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Trip number four to New Orleans and I still love the place.
We landed in New Orleans (NO) early in the afternoon and went straight to our hotel, The Andrew Jackson. I didn't remember seeing the hotel on previous trips, but when we pulled up I absolutely loved the hotel. It's exactly what I'd been looking for in a French Quarter hotel. It was a small French Quarter residence that's been converted to a hotel with just 22 rooms. The rooms were typical hotel rooms, but that's ok since the hotel was pure French Quarter; modest face towards the street with a lush courtyard hidden from view.
The hotel staff was also very friendly. There were four different people at the front desk during our stay, and we would regularly chat with three of them: Herman, Stu, and the blond lady with the '80's bangs, whose name we never got. The chatting always entertaining, if not useful. (I was a little disappointed with Herman because he raved about the turtle soup and the bread pudding souffle at Commander's Palace, but didn't really say anything else about the place. It was only after we had dinner at Commander's Palace that I realized that his silence was very calculated. I can understand not wanting to say anything since he didn't know our tastes, but even a little warning would have been appreciated.)
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Since it was about 4 in the afternoon and I knew we were going to have a large meal at NOLA that night, I tried to find us a light lunch. The place I wanted to eat at was a small cafe in Pirates Alley which reminded me of a French cafe, but their kitchen was closed. Since I wanted our first meal in NO to be good, I decided to fall back on an old favorite of mine, Johnny Po' Boys. The problem with Johnny Po' Boys is that they don't serve light lunches and the food is so good that you can't help but eat as much as you can.
We ended up getting one of the specials: butter beans, rice, bread, and salad, served with a pork chop or hot sausage. I had the pork chop and Erin had the hot sausage which dripped an evil looking red oil and was blazing hot. It was completely delicious and I felt guilty not eating all of it.
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After lunch I showed Erin around the French Quarter and got all of my gift shopping out of the way. Most of it was pretty basic stuff, but we found this cool shop that had voodoo dolls stitched to Christmas postcards. I dug them and had to buy a couple. One was a dejected little voodoo doll on a postcard that said "Happy Holidays" and another looked pissed off and his card said "Merry Christmas". I loved how ironic those two cards were.
Dinner on the first night of the trip had to be at NOLA. We had to wait a couple of extra minutes for the chef's bar, but it was worth it since it's really the best place to eat in the restaurant. After we got seated, the chef working at the wood burning oven set two raw oysters dressed with some sort of aioli and fresh chives in front of us. I'd never eaten raw oysters in my life, but I ate cooked ones before and thought they tasted like crap, so I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of sucking down a raw one. (Incidentally, Erin never had raw oysters before either.) Since it was our first night in New Orleans, it seemed like it would be an adventure, even if they did taste like crap. Of course I wasn't willing to be the first to try the little mucus ball so I watched as Erin took the raw bivalve into her mouth and swallowed. She didn't die. She didn't even grimace. She actually said it tasted pretty good so I knew they were at least safe. (I notice that she didn't chew though.) I screwed up my courage and took the plunge. Surprisingly the oyster tasted great (and I did chew). The aioli had a little heat to it; combine that with the taste of the fresh chives, and the briny/seafood flavor of the raw oyster and it made a great combination. Score one for NOLA.
For once the tasting menu looked better than my favorite smoked duck dish, so that's what I ordered. It was to be almost four courses of perfection. It started with a potato/leek bisque with crispy bits of applewood smoked bacon and cold smoked salmon. The creamy soup was absolutely great on it's own, but the bits of crispy bacon and pieces of smoked salmon (that melted in your mouth) provided nice compliments to the soup.
Next was an arugula salad, with smoked duck breast, manchego cheese, dried cherries, sliced almonds, and a pepper/port vinaigrette. Once again a killer combination. The peppery taste of the arugula was cut by the cheese, and balanced by the sweetness of the vinaigrette (which thankfully wasn't nearly as peppery as the name indicated). The dried cherries gave a bit of tanginess and something to chew on while the almonds would provide the occasional crunch. Every once in a while you'd get a piece of duck which gave a smoky accent.
The entree was where the meal fell apart. It was a filet mignon with herb risotto, haricot vert, and some sort of sauce. The filet was tender, and very well prepared, but it was also very small. Maybe they thought that a large piece of meat wasn't necessary since it was a four course meal, but I wasn't expecting one quite so small. (The meat portions at NOLA tend to generous so it really was a surprise.) Anyway, the filet was great, but everything else just didn't seem to fit. The risotto was too herby and overpowering. The haricot vert didn't taste right so I didn't even finish them (and I love green beans). Finally, the sauce didn't seem to go with anything. It was just there.
Dessert was a bourbon-praline pound cake and butter bourbon ice cream. I tasted the ice cream by itself and thought it very good. I tried the pound cake by itself and thought it dry. I ate the two together and was surprised how well they helped and complimented each other. The ice cream, of course, added some much needed moisture to the cake, but it was more than that. The butter and bourbon flavors really came out and made it a dessert worth eating.
Erin had an appetizer of crab meat and brie strudel with almonds, apples, and a raspberry sauce. She really enjoyed it, but it didn't really impress me. Her entree was outstanding though. It was a roast duck covered in a spicy applewood barbecue sauce and served with cheddar mashed potatoes. The duck was perfect, and the barbecue sauce had a real kick which made you thankful for the cheddar mashed potatoes, which cooled your mouth down. Another well thought out combination. Erin was especially happy since she asked for a glass of wine that matched the entree and the wine she received was a glass of spicy Syrah which complimented the barbecue sauce.
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After dinner we retired to our hotel's courtyard with a couple of cigars. I had looked for some Ashton Aged Maduro "No. 20"s for our trip, but I didn't find any so I purchased a couple of "No. 10"s from the same line hoping they would be sort of like the "20"s. (I had one of the "No. 40"s and it was a very nice cigar, so it seemed like a safe assumption.) We started to smoke them and I immediately noticed an ashy taste. I hated it and snuffed my cigar out pretty quickly. Erin said her cigar was ok, but I could taste it in that one too. Not that long afterward she tasted it too and her cigar was killed. It was tragic to end a great meal with bad cigars like that.
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The morning was a little wet and dreary so we headed to Cafe du Monde for hot chocolate and beignets. We seated ourselves and waited about five minutes and our waitress didn't show up. There were people two tables away who received their order before our waitress even made an appearance. While we were waiting Erin noticed that behind the Cafe there was a lady working on another lady's foot. I wasn't sure what it was about but Erin thought she was preforming some sort of foot surgery. (After that I really tried not to watch.)
It turned out the foot surgeon was our waitress. (It's a good thing she didn't have to touch anything she served us.) Despite the incident, Cafe du Monde convinced Erin of the power and sugary goodness of beignets.
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We tried to go to Bon Ton Cafe for lunch, but they had just stopped serving lunch and were closed. I was too hungry to really walk to any other restaurant that I preferred, or really think at that point, so we stopped at Liborio.
If you read about my trip to New Orleans the year before, you know I wasn't at all impressed with Liborio. This time the food was better. I ordered a roast chicken (after being told that I couldn't order the steak I tried to order because the grill wasn't hot). It was quite delicious. I almost ate the entire thing. Erin had a Cuban sandwich (which consisted of roast pork, turkey, and ham). I thought it was pretty good and she enjoyed it for a while, until she decided she had had too much bread and just ate the meat.
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Since we didn't make the walking tour of the Garden District, we had some time to kill. The Louisiana History Museum had an exhibit on the history of Mardi Gras that sounded interesting, so we decided to check it out. The exhibit increased my appreciation of Mardi Gras, educated me on aspects of it that I never knew about before, and even gave me a couple of ideas of things I wanted to do whenever I had the opportunity to go to Mardi Gras.
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Every time I go to New Orleans I look for a mask to add to my collection. I don't feel obligated to buy one, but I've been very lucky to find ones I find worth buying. The strange thing is that I never seem to buy more than one mask from the same shop. They seem to have something that appeals to me at the moment, and once gone, they never have anything else I really like.
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So we walked into a new mask shop and I noticed they had Venetian masks. I saw one that I liked immediately and asked Erin if she could figure out which one it was. (Not including my first mask, all of my masks have been Venetian influenced, so of course I'm going to dig an actual Venetian mask.) Well she pointed to a "Medico della Peste" ["Plague Doctor"] mask that I hadn't seen, since I really didn't look that much, that I liked better than the one I was thinking of. So I bought it. (Damn I hate when that happens! It just gave Erin a reason to gloat, which she did.)
[If you'd like information about Carnival in Venice (including info on Venetian masks), check out this web site.]
I couldn't wait for Thursday night because we had a reservation for one of the best restaurants in the country, Commander's Palace. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it did have one hell of a reputation.
We arrived dressed pretty well, but I don't have the required jacket. Luckily they had one I could borrow. (I found the experience more than a little embarrassing and this would explain why less then three weeks later I bought my first dinner jacket). They seated us in the downstairs dining room, right in front of the Christmas tree. Erin didn't care for the location, since it was right in the middle of the dining room, but I just took it as a compliment. I figured we looked so good (even if I was in a borrowed jacket with sleeves a little too short for my arms) that they wanted to show us off. Whatever the reason, it was a beautiful table and I enjoyed the pine scent of the Christmas tree.
Because of my anticipation I had over-ordered and we started the meal with three appetizers: a fish cake, the "Soups 1-1-1", and a crab martini. The smoked gulf fish cake had a good smoky flavor initially, but after subsequent bites there wasn't really anything to it. All the flavor seemed to have disappeared. Needless to say, I didn't care for it. Next was the "Soups 1-1-1" (which were tasting portions of the turtle soup, gumbo, and red fish bisque). The turtle soup was ok, my mom makes better gumbo, and the red fish bisque was only ok too. (I know it's not fair to compare the gumbo to my mom's, but her gumbo is not just better, it's a hell of a lot better. So is my aunt's!) I was hoping the last appetizer, the "Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Martini", would impress us, but it failed too. It was less than ok. It actually shouldn't have been served to us. The crispy vegetables were all soft, like they'd been sitting too long, the citrus vinaigrette didn't have any flavor, and there wasn't any tanginess or even any real citrus flavor. If they hadn't mentioned that it was a citrus vinaigrette I would have never known. The waiter asked how everything was and I told him it was "just ok" and that it didn't look like I was going to be easy to please. He stopped asking me how things were after that.
My entree was the lamb chops with a mint sauce and mashed sweet potatoes. The chops were very well prepared and the sauce went with them fairly well. They were good, but not impressive. The mashed sweet potatoes tasted syrupy and I thought they were uneatable. Erin's entree, the Lyonnaise gulf fish, was much better. The fish was also very well prepared and the crust surrounding it had a very nice mild flavor. It was also served with a sauce that was a nice compliment, but after a few bites I really wanted something with more flavor.
For dessert we had the creme brulee and bread pudding souffle. The creme brulee was served in a shallow bowl which made for a nice presentation, but it spread the custard too thin. The wide bottom of the bowl made the ratio of custard to caramelized sugar almost even and the caramelized sugar easily overpowered the mild custard. The bread pudding souffle was much better; tt was just the right combination of sweet and rich, with a slight alcohol bite. I practically ate the whole thing when the waiter asked me how it was. (I guess he noticed that I obviously liked it and decided that if he asked me how it was, I wasn't going to say anything that would make him uncomfortable.)
Believe it or not this is actually worth mentioning. We got into the cab at Commander's Palace and our cab driver was really friendly. He asked us how dinner was and we gave him our honest opinion and explained why we felt the way we felt about the food. The driver told us that we'd get along very well with his wife because she's a foodie too.
We had a very nice conversation with the driver about his wife, New Orleans, and food when he mentioned something about the cab driving profession being one of the most dangerous professions in the US. He started quizzing us on cab driver murder statistics and what not. At this point I decided this guy was a nut case and I wasn't going to encourage his line of thought, but Erin couldn't stop answering the guy and making comments. Well he continued that way for the rest of the trip. He started talking about the plastic guard between the driver and the passengers; how they dangerous for the passenger in the event of a collision and they were dangerous for the driver in the event of a robbery. ("Did you know the murder rate of cab drivers goes up when they are forced to install the guard? Do you know why? Because the robber's only option at that point is to use something lethal and more cab drivers are getting killed because of it.")
So we're almost to our hotel when he tells us that he's designed a "safer" guard for cabs, but the city isn't open to the idea. When I heard that my thought was, "So that's why he's so knowledgeable and bitter about the subject." Anyway, he passed our hotel. I pointed this out to him and he actually didn't believe me at first. He did stop the meter once he figured out that he was wrong.
I don't know if this guy was so wrapped up in his venting that he honestly forgot what he was doing or if he just uses the "crazed ranting guy" routine on tourists and hopes they don't notice that he's taking them on a long ride. Either way, it was something worth remembering and if you're ever in New Orleans and your cab driver goes off on some lunatic tangent rant and he passes your hotel, then you know what's up.
After dinner I wanted to salvage the night with a couple of good cigars, but all I had were the Ashton Aged Maduro "No. 10"s. I really hoped that the cigars we smoked the night before were an anomaly, and not indicative of what we had ahead of us that night.
That wasn't the case. The cigars were equally as horrible, if not more so, than the ones the night before. (Erin didn't waste any time getting rid of the cigar this time.) I couldn't take it so we walked down to Cafe Havana and I picked up a Onyx Reserve "Mini Belicoso" and a Te-Amo Aniversario "Vintage 98 Toro". (They didn't really have my favorites, so I chose from what they had.) I had never tried either cigar before, but it was better than nothing. We took them back to our courtyard and actually enjoyed our cigar tasting.
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We planned a little better on Friday so we actually got to eat lunch at Bon Ton Cafe. It's a good place for a hearty and tasty lunch of classic creole cuisine. We started with fried crawfish which were ok. My lunch was the crab au gratin and Erin had the deep fried soft shell crab (which I had the year before). I didn't really care for my lunch. It was a little too rich without enough flavor for me. It was however a good meal to eat before you start walking all over the city. The deep fried soft shell crab was as delicious as ever. It's the sauce that makes it. I'm not sure what it is, but it's brown, salty, buttery, and goes very well with the crab. We had to hurry to make it to the meeting point in time so we didn't have time for dessert.
I still don't know how to catch a streetcar in New Orleans, but I seem to catch them just fine. I always just stand there and act like I want to be picked up by the streetcar and they always stop. I'm not sure if there's a system to it though. Like are you supposed to stand in a designated area or is just looking like you want to be picked up by a streetcar the entire system? What's even worse is that whenever I ask someone how to pick one up, they always say they don't know. Don't they live there!? (I actually had this same problem in San Francisco. Maybe it's the locals way of having fun with the tourists?)
If you do know how to catch a streetcar in NO, email me with the scoop.]
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We caught a street car and actually made it to the meeting place for the tour a little early. We met our tour guide Mambo and waited to see if anyone else would show up. No one did. We had the entire walking tour to ourselves. It was pretty nice. Erin would talk and listen to Mambo, leaving me free to take pictures. It was a beautiful sunny day out, and I was enjoying the scent of the winter blooming sweet olive trees.
[On our first day in New Orleans, Erin noticed the mules that are used to give carriage tours. Well she was sure to ask Mambo about their treatment and care to make sure they were ok. Brother.]
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Anyway, I thought Mambo might shorten our tour since there were only two of us, but we got the full walking tour (about 2.5 hours). I ended up giving him a very nice tip since there weren't the usual 10 other people there to tip him and I really appreciated his professionalism.
More Garden District pictures.
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Erin was in the mood for Italian food so we had dinner at the only decent Italian place I knew in the French Quarter, Bacco. Erin started her meal with the soup of the day, sweet potato bisque, and I had an arugula salad with red onions, raspberry vinaigrette, and Gorgonzola cheese. The soup was unbelievably great. I don't like sweet potatoes, but the soup didn't really taste like them. Rather, it had a mild sweetness that went well with it's creamy richness. Excellent. I was disappointed in my salad though. It was far too spicy, and nothing balanced it out. Even the cheese didn't help; it was salty and creamy which didn't help tone down the arugula like I thought it would. I didn't finish my salad.
My entree was the hickory smoked pork tenderloin, with mashed potatoes and sweet-and-sour prune sauce. Erin had the lobster and shrimp ravioli in a champagne butter sauce which was garnished with caviar. The tenderloin was excellent, just as I expected. (I had a taste of it the year before and was impressed.) The ravioli were far better than I would have expected. I'm not a big fan of lobster, shrimp, or wine, but Bacco did a good job making the whole far better than the sum of it's parts. Also, that was my first time tasting caviar and I have to say that I enjoyed it. The caviar also wasn't just there for show either, but it added another depth to an already excellent dish.
Dessert was the vanilla bean panna cotta, an eggless custard flavored with vanilla bean and served with diced peaches and a raspberry coulis. The panna cotta was perfect for that meal. It was mild, subtle, and light. The peaches seemed extraneous, but the combination of the raspberry coulis and the panna cotta itself was very well thought out. When you ate them together you got the immediate sweet/tart flavor of the raspberry which dissolved into a creamy smoothness which finished with a mild vanilla flavor. I loved it.
Erin wanted to hear some zydeco so we headed to Bourbon Street. We passed all sorts of bars with different types of bands playing mostly party music, like "Mustang Sally" and "Mony Mony". We continued walked down Bourbon Street when we heard some fine zydeco pouring out of Patout's. We rushed in and saw Jimmy Thibideaux playing. The music was great when they played zydeco, but it turned out that half their set was party music too. It was all good. Erin tried to buy their cd, but they ran out so we ended up going to Tower Records for it at the end of the night.
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Breakfast was at Tally Ho. It's just a small local diner and the only thing that made it unique is that they serve alligator sausage. I didn't feel up to the alligator sausage, so I just had a normal breakfast. After all of the good food we had, it's amazing how welcome comfort food is in the end.
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The camera I used was a Canon Powershot G2 digital camera. Some minor touchups were done in Photoshop. (I'm sure the touchups could have been done better, but I was lacking talent and the patience to really look at all the photos, so you get what you get.)
I was taking a picture with my camera one night when someone behind me asked, "Is that a Canon Powershot G2?" I said, "Why yes. Yes it is." It turns out he had one too. We proceeded to talk about how great a camera it is for the next five minutes. I guess I finally know how dog lovers feel when they talk to someone about their dog(s).
Anyway, the pictures are copyright by me. Unauthorized use is prohibited.
