Hey everybody!
James and I successfully got married (!!!) and have returned from our
mini road trip honeymoon. So what’s the next step? Start planning for our REAL honeymoon,
of course!
When it came to
selecting a place to go for our honeymoon, it was no contest: New Orleans,
baby! James and I first went to New Orleans on a jazz band trip in January
2008. I immediately fell in love with New Orleans, and within a day of our
arrival, I was already plotting a return trip. Thanks to an internship at the
New Orleans Museum of Art, I made it back to New Orleans in September 2009 and
stayed there until mid-December. I was dirt poor and lived in a shed in
someone’s backyard (I promise, that story is coming), but I had an amazing
time. My acute lack of funding forced me to find cheap sources of
entertainment, so I spent a great deal of time exploring the French Quarter on
foot. I listened to jazz music in Jackson Square, I took photos of wrought iron
gates, and I read books by the Mississippi River. Poverty has never been so enjoyable.
Sadly, my lack
of money meant that I had a tougher time experiencing (arguably) the best part
of New Orleans: the food. My meals were made up predominantly of hot dogs,
eggs, and bread (and macaroni and cheese if I had gotten extra hours at work). My
salvation came in the form of my parents. Mom visited me in New Orleans just
before Thanksgiving, and Dad flew down to keep me company on the long drive
back to the Midwest. Both of my parents were up for New Orleans culinary
adventures, and they were more than happy to feed me while they were there.
(Yes, I felt like a loser – 22 years old and I could barely afford McDonald’s –
but it was all part of the experience. I wouldn’t give up my time in New
Orleans for anything.) So it was through the grace of Mom and Dad that I was
able to eat at these glorious places, and for that, I will be forever grateful.
Fast forward four
years. It was time to select a honeymoon destination, and I didn’t hesitate to
suggest (and by “suggest,” I mean “demand”) New Orleans. James didn’t argue: he
loves good food, and he loves good jazz, and what better place to get both? Plus,
New Orleans has the perfect amount of romance for me. As a distinctly
un-romantic person (who just married a VERY romantic person), I realize that
I’m going to have to deal with a bit of romance on my honeymoon, and New
Orleans is just right. Imagine the sound of a lonesome trumpet wafting through
a rainy night in the French Quarter. The moonlight reflects off the Mississippi
River as you sip your café au lait and watch the riverboats go by. With James
by my side, I can think of nothing more romantic… and if the romance starts to
be too much for me, I know that Bourbon Street is just around the corner.
James and I
opted to take our honeymoon a few months after our wedding – mostly because
going to New Orleans at the end of July sounded like a terrible idea. We’re
going at the end of December: a perfect time to escape Midwestern weather AND
we’ll get to celebrate New Year’s in New Orleans. How cool is that?
I absolutely
cannot wait to take James to my old stomping grounds, but I really can’t wait
to give him a grand tour of all my favorite food places. In anticipation of our
New Orleans honeymoon, I give you my top ten New Orleans eateries!
Café du Monde
Café du Monde is
a New Orleans institution. It’s a little café in the French Quarter, and it’s
been there since 1862. Café du Monde is open 24 hours a day, and it specializes
in café au lait and beignets. Café au lait is simply coffee and milk, which you
can get anywhere. The Café du Monde version adds chicory, which gives your café
au lait a pleasantly bitter taste and matches perfectly with the sweetness of
the beignets. And what are beignets? Simply put, they are heavenly. Beignets
are French doughnuts heaped with powdered sugar. Café du Monde makes them fresh
and sells them in threes, and I could eat them every day of my life and never
get sick of them. Café du Monde was about the only treat I could afford during
my internship days, so I savored each and every bite.
I took both Mom and Dad
there – Mom (who would rather have an extra helping of vegetables than dessert)
thought they were pretty good, but Dad took one bite of his beignet and was
already wondering when we’d be coming back.
Clover Grill
During the 2008
jazz trip, we came across the Clover Grill completely by accident. James, our
friend Mike, and I were wandering around the French Quarter, looking for
something relatively inexpensive for dinner, and the Clover Grill looked the
part. It was a classic greasy spoon: I don’t remember what James and Mike got,
but I know I got an omelette that was so greasy I could see right through it. I
also remember the three of us smelling like greasy diner for the rest of the
night. Even with these less-than-savory memories, I took Dad to the Clover
Grill on our last night in New Orleans. I took my chances with the omelette
again, but this time, I really paid attention: they whipped the eggs up with a
malt machine, and they were the fluffiest eggs that I’d ever had (and a lot
less greasy than I remembered).
Dad got a hubcap burger: it was grilled
underneath an American (that part was important) hubcap.
What can I say? The
place has character.
 |
| Mom skipped the coffee and went right for the Coke. |
 |
| That is the face of pure joy. |
 |
| But still pretty greasy. |
Drago’s
Disclaimer: I’ve
never actually eaten at Drago’s. They made my list because of a wonderful
little event called the Po Boy Festival. A po boy is a sandwich made of
hollowed out French bread and filled with the entrée of your choosing: shrimp,
roast beef, meatballs, etc. Mom arrived in New Orleans just in time for the Po
Boy Festival, so that’s what we did on her first full day there. We were met by
a sea of food booths, and our first stop was Drago’s chargrilled oyster booth.
I wasn’t convinced: oysters? Disgusting. Mom, on the other hand, persuaded me
to try them, and I have never been more wrong. The oysters were all cooked over
this giant open grill, and they were charred to perfection. They had this
lovely garlic butter sauce all over them, and when you dipped them in lemon
juice, it was simply amazing.
 |
| Just LOOK at those oysters! |
VooDoo BBQ
When Mom came to
New Orleans, we stayed in the most adorable little inn called the Prytania Park
Hotel. It was right on the street car line, so Mom and I took the street car
for most of our adventures. The night she arrived, Mom and I were looking for
somewhere to eat that wasn’t too far away from our hotel. Enter VooDoo BBQ. It
was approximately one block away from our hotel, and who can resist a
restaurant with a name like VooDoo BBQ? We ordered barbecue shrimp (not what
you think: it’s shrimp sautéed in white wine, butter, and garlic, along with a
few choice seasonings) and this crazy stuff called corn pudding. It was SO GOOD
– good enough that we went back a second time before Mom left. I took Dad
there, too, but since he’s not big on seafood, we had ribs. They were
spectacular.
mysterious pizza place
Like I said, Mom
and I spent a lot of our time riding the street car here and there. It was
wonderfully convenient (have you ever tried to park in the French Quarter? It
SUCKS) and pretty cheap. A few times, we just rode it to the end of the line
just to see where it went (answer: some super scary neighborhoods). On one of
these journeys, we stumbled across a little pizza place and decided to eat
there. The pizza was some of the best I’d ever tasted (it was LOADED with
cheese), and there were some outstanding garlic breadsticks – plus, they had
unlimited Dr Pepper, which gave them great marks in Mom’s book. The interior
was brightly colored and inviting, and the owner was incredibly nice. He gave
me a coupon for free breadsticks upon my next visit, so I brought Dad there.
But I can’t for the life of me remember what this place was called. James and I
will probably just have to ride the street car to the end of the line and hope
that it takes us back to the mysterious (and delicious) pizza place. (A fair amount of Google searching has led me to believe that this pizza place is called Reginelli's Pizzeria, but no guarantees.)
Central Grocery
Before Mom came
to New Orleans, she did her research. One of her coworkers had spent some time
in New Orleans, and she asked him for some recommendations – namely, of where
to eat. This coworker suggested that we try a muffuletta sandwich from Central Grocery.
A muffuletta is a flat-ish loaf of bread with ham, salami, mozzarella,
provolone, and this bizarre olive salad. It ended up being delicious (even
though I totally cheated and picked the olive salad off my sandwich).
Apparently, you can get muffulettas all over the city, but Central Grocery has
the best. It’s a really neat little place: it’s a hole-in-the-wall that you can
easily miss if you’re not looking for it, and they sell some truly bizarre
foodstuff there (I recall seeing a jar of octopus tentacles for sale). But they
can make a mean muffuletta.
Bud's Broiler
I only ate at Bud's Broiler once, but it was certainly memorable. It was in a dumpy little strip mall, and a few of my friends took me there late at night. It seemed to be THE place to go after you’re tired of
bar-hopping, as the place was packed to the gills. Everything was super greasy (which was to be expected from the name), but my hot dog was probably the
best hot dog I’ve ever had. They cut it into strips and served it on a hamburger
bun – plus, it had charred grill marks on it, which is top notch in my book.
This place scored additional points with the prices: I don’t remember how much
my hot dog cost, but it was cheap enough that I could buy it without wincing
(everything I bought made me wince back then). Even poor girls like me need a fast food hot dog every now and again.
 |
| Dad and I went, too! |
Landry’s
Honestly, it
wasn’t the food that made this place memorable. Mom and I went there and got
oysters, but we got them after our chargrilled Po Boy Festival oysters, so
nothing was going to live up to those. Landry’s was at the end of a pier out
onto Lake Pontchartrain, so it almost looks like you are floating on the water
as you eat your seafood. Lake Pontchartrain is massive, so if you look in the
right direction, it’s as though you are out to sea. Mom and I went at night, so
we could see the lights of boats reflecting off the surface of the lake. It was
a GREAT view.
drive-through daiquiri stands
You read that
correctly: drive-through daiquiri stands. While these are not technically restaurants,
I feel like they deserve a mention in my New Orleans food blog as they are an
essential part of the New Orleans experience. So you drive through these
daiquiri stands just like your regular fast food restaurant: you make your
choice off a menu, show your ID at the window, and pick up your daiquiri. But
isn’t driving around with a cup full of daiquiri considered an open container?
Not unless you put the straw through the plastic lid. Only in New Orleans, my
friends.
-----
If you ever go
to New Orleans – and I hope you do – make sure to stop by one or more of these
places. Whether you have beignets as you sit in the French Quarter or – if
you’re more adventurous – alligator leg in a Bourbon Street restaurant, it’s
all part of the experience. New Orleans is like no other place out there, I’m already counting the days until I’ll be reunited with my
favorite city!
No comments:
Post a Comment