Our plane was late arriving in Phoenix, but we still got to New Orleans on time. Since it was late we took a cab instead of the super shuttle. We had a conversation with our cab driver about living in New Orleans since he was from Alaska and had only been living in New Orleans for less than two years. It turned out that he hated living in New Orleans for various reasons. Lynn thought it was because even though he was black he disliked other black people. I guess when Lynn heard him say that there was going to be a lot of "African Americans" in town this weekend for the Bayou Classic, she thought he gave it a negative connotation. I didn't take it that way, but there did seem to be an edge to how he spoke about black people in New Orleans so I thought he probably didn't like them specifically.
We got to our hotel in the Central Business District (CBD), the Plaza Suite Hotel & Resort, and wasn't sure what to expect since Lynn's mom had booked the room for us. Sam, the lady at the front desk, checked us in and seemed like she was a real character. I thought the hotel would be bigger, but I was happy to see that they were small enough to still hire interesting people like Sam. Our suite was on the second floor facing a large atrium (which was airy, but not sunny or anything, just a large sitting area). I noticed a white board in the atrium which had information on it about people who had just purchased time shares at the Plaza Suite Hotel & Resort. We got into the room, and it wasn't bad.
We arrived at the hotel at about 9:30 PM and the last time we really had something to eat was at 1 in the afternoon so we were starving. I wanted to have dinner at Horinoya so that's where we headed, or tried to head because I kept going the wrong direction. (I've been through the CBD before, but I wasn't that familiar with the area.) The cab driver was right though; we had to walk against the current of black people walking from the Superdome to the French Quarter. It felt like we were salmon trying to swim upstream. When we got to Horinoya the place was closed because they were open until 10 PM and it was 10:30. Lynn loved the last time we were at ACME Oyster House, and I figured they were open late (being a bar) so we went there instead. Once again I led us in the wrong direction though. I wouldn't get my bearings straight until we got to the French Quarter. We eventually got to ACME after passing through the largest crowd I'd seen since Mardi Gras on Canal Street.
ACME was busy, but we were seated immediately. I had an Abita "Turbodog" for the first time (which tasted like Guiness when Guiness has a good toasted flavor), and a soft shell po' boy. Lynn ordered a roast beef po' boy, one of her absolute favorite sandwiches, and we split half a dozen raw oysters (cajun sushi style with soy sauce, wasabi, lemon, and pickled ginger). The roast beef was great, but, unfortunately, it wasn't spicy like the first time we had it. It was still pretty damn good eatin' though. The soft shell crab was pretty good too. The raw oysters were a gutsy move for me because I don't really care for raw oysters even though I've had a couple I've liked (like at NOLA for instance). These oysters were pretty good, and didn't have that nasty "dirty seawater" flavor I seem to taste more often than not. Lynn even liked them although she didn't think the soy sauce and wasabi was a good match for the oysters. I took her word for it and didn't try it, but it was the first time I've eaten four raw oysters. (I know that probably seems lame to a lot of people, but Phoenix doesn't exactly have good raw oysters so it's not a taste I've acquired yet. Same for Lynn.) The only thing I didn't like about the meal was the oyster burps when we were walking back to the hotel.
I couldn't wait for Saturday since I had the Farmer's Market, Mr. B's Bistro (Lynn's pick), and NOLA (a favorite of both of our's) planned.
We took a long time getting started so we didn't have time to hit the Farmer's Market. We made our way to Mr. B's Bistro through the freezing wind, and I was happy to get inside. We were seated at the table Ronald Reagan sat at twice in 1990 (which appealed to the historian in Lynn so she forced me to write about it). I imagined it was his table because it was in the far corner of the restaurant against two walls, and the easiest table for the secret service to secure.
We both started with the soup of the day, cheddar broccoli. The soup had a good flavor, but it was too salty for me. Lynn cleaned her bowl. I also ordered an appetizer of fried bacon wrapped oysters in butter sauce. The oyster coating was crispy, and the butter sauce was especially good, but the smokey flavor of the bacon overpowered everything else. Maybe if they used a sweet bacon it would have been a good dish, but as it was I thought it was a failure. Of course Lynn liked it.
Nothing on the menu looked really good to me so I went with the curious Kobe beef burger. (I had heard that Kobe beef burgers were popular in New York city, and while I wouldn't go out of my way to try one, this wasn't exactly going out of my way.) Lynn had a petite filet with blue cheese masted potatoes and a raison and port reduction sauce. The Kobe beef was actually American wagyu beef (wagyu is the breed of cow that the Japanese use for Kobe beef), which was fine since I've had excellent American wagyu beef too. When the burger arrived it had a ton of oil exuding from it, and I couldn't wait to taste it, but all the flavor came from the sauteed onions on the burger. I was hoping that the beef would either have the uniquely gamey flavor of the American wagyu I've had before, of the buttery flavor of Japanese wagyu, but it just didn't have any flavor. The french fries that came with my burger were a little floppy, but they tasted pretty good with the garlic aioli that was served on the side. Lynn's steak had a good wood smoked flavor, but I didn't like how the smoke flavor interacted with the sauce. Lynn enjoyed it. The blue cheese mashed potatoes were good, but the blue cheese flavor was too strong for both of our tastes (and I love blue cheese). The zucchini on Lynn's plate were a pleasant surprise, with a great buttery flavor.
We both went for dessert: I had the pear spice cake while Lynn had the molten chocolate cupcake. I also had a glass of B.V. "Muscat de Beaulieu" to go with my spice cake while Lynn had a coffee cocktail. Lynn's dessert was very rich and very chocolately, and entirely too much for me. Lynn liked it and the coffee drink. I really liked my spice cake, which tasted as good as any spice cake I've ever tasted. My Muscat tasted a little buttery, with a caramel flavor; mellow, but nice. The spice cake brought out the butteriness in the Muscat, but also made it taste alcoholic.
Lynn didn't feel well, and got sick in the bathroom. She's making a habit of getting sick in New Orleans. She thought that drinking coffee after eating a meal wasn't a good combination for her.
The service at Mr. B's always starts well, but before the end of the meal the entire team of waiters seems to disappear. I find it very irritating. That combined with the fact that I don't really like the food that much will keep me from returning to Mr. B's.
We spent our time after lunch looking for a luggage strap for my suitcase (which has a difficult time closing thanks to the mistreatment by the bastard TSA when they searched my suitcase on the way to Japan), and a pair of sun glasses for Lynn. We went to the Riverwalk (my first time there ever) and found both. Lynn went clothes shopping, but somehow managed not to buy anything. Afterwards we left the Riverwalk to get some tasty Leonidas chocolate from Grenier y Chocolat. Before we got to Grenier y Chocolate I remembered to get Lynn some clay devil horns to replace the ones Tiger (Lynn's cat) ate.
It was cold out so we just headed back to our hotel room to relax. There were a couple of things I figured out that I didn't like about our hotel: we can hear our neighbors through the wall; we could hear the people above us walking around, and when they had the tv on; in the bedroom we could hear the people in the atrium during the continental breakfast; and we could smell it when someone was smoking. It was still nice to have a free room though.
We made it to NOLA just in time for our reservation. We were seated at the chef's bar (as I requested), but Chef Neal was on vacation. Lynn got the daily four course tasting menu while I chose four dishes for myself. Lynn's first course was an assembled salad of grilled onion, smoked salmon, a goat cheese fritter, frisee, and some sort of vinaigrette. I didn't like all the ingredients together because the salmon flavor was too strong, but everything without the salmon, or everything without the onion was great. I had the flat bread with pork, ancho barbecue sauce, shrimp, cheese, and coleslaw. The slaw was amazingly good with a peppery zip. The pork, cheese, and barbecue sauce all tasted really good together, but without the slaw it was too sweet for me. Lynn dug it all.
Lynn's second course was a duck breast on top of butternut squash, bacon, and some roasted vegetable. Lynn gave me a big bite of everything together, and I thought it tasted like a pumpkin pie with meat in it. I hated it! I tried the duck by itself, but it was only ok. Lynn dug everything that wasn't duck. At least the roasted vegetable had a good flavor. My dish was the "wasabi taco"; seared tuna with guacamole, a type of kim chi, and a cucumber salad with a wasabi cream dressing. The seared tuna was highly seasoned, and I totally loved it despite the fact that I could hardly taste the tuna. The flavor was just so good I didn't care! The kim chi had a great sweet-sour flavor that was only made better by the crispy texture of the vegetables (carrots and something else). The guacamole had a healthy citrus flavor, and even a slight kick. The weakest part of the dish was the cucumber salad, which had a hint of wasabi flavor, but didn't taste nearly as good as everything else. For once Lynn and I agreed on how good everything tasted. I figured the "wasabi taco" would be the high point of my meal, and it was.
Lynn's entree was a tenderloin with bacon, roasted rutabaga, and some sort of wine sauce. It totally reminded me of what Lynn had at Mr. B's. Lynn tried everything and pronounced it better than Mr. B's (due to the superior job NOLA did balancing the flavors). I tried everything and thought it was pretty damn good too. I had the balsamic grilled swordfish with Lyonnaise potatoes and balsamic cream sauce. Whoever thought kinda brown on brown on brown would look appetizing should have their head examined. Luckily the dish tasted better than it looked. The potatoes with the sauce had a good flavor, and the swordfish with the sauce also had a good flavor. I didn't eat too much because the dish was only pretty good, and I had already eaten a lot. I decided it was more important to save myself for dessert.
Lynn's dessert was the root beer marble cake (a speciality of the pastry chef's grandmother) with creme anglaise and root beer drizzle. The cake was dense and sweet, and pretty tasty. I had the raspberry and white chocolate mascarpone pie with creme anglaise, which I had already tried when I was at NOLA with Noah during Mardi Gras. The pie had a nice mellow flavor, but it needed a livelier sauce than the creme anglaise it was served with.
Overall the food was very good, but other than the "wasabi taco" I wasn't impressed. I've just come to expect more from NOLA. Lynn, of course, enjoyed everything.
After dinner I seriously had to get to a bathroom. I think the bacon wrapped oysters at Mr. B's caused my stomach problems. It would at least explain why Lynn got sick at lunch. It could have been something else, but Mr. B's seemed like the most likely source.
We returned back to the hotel so Lynn could change into something warmer. We then went to find The Meridian hotel so we could smoke cigars in their bar (which I was rather fond of). We walked along Canal Street, but I couldn't find the place. I thought it might have been taken over and turned into the JW Marriott because that's what was in the location where I swear The Meridian was located. We then went to walk down Bourbon Street, but after fighting our way through a huge crowd for a block I decided it was time to leave. It wasn't my first time dealing with large crowds on Bourbon, but this crowd felt different; more restless than festive. It's not often I get nervous about a situation (as any woman who's traveled with me will usually emphatically attest), but I do trust my instincts when I do get nervous so that's why I thought we should go. As we walked down Canal Street back to our hotel we saw some police officers watching a group of guys beating up another guy. After about a minute, when I'm sure the police officers figured the guys had worn themselves out, the police officers stepped in and arrested everybody. I was happy to be on my way back to the hotel because I didn't want to be around after people had been drinking for a while.
We got to our hotel room, and smoked a cigar. It was a good way to end the night.
We got up late, and I started watching football so we didn't do anything until we went to lunch after 2 in the afternoon. We went to Bacco and ate at the bar because they weren't open for regular service. The menu was limited, but it was easy to find some interesting items.
I had an arugula salad while Lynn got a butternut squash soup. My salad kicked ass! All the ingredients were balanced (peppery arugula, soothing buttermilk basil dressing, salty gorgonzola, and peppered, sweet vine ripened tomatoes, and sharp red onion), and amazingly tasty. I had pretty good luck with salads so far this trip since NOLA advertised their wasabi taco as a salad. Lynn's soup had a good flavor, but it was too thin for me. Lynn liked it.
My entree was the stracci (rag noodles, roasted chicken, spinach, basil, parmesan, in a tomato cream sauce) while Lynn's was the excellent lobster ravioli. The tomato cream sauce was rich, salty, and just very tasty. The only complaint I had about it was the same complaint I had about the lobster ravioli; the pasta was a little undercooked. They weren't so undercooked that I wanted to send either dish back so I basically loved both dishes, and Lynn did too.
I wasn't planning on eating a dessert at lunch, but when we saw a key lime semifreddo on the menu had to try it. It was light, tart, and very refreshing. The accompanying raspberry sauce was good with it too, but unnecessary.
This was a great meal, and the bartender gave us great service. Lynn liked him because he was friendly, and I liked him because he was more attentive than most waiters. While we were at the bar there was a couple there that chatted with us and both the bartenders. The couple seemed a lot like us; the guy didn't say much and just let his wife do all the talking. The wife let us known some personal things that most people wouldn't mention in casual conversation with complete strangers, but the conversation made the meal much more memorable.
We left Bacco and walked around the French Market for a little while, but my heart wasn't in it since I really wanted to watch football (damn fantasy football team). We returned to the hotel, and stayed in our room until dinner.
I asked Lynn to choose where she wanted to eat dinner from the places that were actually open. She chose Horinoya, and sounded good to me too. We found the restaurant a lot easier this time around. Their menu was pretty extensive so it took me a while to figure out that I wanted someone else to choose for me. I tried to order the seven course omakase menu, but the chef said they couldn't do it because some of the ingredients weren't good. Lynn suspected it was because the chef didn't want to try and fit seven courses in one hour. That sounded more plausible than a couple of ingredients not being good for a menu that's not set. I'll never know the real reason.
Lynn ordered clear broth soup, shrimp gyoza, and a dreaded Philly roll (salmon and cream cheese). I went nuts and ordered otoro [fatty tuna], agedashi tofu [fried tofu in dashi], chicken yakitori, shrimp and vegetable tempura, broiled giant clam with lemon and spice, broiled mackerel, broiled miso marinated pompano, tuna tataki, and green tea. My least favorite dish of the bunch was the giant clam; it didn't lack flavor, but there was a component to the flavor I didn't like. There was something about the texture I didn't like too. Lynn thought the texture was caused by the clams being over cooked. My favorite dish was the agedashi tofu because the tofu adsorbed the flavor of the Horinoya's tasty dashi. The tuna tataki was seasoned tuna seared, and served with ponzu and green onion. It was a great dish full of complimentary flavors. I liked the seared tuna almost as much as the tuna at NOLA while Lynn ranked them the same. The shrimp tempura was a little plain, as shrimp tempura tends to be, but the vegetable tempura was almost as great as the tempura from Ichi Ban in Tempe. The vegetables had a good flavor, the batter was light and greaseless, and the tempura sauce was pretty good (versus the great tempura sauce at Ichi Ban, which is just a little saltier). The pompano was salty with crispy skin, and quite tasty. Lynn thought it was too fishy, because it was served well done, but I thought it complimented the saltiness. The only thing I didn't like about it was that all the fat underneath the skin made the fish very oily. It seemed like a small price to pay for crispy skin though. The mackerel was mellow by comparison, and served closer to medium. It had a good flavor in a completely different way. I wish I had enough experience with toro to tell the difference between otoro and chutoro. This toro was a light pink color with very fine ripples of fat running through it; it was very different from the thick lines of fat running through the toro I had at Morimoto in Philadelphia. The flavor was a little different too (the illusion of a tuna flavored butter was absent). With this toro experience I think I'm done with toro because it never seems worth it to me. [I later looked it up and toro can be classified as either shimofuri (fat evenly distributed) or dandara (strips of fat). Those sound like the two different versions of otoro I've had.]
Lynn's clear broth soup actually tasted like the clear broth soup she loves at Ninja in Chandler. This one was fish based versus the mushroom base of Ninja's so it was surprising she liked it. The Philly roll was made with green onion, and that improved the flavor greatly. The shrimp gyoza were made potsticker style, but the flavor was only ok. Lynn really liked them, and the salty sauce they were served with.
Horinoya was some of the best Japanese food I've had (which includes when I was in Japan), and if I lived in New Orleans I'd be there pretty damn often. I wish I could have tried out the rest of their menu.
We walked around a little bit after dinner, but I was too full to want to do anything.
We woke up a little earlier, and actually did something before eating lunch; we went to Cafe du Monde for some beignets. Lynn then wanted to check out the French Market again so she could find a Chinese dress. She found what she was looking for, but she didn't buy a dress. We then walked down Royal Street, and I got a tea olive room freshener from Hové so I could enjoy the scent of sweet olive in Phoenix. (One of the things I noticed my first or second time in New Orleans was the scent of sweet olive in the air, and I got addicted to it.) Even though Lynn kind of likes the smell of sweet olive she doesn't like the bottled version I got from Hové. I personally love the stuff, and think it's very accurate.
After killing some time we took a tour of the Gallier House. The house was as close to historically accurate as they could make it so it was interesting.
At about 3:30 in the afternoon we finally got some lunch. Lynn didn't want something heavy so we went to Bennachin for some West Africa food. I didn't know it wasn't going to be heavy, but I was in the mood to take a chance.
We started with a bowl of their smoked turkey and beef sausage gumbo (which is actually an African dish I don't know the name of). The soup tasted like a file gumbo, and while it had a good flavor I would have preferred it thicker. My entree was the apricot lamb with broccoli, cous cous, and a garlic-ginger sauce. Despite how spicy the description of the sauce sounded it was very mild. The lamb had a really good flavor though, and I ate all of it. Lynn's dish, something with beef and potatoes, was much better. Her dish was spicy, and had a great combination of flavors. It was what Belizean stewed beef would taste like if it was actually prepared as well as Belizean stewed chicken or stewed pork.
There were so many things that looked good on the Bennachin menu that I would have to go there more than a few times to try them all.
After lunch we came back to the hotel and did nothing.
Dinner was at the Lee Circle Restaurant. We walked there from our hotel, and I enjoyed our little stroll past other restaurants on the way there. When we got to the restaurant there was a large group at one table, and a couple at another. Not many people at all. The meal started with an amuse of pork rillettes served in a little ramekin with toast points. It was amazingly tender and tasty, but I had to keep myself from eating all of it because it was very rich too. It turned out that I was a little burnt out on rich food so my ordering was very boring; a dinner salad and a bone in rib eye steak. Lynn got a lump crabmeat and mirliton bisque and pork tenderloin. My salad was a basic mixed green bag salad, and really made me regret not ordering the much more interesting sounding watermelon and spinach salad with vanilla bean vinaigrette. (I'd never heard of something like that, much less tried it before.) Lynn's bisque was mild, rich, and very tasty. The pieces of mirliton in the soup even gave a good change to the texture to the soup. I'd order it again.
My rib eye was a real slab of beef served with herbed polenta and an eggplant fritter in a wild mushroom demi-glace. The polenta was too herby for my tastes, and seemed more like the semolina I had at NOLA instead of actual polenta. The beef had a good flavor, but the mushrooms used in the demi-glace had the best flavor! I could have eaten an entire dish of those chewy, meaty morsels. The eggplant fritter was crispy and had a good flavor too. Lynn loved her pork; it was so moist that Lynn didn't even have to use a knife to eat it. The flavor of the pork with the homemade worcestershire sauce (which had a sweet flavor to it) was great. The greens and the spoon bread that came with the dish the dish were awful, but it didn't really matter.
Three desserts sounded good to us, but we exercised some restraint and only got two. I had the tres leches [a Mexican cake made with milk, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk] with strawberry-wasabi sorbet while Lynn had the white chocolate mousse with fruit compote and puff pastry. The tres leches was excellent, and the sorbet had a good strawberry flavor that turned into ass kicking heat. The combination of the two worked well because the milk killed the heat from the wasabi, but allowed the flavor to come through. Lynn didn't like it because the three milks weren't on top of, and soaked into, the cake as usual, but rather sitting in a bowl with the cake. Her mousse was too sweet for me and the compote was really sour without enough fruit flavor. The combination of the two didn't really work for me either because the flavor would always end on this really sickeningly sweet, sharp white chocolate note. Lynn, naturally, loved her dessert despite its shortcomings, and the extraneous, and not at all tasty, piece of puff pastry (which should have tasted buttery, but didn't).
Overall we both enjoyed Lee Circle Restaurant a lot. My only regret was that I wasn't in an adventurous mood. I was unhappy with the service though; one of the waiters practically threw our silverware on the table, and he seemed to ignore our table more than any waiter in a restaurant with only three filled tables should.
We were supposed to go to The House of Blues to see Photek and Tee Bee at midnight, but Lynn fell asleep on the couch. I knew she would do that, but that knowledge didn't cause me to be any less pissed off when she used that as an excuse not to go. There are times I hate Lynn and every time she intentionally falls asleep before a show are one of them. Especially because I think she did it on purpose. She likes trips where she does nothing, and I hate those kinds of trips. At this point the honeymoon was more like her type of trip than mine.
We woke up late again. I think the problem was because we don't have any windows that see the sun in our room so the sun doesn't wake us up as it should. I was still pissed off from the night before so Lynn got mad at me because I was pissed at her. We were angry, but we worked it out before anyone was forced to leave the state, or was forced to kill the other person. We headed up Julia Street to see the galleries, but Lynn wasn't into it. We then headed to the National D-Day Museum.
The D-Day Museum was the best museum I've ever been to! It did a great job covering World War II from beginning to end, and it gave a real sense of its enormity. There were also a lot of stories from different people (friends and enemies alike), which put a human face on war. I wish we didn't get hungry so that we didn't skip over most of the Pacific Theater.
We took a bus up Magazine Street so we could eat at Lilette, but it was after 3, and they stoped serving lunch at 2. We looked at a few restaurants, but none of them looked good until we saw the white board listing the daily specials at Joey K's.
We started by splitting a fried shrimp remoulade salad. The shrimp were crispy, and the remoulade dressing had a great, sharp mustard flavor. I'd order the salad again. Lynn had a bowl of split pea soup that I didn't care for, but Lynn liked it. I had the stewed chicken, which tasted more like smothered chicken than stewed chicken. It was decent, but not great. That pretty much described the mashed potatoes that came with it too. The peas sucked. The place was a dive, but I could see eating there again.
A little before lunch, and after lunch we explored shops on Magazine Street. One in particular had a great duvet cover made from a washable silk embroidered cloth that felt great. I would have bought it, but it was quite expensive. Maybe we'll pick it up in a year or two.
We headed to the Faubourg Marigny to hit Santa Fe Restaurant for dinner. On the way there Lynn got freaked out by some local gay guy trying to freak her out by acting crazy. We got into an argument because I knew he was only acting crazy (I've seen real crazy people on the city bus, and this guy had nothing on them) to get a response out of her so I thought it was stupid to react the way he wanted to. When we got to the Faubourg Marigny Lynn thought the neighborhood looked unsafe and was freaked out by it. I was really tired of Lynn being freaked out. When we got to Santa Fe it was closed so we decided to have dinner at Marisol, which was just around the corner.
Marisol was completely empty when we walked in. We were, not surprisingly, seated at a window. Lynn saw the fondue for two on the appetizer list and had to order it. It came with bread, chewy tomatoes, and pickles. The fondue had a great blue cheese flavor, and the bread was toasted with butter and had a moist, chewy center. We both loved the bread with the fondue. To me, the tomatoes and pickles didn't go with the fondue at all, but Lynn liked the tomatoes.
We saw two soups on the menu that looked good so we had to order them. I had the Thai crab-coconut soup. The flavor was great, spicy, and reminiscent of tum yum gai; basically the flavor combinations typical of a great Thai soup. Lynn had the Cuban black bean soup. The flavor started with coffee grounds, then moved on to chocolate, and finished with black beans. I absolutely hated it. Lynn thought she was tasting some sort of Thai flavor and really liked the soup. She's nuts.
My entree was the pork "osso buco" with spinach and asiago risotto and asparagus. The pork was a meaty shank that was smokey and tender. The sweet, fruity glaze they had on it matched well. The risotto had a mild asiago flavor, but it provided a nice contrast to the pork. For once (in any restaurant I've eaten in) the asparagus wasn't overcooked, but they were pointless. Lynn had the sole with lemon brown butter, and a haricot vert and lobster salad. The fish had a good flavor, but I like the flounder meuniere at Raimondo's in Phoenix better. The thing I loved was the salad, which was lightly creamy, and had a great flavor. It was much better than it sounded, and one of the few times I've actually liked haricot vert.
The dessert menu at Marisol only had three items on it, but they only needed one that sounded good. I noticed the hot chocolate cake was made to order so I ordered it. Twelve to fifteen minutes later we had our cake. It was tall and hot, and when we cut into it it erupted in molten chocolate. The cake was so delicious! It was very chocolately without being too rich. I'm not sure how they managed that, but it was brilliant. There was some pistachio ice cream on top of the cake, but it was a poor match. The tawny port I had with dessert made for a better pairing. (I believe it was Warre's "Sir William 10 year tawny". It had a buttery flavor with a hint of cherries and a strong alcoholic finish. The cake made the flavor even more buttery.) The chocolate cake almost compared with the chocolate souffle we had at Pinot Brasserie in Las Vegas.
I wanted to listen to some music or smoke a cigar after dinner, but Lynn wasn't in the mood.
We woke up late again, and had leftovers for lunch. I didn't like the leftovers so I didn't eat much. After our lunch we walked around the CBD and the French Quarter, and took pictures. We went to CC's Community Coffee House to see if I could find those blueberry strudel sticks that I loved the last time I was in New Orleans. They didn't have any so I got an excellent red velvet cake instead. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Trashy Diva so Lynn could look at some corsets that caught her eye in the window. They only had a few in her size, but they looked really good so Lynn tried one on. It was hot when the sales girl was tightening Lynn's corset and sticking her ass out at the same time. I wish I could have taken a picture. We both liked the way the corset looked on Lynn so we got it. When we got back to the hotel Lynn tried it on over a black dress, and I took pictures of her with my digital camera. (I haven't missed the irony of my writing about the inappropriate things the lady at Bacco told us, and then writing about our corset buying experience, which I think is inappropriate to tell complete strangers, I just choose not to care.)
Lynn changed and we went to the Hunt Room Grill in the Hotel Monteleone for a Reveillon dinner with Tom Fitzmorris' Eat Club. We sat at a table for four, and it wasn't too long before we were joined by another couple. They were a local couple named Jeff and Angela, and they had been married almost as long as I had been alive. They brought two bottles of wine with them, and I felt bad we didn't bring anything. We talked about food, wine, travel, and many other things. They were a really interesting and nice couple (kind of like the couple we met at Bacco, without all the inappropriate personal information.)
The dinner started with a baked oyster with shrimp and a butter sauce which wasn't on our menu. It was pretty damn tasty.
The appetizer course was a choice between smoked duck breast with a sweet thyme sauce or a warm foie gras and asian pear feuilletage [turnover]. I had the duck breast, which tasted like "duck bacon" to me. The sweet type sauce added a certain unusual flavor to it that I really enjoyed. Lynn had the turnover, and we both enjoyed it a lot. Lynn was a little disappointed that she couldn't taste the foie gras, but I could have eaten the thing for dessert and been happy.
The soup was a lobster bisque. We both thought the texture was thin. I thought the flavor was thin too, and I didn't like the soup so, of course, Lynn had to like it.
The salad was mixed greens with a wild mushroom ragout and apple bacon vinaigrette. I totally loved the salad; the pepperiness and the bitterness of the greens was balanced by the sweet and meaty flavor of the vinaigrette. The mushrooms had a really great flavor too. Lynn didn't like the salad for some mysterious reason.
My entree was the grilled pompano while Lynn's was the venison. The pompano was tasty in a butter sauce, but it tasted very similar to the sole meuniere Lynn had at Marisol. I tried Lynn's venison, but it was too gamey for my tastes.
Dessert was a plum and praline bread pudding for me and a hazelnut creme brulee for Lynn. My bread pudding tasted good, but there wasn't anything particularly special about it. The creme brulee, on the other hand, was great. The flavor of the creme brulee by itself was great, and the hazelnut flavor (and pieces of hazelnut) made it unique. I loved it, but Lynn would have liked more caramelized sugar.
During and after dinner Tom Fitzmorris (the only food critic I've read who seems to have good taste in food, and the ability to write) wandered around the room talking to people. Once when he was at our table Lynn cut him off when he started telling Angela how naan [Indian bread] is made. I thought it was hilarious, but I felt sorry for the guy at the same time. At the end of the night we were the last couple he spoke with. Tom can come off as very pompous in his writing, but he was very nice in person. I was surprised to learn that in all the years he's been a food critic he's never burnt out on food. I love food, but I don't think I'd want to make a career of it.
The Reveillon dinner was a great experience, but not because of the food (although it was one of the better meals of the entire trip), but because of the company. I'm glad Lynn talked me out of going to some other restaurant instead.
After dinner we stopped at the bar in the JW Marriott (formally the Meridian) and smoked cigars. I had a good time.
We didn't wake up very late, for once, so we stayed in until lunch time to make up for it.
We had lunch at Lemon Grass Cafe inside the International House hotel. Lynn had a chicken curry soup, the soup of the day, while I had a crawfish cake with Asian slaw. The soup had a good flavor, but it was one dimensional; I liked the complex flavors of the Thai soup at Marisol better. Lynn liked the soup, but she ultimately felt the same. The crawfish cake tasted pretty decent, but it was much better with the mustard sauce that it was served with. The Asian slaw had a fresh flavor that I totally enjoyed.
We both had salads for our entrees; I had seared scallops with a sesame vinaigrette and Lynn had seared yellow fin tuna with a mustard-soy vinaigrette. My scallops had a good flavor, but they weren't seared. The salad dressing was tasty, but not tasty enough for me to want to finish all the scallops on the plate. Lynn's tuna was almost well done (which is more cooked than I like tuna), and actually quite tasteless except for the peppercorns on the fish. There was also very little vinaigrette on the salad so I never got a real chance to taste it. I hated Lynn's salad so that meant she had to think it was good. (Have you sensed the theme yet?)
We ended up getting a dessert of white and dark chocolate mousse and a couple of orders of hot jasmine tea. The mousses were light, fluffy, chocolately (without the nasty flavor of the white chocolate mousse at Lee Circle Restaurant), and all around pretty damn good. Our only complaint was that the mousses had just a little bit of grittiness to them, but it wasn't much of a problem. The jasmine tea was actually good with the dessert; it had a complimentary flavor and the hot tea helped cleanse the richness from the palate.
After lunch we went to Magazine Street and got some jewelry for Lynn, and some cigars for me. We then made our way to Saint Charles for a haunted history tour of the Garden District. The walking tour was entertaining, but I thought the historical walking tours I've taken of the Garden District were much better (the ones that leave from Igor's Lounge, which are run by a different company). Those tours seemed more like fact than hearsay and ghost stories. Lynn enjoyed the tour so I was happy. We both hated our tour guide constantly plugging the other tours he was leading though.
We took the Saint Charles streetcar back to the hotel. We had a little difficulty deciding were to have dinner, but we eventually chose Irene's Cuisine.
We got to Irene's and were seated at a cramped bar with a piano player. The piano player started playing music from silent movies so Lynn was impressed by his repertoire and had to tip the guy. I had an Abita "Amber", and it was good, but I liked their "Turbodog" better.
Three of the appetizers sounded really good, but we narrowed it down to two: the oysters Irene (oysters baked with romano and pancetta) and the crab au gratin (which was a special of the night). The crab au gratin had a rich flavor of butter and a little cheese along with a slight pepper kick. It was delicious, and Lynn cleaned out the dish it came in. The oysters Irene tasted like its components never seemed to meld; they were decent, but not something I would order again. While we were eating our appetizers our waiter brought out what they called bruschetta, which was tomato and some white cheese baked on garlic toast. It wasn't bad.
There was an extremely long wait for our entrees. I had ordered the rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and port reduction sauce, and I think that's what was taking so long. I would have asked our waiter, but he wasn't around. The lamb was worth the wait though; the flavor and the preparation were almost perfect. The only rack of lamb that I've had that was better was at Cafe ah PWAH in Gilbert. The port reduction was great too, and even though garlic mashed potatoes have become a cliche the potatoes were perfectly executed.
Lynn had a deep fried soft shell crab with pasta and a parmesan-crawfish sauce. Lynn didn't like her dish, partially because the soft shell crab after the crab au gratin was too much crab, and she said it tasted they put some sort of dry herbs on the pasta that were still dry when she ate it. I tried the crab and it had a salty flavor that went very well with the sauce. Even though the sauce had a good flavor it was thinner than we both expected.
There were a couple of desserts that looked good to us, but we had to go for the flashy classic that neither one of us had had before, the baked Alaska. It came to us in a big fireball, and we were both unsure about whether we should blow it out, or let it burn out. I let Lynn make several comical attempts at blowing it out and then helped her. The baked Alaska wasn't a whole cake, but only a slice with the baked meringue on top. The dessert was tastier than I expected, with everything contributing to the flavor. The only thing I didn't like about the dessert was the liqueur (which fed the flames) was still highly alcoholic, which was probably because we didn't let it burn out on its own. Our fault for not asking, but our first baked Alaska experience was a good one.
We left Irene's and we were going to go find some music to listen to when the piano player from Irene's bar came out to smoke. Lynn wanted to tell him she liked his playing, and when she did he started talking to us. He had a French accent, and he had an interesting way of speaking too. Lynn spoke to him in French, and he responded (in English) that her French was very good, and continued to speak English for the rest of the conversation. When he found out that we were from Phoenix he told he had been to Phoenix before and said, "I get out of the pool and play miniature golf. I know you!" He also said, "The police in Sun City bust the old people making love in the back of their cars. There is hope! I love it!" When he found out we were looking for music he directed us to a couple of different places, including one through "boys town" [the gay part of the French Quarter]. The guy was very fun to talk to, but we never got his name.
We headed to the Faubourg Marigny to check out the music scene again (hoping it was better than Tuesday night). At some places the bands were done for the night while at other places they were just getting started. I heard an enthusiastic racket coming from The Spotted Cat so we caught the end of some unnamed band's set. The venue was small, and Lynn's amaretto sour was very weak, but the place had spirit (probably due to the spirited band). What I found interesting about the band was that one band member was French, one English, and one from Israel. Very diplomatic! The next band played some upbeat jazz, but Lynn got tired of listening to it. We left, and I was hoping to go to Preservation Hall or Funky Butt (recommended by the piano player), but Lynn was through with music for the night. I was pretty pissed with her because I was up for another couple of hours of music.
We woke up early Friday morning, but we had to because the check out time at the hotel was 10. I regretted not getting to talk to Sam more because she seemed pretty cool, and was definitely an eccentric local (there seems to be a requirement that if you live in or near the Quarter that you must be eccentric), but the design of the hotel allowed entrance without passing the front desk. I know, I'm a bad person because I didn't talk to someone I'm sure I would have enjoyed talking to just because it wasn't convenient.
We took a cab to The Fairmont, where I had a reservation for our last night. Normally I don't want to stay at large hotels, but I remembered The Fairmont from previous trips when I saw the amazing Christmas decorations in their lobby when I'd take the Super Shuttle from the airport, and I thought it would be a nice experience for our last night in New Orleans. When we walked into The Fairmont the decorations weren't any less impressive up close. The entire lobby ceiling was covered with angel hair, white Christmas lights, and Christmas ornaments, and the lobby was lined with Christmas trees. We were able to check in immediately so I was pretty happy.
We got settled into the room, and then left for the Quarter. A cold front came into New Orleans the night before so it was very cold, and we had to be bundled up. Last year I had asked Michael (one of the guys at the front desk of the Olivier House) where to find good pastries and he told me about a place by Jackson Square that I never found due to time constraints. Today we walked down Chatres, and I thought I found the place. We stopped there (La Marquise) for a filled croissant. The croissant were pretty bad, more like bread than a croissant. We walked around and took some pictures afterward.
I had a difficult time deciding on lunch, but settled on Bayona. Lynn started with their hot cider, which was hot cider spiced with rum and garnished with a lemon spiked with cloves. The flavor was delicious and quite unique.
We had an appetizer of goat cheese crouton with wild mushrooms in madeira cream sauce. What a kick ass appetizer! The saltiness of the goat cheese worked very well with the richness of the sauce and meatiness of the mushrooms. There wasn't anything left on the plate when we were finished with it.
We then had a couple of soups. I had a cup of the soup de poisson [fish soup] and Lynn had a cup of the famed cream of roasted garlic soup. I'd never had fish soup before so I was surprised by how fishy this one smelt. We could both smell it before it arrived at the table. It tasted pretty fishy too. I think there were some crawfish shells in my soup stock (which would explain the orange-red color of the soup). The garlic soup was much better, with a mellow garlic flavor, but it needed something else to give some contrast to the flavor. Lynn liked the soup more than I did. The waiter noticed I had only eaten a couple of spoonfuls of my soup and took it off the bill. I didn't want him to do that, but I wasn't about to tell him not to either. I did let him know it was completely unnecessary though.
My entree was sauteed shrimp with Spanish rice and chorizo, and Lynn had a salad with mixed greens, bacon, goat cheese, roasted tomato, and a creamy basil vinaigrette. The sauteed shrimp were ok; not nearly as good as their grilled shrimp. The Spanish rice was amazing, and I could have eaten an entire plate full of the stuff. Lynn's salad was pretty standard stuff, even the basil vinaigrette (which I had seen on a couple of local menus). It was tasty, and Lynn really liked it.
There were three desserts that sounded good, but Lynn wasn't even in the mood for one dessert. I talked her into a dessert though. I had the apple-rosemary clafoutis [corn cake] with sour cream sorbet while Lynn had the 5 spice delice with prune compote. My dessert had a mild, slightly effervescent flavor that was unique and delicious. I would have never known there was rosemary in the dessert if it wasn't in the description, but it did add a certain bit of freshness to the dish. I loved it, and the recommended Riesling pairing went well with it too. The sour cream sorbet didn't taste as odd as I thought it sounded, and the flavor added creaminess to the dessert. The delice really did taste of 5 spice so I didn't like it at all. Lynn liked the smooth texture, flavor, and even the plum compote (and Lynn hates plums).
Even though I enjoyed my lunch at Bayona I think this is my last lunch there because the menu doesn't speak to me. It's just not my kind of food. [Editing this eight months after I originally wrote it, I've changed my mind and I'd eat at Bayona again. It's the classic French bits at Bayona that don't appeal to me, and our two weeks in France after this trip didn't change that, but I'm still willing to try it. Lynn thinks Bayona would make a good "appetizers only" meal, and maybe she's right. Only one way to find out.]
After lunch we went to the historic Beauregard-Keyes House for a tour. The tour guide was very good, and it was an interesting tour. Lynn even pissed off some Southern lady ("Daughters of the Confederacy") because when the tour guide said the phrase "war of Northern aggression" Lynn corrected him with "war of Southern aggression". The tour guide didn't mind, and even traded quips with Lynn throughout the rest of the tour.
The tour ended in the gift shop, and I saw an interesting book about Mardi Gras floats ["Mardi Gras Treasures: Float Designs of the Golden Age"]. I decided I'd buy the book, and when I flipped to the back cover I saw a picture of the author. The day before I had seen some guy on the street that I thought looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out who he was. Some woman started talking to the guy (I took it he didn't know her even though she seemed to know him), and she ended up going into his place. Lynn and I had an interesting time trying to figure out what the situation was we had witnessed (and we came up with all sorts of salicious things). The guy was the author of the book Mardi Gras float book! I recognized him because a few years earlier I had bought a book about Mardi Gras invitations ["Mardi Gras Treasures: Invitations of the Golden Age"], and he was the author of that book too. Our mystery was solved because the lady on the street must have recognized him and said something to him.
Lynn also got a book about the house, and as we were leaving the tour guide slipped us a book by Frances Keyes and told us, "That's what we call lagniappe." I guess he did have a good time challanging and being challanged by Lynn. Too bad we never got his name.
We got some Leonidas chocolate from Grenier y Chocolat because I actually remembered earlier than 30 minutes before I had to leave that I wanted some for ourselves, and as presents. We had some time so we went to the Cabildo [the state history museum], and stayed for the hour they were open. Some of the stories of Indian and slave rebellions, and the fall of New Orleans during the Civil War, were interesting and made the Cabildo worth the money spent for me.
We returned back the hotel and got dressed for dinner. Where to eat dinner was a tough decision for us. There were at least four different restaurants I wanted to eat at, and we wanted to go back to NOLA for our final dinner, but we didn't know if Chef Neal was still on vacation and didn't want to be there if he wasn't there. I basically flipped a coin (you know, one of those four sided ones) and chose K-Paul's. It was Friday and we didn't have reservations so it was a pretty good choice because we didn't have to wait very long to get a table.
There were too many appetizers that looked good so I ordered four appetizers and only one entree to split between the two of us. I had the waiter time everything so we had four courses (two appetizers, two appetizers, one salad, and the main course).
The first course was gumbo and jambalaya. The gumbo had a nice "dark" flavor, but it wasn't spicy enough or thick enough for me. Lynn liked the gumbo. The jambalaya was brilliant! The picante sauce served with the jambalaya was sweet, spicy, and savory all at the same time without any of the flavors clashing. Lynn said the picante sauce reminded her of the picante sauce her cajun uncle used to make. Can you get a higher compliment than that? I would go back to K-Paul's just for the jambalaya alone.
The second course was the four cheese sausage and the fried green tomatoes with shrimp and mushrooms in a butter based sauce. The four cheese sausage had an odd flavor and the creole mustard sauce didn't taste like mustard. If the sauce actually tasted like mustard I think it would have made the sausage taste better. The fried green tomatoes didn't have much flavor, and the batter was too thick. The shrimp were ok, but the redeeming part of the appetizer was the mushrooms; they weren't as good as Bayona or Hunt Room Grill, but they were tasty. Mushrooms seemed to be the star ingredient of the trip, and I think I've enjoyed too many mushroom dishes to say I don't like mushrooms anymore.
The third course was a caesar salad with a homemade caesar dressing. The dressing was too oily so Lynn wouldn't eat it. I didn't mind the oiliness too much, but it was by no means a good caesar salad.
Our forth course was the blackened beef tenderloins with mashed potatoes and "debris" sauce. I finally found a preparation that I like for beef tenderloin, blackening; the flavor actually stays on the beef. The debris sauce had a thick flavor, like pot roast, which gave the tenderloin an even beefier flavor. The combination was brilliant. Lynn hated the mashed potatoes, and I had to agree that the potatoes needed help. That help was the debris sauce. Even though we split the entree we were too stuffed to finish it, and we skipped dessert.
We hurried back to the hotel as quickly as we could because of how cold it was.
We woke up late, and left the hotel to get some snacks for the plane trip. Lynn wanted to get some beignets from Cafe du Monde before we left, but the to go line was longer than we had time for so it was not to be. Instead we picked up some stuff from The Croissant d'Or (which we had spotted when we were at the Beauregard-Keyes House). The pastries looked exactly like the ones from La Marquise, and the lady behind the counter looked like she was related to the lady at La Marquise, so I didn't expect much. The plain croissants were decent, but the filled croissant was exactly the same.
We took a taxi to the airport and our taxi driver, a local, actually liked living in New Orleans (unlike our first taxi driver).
While in the airport I saw a booth called West Beignet and got Lynn some beignets. They were terrible little wads of floury tasting dough. I don't need to be reminded not to do that again.
This trip was Lynn's first time on a city bus or street car. She wasn't keen on the idea, but she didn't have a choice because I use public transit wherever I can when I'm on a trip because I hate paying for taxis.
The $10 replacement insoles I got for my shoes worked so well that my feet were hardly sore the entire trip, and we did a lot of walking.
All the football fans we met were ex-Saints fans who couldn't take the disappointment anymore. They were all pretty much Louisiana State University (LSU) fans now.
Category |
Lynn's Pick(s) |
Mario's Pick(s) |
|---|---|---|
Best Appetizer |
Fondue for 2 - Marisol Crab au gratin - Irene's Cuisine |
Wasabi taco - NOLA Jambalaya - K-Paul's |
Worst Appetizer |
4 cheese sausage - K-Paul's |
Duck with butternut squash - NOLA |
Best Soup |
Crab and mirliton bisque - Lee Circle Restaurant |
Crab and mirliton bisque - Lee Circle Restaurant Thai coconut-crab soup - Marisol |
Worst Soup |
Cheddar-Broccoli - Mr. B's Bistro |
Cuban black bean - Marisol Soup de poisson - Bayona Butternut squash - Bacco |
Best Salad |
Bacco Bayona |
Bacco |
Worst Salad |
Ceaser salad - K-Paul's |
Dinner salad - Lee Circle Restaurant |
Best Side Dish |
Haricot vert & lobster salad - Marisol Chorizo Spanish rice - Bayona |
Haricot vert & lobster salad - Marisol Chorizo Spanish rice - Bayona Garlic mashed potatoes - Irene's |
Worst Side Dish |
Greens - Lee Circle Restaurant Spoonbread - Lee Circle Restaurant |
Herbed polenta - Lee Circle Restaurant |
Best Entree |
Beef tenderloin with bacon and roasted rutabaga - NOLA Chicken stracci - Bacco |
Rack of lamb - Irene's Cuisine Blacked tenderloin with "debris" sauce - K-Paul's |
Worst Entree |
Walnut crusted venison - Hunt Room Grill |
Grilled swordfish - NOLA |
Best Dessert |
Hot chocolate cake - Marisol Root beer marble cake - NOLA |
Hot chocolate cake - Marisol Apple-rosemary clafoutis with sour cream sorbet - Bayona |
Worst Dessert |
White chocolate mousse - Lee Circle Restaurant |
Chocolate cupcake - Mr. B's Bistro Chocolate 5 spice delice - Bayona |
Best Lunch |
Bacco Bennachin |
Bacco Bayona |
Worst Lunch |
Mr B's Bistro |
Mr B's Bistro |
Best Dinner |
Marisol |
Marisol Horinoya |
Worst Dinner |
K-Paul's |
K-Paul's |
Best Atmosphere |
Marisol Irene's |
Marisol |
Worst Atmosphere |
K-Paul's |
N/A - I didn't mind the atmosphere at any restaurant |
Best Service |
Bacco |
Bacco |
Worst Service |
Mr. B's Bistro Lee Circle Restaurant |
Mr. B's Bistro Lee Circle Restaurant |
Best Meal Experience |
The Reveillon dinner at Hunt Club Grill |
The Reveillon dinner at Hunt Club Grill |
Worst Meal Experience |
Puking at Mr. B's Bistro possibly due to food poisoning |
Experiencing possible symptoms of food poisoning that I highly suspect came from Mr. B's Bistro |
Best Trip Experience |
Talking to the French piano player at Irene's Talking to the Southern tour guide at the Beauregard House |
Talking to the French piano player at Irene's Corset shopping |
Worst Trip Experience |
Cigarette smoke seeping into hotel room at Plaza Suite Hotel and the complete lack of natural light in the same hotel room |
Lynn doing her best to avoid going to bars to listen to music with me |
Honorable Mention: the shrimp remoulade salad at Joey-K's; Lynn's beef dish at Bennachin (I don't remember its name); all the food at ACME oyster house; the baked Alaska at Irene's Cuisine; the smoked duck appetizer, salad, and hazelnut creme brulee at Hunt Room Grill; the goat cheese crouton at Bayona; the Christmas decorations in the lobby of the Fairmont; the key lime semifreddo at Bacco; the gumbo at K-Paul's (Lynn's honorable mention, I disagree); the biscuits at K-Paul's; the pork rillettes amuse at Lee Circle Restaurant; the shrimp and oyster in butter sauce at Hunt Room Grill; the classic brie filled puff pastry with cherries and walnut amuse at NOLA; the tour of the Beauregard-Keyes House; the amaretto sour at Marisol; the hot cider at Bayona; and Abita "Turbodog" beer.
Wow that's a lot of stuff.
The camera I used was a Canon Powershot G2 digital camera, which is still a very cool camera. Some minor touch ups were done in Photoshop. (I'm sure the touch ups could have been done better, but I still lack the patience to examine every photo, so you get what you get.) When I took the pictures I really liked them, but after looking at them a little more critically I decided they are only ok. I hope you think they're better than ok though.
Anyway, you know the rest: the pictures are copyright by me, and unauthorized use is prohibited.
