As I start this post, I have been in New Orleans for a total of 20 hours. That’s from the touchdown of the airplane til now. Coming from Ohio the first thing to stand out was obviously the weather. When we left in the morning northeast Ohio was in the beginning of a snow storm. New Orleans was sunny and warm. It was like New Orleans was welcoming me here!
The next thing to stand out was the friendliness and helpfulness of the citizens. I must look like I am clueless, which isn’t far from the truth, but I haven’t been called “Honey” or “Sweetheart” or “Baby” more times than I have in the last 20 hours. O.K., well maybe “Baby” because that is my husband, Bobby’s, pet name for me, but you get the point. Anyone from the women at the designated Lyft pickup area at the airport (yes, I rode in my first Lyft car from the airport to the hotel) to our Lyft driver, Anita, to our servers, seem to use these terms of endearment. And they aren’t using the terms in a way that is demeaning or insulting, it’s their way of welcoming you here.
After we got settled in the hotel room, we ventured out into the streets of New Orleans. Our hotel, Hilton Riverside, is right by the Mississippi River. There is a Riverside Walk which follows the river for a good distance. We took that route for a bit until we wanted to get to the street. Bobby wanted us to get beignets from Cafe du Munde French Market. They have been serving beignets (square pieces of dough which are deep fried and covered by powdered sugar) and coffee and chicory since 1862. Bobby felt it was important that this be our first experience in NOLA.
Here are a few hints for you that I learned when partaking of the delicious doughnut at Cafe du Monde.
- First, don’t get suckered into waiting in the first line you come to. We did for about 5 minutes until a nice local who was passing by heard that we were from Ohio. He told us of another entryway a little way farther up the street. It gave a good view of the tables and there was no line.
- Second, don’t wait to be seated. This is basically a survival of the fittest type of place. If you see an empty table, take it.
- Third, don’t expect the table to be cleared off. You sit down at a table and then the server comes and clears it for you, while they are taking your order.
- Fourth, be ready to order when the server comes. The place is open 24/7 and from what I understand it’s basically chaotic and busy much of the time. The servers are in high demand, so if you don’t know what you want by the time they get to you, it may take a while before they get back to you. (I learned this while we were waiting from another blogger’s post.)
- Fifth, be ready to pay with cash. They are so busy, I assume they don’t want to take the time to wait for the processing of a credit card. We ordered 2 plates of beignets (they come 3 to a plate), a large chocolate milk and a large iced coffee and it was $16. The beignets are $3.40 per plate.
- Six, don’t expect to be neat. The beignets are covered with powdered sugar and sitting in a nest of powdered sugar. When you take a bite, it will be evident that you are eating a beignet. By the time you get through the plate you can expect to have plenty of sugar on you and the table. And, if you are my husband, on your shirt and pants, too.
After filling up on three beignets and chocolate milk for me and three beignets and iced cafe au lait for Bobby, we left the cafe to explore Decatur Street, part of the French Quarter. Actually, I had told Bobby that even though the beignets were very good, I needed some protein. That’s why we ended up at Willies Chicken Shack for some Cajun fried chicken. We decided to split a four piece dinner that came with fries and biscuit. The chicken was delicious if not a little spicy. Bobby loved it. He can handle heat better than me. But I still enjoyed it. It reminded us a lot of Krispy Krunchy Chicken. It hit the spot. Bobby said it was some of the best fried chicken he has ever had..
We decided from there that we needed to head back to the hotel. I was so tired because we had been up since 5:30. As we had been exploring the street, we stopped in a tourist place to get information about site seeing tours. We asked about the best place to get pralines in New Orleans. We had been told about this by a fellow Wooster resident, Scott Sims, whom we actually saw in the Cleveland airport. He and his wife said they really liked New Orleans and that we should definitely partake of the pralines.
Pralines are a confectionary treat of cream, butter, sugar and pecan halves. We were directed to Southern Candymakers. They give out free samples, so even though I was pretty stuffed, I still tried the original and sweet potato pralines. Bobby tried the original and the coconut pralines and thanks to the 10% coupon we picked up at the tourist center, we brought a small box of the buttery pralines back to the hotel. I have a chocolate praline waiting for me to enjoy, but honestly, as much as we’ve been eating so far, I’m not sure when I’ll get to it!
After having a wonderful night sleep (my Gearfit 2 tells me I slept 7 hours and 43 minutes at a 92% efficiency), we set out to have breakfast before going to the convention center where the CAMEX event is being held (our purpose for being in New Orleans to begin with). Bob Walton and Scott Sims told us that Mothers Restaurant was a place we should try. Mothers has been around since 1938 and is a favorite for the US Marine Corp. We walked to the restaurant around 7:00. The place wasn’t very crowded but probably because it is Saturday. Thankfully a local explained how things worked at Mothers. (I told you the people here are friendly and helpful!) You basically walk in, grab a menu from the table, look at it, decide what you want, drop the menu back on the table and walk up to the register to order. Don’t worry, there’s a menu at the register for you to refer to if needed. You find a table and sit down. Make sure to leave your receipt on the table and a server will bring you your food.
I didn’t know what to order, but while we were looking at the menu, one of the cooks came by to pickup something. Bobby, who is never afraid to ask opinions of people who work in a restaurant what to they would suggest, did just that. The gentleman suggested we try the cheese grits with crawfish etouffe. Bobby hates seafood, so he definitely was not trying that! I on the other hand do like seafood, but I was a little worried. Before leaving for Louisiana, I had wondered if I would be able to eat crawfish. They seem like bugs to me. But I guess I was feeling adventurous because I decided to order it. After paying for the meal we found a table and sat down. Janet, our server, came over and I voiced my concern about being unsure of my decision. She assured me that I would like it, provided I liked lobster. “I just tell people it’s a little lobsters!” she told us. Comforted by her confidence and Bobby’s assurance that should I not like it, I could get something else, I put my fears to rest. When the dish arrived I was mostly pleased by the fact that there weren’t complete crawfish in the bowl. I had been afraid that I’d have to eat their heads. Turns out there were no heads. Basically it is gravy with chunks of crawfish in it. The cheese grits were served on top of the etouffe. It was very good and very filling, with the biscuit, which was tender and served with butter and jelly, I was ready for the day.
Bobby got their famous Ferdi Special. It is a sandwich (po’boy) with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy, or that is what it says on the menu. What it actually is, is a large sandwich cut in half stuffed full of meat (very yummy meat) laying in a pool of au jus. It is a messy sandwich to eat, as evidenced by Bobby’s use of his and my napkin and it was too big for him to eat both halves. It probably didn’t help that he ordered a side of cheese grits, too, but even still it was a big sandwich!
I took a break from writing this post because it was time for lunch and so I have now been in NOLA for 24 hours. Because we were on a time crunch we walked in the beautiful sunny weather down the street to, what else, a pizza shop! Anyone who knows Bobby knows that he is always interested in eating pizza. He found Tommy G’s Coal Fire Pizza (the oven cooks at 700-800 degrees) that was just a 6 minute walk from the convention center.
Bobby reminded me that Lombardi’s, the first pizzeria in the United States, which we visited while in New York City a couple of years ago, uses a coal fired oven for their pizza. He liked that pizza and today, he really enjoyed the cheese pizza from Tommy G’s. It was charred like he likes — although did say it could be a little more charred — and the cheese was perfect with the melt and the stringiness. I don’t know how many times I heard him say, “This is really good pizza!”
We shared the pizza and a meatball sub. The bread for the meatball sub was thinner than we are used to, which was fine. You know how you usually fill up on the bread from the sub and can barely taste the meatball? That isn’t the case here. I did have to use a fork and knife to eat the sandwich, however, because the bread didn’t provide the stable platform to allow me to pick it up. All in all the lunch was very satisfying, which will help us get through the afternoon.
So as you can see, just a little over 24 hours by now and as a first time visitor to New Orleans, I have felt welcomed and refreshed and safe and full. We’ve eaten at new and historical places and have not been disappointed yet. I can hardly wait to see how the rest of our time here unfolds! I hope you join me for the ride. Bobby wanted me to tell you that we’ve nearly walked 10 miles in the last 24 hours. So maybe I should say, I hope you join me for the walk around NOLA.
