Did you miss me? Of course you did.
Well, that's me back from the US of A. Jet lag over and back to Normal.
Oh what a time we had. How much food we ate. God it was awesome. So I'll tell you guys all about it.
You might want to get yourself a drink and a few munchie snacks as this is gonna be a long one.
Where to start?
OK so first of all I want to thank the lovely people of New Orleans for making our stay most enjoyable and to my very, very good friends Steve and Louise for putting us up and putting up with us in Seattle.
Laissez les bons temps rouler.
In New Orleans that means "Let the good times roll". And indeed they did.
Our Holiday started off pretty badly. We got stranded in Dallas for the evening due to the incompetence of American Airlines, who I will never use again.
Anyhoo, We stayed in the hotel from the Shining and there was a Denny's right beside us so for breakfast we had french toast, eggs and bacon. I love American Breakfasts.
If I lived in the USA I would be a big fatty.
Dallas airport is great. They have a Tex Mex place called Papasitos. They do HUGE portions of food. I had a platter with a beef burrito, chicken enchilada and rice and beans.
Pauline had chicken quesadillas. We only made a slight dent in the portions. As the waitress said when we explained that is was very nice but far too much. "Everything's bigger in Texas Y'all".
Damn right. Even the Margaritas were massive. It was quite fun to ride the sky link (The airport monorail link) while pissed. Wheeeeeeeee.
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| The Shining hotel. REDRUM REDRUM. This is where we stayed in Dallas |
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| Denny's French toast with eggs, bacon and sausage. |
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| Pretty building, French Quarter, New Orleans |
Well. On to New Orleans.
We booked a lovely hotel called the Dauphine Orleans right in the heart of the French Quarter.
http://www.dauphineorleans.com/
If you ever go to New Orleans stay at this hotel. The rooms are massive and quiet and so worth the money.
Me and Pauline nearly hyperventilated as soon as the taxi turned into the French Quarter. It's exactly like you see on TV. Beautiful. You feel like you have gone back in time to a place where the woman drink fresh Lemonade and used fans to cool themselves down in the Southern heat before air conditioning was invented. Not that you need air conditioning in Scotland. Ha ha. Just open a bloody window.
The first thing we did was to go for a walk to Jackson Square to see St Louis Cathedral. Then we took a trip up the Mississippi on the Steamboat Natchez.
http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/
There is nothing better than sitting on the deck in the scorching sun, going up the Mississippi River and sipping on frozen Margaritas at 11.30 in the morning. Bliss.
Alltough we did get severe sunburn.
Who would have thought that you would get sun burnt in October. Well, we are both ginger.
So our first experience of food in New Orleans was to go to a wee 24 hour joint down from the hotel called Deja Vu.
http://www.dejavunola.com/
It was a little neighbourhood place that had a good jukebox and served good homemade grub.
Pauline had a huge burger and I had Chicken fried steak with country gravy. God it was good.
For anyone outside the US. Chicken Fried Steak is basically a pounded steak covered in a crisp batter kinda like the stuff you get on Kentucky fried chicken but way better. And from what I could work out, country gravy is like a Bechamel sauce with loads of pepper in it???? It was good. We soaked it down with a nice cool, crisp Corona with fresh lime. MMMMMMMMMMMMM.
The Vampire ball was the same night.
I dressed as a Hammer Horror bride of Dracula with a burned crucifix on my forehead, a floor lengh red chiffon cloak and a pink nylon nightdress. I couldn't stand anywhere near a naked flame for fear of going up in a puff of smoke.
Pauline was dressed as a very beautiful Victorian style Vampire. Which we found out was called "Steam punk". Yeah, whatever.
The drinks were so strong that I'm smiling in every photo. Not very Vampire like of me. I'm supposed to be dark and broody. Oh well.
I threw my teeth away on Bourbon Street. They cost me a fortune too.
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| I'm so scary |
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| Have you ever seen such happy vampires? |
Next day we went to the French Market and had a Snowball, which is shaved ice with flavoured syrup. Yum yum.
The man who served us was very nice. We gave him a big tip.
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| Cherry snowball from a very nice man. |
Next port of call for food was the Gumbo Shop. Where we had the best meal of our entire lives.
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| Gumboooooooooooo. Weep. |
http://www.gumboshop.com/visit_the_restaurant/visit_the_restaurant.html
To start we had Gumbo. I've been a big fan of gumbo my whole life but never really knew how to make it properly as I had never been to Louisiana.
My interpretation of Gumbo was like a tomato based stew.
Oh no no no. How wrong I was.
This was more like a thick meaty gravy with chicken, sausage and rice. Oh I nearly weeped into my bowl I was so overjoyed.
Bridget, our waitress was a character herself. Intense, but very nice and very help full. She seemed as overjoyed as ourselves with what were about to savour.
Bridget, your a gem. We wish you were our friend. Maybe one day when myself and Pauline move to New Orleans we can hang with Bridget.
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| Paulines blackened chicken Poboy. Mmmmmmmmmmmm |
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| Hot roast beef Poboy with gravy. Oh God, oh God, Oh God. |
We took the famous St Charles streetcar line up to the Garden district and picked the houses we wanted to live in.
St Charles Street car line
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| This is where I want to live. |
Then we went to Audubon Park and it started to rain. I thought the rain in Scotland was bad. Ooh wee. This was like no rain I had ever seen.
We made it to the zoo. All the animals were either in hiding or depressed.
There is no sadder sight than a huge orangutan trying to shield from the rain under a tiny soggy cardboard box. Bless.
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| Aw. |
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| Scary Gator. Good in Gumbo. Mmmmmmmm. |
I walked the 3 hour journey back to the hotel wearing a plastic see through poncho. And I wasn't even embarrassed. What a tourist.
I did get a pumpkin and pecan pie for the road from Tee Eva's. Twas very very good.
http://www.tee-evapralines.com/
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| Sweet Potato and pecan pie. And Pauline's feet. It's hard to eating, walking and taking a photo at the same time is not easy. |
http://www.bubbagump.com/locations/new-orleans/
http://www.hauntedhistorytours.com/
I swear to God the people in Bubba Gump were trying to kill us with the portions of food. My phrase for the whole holiday was "Oh my goodness". Which I said pretty much after every meal.
Collectively we had shrimp boil, Mussels and clams, bucket of boat trash, Bourbon Street Mahi mahi and cocktails. Oh my goodness!
Our waiter was cool. He made us do a Forest Gump quiz. I even said the line "I got shot in the buttocks" in my best Southern accent. I was not drunk yet.
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| Bucket of trash. Mmmmmmmmmm |
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| Shrimp boil. Oh My Goodness. |
We staggered towards the meeting point for the vampire walking tour feeling quite full.
The tour guides were dressed the part and standing outside Jackson Square waiting for the participants. We waited till other people went up first so we wouldn't look lame.
We were not the only ones doing this.
If you go to New Orleans take at least one of the Haunted History tours.
The guides, along with making the tours fun also know alot about the actual history of the city.
We also took the cemetery tour.
Nicolas Cage has a tomb there. Clearly, he is not dead yet.
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| City of the Dead. St Louis Cemetary number 2 |
Next was Cafe Du Monde for the famous Beignets.
Fried dough dusted with ridiculous amounts of icing sugar. Soooooooooo yummy.
We ate them in Jackson Square. It was sunny. Life was good.
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| Messy |
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| Very messy |
So, onto our last Day. Do you think you could fit two 3 course meals into one day. Well just you wait till you go to New Orleans.
You'll fit it in God damn it.
First we booked brunch at the famous Brennan's restaurant.
http://www.brennansneworleans.com/
I had Turtle soup to start. It was very nice. Tasted like a mix between chicken and tuna. Pauline had strawberries and cream.
I said to Pauline while sipping a Mimosa at 10.30 in the morning. " I can't believe people in Bourbon Street drinking at this time in the morning". Hypocrite. Oh yeah, You can drink in New Orleans 24/7. You can also drink on the street as long as your drink is in a plastic container. There were many places selling "cocktails to go". True!
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| Turtle soup. |
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| Eggs Shannon. |
We were stuffed to the gunnals but we had allready ordered the three courses so next was Bananas Foster.
A Brennan's origional creation, and now World-Famous.
Bananas sautéed in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and banana liqueur, then flamed in rum. Served over vanilla ice cream. Scandalously Delicious!
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| Bananas foster. Hell yeah. |
Pauline could hardly finish her Bananas Foster but as soon as I started eating it I couldn't stop.
Sticky sweet lovelyness. My pudding tubes are always empty.
There was a court yard out side the window and we could see people going up to the wee pond and looking at whatever was in it.
Fish I thought? Oh no, it was turtles.
Ha ha! I ate your pal. Yum yum yum.
Oh my goodness.
We did a little shopping. I bought a pair of really expensive boots. The guy serving me was rubbing the inside of the boot against his ear because it was so soft. Weirdo.
So next was dinner at Antoine's. The oldest French restaurant in the city.
http://www.antoines.com/index.html
It was lovely inside. Proper swanky McSwank. The waiters were dressed like penguins. And they didn't have a drinks list. Scary.
To start I had shrimp with cocktail sauce.
American cocktail sauce is not like ours. It's more like a spicy fresh tomato sauce. It was very good and the shrimp were so fresh and juicy.
I can't remember what Pauline had to start as I was so engrossed in my own food. Bad friend.
For my main I had Trout with almonds. Again the fish was so super fresh it melted in the mouth. Pauline had chicken breast grilled and served with Antoine's original Rochambeau sauce and a rich Béarnaise over a slice of baked ham.
We had puffed potatoes and asparagus and broccoli with Hollandaise on the side.
We ordered Antoine's famous baked Alaska for two for dessert.
Our waiter asked us if we were sure as it was really enough for about four people. This was our holiday blow out treat so we said yes!
Oh my goodness. It was HUGE.
Four my arse. It was about enough for eight people. We dug in regardless with our gold spoons. Oh yes, gold spoons. Now that was a good meal.
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| Baked Alaska for two. |
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| As big as my head. |
After Antoine's we popped over to Preservation Hall to see some live Jazz.
http://preservationhall.com/default_original.aspx
We saw the Glen David Andrews band
Check them out. They are amazing. So good they even appeared in an episode of Treme.
I have decided that when I die I want the full New Orleans funeral service with black horse driven hearse and marching Brass band.
God knows what the people of Possil will think with that spectacle going down Saracen main Street.
Well that was New Orleans for you. Part two: Seattle. Coming next.
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