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Archive for March 12, 2013

how to celebrate your birthday :)

check out beads on the cat!

check out beads on the cat!

I made the right call 🙂  It has been raining all day and I have been working since 6:30am…

Technically Sunday wasn’t my birthday but I decided I would do a swap and celebrate Sunday and work Tuesday so it felt like a special birthday day to me :).  It ended up being a truly wonderful birthday.  The whole trip really – but especially my last day in New Orleans.

It started when I met up with the new friend I had made on Thursday night (another lovely Southern gentleman even if he was originally born in the north :).  We went to a place called CafĂ© Beignet.  It’s something you will want to remember 😉   It’s at 334 Royal Street and is a charming European style cafĂ©.  But what is even more exciting is that apparently its beignets were featured on the Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate”.

http://www.cafebeignet.com/

The first time I went in I hadn’t yet learned about beignets so ended up with carrot cake.  But I read the Food Network advertising and thought I would have to go back to have a beignet.

By Sunday, I had already been to CafĂ© du Monde, another place you must go when you come to New Orleans.  CafĂ© du Monde is next to the French Market.  It is open 24/7 and all they serve are beignets and beverages.  It is apparently one of the most famous places in New Orleans and you will wait in line to buy donuts.  I remembered fondly my trip to Voodoo Donuts in Portland as I was standing in line


http://www.cafedumonde.com/

Having a beignet at Café du Monde is an experience and I would encourage everyone to do it once.  But the beignets at Café Beignet are much better!  And the line is shorter.

My friend had to catch his plane so I took him to see Jackson Square and the Mississippi en route back to his hotel.  By then I was a bit of an expert on what to see in the French Quarter and he had been in business meetings for most of his visit.  I then strolled around the Quarter a little more and tried to get some better photos for this blog!

looks like england :)

lafitte’s blacksmith shop bar

Eventually I got to Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar.  It’s one of the oldest bars in New Orleans and another stop you should make on your visit.   Apparently Jean Lafitte operated it as a blacksmith shop as a cover for his pirate enterprises.  Not quite Pirates of the Caribbean but….

http://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/Homepage.html

The drinks are the same as anywhere else but the ambience is special.  You can imagine you are drinking with pirates 🙂  I also went to Pat O’Brien’s because it’s very

a little old, a little new

a little old, a little new

famous but I would give it a miss.  Maybe the courtyard
 but there are lots of more charming places to check out.

I then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner – and sober up 😉  I planned to go to the Palace CafĂ© for dinner.  I am sure it is a fine place but it’s famous too and it seemed impossible to get a place to sit.

And serendipity kicked in again!  I was actually headed for K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen (which was recommended by the bartender at the restaurant I actually ate at so certainly worth checking out) but before I got there I spied something that looked like home 🙂

Generally I like to go with the local culture and not just do things I could do in Vancouver but supposedly this was one of the top 10 new restaurants in Louisiana in 2012.  And I thought it might be a nice change to have a meal without rice or beans on the plate.

It is called SoBou and is unlike anything else I saw while I was in New Orleans.  It’s a place for hipsters :).  My guidebook mentioned some spots for hipsters but I think she isn’t too familiar with what hipsters really do
  They would definitely be right at home at SoBou, which stands for South of Bourbon.  A little piece of hipster Manhattan in the heart of the French Quarter.

Definitely go to this place!  The bartender mixed me up a lovely cocktail.  Unfortunately I can’t remember what he called it – but it’s the kind of place you can trust the bartender to just make you a cocktail 🙂  And the food was divine!

I was a bit obsessed with crawfish due to a random conversation I had had with some locals on Friday.  I’m still not totally sure what a crawfish is and I know I need to eat more of them but I will be back in New Orleans :).  Apparently this is crawfish season so definitely look for some crawfish if you come in March.

They didn’t have any crawfish on the menu so I had to settle for a crawfish bisque with crawfish popcorn, which was divine!  And then I had some Gulf shrimp that had seen some mesquite to go with my apple and pear salad since I was craving some greens – and not collared ones.  It was an exquisite meal and a wonderful birthday present – happy birthday to me 😉

http://www.sobounola.com/

They didn’t have any music though and I wanted more jazz since it was my last night in town so I headed back to the Maison Bourbon where I had had a fleeting visit on Friday night.  Since it was Sunday, it wasn’t too crowded and I actually managed to score a seat at a table.

http://www.maisonbourbon.com/

The house band was playing and they were fantastic!  And they were playing the great jazz of the 50s with lots of solos and improvisation.  I had hit the jackpot.  There was only one small problem.  The ladies room was out of order.  So I decided it was time to find a place with a functioning restroom and went up at the break to buy a CD since the band was so good and I wanted to support them.

Jamil is a modern day Louis Armstrong.  He plays a mean trumpet, has a booming voice that doesn’t need a mike and is a showman with charm to spare.  I mentioned New Orleans was a birthday present to myself and he was determined I should stay for the last set so he could play “happy birthday”.  I told him about my ladies’ room problem.  So he got someone to escort me the ladies in the bar next door so that I didn’t have to leave.

http://www.jamilsharif.com/

It really is something to have “happy birthday” played by a jazz band!  I highly recommend it.  Apparently the Maison Bourbon is dedicated to the preservation of jazz.  It really felt like I had stumbled into a different era.  Since I was at a table all by myself, they asked if I would share with another couple.  It ended up the lady was from Switzerland and had been to New Orleans to hear jazz 40 years ago!

A lot had changed, for course, so I wrote down all my best recommendations for her to try and get a good experience of the music scene in New Orleans.  I didn’t want her to be a random tourist on Bourbon wondering if all had been lost
 it really hasn’t
 but you need to know where to look.

One of the most poignant moments during the performance was when Jamil and the band did “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  His voice is very close to Louis’ so you really feel like you are listening to the real thing.  I had to fight for it but it was the song we played to close my father’s funeral and I thought it was a great representation of his attitude toward life.  The last time I talked to him was on my birthday so, needless to say, my eyes were moist listening to the song, but in a good memories sort of way.

You would think that would be enough to make it a perfect birthday.  And that was almost the end
 I really wanted to hit the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone before I left town as it was one of the few things left on my list I hadn’t yet done.

we are in the south :)

we are in the south 🙂

But it was really late by then and it was Sunday night so when I first arrived it looked like the bar was closed.  But then I spied a side entrance that was still open and there were people sitting at the bar so I managed to order a shot of bourbon just before last call.

The Carousel Bar is pretty cool
 it actually rotates just like a carousel, so it’s not that you think the room is spinning – it actually is!

http://hotelmonteleone.com/dining-entertainment/

What a way to finish my birthday – a glass of bourbon on Bourbon Street at a spinning bar.  Made even more special because my wonderful 49th birthday in Portland courtesy of the US Air Force all began because I was drinking bourbon – and they were intrigued by my bourbon flight
 that story may make it onto the blog sometime


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artsy stuff, eating & drinking - well, travel stories

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winding my way to the mississippi…

Get ready!  There is going to be a lot to talk about
 why you haven’t actually heard anything from New Orleans.  I was busy trying to do everything on my list – once I managed to make one – in three days.  But I came pretty close 🙂  And definitely have lots of great tips for anyone travelling to the city.

The plan is to organize my thoughts a bit and group activities and stories together so it won’t be a play-by-play of every moment in New Orleans but the moments will get captured.

To start us off, I am going to commence at almost the beginning
 the first moment I took the trip seriously and tried to actually DO something in any event.  We will talk about the first night but, due to all the work commitments that extended right up until the moment I got on the plane, it was just an aimless stroll without any sort of plan.  But serendipity hit and it ended up being a wonderfully memorable evening!

I knew I had to get off Bourbon Street though and see something of the city.  My guidebook had recommended a steamboat trip on the Mississippi so I wandered into what I thought was an official tourism centre.  Not so much
 really just people trying to pitch you tours.  But the young guy pitching the tour had a sweet disposition so I wanted to help him make quota and there was a brochure for the Natchez so I asked if he could book me on it so that he could earn his commission.  (I think I ended up overpaying so would recommend just going to the Natchez to buy your ticket but the US economy is suffering so I was there to help 😉

It also provided the agenda for the afternoon.  At that point I could locate Canal, Bourbon and the street I lived on (even though I didn’t know what it was called).  But my first step in a new city is always to walk around so I know where I’m going without having to pull out a map too much and look like a tourist.

At that point I was on Royal so wandered down a bit.  It’s a gorgeous street and fulfilled my Disney dream of the French Quarter.  It really IS as cute and charming as Walt portrayed it.

It’s also filled with dudes who have the same charisma and raffish charm Dennis Quaid exemplified in “The Big Easy.”  I don’t know if they birth shy people in New Orleans 😉  They definitely birth people who know how to party.

here come the beads!

here come the beads!

I had only been wandering for a short while and I heard a parade!  It isn’t Mardi Gras so I wondered what was up.  Of course I always head toward the happening when I travel.  It’s how you really get to experience the place.  It looked like a St. Patrick’s Day parade, complete with copious quantities of green beads.  But it was March 8th, not March 17th, so I wondered what was up.

Well, my photos are not so great because taking out my camera and standing still made me a target for lively guys brandishing green beads, which I quickly discovered were meant to be placed around my neck in exchange for a kiss.  Cheeky dudes 😉

But I did learn what was going on!  Apparently it was a PRACTICE parade!  Only in New Orleans would they have a practice parade J.  Later in the day, I was talking to another tourist who had also seen the practice parade.  As he astutely pointed out, this way they get to party TWICE for the same occasion 😉

It certainly got my trip off to a roaring start.  And I had free beads as souvenirs!

Once I had dispensed with the practice parade, I took a long, meandering tour of the Quarter and tried to take some photos to add to these posts.  Unfortunately for you, my camera is brand new so I am still learning.  Next time I am in New Orleans, the photos will be better 😉

I definitely learned that the first few sleazy blocks of Bourbon Street I had encountered my first night were not really New Orleans at all.  There was a tremendous amount of serendipity on this trip – and only wonderful encounters with strangers – so I ended up at the French Market without even consulting my map.

It’s the original Native American trading post, later used by the French and the Spanish to trade all sorts of cool stuff between the colonies and fancy Europe.  Now it’s filled mostly with junk made in China or Bangladesh but it’s still fun and festive to wander through.  And there are some gems if you look for them.  My favourite souvenir came from my second visit to the French Market – but that’s part of another tale


The most intriguing thing I saw at the market was alligator!  Alligator heads, alligator on a stick, alligator bites
 luckily no one walking an

gators and masks

gators and masks

alligator on a leash.  I wasn’t hungry at the time so haven’t tried it.  But learned as the days went on that it is really big in Louisiana and I will definitely have to check it out on the next visit


History

I figured then that I was close to the river so wandered in that direction and there it was – the mighty Mississippi.  As dirty looking as I expected.  I grew up due north of the Mississippi and, as a child, I dreamed of taking a steamboat the length of it.  I did read a lot of Mark Twain 🙂

For now I was just going to settle for two hours on a steamboat – but I wanted to find it to be prepared for the next day.  Once I reached the river, my steamboat was easy to spot.

But first I spotted a lone gentleman playing a West African drum.  I took a photo of him and his music was really good so I thought I should give

the mighty mississippi!

the mighty mississippi!

him a tip.  It was money well spent.  We ended up having a conversation and I found out he was from Ghana.

I also found out he was a good guy.  Some young men came by and chatted with him while I was there.  Apparently one of them had lost his ID and the Ghanaian drummer had found it and gone to great trouble to get it back to him.  He’d done the same for some drunken teacher during Mardi Gras.  It really seemed to be the spirit of the place.  If you were standing on the street and looked a bit quizzical, someone would be checking if you needed assistance.  You hardly even needed a map 🙂

So, we’ve made it to the Mississippi!  Lots more happened that day.  I got to bed about 5am!  But we will let the stories unfold in themes.  New Orleans is a place for storytelling so I will do my best to reveal it like a good story.

To circle back to my questions
 there is definitely a pretty, surreal, Disney vibe to the French Quarter.  There is a lot of music in New Orleans.  It’s not all jazz but you can find jazz (and I did!) but what is more delightful is the many varied musical styles you will stumble across just wandering the streets.  There is no shortage of charm in the men of Louisiana – and they have that delectable accent
 😉

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