ridiculously strong hurricanes, we turned in and planned to get up early to explore the French Quarter.

When we got up on Friday, it was pouring rain.  In a subsequent post, I'll detail our Friday in New Orleans, but this post will focus on one of the cooler things we did down there and that's go see Mardi Gras World.

This was a good activity to do when raining and it was something new to both of us.  After a short shuttle ride to the warehouse, we went inside and signed up for the tour.  It felt a touch steep at $20/person, but it was definitely a cool experience.  If you've seen a Mardi Gras parade, whether live or on TV, you've seen how intricate and ornate some of the floats can be.  What I didn't know is that some (or most) of the bigger Krewes (social clubs that sponsor the floats) contract the float building out to Mardi Gras World.

For the larger mega-Krewes, some of these floats can hold 40-70 people.  Since these parades on Mardi Gras and the two weeks leading up to it can be long, some of them even have bathrooms hidden on board.  The floats are quite heavy at 20 tons and are pulled by tractors, under the theory that if a tractor has a problem they can always just hook another one up rather than delay the parade.

Not all Krewes are created equal.  Rex is the oldest one and Orpheus is one of the newest (started by Harry Connick, Jr. in 1993).  The Krewe of Endymion is the largest at 2,700 members with a huge waiting list.  Considering that the yearly dues can be $500 to $2000 and up, plus the cost of attending the post-parade balls and other expenses throughout the year, it's an expensive hobby to be in.  Those dues and fees go to the creation of floats.  Some Krewes may have up to 14 floats in a parade.  Each float can cost $10,000 to rehab an existing theme or $50,000 to $80,000 to build from scratch.

Originally, I thought Mardi Gras World would just be a big warehouse we would see some floats, but it was much more than that.  There were about 6-10 artists working on actively creating floats for the 2014 Mardi Gras, even though it is in early March 2014.  Some Krewes submit the ideas for next year the day after Mardi Gras is over.  No rest for the wicked.

The main art pieces on the fronts of the floats are called "props" and are made out of either fiberglass or styrofoam/paper mache.  They are then painted painstakingly to create the theme of the float.  These props are made by cutting out 4' by 8' sheets of styrofoam and then gluing them together, then cutting them into the desired shape with an electric knife.

While there, we observed an artist re-purposing a globe into what would be the red Angry Bird for a 2014 float.

We also watched a short 15 minute movie explaining the traditions of Mardi Gras and shopped in the conveniently placed gift shop.  When we were done after an hour and a half, the rain had stopped and we went on our day through the Quarter.

Bringing the Mardi Gras to the Burbs of Pittsbugh

Last year, the crappy weather around Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras was much earlier last year) prevented DB~ and I from going out and enjoying all of the great food and fun that Pittsburgh offers up to celebrate....wait...no one in this city really celebrates Mardi Gras? Were we really going to go to Hofbrahaus, a German beer hall, for a French-themed holiday? I think the Aspinwall Grille was offering an all-you-can-eat Cajun buffet starting at 10 pm. That's convenient on a Tuesday.

So we stayed in that night and I made a quick version of some Cajun food plus some hurricanes to drink. It was OK, but a pale substitute. I resolved that this year would be different. My love of New Orleans would not be stopped.

DB~ and I decided that if we're going to throw a party, we're going to go big. DB~ is in charge of "ambiance" (Evite invitation, decorations, music, making sure all guests having good time), while I'm the "food and beverage coordinator" (food and beverage). The guest list was 18 people so I went with full-size recipes of some solid Cajun favorites of Seafood Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Corn Fritters. But I wasn't going to toss some kielbasa into some rice and call it a day, so I bought some andouille sausage. For the seafood gumbo, I wanted do something different so I bought crawfish to add into the shrimp. I've never worked with crawfish before, so I Googled how to twist the tail segment off from the head and then yank the 0.0002 ounces of meat out of the tail. Luckily I bought 40 of these so I had plenty of opportunities to practice.

No Mardi Gras party is complete without a King Cake, so if you want a French speciality cake...find a French baker. That's what I always say. Transplanted Frenchman, Jean-Marc Chatellier, is a renowned baker with a storefront in Millvale. The tradition with the King Cake is that a) it tastes awesome and b) you get to surprise one of the people eating it by inserting a plastic baby into one piece at random. Note: make sure you tell the people about the baby, because nothing brings a party down by having to do the Heimlich maneuver. If you get the baby in your piece of cake, you get great luck for the next year and the privledge of buying the cake next year at a Mardi Gras party.

But even with the Shrimp/Crawfish gumbo, Chicken/Sausage Jambalaya, Corn Fritters, and King Cake....something seemed missing. It needed a piece de resistance that would have people talking. And then it hit me. Or maybe more accurately...bit me. Not literally.

Alligator.

After we found it being sold at Market District Shadyside, we bought a 1 lb steak. I browned it in the skillet, then diced it into small chunks. I mixed it with a melted cream cheese, shredded cheese, onion, pepper, and Tabasco sauce and then put this into a puff pastry shell and baked it.

Of course I didn't tell anybody it was actually gator until they ate it. There were some twisted faces, semi-gags, but overall everyone agreed they thought they were eating chicken.

And in case you would like to make your own Hurricanes for the upcoming Fat Tuesday, here's the recipe that brought so many drunken smiles to our guests on Saturday night:

1-1/2 oz light rum

1-1/2 oz dark rum

2 oz orange juice

2 oz limeade

1/2 oz triple sec

1/2 oz grenadine

The grenadine is strictly for a touch more alcohol and the red tinge to the drink. You pour this mix over some crushed ice. One hurricane and you'll be feeling fine. Two and you can't operate heavy machinery. Three and you won't remember your name.

Laissez les bon temps rouler! (Let the good times roll for all of you that took Spanish in high school).

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Short post - Happy Mardi Gras!

This is rapidly turning into I Heart New Orleans blog, so after this I'm going to scale back on the New Orleans posts for a while (teaser: Phoenix is next!).

DB~ and I had a makeshift in-house Mardi Gras tonight. Originally we were going to go to Hofbrauhaus (of all places) as they were having a Mardi Gras celebration, complete with a Cajun-themed menu....but we got bummed out by the continuous amounts of snowfall. We stayed in and made Hurricanes for ourselves (I'm actually typing this with a slight buzz thanks to 2 of these potent drinks).

The pic is a list of the ingredients of a Hurricane, minus the pineapple juice. Here's the list for 1 single serving Hurricane:
1 oz white rum
1 oz dark rum
1 oz Bacardi 151
3 oz orange juice
3 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz Grenadine
crushed ice

Wish I (we) were on Bourbon Street!

Shrimp Etouffee

In keeping with my goal of sharing a recipe that reminds me of a city that I post about, I present Shrimp Etouffee - a Cajun delight.

Etouffee means "smothered" in French, as this dish is served over steamed white rice. This dish has a nice smooth consistency that allows it to soak into the rice.

I recommend serving it with some crusty bread and a light salad. It is a filling dish in and of itself.

I have modified this recipe slightly from one that is in the cookbook Cajun Revelation.

1-1/2 cups butter, divided in 3 portions
1/3 cup flour
1 small white onion, finely diced
1/3 cup finely diced bell pepper
3/4 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup chopped green onion bottoms
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 teaspoon garlic
3 tablespoons chicken bouillon (try to use powder, not cubes)
1 quart water
1 lb shrimp (use Wild Gulf Shrimp - support the N.O. economy!)
1/2 cup chopped green onion tops

Combine 1/2 cup butter (this is 1 stick) and 1/3 cup flour in a small saucepan. You are making a roux, the base of the whole dish, so stir carefully while cooking for 3 minutes over medium-high heat. It should be a blond roux. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a 4 quart saucepan or pasta pot, add 1/2 cup butter, onion, bell pepper, celery, and green onion bottoms. Cook over medium heat while stirring for 8 minutes. Add paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, and bouillon. Cook 2 minutes while stirring. Add 1 quart water and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

Add reserved roux and stir well with a whisk. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 3 minutes. Add shrimp, green onion tops, and stir in last 1/2 cup of butter. Turn heat to low until ready to serve. Pour over portion of white rice.

This makes 12 servings, so adjust the recipe sizing as needed.

This recipe holds a special place in my heart for multiple reasons. One, is that it reminds me of New Orleans, probably one the top 3 places in the country for food as a city. Two, this is a recipe that is a "restaurant quality" dish of mine, so I like making it. And three, it is the recipe that I used to surprise DB~ when we were first dating. I had the whole downstairs set up as a Mardi Gras for her, complete with streamers, coins, beads, and masks, the whole nine yards. Maybe without this dish we wouldn't be together!

New Orleans - things we build don't last forever

As I mentioned in my first New Orleans post (New Orleans - that voodoo you do), this city would be one that I would periodically re-visit, due to the many facets of it that I would like to share.

The last time I was in New Orleans was May 2008. It was my 3rd time in the city, but first post-Katrina cleanup. Even though the event happened 2-1/2 years prior, I was sure that there would still be some reminders about it.

On this trip I was meeting my cousin, who was in town for a work conference, and then that weekend some friends of his were coming down for a bachelor party. Since I got there on a Thursday, that meant I had a lot of free time to explore on my own (this was pre-DB~!!).

I wanted to go off the beaten path and get "gritty" on this trip...feel like a resident of the city. So I crossed the river on the Canal Street Ferry (for free!) to Algiers, one of the working class neighborhoods of New Orleans. I was surprised by a few things in Algiers -- one was that some of the homes were gorgeous (pictured above) as they were painted bright colors and had a lot of "shiny extras" on them. This was also where one of the main hubs of Mardi Gras originates from, but I did not have time to take the tour of the warehouse. The second thing I learned was that Algiers got real shady, real quick once you got off the waterfront streets. There were a large amount of homes that still had the kiss of Katrina on them -- roofs collapsed, boards on windows, burned/charred remains. But this was what I wanted to see. The third thing I learned was that there are not a lot of places to eat on Algiers! I ate at a seafood/deli that had bars on the windows. Granted, the food was really good and honest, but that was a change-up.

The next morning was Friday and my cousin needed the morning for his conference, so I took the St. Charles Streetcar through the Garden District (plantation home above). I had no destination in mind, which is how good trips happen, so I rode the Streetcar to its terminus and got off. I walked around this end of the Garden District, which was nearly 100% back to itself, and found a great local diner. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it, but it was a 50's style diner and the menu had a red rose on it. The waitstaff were extremely friendly and I ended up sitting at the counter with two girls from Buffalo who sort of wandered into this place too.

The title of this post "The Things We Build Don't Last Forever" is the title of an Ellen Goodman column. In it, she laments how in New England the stone walls that were erected hundreds of years ago eventually fall into disrepair. She compared that to a sad event that was happening in her then-current life. That column resonated with me because of a very sad event that happened in my life. I thought that, like New Orleans did with its levees, I had built something that would protect me and allow me to flourish for the rest of my life. For me, that was not true.

Recently, I've learned that sometimes you do get a second chance to rebuild and if you do it right, it can be better than before.

New Orleans -- you need to learn this lesson too.

New Orleans - that voodoo you do

New Orleans is just one of those cities that you have to go to at least once. For me, I'm up to 3 times (2 pre-Katrina, 1 post-Katrina) and I find myself longing to go back again.

It's a city in which voodoo is an active part for many people's lives. Not just the "I don't like my boss, so I'm going to stick him with a pin" voodoo, but voodoo also is for finding love, gaining strength, and other more mundane things as well. It's fascinating to watch people explain it and wild to take a night-time (sponsored and guided) tour of above-ground cemeteries with a voodoo-themed tour.

There is so much more to do than see the French Quarter, but you have to see the Quarter, especially on your first trip. And of course, if you're in the Quarter, you have to see Bourbon Street at night. Bourbon Street is a non-stop party, pretty much 365 days a year it seems. I have been there twice in May and once in October and you would not believe the atmosphere. I shudder to think what it is like during Mardi Gras.

The French Quarter is worth seeing just for the architecture. The balconies overlooking the streets, the prevalence of wrought iron, the color schemes, the courtyards tucked in to the majority of the buildings...it all adds up to a style that you can not find anywhere else in the United States.

And the food. My love of Cajun and cooking Cajun came from my very first trip to N'awlins back during my 21st birthday in 1997. There are so many amazing restaurants down there, too numerous to name, but if you want a very affordable representative taste of New Orleans, I recommend The Gumbo Shop. It has all the major dishes -- gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish dishes, red beans and rice -- within a characteristically old structure with a courtyard.

Mulate's is another great place, although outside the Quarter closer to the Convention Center, but they feature great live zydeco music on the weekends in addition to the fantastic food.

You can not swing a dead cat without hitting a fun bar and/or a bar that features great live music (rock, zydeco, jazz) but I highly recommend Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop on the edge of the French Quarter. Lafitte was a infamous pirate during his day and this once-functional blacksmith shop bears his name as an attempt at legitimate business. At night, the place does not have any lights, just candlelight.

But if you are in New Orleans, you have to try the Hurricane drink, a wicked concoction of rum and fruit juices served in its own distinctive glass. The touchstone for this drink is Pat O'Brien's. If you have 2, you will feel no pain. 3 and you may want to cancel breakfast plans the next day. 4 and you will be traveling through time.

This is going to be one of those topics that I will make multiple posts about, as there is just so much more about N'awlins that I would like to share. Consider this the appetizer, the cup of gumbo if you will, to the rest of my thoughts about this great American city.

Gumbo Shop - www.gumboshop.com
Mulate's - www.mulates.com
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - www.atneworleans.com/body/blacksmith.htm