2912 Trip - Day 6 - October 8

We were going out of the FQ today, so we had a light breakfast at Croissant D'Or. Peggy had a pastry called Frangipane named for the almond creme filling. I had a blueberry croissant. We split a coke. Our tab was $7.00.

After hitting a few thrift stores on Jefferson Highway, we stopped by Haydel's Bakery and found they were closed on Monday. We decided to have lunch at Crabby Jacks, since I had heard it was good. We had their most famous po boy - Fried Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade. Sounded good and tasted even better, although it was one more messy sandwich to eat. Our lunch here cost us $15.00 and was well worth it. I hope to get to go back and try something else. Of course coming back from Jefferson, I got off at the wrong exit and wound up on the West Bank and had to pay a toll to get back over the bridge into New Orleans. I can't count the times this has happened to me, looks like I would learn, but the old are so forgetful :-)

For an afternoon snack we stopped by Cafe du Monde for two cafe au laits and one order of beignets. We found the cafe au lait to be weak and Peggy never really likes the beignets. I sort of wished they were hot Krispy Kremes. Our afternoon snack cost $8.00.

Light dinner tonight was at Remoulade (Arnaud's casual side). We split a piece of boudin (got too excited about eating it and forgot to take a photo) and an order of Natchitoches Meat Pies. The boudin was excellent, the meat pies were very good, and the fries as usual were terrible. With a couple of soda's our bill was $18.00.

2012 Trip - Day 5 - October 7

Hint - If you're in New Orleans and it's the weekend, go where the tourists aren't. A tip of my own that I forgot, since it took us several tries to get a breakfast spot. Tried Croissant D'or - all the raspberry croissants were already gone. Tried Camellia Grill - people pressed up to the window inside waiting for a space at the counter, Tried Antoine's Annex - lots of pastries, but also lots of people waiting in line for coffee/hot chocolate. So we went back to La Peniche. I had pepper sausage gravy with two biscuits (what we call cat-head biscuits in SC) and cheese grits. Peggy had a pecan waffle, with a couple of coffees, our tab ran $20.00. As an extra added bonus just before we left the restaurant,  I was treated to an impromptu round of  "Guess My Muff" provided by a female patron seated across the room from me.

One of the main ideas of eating in New Orleans is that there are so many locally owned places, you never have to eat at a chain. After making that statement, I have to confess that we ate at Popeyes with a twofold reasoning. One, we like Popeyes and two, we don't have a Popeyes anywhere near us in upstate SC. We split the small lunch you see above for a very reasonable $8.00.

 We went for an early supper, since we wanted to be back to see the finale of Hell On Wheels. Mona Lisa is pretty much our go to place on Saturday or Sunday, since it's off most tourists' radar. We had a couple of house salads and a garlic cheese pizza. I got a photo of the salads, but forgot to take one of the pizza, although you can see a slice that comes with the salad on the plate below (tab here was 21.00). Mona Lisa is a very quiet restaurant, which some drunks in the back corner were loudly proclaiming "they really liked how quiet it was". I guess alcohol and irony don't really mix.

2012 Trip - Day 4 - October 6

We started the day at one of our favorite breakfast places, La Peniche. Peggy had eggs, grits, toast, and bacon and I had the pancake....Yes, the pancake as in one pancake (see below) and sausage. I tried my best but I just could not quite finish eating all of it. (tab at La Peniche was $29.00)

Lunch had to be pretty small since we were still somewhat stuffed from breakfast, so we went back to Felipe's Taqueria  - char-broiled chicken for Peggy, pork for me, and we split a chorizo taco (although neither one of us cared much for the chorizo). Our tab was slightly higher today ($13.00) because I had a Mexican Coke.

Supper was at Mother's. This place gets a bad rap as a tourist joint, but I've eaten all over town the past 15 years and I personally think their debris roast beef po boy is great. It gets better with each bite you take. We split a debris po boy and a piece of sweet potato pie. Unfortunately the pie was lacking in flavor. Cost of eating at Mothers - $23.00.

2012 Trip - Day 3 - October 5

Since we didn't make it to Dorignac's yesterday, I wanted to go today early and get back early, so we had a light breakfast at Croissant D'Or - 2 raspberry croissants and we split a coke (tab - $6.00)

Then we were off to Dorignac's to make some groceries - well mostly to get some items from their bakery.

 

I can't imagine there's a better grocery store bakery anywhere else. Standing in front of the counter is Roy the bakery manager and red shirt guy who complained his cherry pie didn't have enough cherries. He said he should have brought it back, but he ate it anyway. This all translated to I want a free pie! He 

got one too.

We stocked up on some goodies - a slice each of orange cake & lemon cake, a Napoleon, and 2 lemon and 2 chocolate doberge squares. We ate the orange and lemon cake slices earlier for snack, the orange one was good, but the lemon one was sort of dry. Guess you can't get a winner every time.

For lunch we headed to Yo Mama's for a burger. I didn't get a shot of the outside, but here's a view of the inside taken from our table. The fellow to the right was a hoot and entertained the people he was with and also us. He sort of talked and looked a little bit like Max Baer as Jethro Bodine.

We split a cheeseburger and got an extra baked potato. Peggy had two Blue Moon beers and I had two Miller High Lifes. The beers were way to expensive (tourist rip off prices $4.50 and $4.00 each respective) and this made our total tab here $37.00. While Peggy says this is a "damn fine burger", I actually preferred the one we had last night at Camellia Grill.

Went to DBA and caught Hot Club of New Orleans - not really our cup of tea. It was what I like to call Woody Allen music. We had a couple of beers and left right before their first set ended. Since we were pretty stuffed from lunch and our afternoon cake snacks, we wanted something light for supper. We walked way back down to the other end of the FQ to eat at Felipe's Taqueria. 

We had three tacos (char-grilled chicken for Peggy, pork for me, and we split a marinated pork), with 2 root beers our tab was only $12.00. Not only was this a good meal, but cheap also.

2012 Trip - Day 2 - October 4

We started the day at Camellia Grill which now has a location in the French Quarter. Unfortunately, even though I had the camera in my pocket, I forgot photos, so maybe next time. Peggy proclaimed her pecan waffle the best ever. I had a cheese and sausage omelet with hash browns which I found to be good, but not great. ($22.55 was our total.) There was a lot of banter between the waiters and the sole white employee took some ribbing, not only because he looked like Jerry Seinfeld, but he was also told he was hired only because of affirmative action. 

We went to a couple of thrift stores across the river and found a few treasures. After that, we tried to get to Dorignac's to "make groceries" and get some of things from their great bakery, but because of road construction, we got caught in a traffic jam and decided to make our way back to the FQ. 

We went for a late lunch at The Napoleon House and split a 1/2 muffaletta (photo at top) and drank several beers (Our tab, $24.00). We even spotted Elvis hanging out there. After getting a pretty good buzz  from the beers, we wandered the streets like two old demented people (which of course no one thought was out of place here) until we spotted one of our favorite places, Southern Candymakers.

In our opinion, these are the best pralines in New Orleans, plus they have loads of other candies. We bought a couple of pralines, a dark chocolate peanut butter cup and a white chocolate peanut butter covered Ritz. ($10.00).

On the way back to the apartment we caught a couple of good street musicians. One group was playing Jewish music. The other group, led by Doreen, was performing Dock of The Bay. The quality/talent of these groups were both at professional levels. 

Not being all that hungry, we decided to give Camellia Grill a chance for a snack size supper. The personable staff wanted us to try a cheeseburger "dressed" and with grilled onions and Peggy wanted a Mocha Freeze (their version of a shake). We decided to split a burger and Will on The Grill said he would throw in fries for free and Brock said he would make enough Freeze that we could split that also. With all the lagniappe, this turned out be our cheapest meal so far ($11.00)

We differed on our opinion, Peggy thought the burger was just ok, I thought it was what I call a "fine damn burger". We both agreed the Freeze was nothing special. 

2012 Trip - Day 1 - October 3

After 3 years we have finally gotten back to New Orleans. The driving always goes smooth until we get to Mississippi and then it "seems like" it takes longer to cross that state than driving through Georgia or Alabama. I don't know if it's because it's the last state before getting to Louisiana or if it just comes near the end of a long drive (11 hours from Taylors, SC). 

After getting the car unloaded and parked (yay! we got a good spot) and doing a little bit of unpacking we went out to find something for supper. Wanted something good, since on the road we had a Hardee's sausage biscuit (too much biscuit, not enough sausage) and some Taco Bell (not great, but one of the few fast food joints I can abide). 

As shown in the opening photo, we decided on Acme Oyster House. The line was fairly long and we had to wait about 30 minutes to get seated, but it was worth the wait. We ordered the Boo Fries (fries with roast beef gravy and cheese) (4.99) and of course a dozen char-broiled oysters (19.49). This meal was so good, it almost made it worth the drive through Mississippi :-)

REASON TO LOVE NEW ORLEANS #11

KERMIT RUFFINS