Car Whe-eeeeels on a Gravel Road (New Orleans)

We took a day between building in Baton Rouge to go down to New Orleans, where we stayed in the Bourbon House Hostel. Per usual, Emily and I found a Starbucks on our way out of Baton Rouge to "borrow" their wi-fi return for some over priced lattes.  (Dunkin Donuts, if you're reading this I'm sorry)

If it shines light on just how easy it is to travel this country at an affordable rate, Emily and I booked the new Orleans room while in the Baton Rouge Starbucks parking lot, left Baton Rouge and arrived at the hostel an hour and a half later.  May I add that Emily played any and every song that referenced cities and food of Louisiana (this included searching Spotify with jambalaya).  Lucinda Williams' "Lafayette" was my winner.  What a great song.  If you don't know it, do yourself a favor...

When we got to New Orleans we went to grab something to eat before checking in to the hostel.  Locals recommended Traceys for some good local food.  Let me proceed this story first with telling you that Emily LOVES everything about New Orleans, lists it as her favorite city, but the only thing she could talk about was the food on our way down and once we got there.  Unfortunately, Tracyes was nothing more than overpriced Po' boys and a good beer.  If they could have fit it on the menu, odds are they would have served a shoelace Po boy.  A shared plate of fried okra, a shrimp po' boy and two Abitas later, it was off to the dorm room we'd be sharing for the next two nights with some girls we had yet to meet

The Bourbon House Hostel

Emily in our six bedroom suite

Thursday our goal was to simply squeeze in as much as we could before having to head back to Baton Rouge on Friday.  When in New Orleans, it's a known fact that the beignets from Cafe Du Monde are a must.  From a logistical standpoint, I sat and watched in awe as they pumped out hundreds of these powered covered delights.  The cafe au lait was so insanely good, a perfect way to wash down the paste that forms in your mouth as you try to inhale the powered sugar/fried dough.  It took me back to when my Grandmother used to make us waffles with powered sugar as kids.  Okay, enough about beignets...I'm hungry. 

The glorious Cafe du Monde beignets

We headed down to the to French Market Farmers Market to walk around and by walk around this meant eat.  Eat a lot of food.  Emily was in all of her glory, meanwhile I was hoping any remaining powdered sugar had officially removed itself from my sweater.  And then I came across this...

The World Famous N'awlins Cafe and Spice Emporium

If you know me, you know I have a weakness for hot sauce.  I put this hell in a bottle on EVERYTHING.  In an overzealous moment to attack the Walk of Flame Bar, I chose that gem in the front row, third in from the right...with the eye dropper.  I grabbed that piece of bread and dunked it in the ramekin of sauce like it may have been, let's say, the last day of my life.  And then Emily observed the magic happen.  The tears, the snot, the sweating and shivering at the same time, the frantic pacing as if walking with my mouth open may solve my problem.  Unfortunately, the World War 3 occurring on my tongue and in my mouth limited me from tasting/enjoying any of the other hot sauces.

The Cafe also had a great menu and this is finally where Emily's attack on creole dishes began...like this lovely white beans and rice with sausage and shrimp.

Emily was in Heaven

We had one very special guest meet up with us for lunch.  Enter Chloe, our delightful English hostel mate, who subtly introduced herself by waking up that morning only to tell us that she may still be a wee bit drunk from the night before.  We, in turn, treated her to her very first bloody mary.

 

 

The rest of the day we spent strolling the streets.  Walked up and down Bourbon St, which may I say, getting a beer to go is quite liberating.  We hit a few shops, antique stores and watched Chloe attempt eating gumbo before heading back to the hostel to get ready and head back out to Frenchman Street for dinner and music.  (the next hour at the hostel was spent introducing Chloe to Lucinda Williams, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", which she knew the words to by the end of the night ... everyone!)

So many of the places with great live music were packed so we stuck around for a few songs and headed to 13 to eat.  For the love of all that is delicious in the world, this ended up being one of the greatest dishes I've ever eaten in my life.  A vegetarian meal ... in New Orleans ... at 11:00 at night ... boom! 

Sadly our time came to an end and we had to say goodbye to New Orleans and Chloe, but not before she cooked us pancakes.  We wish her all of the best as she embarks on her new life in Australia!


Our goodbye pancake breakfast

Made for us by our favorite Brit

Another successful trip to NOLA in the books...

Love from the road,
Erin