New Orleans Trip

I shared a little about the New Orleans trip on my last blog, but I didn’t tell you much about the city itself. New Orleans is coming back. I was down last January during Mardi Gras and the place felt like it had no soul. This year that had changed. New Orleans felt good again.
We accidentally picked the National Championship Football weekend to travel down for our eating day. I certainly had not a clue. I am a Public Radio fan, not a sports fan. Apparently, birds of a feather flock together, because all of us girls were surprised to find ourselves in football land. I had no idea how many variations of fan attire regalia existed. There are the basic school colors, the embellished fan colors, a multitude of fan message shirts and suits, plus fan emblazoned camouflage. None of them appealed to my fashion sense. I realize that I am in the minority of southern people in this attitude. Apparently, it is not just southerners. There were whole hoards of funnily dressed people going up and down Bourbon Street yelling O-H-I-O in unison. Sports are a big thing. I realize that. I just didn’t realize how many people would travel so far and spend so much money to be peculiarly dressed and yelling things.
New Orleans is all about food to people like me. When I go there, I go to eat. A trip always entails a trip to the Café Du Monde for coffee and beignets, even though I HATE chicory in my coffee. It always means a trip to the Central Grocery for a muffaletta to take home. I love those big fat loaves of bread stuffed with cheese, cold cuts and olive salad. It means having some kind of seafood done with something spicy. We had dinner at Arnaud’s. I discovered that I really like their version of Creole mustard. The one I buy at the grocery store has too much vinegar. Theirs is milder and is even good on crackers.
The good thing about living in driving distance of New Orleans is that we can go back often if we choose to sample a variety of dishes. We have always considered New Orleans as the place to go when we are feeling cosmopolitan and adventurous. New Orleans is the nearest thing we have in the US to a European city.
Our culinary heritage here is rural southwest Alabama has always been influenced by the Creole heritage. We have always loved seafood, spices and fats in our cooking. Every cook has some form of gumbo in their repertoire. We just go to New Orleans to get new takes on what we are already preparing or to eat something a little fancier than we are used to, and then we come home and make it. Some of us buy cookbooks with the recipes in them. Others of us just taste and correct the seasonings until we get it right, but all of us look to New Orleans as our cultural icon of eating. Food is a big part of our culture and we go to New Orleans to get a fix. We save our money, and then go eat well. We can’t think of a better way to have a good time and bring home good memories. New Orleans welcomes one and all – those who are casual and those who dress funny.