New Orleans

While I usually post recipes on my blog, this weekend we went to New Orleans and obviously did not do much cooking. So instead this is our culinary tour of the city. We did however take a cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking and learned how to make gumbo, jambalaya, pralines, and bread pudding! We will have to try to make some of the recipes on our own.

Our first stop was for some traditional poboys. The hotel recommended Johhny's as a local place to try. Local and tourists alike strode up to the counter to place orders. We went with the shrimp poboy on the soft french bread the city is known for.

Next up was beignets at the famous Cafe Du Monde. The beignets were covered in powdered sugar and had to quickly be eaten before the wind blew it all over us. They were light and fluffy and like no other doughnut I'd had before.

Then off to Bourbon's Street and Pat O'Briens where the Hurricane was invented. This a sweet drink with different types of rum and juice that can be extremely dangerous. The bar had a beautiful courtyard in the back with a fountain and was perfect to relax on a sunny afternoon.

I am a huge fan of Top Chef, so I was really looking forward to our dinners. We ate at John Besh's restaurant August and I must admit we had to look up what a few of the menu items were. I ordered shrimp with crab, mirliton (green squash) stuffing and andouille crust. The dessert was amazing, it had a flourless chocolate cake on the bottom, chocolate nougat and crispy chocolate layered and topped with toasted caramel ice cream. It was absolutely delicious without being too rich or heavy as a lot of chocolate desserts can be.

 

And no trip is complete without a stop at Frenchman street to a jazz bar. There were so many great places but we ended up in dba and saw a really good group complete with audience swing dancers!

The last night we went to Emeril's NOLA restaurant in the French quarter. Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of our food, but it was delicious. He combined true Cajun food with a modern twist. You can't beat good food and great company.

After all of that food we had to be rolled onto the plane home to recover from our food coma!