New Orleans Trip Report
Apr. 11th, 2004 12:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetPeople have been telling us for years that we really should visit New
Orleans, so when our plans to be Down Under this month fell through we
decided to console ourselves by finally seeing The Big Easy.
We left on Wednesday (31 March), just as it was starting to rain in Boston,
which would receive more than six inches of rain in the next two days. We
had easy flights, connecting at National, and arrived to find clear skies
and temperatures in the mid-70's. As we were on appraoch, I pointed out the
window and said to Jason "I think that's the Mississippi!" Considering its
wild, meandering path, the many sandbars, and the clearly visible signs of
former courses--like horseshoes thrown into the swamp--Jason looked dubious
and said "That can't be the Mississippi. That river hardly looks
navigable!"
Even though we didn't get to our hotel until about 5pm, we still managed to
get a lot done on our first day. Having dropped off our luggage at the
Rathbone Inn, we strolled the four blocks down Esplanade Street (pronounced
ESS-pluh-naid) to Bourbon Street and walked the length of it to reach the
highly recommended Acme Oyster & Seafood Restaurant. We arrived early
enough that we could walk right in and be seated. We split a dozen raw
Louisiana oysters--extremely tasty and wicked cheap at $7/dozen--and then
Jason downed a shrimp po-boy (the local version of a sub), while I had a
platter of fried shrimp and some of the best fried oysters I've ever
tasted. By the time we left there were thirty people in line to take our
place.
We wandered down Royal Street--much more our style than Bourbon--enjoying
the many art galleries and antique shops. Anne had told us we had to take a
carriage tour ("It's cheesy, it's expensive, and you still have to do it!")
so we climbed aboard and had a delightful ride around the French Quarter and
a bit of the neighboring Faubourg Marigny. Our guide was a young man, born
and raised in New Orleans, although he said he'd gone "up north" for
college--to Mobile. He helped us get the lay of the land, told some fun
stories and gave us recommendations that proved to be quite accurate and
helpful. He dropped us off at the Cafe Du Monde, so we went in and ordered
the beignets (a French version of fried dough) and cafe au laid that are de
rigeur for any tourist.
Brushing powdered sugar off our noses, we paused to take our first look at
the Mississippi River at ground level and then headed up St. Peter Street to
join the line for the first set of the evening at Preservation Hall. It was
SRO, but we made it into the dimly lit hall with its crumbling walls and
leant against the back wall while they plaed "The Royal Garden Blues,"
"Bourbon Street Parade," and others. We were amused by the sign that said
"TRADITIONAL REQUESTS - $2/OTHERS - $5/THE SAINTS - $10." After about an
hour the band wrapped up the set with "Minne the Moocher" and then took a
break, so we wandered off to sit in the candlelight of Lafitte's Blacksmith
Shop and drink Hurricanes. Finally we stumbled back through the warm
evening to our bed.
On Thursday morning we had breakfast at our hotel--actually, in the other
mansion, which is across Esplanade and down a few houses. They provided a
variety of baked goods--I liked the peach cobbler--fruit, cold cereals and
packages of hot oatmeal or grits. Since Jason and I prefer protein for
breakfast and they didn't even have yogurt, this was the only day we ate
there.
After breakfast we strolled back down Esplanade to the river and took the
streetcar from there to the heart of the French Quarter. We found the Park
Service Visitors Center and enjoyed their exhibit about the history and
culture of the area. The best part was a series of recordings illustrating
the various dialects of the city, including the Yats (short for "whereyat?"
which they use instead of "how's it going?") whose accent sounds more like
Brooklyn or Boston than Atlanta, because of the large number of German and
Italian immigrants. This explains Dennis Quaid's bizarre accent in _The Big
Easy_.
>From there we headed into Jackson Square. We visited the St. Louis
Cathedral briefly--they were testing the organ with long, sustained notes
from each pipe, starting with the highest ones--and then went into the
Presbytere. Built to house the diocese staff, it is now home to an excellent
exhibit about the Mardi Gras celebrations and how they've changed through
the years.
Leaving there, we walked down Charters Street and whatever they were cooking
at The Alpine smelled so good that we stopped in for lunch. We split
another dozen oysters and then Jason had the excellent blackened shrimp
fajitas while I had a shrimp cocktail and a bowl of seafood gumbo. The
service was very friendly (the waitress kept calling me "baby") but a little
slow, so we were in a rush to get out to the Garden District in time for our
tour.
We took the St. Charles Avenue streetcar out to Washington Street and made
it in time to meet our guide outside the Garden District Bookshop in The
Rink, a small shopping mall inside what was the first skating rink in the
city. He took us through the nearby Lafayette Cemetery #1, where he
explained the unusual interrment procedures of the area and showed us many
of the family and society tombs. They had a rash of thefts a few years ago
in which many of the icons on top of the tombs were stolen, so most of them
are gone now, and many of the tombs are falling into ruin.
>From there we proceeded through the district, hearing stories about the
history and residents of the many lovely homes. The gardens were in bloom
and everything was just gorgeous. We saw houses belonging to Anne Rice and
Trent Reznor, among other more local figures.
After the two-hour tour we hopped back on the streetcar and took it all the
way out to the end, past Loyola and Tulane Universities and many more
beautiful homes, and then all the way back to the French Quarter, where we
were able to catch a bus back to our hotel. We took a nap and Jason figured
out how to access the hotel's wireless connection and then we got dressed up
and took a cab out to Tchoupitoulas Street to Emeril's, the flagship
restaurant of the burgeoning culinary empire of Emeril Lagasse.
We had reservations for the Chef's Counter, a bar along one edge of the
kitchen, where we could watch the cooks prepare and plate all the
delicious-looking meals. We were presented with a lagniappe of herb-crusted
oysters with a spinach coulis and then it was time to choose from the
menu--one of the hardest decisions of my life. Jason decided to start with
the warm pistachio-crusted goat cheese, served over frisee with beets and
orange slices. My appetizer was the lobster cheesecake with pickled onions
and fresh tomatoes. Those were both extremely good and quite different. My
main course was the fish du jour, grilled pompano, with crawfish-tarragon
potato salad and haricots verts. The fish was nicely grilled, although not
terribly exciting, but the salad was lovely. Jason was very happy with the
andouille sausage-crusted redfish with candied pecans over shoestring
potatoes with grilled vegetables, one of Emeril's "signature dishes." The
wine list was fifteen pages long and tended toward the flashy and expensive
($850 for the Montrachet), but we were very happy with the house-label Santa
Barbara chardonnay. For dessert we split the Bananas Foster bread
pudding--the three slices of carmelized banana on top were fantastic...the
rest of it was only okay. We enjoyed sitting next to a couple from New York
who come to New Orleans frequently and said they had been to Emeril's many
times. When the meal was over we took a cab (summoned by the friendly
Bulgarian parking attendant) back to the hotel and collapsed.
On Friday morning I got a call from Beckie just as we were leaving the
hotel. Her husband, Neil, had to be taken to the hospital with severe
abdominal pain early that morning. Throughout the rest of the trip we were
calling back and forth often to keep up with what was happening with him.
He was in the hospital for a week, while they did a lot of tests to
determine the cause of the pain, and eventually they operated to remove his
gall bladder, which was in pretty bad shape. He is recovering well from the
surgery and was able to come home on the 8th. But it was all very worrisome
not to be able to be there to support them.
Heading into the Quarter, we found breakfast in a Brazilian cafe near the
French Market (eggs, bacon & pancakes for me, while Jason tried the
"Brazilian crepe" of ham, pineapple, bananas and ricotta) and then strolled
through the market. Jason bought me a lovely hat at The Latin's Hand, since
I had, as usual, forgotten to bring one. We continued along the river,
through the lovely park they've built up there, and on into the Riverwalk
shops, before doubling back to the Canal Street Ferry dock. We took the
free ferry across the Mississippi to the neighborhood of Algiers, where a
free shuttle gave us a ride through town to Mardi Gras World, where most of
the floats for the parades are made. We decided we didn't need to take
their tour, but enjoyed the view of their warehouse, with many of the
enormous float-props on display. The shuttle took a different route back to
the ferry, so we felt like we'd seen enough of the very pleasant area, and
just took the ferry back across.
Back in the French Quarter, we stopped in at the New Orleans Pharmacy
Museum, which has a wonderful collection of antique pharmaceutical tools and
products. Next we visited the Cabildo, the building on the other side of
the cathedral in Jackson Square. Built to serve as the town hall during
Spanish control of the Louisiana colony, today it houses extensive exhibits
about the history of the city and surrounding area. The Cabildo also
contains the room where the transfer of the Louisiana territory was made
from Spain back to France and then to the US in 1803. On the second floor
the Cabildo is connected to the Arsenal, where exhibits about the coffee
trade and the Mississippi river are on display, but by the time we reached
that point we were starving and gave them only a cursory perusal before
going in search of food.
We made our late lunch at the place on the corner of the Upper Pontalba
buildings--I think it was called "The Corner," ironically enough. Jason had
another shrimp po-boy while I took a platter of raw oysters, boiled shrimp
and some really wonderful spicy boiled crawfish. I only wished I'd had
butter to dip them in, instead of the too-spicy cocktail sauce.
After lunch we checked out the stores in the Jackson Brewery building and
then made our way back to the hotel for a nap. Around 8:30 we wandered back
into the Quarter and found Irene's Cuisine, which had been recommended to us
for good Italian food. We had an hours wait, but managed to make good
conversation with the women from London, Ontario seated next to us in the
bar. Once we were seated we had a pleasant meal, served to us by John, a
78-year old from Wales who just passed his 39th Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Jason ate the Oysters Irene, baked with parmigiana and red peppers, followed
by the Pollo di Parma, chicken topped with prosciutto, cheese, eggplant and
sauce and served with pasta. I had the house salad with Maytag blue cheese
and bacon and then the filet mignon. It was a bit too dry, but the
parmigiana potatoes gratin and the sauteed spinach were lovely. For dessert
we split a cheesecake made with Cajun cream cheese, which is apparently
lighter than the Philadelphia style, and served with strawberries. After
that we really needed a walk home.
On Saturday we had a late start and decided to start with an early and light
lunch, so we would be hungry again in time for our early dinner
reservation. We made our way back to the French Market and split some
popcorn crawfish, a ham & cheese po'boy and half a muffaletta at the Market
Cafe. A muffaletta is a sandwich served on a plate-sized round seeded roll,
with ham, salami and cheese inside, topped with a relish of olives and
tomatoes. I'm convinced the name comes from the vast size...there's always
mo' fo' later.
We spent the afternoon touring some of the smaller museums of the Quarter,
starting with Madame John's Legacy. One of the oldest buildings in New
Orleans, the house is built in the French Creole style that was largely
replaced by Spanish-style buildings after fires destroyed most of the city
in 1788 and 1794. From there we went on to the Ursuline Convent, which is
even older, having been built in 1734. Our guide, Tim Pickles, led us
through the convent, the grounds and the attached church. The Ursulines
were a French teaching and nursing order, who founded the first school for
girls in what is now the United States. They've moved elsewhere in the city
and their former home is now the archives of the diocese. Next on the
agenda was the 1850's house, in the Lower Pontalba buildings along
the downriver side of Jackson Square. The living quarters above the shops
are furnished as they might have been during the tenancy of several families
during the 1850's, before the area became seedy and the buildings were split
up into tenements.
We took a break in the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone and found out from
the concierge where we might mail our postcards. Then we went over to the
Voodoo Museum, which gives a very authentic feeling display of various
voodoo artifacts and encourages visitors to make offerings and wishes to the
loa. They certainly manage to maintain a creepy atmosphere.
We still had an hour before our reservation, but were tired of walking, so
we stopped into a convenient netcafe and caught up with happenings online
before heading up to Mr. B's Bistro. The restaurant is part of the
Brennan's vast network of restaurants and had caught Jason's eye earlier in
the week. The atmosphere felt like a New York steakhouse to me, with low
ceilings, dark panelling, and lots of gold railings.
We often joke about who wins at ordering--it's sort of like winning the bid
in bridge. Jason did very well this week, but that night it was my turn.
He had the crawfish remoulade, the "blackened" (which only meant "seared"
here) tuna, and the almond creme brulee. I had excellent seared scallops
with mixed greens (especially satisfying after having to watch a very
similar dish being prepared at Emeril's that was already sold out by the
time we ordered), followed by a garlic roasted chicken with sun-dried
tomatoes and rice with a thick, flavorful sauce. For dessert I picked the
warm white chocolate brownie a la mode, which was just fantastic.
It was still early when we got out of dinner and we toyed with the idea of
going to a movie, but none of the showtimes were convenient and it was too
early for most of the jazz clubs, so we went back to the hotel, logged on
for a while, and then enjoyed the hot tub over at the other mansion.
Sunday morning turned into an unexpected rush--we were up in plenty of time,
but had failed to set our clocks ahead and realized it only when Jason
looked at his mobile phone, which is automatically updated. Instead of
being able to leave at 9:15 and make a leisurely walk into the Quarter, we
raced out the door at 9:42! We still made it before the scheduled 10am
departure, but the tour was already sold out. Fortunately another group was
doing the same tour at 10:30am, so we were able to join that one.
Jonathan led us up to the northern edge of the Quarter, to the famous
St. Louis Cemetery #1. The most famous grave there is that of Marie Laveau,
the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans in the mid-19th century. We saw that, as
well as the tomb of Homer Plessy (the plaintiff in the famous case
v. Ferguson) and the Italian Society tomb, which contains the remains of
about 2400 people and was the setting for the tripping scene in Easy Rider.
We had to leave the tour a few minutes early, before the visit to the Voodoo
Temple, in order to make our noon booking for brunch at Arnaud's. This was
a lot of fun, actually. The food was very tasty--Cajun sweetened cream
cheese with fruit and a wonderful deep-fried softshell crab for Jason and
turtle soup and crawfish O'Connor for me. My only complaint would be that
my starter and main were slightly too similar and it began to suffer from
sameness. Our brunch included a salad course between starter and main and
then for dessert we split an authentic Bananas Foster, prepared tableside
amid flames and sparks.
Throughout the meal there was a three-piece jazz combo moving through the
dining room, playing for each table in turn. We couldn't think of any
request, but were very happy with their choice of "I'm in the Mood for
Love." Even better, however, was "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," requested by
the two women next to us. After the band moved on, I leaned over and
mentioned to the woman closer to me what a lovely couple they made and how
glad we were to see them there and she said "Thank you! That's a real
change from the three women over there who keep giving us the evil eye every
time we hold hands. I thought we should do a big kiss, but she thinks I
should just wink at them!" We had a good laugh together and talked about
the fight for equal marriage rights in our respective hometowns--they are
from San Francisco--and about the NCAA Women's Final Four, which had brought
them to New Orleans. Over the next few days we noticed that there was
actually a large contingent of tall women in comfortable shoes in town to
watch the tournament.
After brunch we stuffed ourselves into a cab and had him deposit us in front
of the New Orleans Museum of Art, out in City Park. It's a nice-sized
museum, just big enough that we could make it through the whole thing in a
few hours. The museum is famous for their Faberge collection--they have
three of his Easter eggs. Their collection of glass is very impressive and
they have some nice Impressionist pieces, including one portrait of his
cousin that Edgar Degas painted while living in New Orleans for several
years. His mother came from New Orleans and her brother had a home in the
Garden District. He had a daughter--Estelle, the subject of the
painting--whom Edgar's younger brother, Rene, wooed and wed. She was almost
blind, so they hired a young woman to read to her and after a while Rene ran
off back to France with the reader, abandoning his wife and child. After
that, Edgar lived in a house on Esplanade that is now a guest house.
When we finished with the indoor exhibits there was still time to visit
their new sculpture garden, a lovely park with ponds, fountains, lawns and
plantings surrounding the many sculptures.
It's about two miles from the museum back to the Rathbone, but it's a
straight shot down Esplanade and it was a lovely day, so we decided to walk
it. We were so lucky with our weather this week--pretty much every day was
sunny and clear with a good breeze and highs in the mid-70's. We were a bit
alarmed when we heard about all the rain and flooding in Boston and relieved
when Jo went by our house and reported that our basement was still dry.
Having had a big, fancy meal at lunchtime, we decided on something simpler
for dinner. Our carriage driver had recommended the Port of Call as having
the best burgers in town and since it was only a few blocks down Esplanade,
it was very convenient. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it
was a pleasant night and there was space to sit on the brick stoop. There
was a little boy there who was tired of waiting and I said to him "You can
come sit by me if you like." I rather expected that he would hide at being
spoken to, but he climbed up and plopped himself down right next to me and
we sat and talked about the cars going by on the street until their table
was called. Then I went and talked to the Criminal Sheriff. We had noticed
him parked on that corner a couple of nights previously and wondered at the
title, so I asked him about that and he explained that New Orleans has both
a Criminal and a Civil Sheriff's division, in addition to separate forces
for the bridge, the causeway, the harbor, and various other entities. I
asked why he was stationed there every night and he said that actually he
was off-duty, working privately for the restaurant to keep pickpockets from
working the crowd as they wait and to dampen the likelihood of fights and
welchers. Finally it was our turn to sit and eat and those were not only
the best burgers in town, but some of the very best burgers we've ever had,
and accompanied by baked potatoes that were noticeably excellent.
Many of the museums and attractions are closed on Mondays, so we had decided
to spend the day visiting the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Zoo,
both of which were highly recommended by the various guidebooks. For one
price you get admission to both and a round-trip cruise between them. We
just missed the 10am boat, so we went in and looked at fish until the noon
boat. The trip upriver took about 45 minutes, giving us a little more than
two hours to visit the zoo before the 3pm departure downriver, which was
just time to make a circuit of the enclosures. The trip downriver took less
than 30 minutes, thanks to the current, so we had plenty of time to finish
up at the aquarium before they closed.
Highlights there included two of the most enormous sea otters we'd ever
seen, beautiful jellies, lurking piranha, pretty frogs, getting to see the
underside of rays via the tube through the Caribbean tank, bizarre
paddlefish, a white alligator, and some very friendly penguins--both African
black-footed and rockhoppers. At the zoo we especially enjoyed the
kangaroos, the baby bobcat and the extremely snuggly little Asian river
otters. Both places had very good facilities and explanatory materials,
especially with regard to the local environment and its denizens.
After a break back at the hotel to net and nap, we walked back into the
Quarter to Stella!, a restaurant I had noticed on our ramblings. Oddly
enough, I had already made the reservation there when my sister passed on a
recommendation from a friend who said it's her favorite restaurant in New
Orleans. Well, now it's my favorite, too. The dining rooms are intimate
spaces tucked into an historic building. The service is friendly, without
being folksy and attentive without being overbearing. And the food...
Jason started with the Oriental Tasting: some deep-fried calamari with red
chili paste, a laquered duck springroll on a bed of wasabi mashed potatoes,
and some beef kimchee. Each of them was excellent--Jason liked the calamari
best, but I prefered the beef. His main dish was the Tandoori-spiced salmon
on a bed of stir-fried basmati with a mango salsa that provided an excellent
sweet balance to the salty fish and rice. I had the veal & shrimp
dumplings, served in a bamboo steamer over sushi rice and greens that were
very delicate in flavor and delicious. And then I had one of the best
dishes of my life: morel-crusted breast of squab sliced over hand-cut
fettucine dressed with pancetta and a chiffonade of fresh sage and
parmigiana-reggiano, topped with a slice of seared Hudson Valley foie gras,
with lightly sauteed spring vegetables. It was delicious. It was
incredible. I could go on. Jason has been listening to me go on for days
now. It was the best stuff ever.
And then I looked over and noticed the guy at the table across from us, who
looked like a rock-star with his flounced shirtsleeves emerging from a
corduroy jacket the same color as his long hair and beard. And then I
noticed his dinner companion, his very pretty, very familiar looking dinner
companion. The waitress came by just then to ask if there were anything we
needed and I said "I promise I won't scream or anything, but is that...?"
"Yes, it is." It was Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter, star of _Almost
Famous_, _Alex & Emma_, _How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days_, _Le Divorce_, etc.)
and her husband, Chris Robinson, the lead singer of The Black Crowes. I
didn't scream--I had promised--but I did go outside and call my sister.
Then I came back in and we split a dessert of Bananas Foster French Toast,
which was easily the best of the three versions of Bananas Foster we tried
on our trip. The one at Emeril's was a little bland, the one at Arnaud's
too sweet, but this one was just right.
As we were leaving, Kate & Chris were right next to us, so I went ahead and
said "Wasn't that amazing?" They agreed that it was delicious--too much
so--and that they were ready for bed. We wished them a good night and she
said "You too!" and we went our separate ways.
After that exciting evening, it was hard to drag ourselves out of bed again
to be on the curb at 7:40am when the van arrived to take us on a tour of two
plantations and one swamp--but we made it. Our van was full with thirteen
of us (two women from San Antonio, three from San Diego, a man and woman
from San Francisco, another pair from Grass Valley, and newlyweds from
Vancouver, WA) and our guide did a nice job of explaining some of the
history of the area and pointing out interesting sights as we headed up the
River Road.
Our first stop was at Evergreen, where half of us got out to join some folks
from another group for a tour of "the most complete extant plantation in
Louisiana." It is a private home and has only been open to the public for
the last four years and only through tours. Our guide there, Renee, is
actually the many-greats-grand-niece of the original owners of the property.
She showed us through the Big House, which had been entirely remodeled from
Creole style to Greek Revival on the outside in the 1830's, with the Creole
floorplan (no hallways) left intact on the inside. We strolled down the
older of the two oak alleys on the property to see the 22 slave cabins that
once housed over a hundred slaves to work the sugar cane fields--work that
is done today by seven people. (The other alley, planted in the 1940s, also
usually leads out to cane fields, but at the moment it leads to a facade of
another nearby plantation, Felicity, where a movie is being filmed, but
there is no convenient alley.)
Richard collected us in the van and we went on up to Laura House to pick up
the rest of our group who had chosen that as their first stop. It seemed
much more commercialized and we were glad to have chosen Evergreen, since we
couldn't see them both.
The next stop was Oak Alley, a plantation house built in the Greek Revival
style during the 1830's. Unlike most of the plantations, where the alleys
lead out to the fields, the alley here was planted a hundred years before
the house was built, so it is situated at the end of it and is extremely
picturesque. It has been used as the setting for many film projects,
including the version of _Long, Hot Summer_ starring Don Johnson, Judith
Ivey, Cybil Shepard and Jason Robards that is one of my favorites--I will
have to watch it again now that I have seen the place. There was quite a
wait for a tour of the house, but the porch provided lovely shade. Docents
dressed in period hoop-skirts (with walkie-talkies tucked incongruously in
their waistbands) led us through the house, telling us stories about the
original owners and showing us interesting items like the shoofly fan, the
rolling pin bed, and a gorgeous rosewood cradle that is the only item in the
house from the original furnishings and was made by one of the slaves on the
plantation.
Because of the unexpected wait for the tour, we didn't have time for the
scheduled Cajun lunch. Instead, Richard took us to a Holiday Inn quite
close to our next stop and we enjoyed their buffet of salad, red beans, slow
cooked beef, fried pork, sausage rice, and cornbread.
Then it was on to the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour. We saw lots of
alligators--our guide fed some, having them take chicken necks right out of
his hand (legal because it's a private wildlife preserve and not near
populated areas). We saw snakes, birds, wild irises and got to take a short
stroll into the swamp and to hold a baby alligator--her name was Squiggy and
she was so soft!
Back in New Orleans, we had Richard drop us in the French Quarter, rather
than taking us back to the hotel and were first in line at K-Paul's
Louisiana Kitchen, Paul Prudhomme's restaurant. Jason had the jambalaya and
the crawfish etoufee, while I chose the shrimp Magnolia over fried green
tomatoes, followed by the Seafood Atchafalaya (a mix of crawfish, catfish,
oysters and shrimp in a tomatoey sauce). It was all quite tasty, but
insufficiently different from the other Cajun dishes we'd tried to justify
the incredibly high prices. It was also the only place we ate all week that
triggered my IBS.
I had run out of books to read, so we went looking for a bookstore. We
tried the Shops at Canal Place and when there wasn't one listed on the
directory we asked the concierge, who said the nearest bookstore was in
Metairie (the suburbs). We continued our search through the Riverwalk Mall,
finally finding New Orleans Books and Tours, which had a shelf of fiction
set in New Orleans including a Barbara Hambly mystery, so my quest was
fulfilled. I was feeling pretty sick by that point and we were at the far
corner of the Quarter from our hotel, so we just jumped in a cab. We
thought that perhaps I would nap while Jason logged on and did some work and
then we would head out to hear some more jazz, but by the time he might have
woken me, it was pouring rain, so that didn't seem like such a good idea.
I was feeling fine by morning and we were up, packed and out fairly early.
It had stopped raining, but was hotter than it had been all week, so
everything was steaming.
We walked back down to Cafe Du Monde for a last batch of beignets and cafe
au lait. The place was packed--unlike the rest of the Quarter, which was
deserted at that hour--and we had a pleasant breakfast, listening to some
very nice tenor sax as we ate.
We strolled over to the Hermann-Grima House just in time for the 10am tour
and were very glad we had made it there, as it was one of the most
interesting places we saw on our trip. The house was owned by only two
families and--unlike most of the rest of the homes in the Quarter--was never
cut up into apartments or subjected to any major architectural changes.
They have many items that were owned by the two families (and more coming in
all the time, as heirs donate pieces back to them). Best of all, they have
the only working outdoor kitchen in the Quarter, which is fired up every
Thursday. Our guide is one of the volunteers who take turns cooking, so he
was able to explain to us all of the equipment and how it is used. He had a
lot of information and was a really excellent guide. Their shop was also
excellent and we bought several little things as souvenirs of our trip.
We started to head back toward the hotel at a very leisurely pace. We
stopped in at the Historical Collection of New Orleans, which was currently
between exhibits, but had a short film about the Louisiana Purchase that we
watched. We walked on down Royal Street, stopping in at several of the
shops to admire the wares, but only buying some praline pecans. Finally we
got back to the Rathbone and Jason logged on one more time while I made some
phone calls before we checked out and got in a cab.
When we arrived at Commander's Palace with all of our luggage they jokingly
asked if we were moving in, but then cheefully stowed it for us while we
enjoyed our last meal. We passed up the 25-cent martinis in favor of a Mint
Julep for Jason and an Absinthe Suissesse (Pernod, cream, egg white, almond
simple syrup and shaved ice--surprisingly tasty, considering all the things
in it I don't usually like) for me. Jason started with the shrimp remoulade
moderne (which he enjoyed, but I found overwhelmingly mustardy) and then had
the cypress-grilled pork tenderloin with Jack Daniels corn coush-coush,
smoked onions, bacon and wild blackberry-honey barbeque sauce. This was a
strong candidate for the best thing he ate all week. I had the turtle
soup--this one had a stronger beef flavor and less tomato than
Arnaud's--followed by the Mississipi quail pie, served on a bed of greens
with a wonderfully tangy blueberry vinaigrette. For dessert Jason chose the
Ponchatoula strawberry shortcake (one of his favorites, but the first time
he'd ever had it on a proper biscuit) while I was unable to resist the
Praline Parfait ("Ain't nobody don't like parfait!"), ice cream topped with
whipped cream and pecans inside a cookie shell that reminded me a lot of
windmill cookies.
It rained a little bit more while we were inside, so when we came out it was
dripping from the striped awning that surrounds the building. It took a
long time to get a cab, but we were in no hurry. Despite heavy traffic on
the way to the airport we were there in plenty of time. We had another pair
of easy flights--this time through O'Hare--and even got exit row seats right
by the door on the final leg of our trip. Our luggage came through and
Jason's parents--who had arrived in Boston the day before--met us at the
airport with our car.
Now we're back home, getting caught up and enjoying the Merrills' visit. My
parents drove over today and are staying with Anne, but we're looking
forward to celebrating Easter with them tomorrow.
Orleans, so when our plans to be Down Under this month fell through we
decided to console ourselves by finally seeing The Big Easy.
We left on Wednesday (31 March), just as it was starting to rain in Boston,
which would receive more than six inches of rain in the next two days. We
had easy flights, connecting at National, and arrived to find clear skies
and temperatures in the mid-70's. As we were on appraoch, I pointed out the
window and said to Jason "I think that's the Mississippi!" Considering its
wild, meandering path, the many sandbars, and the clearly visible signs of
former courses--like horseshoes thrown into the swamp--Jason looked dubious
and said "That can't be the Mississippi. That river hardly looks
navigable!"
Even though we didn't get to our hotel until about 5pm, we still managed to
get a lot done on our first day. Having dropped off our luggage at the
Rathbone Inn, we strolled the four blocks down Esplanade Street (pronounced
ESS-pluh-naid) to Bourbon Street and walked the length of it to reach the
highly recommended Acme Oyster & Seafood Restaurant. We arrived early
enough that we could walk right in and be seated. We split a dozen raw
Louisiana oysters--extremely tasty and wicked cheap at $7/dozen--and then
Jason downed a shrimp po-boy (the local version of a sub), while I had a
platter of fried shrimp and some of the best fried oysters I've ever
tasted. By the time we left there were thirty people in line to take our
place.
We wandered down Royal Street--much more our style than Bourbon--enjoying
the many art galleries and antique shops. Anne had told us we had to take a
carriage tour ("It's cheesy, it's expensive, and you still have to do it!")
so we climbed aboard and had a delightful ride around the French Quarter and
a bit of the neighboring Faubourg Marigny. Our guide was a young man, born
and raised in New Orleans, although he said he'd gone "up north" for
college--to Mobile. He helped us get the lay of the land, told some fun
stories and gave us recommendations that proved to be quite accurate and
helpful. He dropped us off at the Cafe Du Monde, so we went in and ordered
the beignets (a French version of fried dough) and cafe au laid that are de
rigeur for any tourist.
Brushing powdered sugar off our noses, we paused to take our first look at
the Mississippi River at ground level and then headed up St. Peter Street to
join the line for the first set of the evening at Preservation Hall. It was
SRO, but we made it into the dimly lit hall with its crumbling walls and
leant against the back wall while they plaed "The Royal Garden Blues,"
"Bourbon Street Parade," and others. We were amused by the sign that said
"TRADITIONAL REQUESTS - $2/OTHERS - $5/THE SAINTS - $10." After about an
hour the band wrapped up the set with "Minne the Moocher" and then took a
break, so we wandered off to sit in the candlelight of Lafitte's Blacksmith
Shop and drink Hurricanes. Finally we stumbled back through the warm
evening to our bed.
On Thursday morning we had breakfast at our hotel--actually, in the other
mansion, which is across Esplanade and down a few houses. They provided a
variety of baked goods--I liked the peach cobbler--fruit, cold cereals and
packages of hot oatmeal or grits. Since Jason and I prefer protein for
breakfast and they didn't even have yogurt, this was the only day we ate
there.
After breakfast we strolled back down Esplanade to the river and took the
streetcar from there to the heart of the French Quarter. We found the Park
Service Visitors Center and enjoyed their exhibit about the history and
culture of the area. The best part was a series of recordings illustrating
the various dialects of the city, including the Yats (short for "whereyat?"
which they use instead of "how's it going?") whose accent sounds more like
Brooklyn or Boston than Atlanta, because of the large number of German and
Italian immigrants. This explains Dennis Quaid's bizarre accent in _The Big
Easy_.
>From there we headed into Jackson Square. We visited the St. Louis
Cathedral briefly--they were testing the organ with long, sustained notes
from each pipe, starting with the highest ones--and then went into the
Presbytere. Built to house the diocese staff, it is now home to an excellent
exhibit about the Mardi Gras celebrations and how they've changed through
the years.
Leaving there, we walked down Charters Street and whatever they were cooking
at The Alpine smelled so good that we stopped in for lunch. We split
another dozen oysters and then Jason had the excellent blackened shrimp
fajitas while I had a shrimp cocktail and a bowl of seafood gumbo. The
service was very friendly (the waitress kept calling me "baby") but a little
slow, so we were in a rush to get out to the Garden District in time for our
tour.
We took the St. Charles Avenue streetcar out to Washington Street and made
it in time to meet our guide outside the Garden District Bookshop in The
Rink, a small shopping mall inside what was the first skating rink in the
city. He took us through the nearby Lafayette Cemetery #1, where he
explained the unusual interrment procedures of the area and showed us many
of the family and society tombs. They had a rash of thefts a few years ago
in which many of the icons on top of the tombs were stolen, so most of them
are gone now, and many of the tombs are falling into ruin.
>From there we proceeded through the district, hearing stories about the
history and residents of the many lovely homes. The gardens were in bloom
and everything was just gorgeous. We saw houses belonging to Anne Rice and
Trent Reznor, among other more local figures.
After the two-hour tour we hopped back on the streetcar and took it all the
way out to the end, past Loyola and Tulane Universities and many more
beautiful homes, and then all the way back to the French Quarter, where we
were able to catch a bus back to our hotel. We took a nap and Jason figured
out how to access the hotel's wireless connection and then we got dressed up
and took a cab out to Tchoupitoulas Street to Emeril's, the flagship
restaurant of the burgeoning culinary empire of Emeril Lagasse.
We had reservations for the Chef's Counter, a bar along one edge of the
kitchen, where we could watch the cooks prepare and plate all the
delicious-looking meals. We were presented with a lagniappe of herb-crusted
oysters with a spinach coulis and then it was time to choose from the
menu--one of the hardest decisions of my life. Jason decided to start with
the warm pistachio-crusted goat cheese, served over frisee with beets and
orange slices. My appetizer was the lobster cheesecake with pickled onions
and fresh tomatoes. Those were both extremely good and quite different. My
main course was the fish du jour, grilled pompano, with crawfish-tarragon
potato salad and haricots verts. The fish was nicely grilled, although not
terribly exciting, but the salad was lovely. Jason was very happy with the
andouille sausage-crusted redfish with candied pecans over shoestring
potatoes with grilled vegetables, one of Emeril's "signature dishes." The
wine list was fifteen pages long and tended toward the flashy and expensive
($850 for the Montrachet), but we were very happy with the house-label Santa
Barbara chardonnay. For dessert we split the Bananas Foster bread
pudding--the three slices of carmelized banana on top were fantastic...the
rest of it was only okay. We enjoyed sitting next to a couple from New York
who come to New Orleans frequently and said they had been to Emeril's many
times. When the meal was over we took a cab (summoned by the friendly
Bulgarian parking attendant) back to the hotel and collapsed.
On Friday morning I got a call from Beckie just as we were leaving the
hotel. Her husband, Neil, had to be taken to the hospital with severe
abdominal pain early that morning. Throughout the rest of the trip we were
calling back and forth often to keep up with what was happening with him.
He was in the hospital for a week, while they did a lot of tests to
determine the cause of the pain, and eventually they operated to remove his
gall bladder, which was in pretty bad shape. He is recovering well from the
surgery and was able to come home on the 8th. But it was all very worrisome
not to be able to be there to support them.
Heading into the Quarter, we found breakfast in a Brazilian cafe near the
French Market (eggs, bacon & pancakes for me, while Jason tried the
"Brazilian crepe" of ham, pineapple, bananas and ricotta) and then strolled
through the market. Jason bought me a lovely hat at The Latin's Hand, since
I had, as usual, forgotten to bring one. We continued along the river,
through the lovely park they've built up there, and on into the Riverwalk
shops, before doubling back to the Canal Street Ferry dock. We took the
free ferry across the Mississippi to the neighborhood of Algiers, where a
free shuttle gave us a ride through town to Mardi Gras World, where most of
the floats for the parades are made. We decided we didn't need to take
their tour, but enjoyed the view of their warehouse, with many of the
enormous float-props on display. The shuttle took a different route back to
the ferry, so we felt like we'd seen enough of the very pleasant area, and
just took the ferry back across.
Back in the French Quarter, we stopped in at the New Orleans Pharmacy
Museum, which has a wonderful collection of antique pharmaceutical tools and
products. Next we visited the Cabildo, the building on the other side of
the cathedral in Jackson Square. Built to serve as the town hall during
Spanish control of the Louisiana colony, today it houses extensive exhibits
about the history of the city and surrounding area. The Cabildo also
contains the room where the transfer of the Louisiana territory was made
from Spain back to France and then to the US in 1803. On the second floor
the Cabildo is connected to the Arsenal, where exhibits about the coffee
trade and the Mississippi river are on display, but by the time we reached
that point we were starving and gave them only a cursory perusal before
going in search of food.
We made our late lunch at the place on the corner of the Upper Pontalba
buildings--I think it was called "The Corner," ironically enough. Jason had
another shrimp po-boy while I took a platter of raw oysters, boiled shrimp
and some really wonderful spicy boiled crawfish. I only wished I'd had
butter to dip them in, instead of the too-spicy cocktail sauce.
After lunch we checked out the stores in the Jackson Brewery building and
then made our way back to the hotel for a nap. Around 8:30 we wandered back
into the Quarter and found Irene's Cuisine, which had been recommended to us
for good Italian food. We had an hours wait, but managed to make good
conversation with the women from London, Ontario seated next to us in the
bar. Once we were seated we had a pleasant meal, served to us by John, a
78-year old from Wales who just passed his 39th Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Jason ate the Oysters Irene, baked with parmigiana and red peppers, followed
by the Pollo di Parma, chicken topped with prosciutto, cheese, eggplant and
sauce and served with pasta. I had the house salad with Maytag blue cheese
and bacon and then the filet mignon. It was a bit too dry, but the
parmigiana potatoes gratin and the sauteed spinach were lovely. For dessert
we split a cheesecake made with Cajun cream cheese, which is apparently
lighter than the Philadelphia style, and served with strawberries. After
that we really needed a walk home.
On Saturday we had a late start and decided to start with an early and light
lunch, so we would be hungry again in time for our early dinner
reservation. We made our way back to the French Market and split some
popcorn crawfish, a ham & cheese po'boy and half a muffaletta at the Market
Cafe. A muffaletta is a sandwich served on a plate-sized round seeded roll,
with ham, salami and cheese inside, topped with a relish of olives and
tomatoes. I'm convinced the name comes from the vast size...there's always
mo' fo' later.
We spent the afternoon touring some of the smaller museums of the Quarter,
starting with Madame John's Legacy. One of the oldest buildings in New
Orleans, the house is built in the French Creole style that was largely
replaced by Spanish-style buildings after fires destroyed most of the city
in 1788 and 1794. From there we went on to the Ursuline Convent, which is
even older, having been built in 1734. Our guide, Tim Pickles, led us
through the convent, the grounds and the attached church. The Ursulines
were a French teaching and nursing order, who founded the first school for
girls in what is now the United States. They've moved elsewhere in the city
and their former home is now the archives of the diocese. Next on the
agenda was the 1850's house, in the Lower Pontalba buildings along
the downriver side of Jackson Square. The living quarters above the shops
are furnished as they might have been during the tenancy of several families
during the 1850's, before the area became seedy and the buildings were split
up into tenements.
We took a break in the lobby of the Hotel Monteleone and found out from
the concierge where we might mail our postcards. Then we went over to the
Voodoo Museum, which gives a very authentic feeling display of various
voodoo artifacts and encourages visitors to make offerings and wishes to the
loa. They certainly manage to maintain a creepy atmosphere.
We still had an hour before our reservation, but were tired of walking, so
we stopped into a convenient netcafe and caught up with happenings online
before heading up to Mr. B's Bistro. The restaurant is part of the
Brennan's vast network of restaurants and had caught Jason's eye earlier in
the week. The atmosphere felt like a New York steakhouse to me, with low
ceilings, dark panelling, and lots of gold railings.
We often joke about who wins at ordering--it's sort of like winning the bid
in bridge. Jason did very well this week, but that night it was my turn.
He had the crawfish remoulade, the "blackened" (which only meant "seared"
here) tuna, and the almond creme brulee. I had excellent seared scallops
with mixed greens (especially satisfying after having to watch a very
similar dish being prepared at Emeril's that was already sold out by the
time we ordered), followed by a garlic roasted chicken with sun-dried
tomatoes and rice with a thick, flavorful sauce. For dessert I picked the
warm white chocolate brownie a la mode, which was just fantastic.
It was still early when we got out of dinner and we toyed with the idea of
going to a movie, but none of the showtimes were convenient and it was too
early for most of the jazz clubs, so we went back to the hotel, logged on
for a while, and then enjoyed the hot tub over at the other mansion.
Sunday morning turned into an unexpected rush--we were up in plenty of time,
but had failed to set our clocks ahead and realized it only when Jason
looked at his mobile phone, which is automatically updated. Instead of
being able to leave at 9:15 and make a leisurely walk into the Quarter, we
raced out the door at 9:42! We still made it before the scheduled 10am
departure, but the tour was already sold out. Fortunately another group was
doing the same tour at 10:30am, so we were able to join that one.
Jonathan led us up to the northern edge of the Quarter, to the famous
St. Louis Cemetery #1. The most famous grave there is that of Marie Laveau,
the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans in the mid-19th century. We saw that, as
well as the tomb of Homer Plessy (the plaintiff in the famous case
v. Ferguson) and the Italian Society tomb, which contains the remains of
about 2400 people and was the setting for the tripping scene in Easy Rider.
We had to leave the tour a few minutes early, before the visit to the Voodoo
Temple, in order to make our noon booking for brunch at Arnaud's. This was
a lot of fun, actually. The food was very tasty--Cajun sweetened cream
cheese with fruit and a wonderful deep-fried softshell crab for Jason and
turtle soup and crawfish O'Connor for me. My only complaint would be that
my starter and main were slightly too similar and it began to suffer from
sameness. Our brunch included a salad course between starter and main and
then for dessert we split an authentic Bananas Foster, prepared tableside
amid flames and sparks.
Throughout the meal there was a three-piece jazz combo moving through the
dining room, playing for each table in turn. We couldn't think of any
request, but were very happy with their choice of "I'm in the Mood for
Love." Even better, however, was "A Kiss to Build a Dream On," requested by
the two women next to us. After the band moved on, I leaned over and
mentioned to the woman closer to me what a lovely couple they made and how
glad we were to see them there and she said "Thank you! That's a real
change from the three women over there who keep giving us the evil eye every
time we hold hands. I thought we should do a big kiss, but she thinks I
should just wink at them!" We had a good laugh together and talked about
the fight for equal marriage rights in our respective hometowns--they are
from San Francisco--and about the NCAA Women's Final Four, which had brought
them to New Orleans. Over the next few days we noticed that there was
actually a large contingent of tall women in comfortable shoes in town to
watch the tournament.
After brunch we stuffed ourselves into a cab and had him deposit us in front
of the New Orleans Museum of Art, out in City Park. It's a nice-sized
museum, just big enough that we could make it through the whole thing in a
few hours. The museum is famous for their Faberge collection--they have
three of his Easter eggs. Their collection of glass is very impressive and
they have some nice Impressionist pieces, including one portrait of his
cousin that Edgar Degas painted while living in New Orleans for several
years. His mother came from New Orleans and her brother had a home in the
Garden District. He had a daughter--Estelle, the subject of the
painting--whom Edgar's younger brother, Rene, wooed and wed. She was almost
blind, so they hired a young woman to read to her and after a while Rene ran
off back to France with the reader, abandoning his wife and child. After
that, Edgar lived in a house on Esplanade that is now a guest house.
When we finished with the indoor exhibits there was still time to visit
their new sculpture garden, a lovely park with ponds, fountains, lawns and
plantings surrounding the many sculptures.
It's about two miles from the museum back to the Rathbone, but it's a
straight shot down Esplanade and it was a lovely day, so we decided to walk
it. We were so lucky with our weather this week--pretty much every day was
sunny and clear with a good breeze and highs in the mid-70's. We were a bit
alarmed when we heard about all the rain and flooding in Boston and relieved
when Jo went by our house and reported that our basement was still dry.
Having had a big, fancy meal at lunchtime, we decided on something simpler
for dinner. Our carriage driver had recommended the Port of Call as having
the best burgers in town and since it was only a few blocks down Esplanade,
it was very convenient. We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but it
was a pleasant night and there was space to sit on the brick stoop. There
was a little boy there who was tired of waiting and I said to him "You can
come sit by me if you like." I rather expected that he would hide at being
spoken to, but he climbed up and plopped himself down right next to me and
we sat and talked about the cars going by on the street until their table
was called. Then I went and talked to the Criminal Sheriff. We had noticed
him parked on that corner a couple of nights previously and wondered at the
title, so I asked him about that and he explained that New Orleans has both
a Criminal and a Civil Sheriff's division, in addition to separate forces
for the bridge, the causeway, the harbor, and various other entities. I
asked why he was stationed there every night and he said that actually he
was off-duty, working privately for the restaurant to keep pickpockets from
working the crowd as they wait and to dampen the likelihood of fights and
welchers. Finally it was our turn to sit and eat and those were not only
the best burgers in town, but some of the very best burgers we've ever had,
and accompanied by baked potatoes that were noticeably excellent.
Many of the museums and attractions are closed on Mondays, so we had decided
to spend the day visiting the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Zoo,
both of which were highly recommended by the various guidebooks. For one
price you get admission to both and a round-trip cruise between them. We
just missed the 10am boat, so we went in and looked at fish until the noon
boat. The trip upriver took about 45 minutes, giving us a little more than
two hours to visit the zoo before the 3pm departure downriver, which was
just time to make a circuit of the enclosures. The trip downriver took less
than 30 minutes, thanks to the current, so we had plenty of time to finish
up at the aquarium before they closed.
Highlights there included two of the most enormous sea otters we'd ever
seen, beautiful jellies, lurking piranha, pretty frogs, getting to see the
underside of rays via the tube through the Caribbean tank, bizarre
paddlefish, a white alligator, and some very friendly penguins--both African
black-footed and rockhoppers. At the zoo we especially enjoyed the
kangaroos, the baby bobcat and the extremely snuggly little Asian river
otters. Both places had very good facilities and explanatory materials,
especially with regard to the local environment and its denizens.
After a break back at the hotel to net and nap, we walked back into the
Quarter to Stella!, a restaurant I had noticed on our ramblings. Oddly
enough, I had already made the reservation there when my sister passed on a
recommendation from a friend who said it's her favorite restaurant in New
Orleans. Well, now it's my favorite, too. The dining rooms are intimate
spaces tucked into an historic building. The service is friendly, without
being folksy and attentive without being overbearing. And the food...
Jason started with the Oriental Tasting: some deep-fried calamari with red
chili paste, a laquered duck springroll on a bed of wasabi mashed potatoes,
and some beef kimchee. Each of them was excellent--Jason liked the calamari
best, but I prefered the beef. His main dish was the Tandoori-spiced salmon
on a bed of stir-fried basmati with a mango salsa that provided an excellent
sweet balance to the salty fish and rice. I had the veal & shrimp
dumplings, served in a bamboo steamer over sushi rice and greens that were
very delicate in flavor and delicious. And then I had one of the best
dishes of my life: morel-crusted breast of squab sliced over hand-cut
fettucine dressed with pancetta and a chiffonade of fresh sage and
parmigiana-reggiano, topped with a slice of seared Hudson Valley foie gras,
with lightly sauteed spring vegetables. It was delicious. It was
incredible. I could go on. Jason has been listening to me go on for days
now. It was the best stuff ever.
And then I looked over and noticed the guy at the table across from us, who
looked like a rock-star with his flounced shirtsleeves emerging from a
corduroy jacket the same color as his long hair and beard. And then I
noticed his dinner companion, his very pretty, very familiar looking dinner
companion. The waitress came by just then to ask if there were anything we
needed and I said "I promise I won't scream or anything, but is that...?"
"Yes, it is." It was Kate Hudson (Goldie Hawn's daughter, star of _Almost
Famous_, _Alex & Emma_, _How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days_, _Le Divorce_, etc.)
and her husband, Chris Robinson, the lead singer of The Black Crowes. I
didn't scream--I had promised--but I did go outside and call my sister.
Then I came back in and we split a dessert of Bananas Foster French Toast,
which was easily the best of the three versions of Bananas Foster we tried
on our trip. The one at Emeril's was a little bland, the one at Arnaud's
too sweet, but this one was just right.
As we were leaving, Kate & Chris were right next to us, so I went ahead and
said "Wasn't that amazing?" They agreed that it was delicious--too much
so--and that they were ready for bed. We wished them a good night and she
said "You too!" and we went our separate ways.
After that exciting evening, it was hard to drag ourselves out of bed again
to be on the curb at 7:40am when the van arrived to take us on a tour of two
plantations and one swamp--but we made it. Our van was full with thirteen
of us (two women from San Antonio, three from San Diego, a man and woman
from San Francisco, another pair from Grass Valley, and newlyweds from
Vancouver, WA) and our guide did a nice job of explaining some of the
history of the area and pointing out interesting sights as we headed up the
River Road.
Our first stop was at Evergreen, where half of us got out to join some folks
from another group for a tour of "the most complete extant plantation in
Louisiana." It is a private home and has only been open to the public for
the last four years and only through tours. Our guide there, Renee, is
actually the many-greats-grand-niece of the original owners of the property.
She showed us through the Big House, which had been entirely remodeled from
Creole style to Greek Revival on the outside in the 1830's, with the Creole
floorplan (no hallways) left intact on the inside. We strolled down the
older of the two oak alleys on the property to see the 22 slave cabins that
once housed over a hundred slaves to work the sugar cane fields--work that
is done today by seven people. (The other alley, planted in the 1940s, also
usually leads out to cane fields, but at the moment it leads to a facade of
another nearby plantation, Felicity, where a movie is being filmed, but
there is no convenient alley.)
Richard collected us in the van and we went on up to Laura House to pick up
the rest of our group who had chosen that as their first stop. It seemed
much more commercialized and we were glad to have chosen Evergreen, since we
couldn't see them both.
The next stop was Oak Alley, a plantation house built in the Greek Revival
style during the 1830's. Unlike most of the plantations, where the alleys
lead out to the fields, the alley here was planted a hundred years before
the house was built, so it is situated at the end of it and is extremely
picturesque. It has been used as the setting for many film projects,
including the version of _Long, Hot Summer_ starring Don Johnson, Judith
Ivey, Cybil Shepard and Jason Robards that is one of my favorites--I will
have to watch it again now that I have seen the place. There was quite a
wait for a tour of the house, but the porch provided lovely shade. Docents
dressed in period hoop-skirts (with walkie-talkies tucked incongruously in
their waistbands) led us through the house, telling us stories about the
original owners and showing us interesting items like the shoofly fan, the
rolling pin bed, and a gorgeous rosewood cradle that is the only item in the
house from the original furnishings and was made by one of the slaves on the
plantation.
Because of the unexpected wait for the tour, we didn't have time for the
scheduled Cajun lunch. Instead, Richard took us to a Holiday Inn quite
close to our next stop and we enjoyed their buffet of salad, red beans, slow
cooked beef, fried pork, sausage rice, and cornbread.
Then it was on to the Cajun Pride Swamp Tour. We saw lots of
alligators--our guide fed some, having them take chicken necks right out of
his hand (legal because it's a private wildlife preserve and not near
populated areas). We saw snakes, birds, wild irises and got to take a short
stroll into the swamp and to hold a baby alligator--her name was Squiggy and
she was so soft!
Back in New Orleans, we had Richard drop us in the French Quarter, rather
than taking us back to the hotel and were first in line at K-Paul's
Louisiana Kitchen, Paul Prudhomme's restaurant. Jason had the jambalaya and
the crawfish etoufee, while I chose the shrimp Magnolia over fried green
tomatoes, followed by the Seafood Atchafalaya (a mix of crawfish, catfish,
oysters and shrimp in a tomatoey sauce). It was all quite tasty, but
insufficiently different from the other Cajun dishes we'd tried to justify
the incredibly high prices. It was also the only place we ate all week that
triggered my IBS.
I had run out of books to read, so we went looking for a bookstore. We
tried the Shops at Canal Place and when there wasn't one listed on the
directory we asked the concierge, who said the nearest bookstore was in
Metairie (the suburbs). We continued our search through the Riverwalk Mall,
finally finding New Orleans Books and Tours, which had a shelf of fiction
set in New Orleans including a Barbara Hambly mystery, so my quest was
fulfilled. I was feeling pretty sick by that point and we were at the far
corner of the Quarter from our hotel, so we just jumped in a cab. We
thought that perhaps I would nap while Jason logged on and did some work and
then we would head out to hear some more jazz, but by the time he might have
woken me, it was pouring rain, so that didn't seem like such a good idea.
I was feeling fine by morning and we were up, packed and out fairly early.
It had stopped raining, but was hotter than it had been all week, so
everything was steaming.
We walked back down to Cafe Du Monde for a last batch of beignets and cafe
au lait. The place was packed--unlike the rest of the Quarter, which was
deserted at that hour--and we had a pleasant breakfast, listening to some
very nice tenor sax as we ate.
We strolled over to the Hermann-Grima House just in time for the 10am tour
and were very glad we had made it there, as it was one of the most
interesting places we saw on our trip. The house was owned by only two
families and--unlike most of the rest of the homes in the Quarter--was never
cut up into apartments or subjected to any major architectural changes.
They have many items that were owned by the two families (and more coming in
all the time, as heirs donate pieces back to them). Best of all, they have
the only working outdoor kitchen in the Quarter, which is fired up every
Thursday. Our guide is one of the volunteers who take turns cooking, so he
was able to explain to us all of the equipment and how it is used. He had a
lot of information and was a really excellent guide. Their shop was also
excellent and we bought several little things as souvenirs of our trip.
We started to head back toward the hotel at a very leisurely pace. We
stopped in at the Historical Collection of New Orleans, which was currently
between exhibits, but had a short film about the Louisiana Purchase that we
watched. We walked on down Royal Street, stopping in at several of the
shops to admire the wares, but only buying some praline pecans. Finally we
got back to the Rathbone and Jason logged on one more time while I made some
phone calls before we checked out and got in a cab.
When we arrived at Commander's Palace with all of our luggage they jokingly
asked if we were moving in, but then cheefully stowed it for us while we
enjoyed our last meal. We passed up the 25-cent martinis in favor of a Mint
Julep for Jason and an Absinthe Suissesse (Pernod, cream, egg white, almond
simple syrup and shaved ice--surprisingly tasty, considering all the things
in it I don't usually like) for me. Jason started with the shrimp remoulade
moderne (which he enjoyed, but I found overwhelmingly mustardy) and then had
the cypress-grilled pork tenderloin with Jack Daniels corn coush-coush,
smoked onions, bacon and wild blackberry-honey barbeque sauce. This was a
strong candidate for the best thing he ate all week. I had the turtle
soup--this one had a stronger beef flavor and less tomato than
Arnaud's--followed by the Mississipi quail pie, served on a bed of greens
with a wonderfully tangy blueberry vinaigrette. For dessert Jason chose the
Ponchatoula strawberry shortcake (one of his favorites, but the first time
he'd ever had it on a proper biscuit) while I was unable to resist the
Praline Parfait ("Ain't nobody don't like parfait!"), ice cream topped with
whipped cream and pecans inside a cookie shell that reminded me a lot of
windmill cookies.
It rained a little bit more while we were inside, so when we came out it was
dripping from the striped awning that surrounds the building. It took a
long time to get a cab, but we were in no hurry. Despite heavy traffic on
the way to the airport we were there in plenty of time. We had another pair
of easy flights--this time through O'Hare--and even got exit row seats right
by the door on the final leg of our trip. Our luggage came through and
Jason's parents--who had arrived in Boston the day before--met us at the
airport with our car.
Now we're back home, getting caught up and enjoying the Merrills' visit. My
parents drove over today and are staying with Anne, but we're looking
forward to celebrating Easter with them tomorrow.
