Let’s see what to do this weekend? There is the Blues and Bar-B–Que Festival for the next three days with two stages, everything from steel national guitar Delta Blues music to the wailing of Tad Beniot. Did I mention that there are four different Bar-B-Que vendors, not to mention a multitude of other New Orleans edible treats, arts and beer and the weather is supposed to be sunny skies in the 70’s, or that the festival is free? Too much music for you? After all you went and saw Trombone Shorty for free who blew the roof off the park Wednesday night, so maybe something else. Hmm, how about the Latino Carnivale at the Zoo this weekend with dances and more music and food. Not in the mood? Well there is the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival along the banks of the Tchefuncte River. This fabulous family-friendly event has old wooden boats on display and demonstrations of boat building techniques a quick and dirty boat building contest, races, food and music as well. Don’t want to drive across the Lake? O.K. how about hopping the ferry to Gretna and attending the St. Cletus Oyster Festival where you can gorge on oysters cooked every way possible (and possibly see the 2011 Oyster Queen). You could just go a little further down the road from Gretna to Bridge City and attend the Gumbo Festival and eat yourself a big bowl of gumbo and dance to the Cajun Fais do-do they have planned. Too hot for gumbo and would prefer cold beer in a nice frosted mug? I count three OcktoberFests going on around town. If that all seems too crowded and festive, what about the first annual Daiquiri Festival this weekend where you pay one price and a little shuttle takes you around to six different frozen daiquiri stores ending up at the Hi-Ho Lounge for a dance party. Too hedonistic? How about the New Orleans Film Festival which opened on Wednesday and has films playing in six different venues throughout the city accompanied by panels and discussion groups? Don’t want to go out? You could always stay home and garden and wait to watch the Saints on TV on Sunday and if none of that appeals to you- maybe you should go to a less cultural place, like Manhattan or San Francisco.
Posts Tagged ‘New Orleans food’
A New Orleans Weekend
October 14th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
New Orleans Food Trucks
September 23rd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
So often a really wonderful local festival in New Orleans goes viral and the next thing you know the lines for beer wrap around the corner and you cannot get a good space on the dance floor for all these guys from Cleveland who heard about the festival from their cousin from Palm Springs and before you know it the little local festival with killer NOLA food and great music has a high entry price and the local have ceded the event to visitors. Well, time to get in on the ground floor of what I have no doubt will be an annual tradition! Tomorrow is the first annual Street Fare Derby. Promising to celebrate the culture of street food and food trucks, the Derby will be held at the Fair Grounds (the site of that other little local festival the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival) and will have over fifteen food trucks, libations, excellent music to the tune of Big Sam’s Funky Nation as well as Kermit Ruffins. If that is not enough the Derby is being held in on the Closing Day of the track’s Summer Quarter Horse Meet so you can also watch the ponies and place a small wager if you are so inclined. So if we time it right we can start off with a gourmet grilled cheese (perhaps Havarti and Bacon) watch a race, move on to a hybrid Po Boy-Sandwich-Vietnamese Banh Mi,dance it off and then snack on an Asian Noodle Bowl and a Ginger snowball to wash things down and watch them come down the stretch. What a day! What a town!
New Orleans Cooks
August 3rd, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
It was one of those mornings when all the guests were up and on their way by 9 a.m. so once the dishes were cleared I took myself down to my favorite restaurant supply company to see if I could find little egg warmers. I love the place we go, it is in Mid-City, a fabulous New Orleans neighborhood where gorgeous homes are interspersed with shotgun cottages and industrial warehouses. You can find that special piece of architectural salvage next to a place with classroom supplies and another with a zillion types of brick. Tucked back by the railroad tracks is Claires. You could lose yourself for hours with whisks, popover tins and frothers (or at least I could!) Strolling the aisles I ran into the chef from Katie’s and the sou chef from Coquettes which is our most favorite restaurant. Great fun to share kitchen tips with those who make this city such an incredible dining town. It is a cosmopolitan place but still a small town where you get to know the person who is cooking your meal and pouring your wine. We talked some about the quiet pace of New Orleans in August when it is hot but less crowed and the vibe continues even though the tourist are less numerous. First week of August it is pretty quite but the Satchmo Fest honoring Louis Armstrong and White Linen Night, a ten block stroll through the arts district with street bands and roving bartenders is slated for this weekend. I did not find my egg cups but left happy to be a part of the hospitality community.
Count Down to Jazz Fest
April 26th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Remember when you were young and your birthday fell on a weekend and you had decided every element of your party down to the type of icing on your cake and all you had to do is get through the days between now and then? That is sort of how the whole town feels the beginning of the week of the first weekend of Jazz Fest. The weekly newspapers are twice their size with advertisements for Fest Dresses , Fest Hats and music club acts. All the hanging baskets adorning porches throughout the city are overflowing with brightly colored annuals and every restaurant is advertising a Fest special (although all the good places pretty much have all their tables reserved by now ). Even the weather is putting on its Fest best with sunny skies slight breeze and no hint of the wrap around humidity which is right around the corner (maybe Sunday??)The Fest puts out their music schedule of the seven days in which the times are blocked out on a grid and these are affectionately called Fest Cubes which visitors and locals alike study closely trying to map out their time on the Fairgrounds in between the incredible food, second line and Mardi Gras Indian parades which wind their way through the paths between the stages. Out in the coffee shops people are studying the cubes like an Ouija Board. As I bolt around town doing the errands all good innkeepers do I can see New Orleans the way the thousand of visitors who are about to descend see it with its Caribbean colors, intoxicating mix of Palm Trees and live oaks, the faint sound of a trumpet in the background the clop clop of a mule drawn carriage in the foreground against this unique light which makes the sides of buildings look as if they are lit from within and even the blighted wooden shotgun with the faded sign offering hot lunches and p’orboys painted on the side looks magical. And this time of year there is a smell of crawfish cooking mingling with the scent of the confederate jasmine blooming in riotous abandon along every fence. I must admit as much as we love our visitors we do not put this joy for the sense just for you, it is our back drop everyday and we cannot wait to share it with you over the next ten days. Let the Festing begin!
Festival Saturday in New Orleans
April 4th, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
Now I know I am supposed to be a regular blogger, how else do I keep my loyal readers and build up my fan base? But how can a girl both live her life and find time to write about? Delayed recap is the best I think I will be able to do while New Orleans is in full tilt festival mode and the Sully Mansion bed and Breakfast is hopping with guests! This last weekend there was five different festivals to chose from, one in Algiers across the river offering up good eats and gospel music, another at City Park celebrating all flora and fauna of the area culminating with Arts in Bloom in which there are sculptures made of flowers and plants, there was the Jammin’ on Julia down in the Warehouse District where art galleries open at night accompanied by is music and cocktails in the street, or the two we decided to go to, the Fete Francaise which was a fund- raiser for Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans. It celebrated all things French complete with can-can girls berets galore and delicious food. The photo of the French poodle was taken there. Many French restaurants were offering their bests frites and moules as well as crepes, champagne and fantastic cheeses. The music was an eclectic mix, my favorite was Sunpie Barnes doing a full Cajun set in French. We then moved on to the Feret Street Festiuval which was a one day huge block party with three stages of music, food which spanned the usual po’boys to cucumber and dill smoothies. I had some cerviche which was incredible and flavorful as my friend lam kebob. While the music and art were great what was most exciting was the nine block stretch was with new stores and commerce in a neighborhood which was decimated after Katrina. There are corner doughnut shops, art galleries, dog grooming places and interesting bars and a vibrancy I do remember just four years ago. Some say that Ferret Street may blossom into a vibrant corridor like Magazine Street in a few more years. Yes French Quarter Fest is next week and the Jazz and Heritage Festival in two weeks after that, but it is the smaller little jewel festivals which makes this city so special, so much fun and so hard to find the time to write a blog.
Eating in New Orleans
January 21st, 2011 by Nancy Fournier
We love to eat and that does not make us unusual residents in New Orleans, maybe in Paris and San Francisco does going out to eat make up such a large part of one’s social activity. There are definitely a zillion restaurants in New York City but I think that is because everyone’s kitchen is so small. Here dining whether it is classical Creole with white table cloths or elbows propped up on oilcloth munching a fully dressed oyster po-boy food consumes a great deal of time, attention and delight. Most of our guests come for the music and the food and we love talking to them about both. In fact we have our own four page list of favorite places to eat we provide our guests when they arrive. Our website lists our most favorites all within walking distance of our inn. We take pride in our list, revising it every few months (they disappear – guest take them when they leave which is the sincerest form of flattery) and I take as much enjoyment adding a new found treasure as I do taking off one which may have a great reputation but we just don’t find the food special enough or the staff attentive enough to make it on our list. Changing the list meets my need as a frustrated food critic, and we try to have a good sample for those who are headed up to Tulane, down to the Quarter or strolling the streets of Uptown. Now don’t misunderstand me, the demands of inn keeping and the fact that it does get pricey to eat out all the time, we do not get to sample all the choices nearly often enough- but there is one place which is on short top twenty fabulous places we went to last night after all the guests were taken care of and all the chores were done. The lines were not as long as we sometime find them and the choices were abundant and seasonal. After hemming and hawing and a long discussion with the server and a few samples I settled on the malt mocha chip and Guy had the salty caramel. I cannot be convinced that an ice cream parlor does not belong on a list of great places to eat! The Creole Creamery is in an old drug store a half a mile up the road from the Sully Mansion Bed and Breakfast and the 1950’ neon McKenzie’s sign still hangs out front. With selections like Creole Cream Cheese, Steen’s Molasses Cookie, Mexican Hot Chocolate and Salty Smoked Chocolate Almond, the ice cream is rich, inventive and flavorful. They have seasonal specials like blood orange sorbet and in the summer they are well known for both their dill and cinnamon ice cream. Old, young, rich, not so rich, black, white, the place is always mobbed with customers peering intently over the counter to make their choices and they can savor their ice cream inside or on benches on the street. If you cannot decide they have four and six scoop samplers and for the really gluttonous among us you can order the Tchoupitoulus with eight scoops and four toppings. If you finish it all (by yourself) they take your picture and put it up on their hall of fame.
Yes there is a place for blacken redfish and bar b que shrimp and stuffed mirlton but between the bread pudding and beignets rich delicious ice cream stands on its own and I know just the right place to get it!
New Orleans Thanksgiving Food
November 16th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We are rounding the corner into holiday season, and of course New Orleans has its own way of doing the most traditional of American meals- Thanksgiving dinner. No roast turkey for the true New Orleanian, nope they will be chowing down on Turducken. That’s right a a Turducken “What the heck is a Turducken?” As any good cook will tell you a turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck that is then stuffed inside a turkey, all of which have been de-boned. Between each bird is a layer of stuffing, which ranges from the mild and traditional cornbread stuffing to other Cajun fare such as andouille sausage stuffing, oyster stuffing and even shrimp étouffée. The entire trio is then either deep fried, Acadian-style, or slow-cooked by braising, roasting, grilling or barbecuing. According to local lore, the Turducken was born on that fateful day when there wasn’t enough room in the oven for all three birds side by side! No one’s quite sure who got it started. There are records of “nested bird roasts” from Europe in the 19th century, while the noted chef Paul Prudhomme is said to have created the first in America sometime around 1983. We have memories of when we first hosted the extended family for Thanksgiving (and a four day stay at our home- we should have known then that inn keeping was in our blood) we awoke to the radio and Emeril Lagasse’s voice explaining how to debone the birds to allow them to be stuffed inside one another- suddenly our carefully prepared meal featuring a smoked turkey out on the grill sounded so mundane. But there were yams to peel and cranberries to crush,so if memory serves we crept downstairs past our sleeping guests, poured ourselves a good luck shot of bourbon and got to work! Hoping your Thanksgiving time is filled with those you love and a taste of turducken.
November Festivals in New Orleans
November 3rd, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
A Party in the Streets at the Po-Boy Festival
Every one knows that spring is prime time for Festivals in New Orleans where things start with Mardi Gras and culminate with the Jazz and Heritage Festival and a ton of music and food events in between. But the fun little secret is ever since Katrina the Fall has also become chock full of lesser known but great New Orleans festivals. This weekend on the 6th of November, one of our favorite little local festivals, the Mirliton Festival in the Bywater happening with great bands, food and local music. It has a totally local vibe with neighborhood restaurants, local artisans and musicians, in a pretty little park about ten minutes from the French Quarter. Next weekend the New Orleans Po-boy Festival is back and expanded on Oak Street in the Riverbend section of New Orleans. In addition to thirty different purveyors of delicious New Orleans po-boys,(everything from oysters to duck to Vietnamese poorboys, umm umm) there will be three music stages with the likes of Jon Cleary, Rebirth Brass band and appropriately enough Los Poboycitos which is a great fusion of swamp/tecate music. Only in New Orleans, we can’t wait, will you be there?
Sully loves the Saints
September 12th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
Just another week in New Orleans- national press covering
the Saints opening game, guests from Minnesota all decked out in Viking horns
and purple hair at breakfast and gumbo pots fired up for mid week tailgating
all at ten in the morning. We rode our
bikes down to the Superdome to see Champions Square, just outside the dome, a
wide plaza ringed by NOLA restaurants, with these six story high banners of
prolific New Orleans athletes. It was
such a festive atmosphere, everyone in black and gold, fleur de lis press on tattoos
and feathered boas everywhere (except for those pesky Minnesota guys in breast
plates and blond braids! I am soo glad we don’t have to dress up like
Vikings) We have never been football
fans until we moved to New Orleans and suddenly Guy just had to have a white
Saints shirt for the opener (the black one he bought last year would not do)
and we have a huge TWO DAT banner adorning our porch and cannot think of
anything else we should be doing when the Saints are playing. The
city got to shine for a national audience, what a relief to finally have cameras here for
some reason other than a disaster or the anniversary of a disaster, and once
again we showed the country what everyone here already knows, if you want to
have fun and be around a ton of other friendly people who want to have fun,
hear great music eat incredible food and cheer for a national champion, ain’t
no place like New Orleans.
Saturday in New Orleans
June 14th, 2010 by Nancy Fournier
We went to the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival yesterday to enjoy the Creole tomatoes, eat our local seafood and hear some good dancing music. It was a typical June day in New Orleans, hot and steamy, bougainvillea blooming against a steel blue sky. The festival is held along the river in the French Quarter and is actually three festivals in one, celebrating the Creole tomato, local seafood and Cajun and Zydeco music. The tomatoes are fabulous, rich earthy smooth taste, seafood is still thankfully plentiful and the music is just what a hot sultry day called for. Cajun is a slower waltz-tempo music sung in French with a mournful fiddle accompaniment. Zydeco is kick up your heels dancing music featuring an accordion and washboard.
Just as we walked up to Dwayne Dopsie & the Zydeco Hellraisers the sky opened up to a Louisiana rainstorm pelting the area with thick wet drops. With steam rising from the sidewalks, a few ran for cover but most folks just kept dancing. The band was tearing it up and their washboard player was incredible with energy and a great sense of rhythm, he had long arms and a skinny torso so from the side he looked like a stick figure with a washboard drawn on his front but boy could he play. A few hours of listening, a dance of two between the raindrops, toe tapping under a wrought-iron gallery, a beer or two we hopped back on the streetcar to the Sully Mansion where two couples who were guest of the inn and had formed a friendship at breakfast were sitting in the porch together drinking wine sharing stories of their lives. Just another Saturday in New Orleans
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