Can you tell by this photo that I was in New Orleans again? I just got back last night and we had another great time in the wonderful Crescent city. Bruce had another trade show in New Orleans so some of my family decided to join in on the fun.
Three of my sisters came, one husband and a nephew and niece. Doesn't my sister have a beautiful family? (Her husband stayed home but he's also a cutie.)
She's the doting mom when she's around her kids...like we all are. We rented a vacation rental in the Garden District that was a gorgeous place, complete with a chandelier.
We could walk to many stores, shops, restaurants and even Audubon Park. We rented two bikes so we all had opportunities to ride around the area and enjoy the neighborhood.
The first night we had take-out from Frankie and Johnny's that has been a neighborhood restaurant here since 1942.
It was a great way to start our visit because this meal included a New Orleans staple of crawfish
char-grilled oysters
Southern fried chicken
red beans and rice, potato salad, green beans and we also made a salad. Claire, my niece, made a dish called Creamy Cajun Shrimp Pasta with Sausage that I plan to post here because it was so delicious with a perfect amount of spiciness.
None of us really knew how to eat the crawfish but eventually we figured out that the meat was in the tail. They seem to be a lot of work to eat but I know it is a super popular food here so we tried our best. The oysters were good, but they were so seasoned you hardly could taste the oysters, which may be a good thing for some people. We have oysters here in Seattle and I love them. I like mine less seasoned and more oyster-flavor. The fried chicken was great, love southern fried chicken and Claire's dish was the best, which is why I MUST post the recipe. A great first meal in New Orleans.
The next morning we had brunch at Brennan's, a true eating experience.
Everything is superb here; the coffee - regular or with chicory
the decor
the service
the restrooms
and the food...oh my, the food. Their breakfast/brunch is taken as seriously as a decadent dinner so we started with drinks. I love their strawberry mimosas or Sparkling Strawberry. (Barbara got a Ramos Gin Fizz made with egg whites, appropriate for breakfast)
We ordered two appetizers. The first was a baked apple with oatmeal pecan raisin crumble, brown sugar glaze, and sweetened creme fraiche. We loved how they peeled off the skin leaving the ridges visible.
The second was grapefruit brûlée. Both were amazing. The grapefruit was not sour at all, almost tasted like grapefruit-flavored candy. The presentations were perfect, too, with the plates being complimentary to each item. Those were cherries on the grapefruit that just bursted with cherry-flavor. (They look like olives in the photo) The cream was a rosemary creme anglaise.
We all ordered egg dishes and I soon remembered from our last time at Brennan's that the egg dishes are all very rich. I loved mine, though. It was called Eggs Cardinal that was a crispy shrimp boudin, spinach, lobster cardinal with black truffle hollandaise
and Bruce got Eggs Benedict.
I also ordered a side of their creamy Georgia cheddar grits that just melt in your mouth. I just love cheese grits.
Where ever you go to eat in New Orleans, they bring you this white, puffy French bread. It's sort of weird, like a loaf of the 99 cents Albertson's french bread - even at Brennan's.
But at Brennan's, it was worth eating because the butter was so good!
We were trying to figure out why their butter was so good. We decided it was because it was a higher butter fat content with big salt crystals sprinkled on top.
And then dessert. You guessed it - Bananas Foster - made at our table.
Brennan invented the Bananas Foster dessert when they started a promotion called "Breakfast at Brennan's" in 1951 and their signature dessert really took off.
Brennan's also has an upper level for larger groups that is equally impressive and made for some good photo ops.
After breakfast, we hit the French Quarter and took in the sights
and listened to some music which is never far away.
Then we wandered into Prima Donna's Closet on Royal Street and the fun began.
You can't NOT love New Orleans apparel.
I ended up buying this sheer, embroidered cardigan that my sister said, "Oh My God, Sylvia! That looks perfect on you!" How could I resist? My sisters have done this to me before on a sister's weekend in Colorado. I ended up buying a pair of white rimmed, $250 Kate Spade sunglasses. I never regretted it, they were perfect for me and I had them for years. My sisters were right. When my sisters talk, I listen. Do I dare buy this $60 cardigan? I do... I noticed feather clips at the cash register and stuck one in my hair and it just topped off the outfit. Another, "OMG, Sylvia!" My sister ended up buying one for all 5 of the girls on this trip and that's how we all ended up wearing feathers in our hair the rest of the weekend.
Once I looked like this in my New Orleans apparel, people thought I worked there and I was asked questions by three different people. The addition of adding just a couple key items to my outfit was remarkable! I needed to get out of there fast. But I liked this store and I liked their motto.
There is nothing boring about New Orleans. That's why I love it there so much. People love life and making the most of it. New Orleans will bring your inner-most creative and fun-loving self out into the open and it will feel so right and natural.
After all that shopping, we had to take a break at Cafe Amelie, another favorite spot.
They have the best mixologists here and I love watching them.
We took our drinks out to the garden and sat by the fountain and relaxed. I had my favorite, Pimm's Cup.
That night we all wore our new feathers in our hair and went to dinner at a neighborhood restaurant called Atchafalaya and don't ask me what it means...I don't work there!
It was nice because we got our own room and took our one and only group photo.
The rest of our time in New Orleans included a swamp tour, which I loved.
I thought the swamp was beautiful.
I liked all the little cabins or "camps", as they were called, along the swamp.
Some seemed more like shacks than cabins. Most had not been renovated since Hurricane Katrina.
We saw lots of wildlife on our tour including snakes, wild boar (or swamp pigs) and alligators.
Our tour guide fed the wild boar a hot dog from the boat.
I really enjoyed the swamp tour and seeing some natural habitat of Louisiana since I'd only seen it in movies.
After the swamp tour, we went to a place called Mahony's on Magazine St. for Po' Boys.
Po' Boys are a traditional sandwich from Louisiana that is usually fried seafood or sloppy meat served on that puffy French bread that they like here. It's actually really good bread because it has very crispy crust and soft, fluffy center.
I'm just not use to eating that much white bread. I mostly picked out the fixings in my po' boy and ate it that way. Magazine St. in the Garden District is a great place. It goes for miles of just wonderful restaurants and shops. Bruce and I walked back to the rental after dinner here and just kept admiring how charming this part of New Orleans was. But there are so many parts of New Orleans I love. I really love Audubon Park near our rental because we could ride our bikes there. It is around 350 acres of park that is just beautiful. We had lunch here during our last visit at the golf course clubhouse and we loved it then, too.
On Sunday, there was a concert in the park by the Tulane University orchestra that we just ran across while on bikes.
I also enjoyed spending some time in The Cabildo, the Louisiana State Museum. It is right next to the St. Louis Cathedral and use to be the Louisiana State Supreme Court but became a history museum in 1908.
There are two buildings on either side of the cathedral that are the museum. We went into the one that was about Hurricane Katrina and the history of Mardi Gras.
Now that I've been to New Orleans, I can see where all the flooding occurred and it seems even more unreal that such a thing could happen. The stories were just mind-boggling. As we drove out to the swamp tour, you could still see devastation in East New Orleans where it was hit hard. Some places just never recovered. Also, a lot of drivers we talked to when we took Lyft had stories about their lives from Katrina. At the museum, they had Fats Domino's piano. He lived in the 9th Ward that was hit the hardest and his piano was found like this:
He and his family were rescued but his whole house and all his personal memorabilia were destroyed. Houses and garage doors were marked like this one during the recovery period.
I'm so glad the people of New Orleans were able to bring back the spirit of this city. It shows how resilient and proud they are of their history and culture to make sure it continues. The Mardi Gras section was a little more uplifting. I had no idea it has been going on since 1699. The costumes were gorgeous.
Here is a float.
There are so many different ways they celebrate Mardi Gras like groups on horseback that ride around and dance on their horses.
I wonder if that's why we saw a couple of guys on their horses riding down the middle of the street one day. They were doing dressage (riding sideways) and yelling and waving. I wasn't sure what was going on but it was pretty unusual, for sure. But this is New Orleans, after all.
On my last day, I had beignets for breakfast and walked around the French Quarter one last time saying goodbye to New Orleans' until the next time I can return.
I found some nice music to listen to
and I even watched some filming of NCIS New Orleans on Royal Street. I don't think any of the stars were there because people would have been saying something. I don't watch that show so I don't know any of the characters but it was interesting to see what a big deal they were making of it.
Goodbye New Orleans, until next time. I will look forward to seeing you again.
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