New Orleans - Day 1

Photo by nonsense bird

New Orleans has always been a favorite town of mine, and when Hayley suggested we visit our friend there (the weekend before my 40th birthday no less), I was clapping my hands like a little girl.

Dorie and her boyfriend Chris know all of the cool local spots, and we immediately started off our culinary extravaganza at the po'boy institution Parkway Bakery & Tavern. Forgot my camera for this one, but the oyster po'boy looked just like the pic above, with fresh crusty french bread, golden fried oysters, and "dressed" with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and mayo. I would kill for a place like this in Austin.

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel (stayed outside of the quarter to avoid the inflated prices), we headed down Chartres for a drink. Things were in full swing, since it was the day of the Red Dress Run, a charity "run" (in the loosest sense of the word) put on by the N.O. Hash House Harriers, self described as "a drinking club with a running problem". Managed to get a quick blurry pic of some of the participants with required red dress.

Dorie and Hayley pondering the Abita at Molly's, near the market.

Chris and Dorie have a car, so we were able to drive around some of the city and get a look at how the Katrina reconstruction is progressing. We checked out some of the galleries in the Bywater district, and then when to a cute little restaurant called Elizabeth's.



Elizabeth's is kind of like a relaxed semi-upscale down home cooking establishment, if that makes any sense. I mean, where else can you have sautéed mahi-mahi with citrus buerre blanc and fried chicken & collard greens on the same menu? We all shared our dishes, which was a good thing since my fried chicken plate turned out to be an entire half of a bird. You can see the remnants of our meal below... seared scallops with a buttery sauce, steak in a chimichurri, sweet potato fries, collard greens, beets and some of the best damn stewed cabbage I've ever had. I might have to write Gourmet magazine and see if they can get and print the recipe.



Our last stop for the day was the funky wine bar Bacchanal. It's really more of a wine shop, but they allow you to buy bottles and take them out on the back patio. There were a couple of classical guitarists playing, and the torch lighting with the jungle like vegetation created a nice ambiance. Once again, I wish we had places like this in Austin.



To view all of the New Orleans pics, go to our Flickr site.