Skip to main content

Crawfish and Jambalaya


I am in the great city of New Orleans this weekend with Bruce who is attending a trade show in town.  I am so glad I was able to tag along since I have never been here and it certainly is a one-of-a-kind experience!  As usual, we got in fairly late last night, dumped our bags off at the hotel and made a bee-line to Bourbon Street.


It's not Mardi Gras yet but people sure were in the spirit for it!  It was crazy.  It was late for us but early for the folks on Bourbon Street. 


Alcohol is allowed on the streets here so everyone is walking around with the beverage of their choice - lots of daiquiris, hurricanes and other rum concoctions in fish bowls. It made Vegas seem tame.


 Music was playing so loudly in each venture you couldn't tell which music was coming from which place but they had solicitors outside each club enticing you to come to their place.  I liked the horse patrol.

Traffic is closed off on Bourbon Street every night, thank goodness, making a "block party" feel.  But all the streets are so narrow and tight in the French Quarter, I would not want to drive.  There is so much to look at and take in. 

Voodoo is popular here which is a religion from Africa that came from the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking Africian Americans.  There are so many mystical things about New Orleans like Voodoo and their above ground cemeteries (which I haven't seen yet) because of the water table being only a few feet below.  It was another southern port for slavery so lots of history about that, too.  And don't forget the birth place of jazz!

You can even have a jazz funeral.



You are constantly reminded of the birthplace of jazz where ever you go around town.




 or used in art deco in restaurants or shops.



There is so much to see and learn here. Two days isn't going to scratch the surface! I did see the statue of Joan of Arc today, though. (the first photo above) The people of France gave the golden bronze statue to the city of New Orleans in 1972. The inscription on the pedestal reads "JOAN OF ARC, MAID OF ORLEANS 1412-1431 GIFT OF THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE. The statue is a beacon not only for the people of New Orleans but for all those who are suffering and struggling to regain their lives.  I thought it was a really neat statue, in the heart of the French Market, which is my favorite area so far...


This is also near Jackson Square which is the center of the French Quarter and the most photographed spots.

Jackson Square is a beautiful park with a statue of Andrew Jackson and flanked by beautiful buildings all around it like the St. Louis Cathedral


the oldest active Catholic cathedral in the country.

I thought this was an interesting sign especially after last night...


Quiet?  Are they kidding?  There is a musician on every street corner playing in this town and nighttime is far from quiet.  The building to its right of the cathedral is part of the Louisiana State Museum where the Louisiana Purchase took place in 1803.


It looks like Disneyland, doesn't it?  It's all so gorgeous, its hard to believe this French Quarter is real life.

Until this weekend, all I'd ever experienced of New Orleans was the New Orleans Square in Disneyland.  Seriously.  We lived in Orange County when I was in junior high and high school and we would go to Disneyland all the time. My sister worked at the Blue Bayou so we always got free passes into Disneyland.  I admit that Disneyland did a good job copying the real thing.  The main difference is that it's actually miles and miles long and it just keeps going endlessly.

I had a full agenda today of sightseeing but I didn't get very far because the shopping was incredible.  I kept stopping to look inside all the quaint shops.  I love this cute French store front.

I mean, even the guy washing the windows looked French. Look how cute he looked.  Is this for real or am I still in Disneyland?


A shop just for chandeliers.  Gorgeous!


I want to stay here next time…


I love these rubber boots but only so much room in my luggage.  Everything Mardi Gras style in New Orleans.


 You can only eat so much in two days but we've already had our crawfish and jambalaya, two staples of New Orleans.  Last night we ordered a pasta version of jambalaya with shrimp, crawfish, chicken and tasso (spicy ham) sauteed together with sweet peppers and onions then tossed with linguini.  It was delicious and hit the spot for a late night dinner.

The crawfish dish was called Crawfish Etouffee made with crawfish tails stewed in seafood broth with dark roux with creole seasonings.  Again, it really hit the spot


along with a couple of local brews from the Crescent City Brewhouse which our sixth sense led us to last night.  


Always tastes good after a long day of traveling.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides a plan for responsible eating that covers a no-nonsense rundown on
Post a Comment
Read more

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friends lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, there was a big party g
2 comments
Read more

Spinach Stuffed Cod

Last night, I was in the mood for a healthy dinner so decided to experiment with a recipe I found from a blog called Creative in My Kitchen . Lauren and Ari brought us French cookies back from their trip to Paris and I basically inhaled them. They were so good! We were cat-sitting their two cats while they were gone. They liked lounging in the strangest places...  I found one of their toys while I was cleaning so Lauren stopped by last night to pick it up on her way home from work. I was experimenting with this recipe which originally called for chicken breast but I thought it sounded good to substitute fish instead since I'm always looking for good fish recipes. We all thought it was totally delicious. When I went to the grocery store, they had Icelandic cod on sale so I bought about 2 pounds of that. You could use any white fish for this recipe such as:                                                                   true cod or other cod rockfish halibut had
Post a Comment
Read more