New Orleans + Unexpected Dallas

Hey, hey, hey. Back from New Orleans for a week and already missing the food there!!! Such a great city to visit. Lots of culture (if think about the short history of United States) and good food. Thanks to my sister's friend going there for the Rotary Convention so that I can tag along! Although I was forced to take 2 extra days off at the end (more about this later) but I still had a good time. I will definitely go back for another visit! This is gonna be a long post again!

Day 1
We arrived late at night because we insist to take the last airport bus to save the $20 shuttle fee. It's very strange that all the signs at the airport didn't mention about the airport bus but the shuttle. Good thing is that we did our research. Just to let you know, the E2 bus stop is located at the second floor. The bus does take a bit longer especially during the week nights, the bus stop won't go to downtown. We actually needed to transfer 2 other buses but bus drivers and passengers were very nice and showed us how to connect to the next bus. If you can't take the bus, go take the taxi instead of the shuttle. Taxi only cost you <$15. You can definitely save that $5 for a drink later!

After we checked in our hotel and go look for something to eat immediately. We were starving! Although French Quarter is just 20 minutes walk, we were a bit shaky to walk there late at night on our first day. Good that there is a pub right across our hotel. There I had my first jambalaya, first Abita Purple Haze and some crawfish pies. At that moment, we all didn't know what "gator" mean. We thought we were having a "chicken" jambalaya. We found out the next day that "gator" = "alligator"!!!

Day 2
We didn't have the free breakfast at our hotel (it is actually quite good), saved our appetite for a cool little cafe at the French Quarter, which was recommended on the "Budget Itinerary" at the New Orleans Official Traveling website. We walked along the River Front, enjoying the river view and the colonial style buildings. The Croissant D' or Patisserie is hidden at the back of the French Quarter. It took us a while looking for it. The place gave me a touch of home feeling with colony style interior decoration and European style pastries. We ordered almond croissant, Napoleon and Galette Des Rois for breakfast, well, it was more like brunch. These are what I would call true pastries. I still couldn't accept Americans called donuts as pastries.

After charging ourselves, we started exploring the French Quarter. We passed by the St. Mary Church and the Old Ursuline Convent. Took some pictures and we arrived at the French Market. We immediately got loss inside! So many artists selling their artworks and farmer selling their farm goods. There was a stand at the entrance selling some beautiful feather headbands. Those headbands are much prettier than the ones I saw iat Notting Hill last fall! The stand was packed; and of course, I got one for myself! We kept walking around the market until we were hungry. We arrived at a store called "Central Grocery". According to the iitinerary guide, this place has a very good Italian sandwich called, Muffaletta, which stuffed with olive salad and salami. We had that for lunch, yum~~~~. We also ordered the artichoke but I would skip that next time, it's a bit greasy for me. This market offers a lot of European grocery, lucky for the people lives in New Orleans.

Kept walking along the river side back to the front of French Quarter, we reached the Jackson Square. It was smaller than I thought. It is like a size of a city block. The St. Louis Cathedral. The outside of the church is O.K. Maybe I grow up in a place that have many catholic churches and it is hard to impress me on church. But the inside of the church is quite pretty. From there we found out we can actually go inside the Old Ursuline Convent, which is the oldest building in New Orleans we passed by that morning. So, we decided to go back before it closed. Halfway back there, we saw an interesting pub. My sister's feet was killing her already so we take a rest inside that pub. We didn't know this Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop is the oldest pub in the States until I saw the description on my Hurricane cup. The Hurricane was very good and strong as the name (totally gave me a hurricane!). My sister and her friend ordered the VooDoo DaiQuiri, which is an ice slurry drink made with vodka and grape juice. Perfect to cool you down in a hot summer day. When we finished the drinks, we were all drunk and the Old Ursuline Convent was already closed.

Since we missed the hours of the Old Ursuline Convent, we decided to go have some oysters!!! According to the guide, there should be a long line waiting but no body was waiting. We got a sit at the bar, it was fun watching people non-stop opening the oysters. We ordered a dozen of raw oysters immediately and also some craw puppies. The craw puppies were very similar to the croquettes I had in Spain last fall! I guess after all New Orleans was a former colony of Spain. The oysters were so fresh and sweet. I miss it so much. After a while there, we knew why the people keep opening the oyster at the bar. The guy next to us was doing the 15 dozens challenge!!! Yes, 15 dozens! He was just finishing 12 dozens of oyster. He looked like he was going to throw up. After we were done, there indeed was a long line outside Acme. The guide did not lie, it's just we were early for dinner!

After we met up with our other friends and had a short rest at our hotel, we headed back to French Quarter. Since our friends didn't have dinner yet, we had a second dinner with them at the Desire Oyster Bar. There We tried the crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya and turtle soup. The crawfish was so good best I ever have and they were cheap. Only $6/lb. I think "fresh" made it tasted so much better. Among the 4 dishes, I like the turtle soup the most. I couldn't tell it was made with turtle at all! It tasted a bit like some beef stew back home. 3 of the girls headed back to the hotel to get some rest for their Rotary Convention the next day. Me and my sister stayed. It was a Thursday night and a bit quite there but still fun to walk around and enjoyed the party atmosphere. After a while, we were tired as well and called it a day.

Day 3
Day 3 was a slow day for me, just me and my sister. Other girls had Rotary Convention. We took it easy that day and just do some relaxing stuff. We explored the Garden Distract by going there on a street car. It was fun. The houses at that area were very pretty. One of our main purpose there was to try a place called "Joey K's". It was featured in one of the "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" episode. It supposes to be a local neighborhood eatery and it is true. They offered a menu with some new creation dishes with seafood based but they do offered those tradition NOLA dishes such as red bean and rice (and this was what I had). My sister ordered one of their popular dish shrimp pasta with artichoke and garlic. They were both good but may be a bit heavy for lunch. This is the first time I had red bean and rice. I didn't know how it supposed to taste but it was a bit salty for me. I also ordered an Abita (my favorite beer now). It was a seasonal version - strawberry. It was soooooooooooo good! Love it.

 

We spent the afternoon walking around the Magazine Street with a lot of cool stores and coffee shops. I found a really cool and fun "Red Bean & Rice" ring there. I want to try one of those coffee shop but I was too full. Instead, we had a dessert at a gelato place called "SUCRE". They have a po-boy gelato. Since we hadn't had yet, we tried it. Well, it just gelato but a good one! We walked back to the street car station and stopped by the cemetery at Washington Street. Don't be surprised. It is one of the tourist spot. The cemetery is quite interesting but not as pretty as I thought. I expected more angel status.

We jumped back on a streetcar and headed to Uptown. Uptown is where all the mansions located. I enjoyed looking at all those pretty houses from the streetcar. After a while, we arrived the Audubon Park. Across the park is a Sacred Heart School, it must be the graduation date as we saw many high school graduates walking out from the hall. We took a walk at the park. The Oak trees are so beautiful. The path was separated into 3 lanes, walking, running and biking. So thoughtful! It was getting hot when we heard the ice cream truck music. Perfect timing!

 

After 3 days at New Orleans, I noticed people there love to run and walk their dog! We saw a lot of people running in the middle of the streetcar lane. On our way back, we even saw people even chilling and sitting, by that I mean drunk, in the middle of the streetcar lane. I also saw the Google Map cars. That's explained why the Google Map was not when I tried to use it before the trip! We stopped by the Avenues Pub before heading back to French Quarter for dinner. It was recommended by the guide as well. It has a large selection of beers but the bartenders were not nice. I asked her for suggestion as I don't know much about beer. She answered me she didn't know what to suggest. I told her I like dark beer and she gave me a very dark beer called "Peche Mortel". That beer was disgusting but that's not the reason I was mad. I totally understood that I was the one asked for dark beer suggestion. What made me mad was their attitude when we said we would like to close our card. They looked like upset that we only got one drink each. They even screwed up our bills!!! So, don't stop by there if you are not big fan of beer.

Dinner time was my favorite time at New Orleans! We tried the famous Gumbo Shop at French Quarter. I ordered the Jambalaya and my sister ordered the combination plate, which included the Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya and Red Beans. The Jamalaya was better than the one at Desire. My sister's combination plate is very good!!! Love the Shrimp Creole and the Red Beans was not as salty as the one I had for lunch at Joey K's.

 

We spent the rest of the night listening to Jazz at some Frenchmen Street pubs. We even listened to some live jam section on street. It was good and fun! When we left, probably around 1 a.m. or so, there were still some artists selling their art work. I even saw several poets on the street with their vintage typewriters offering poetry writing. Interesting! 

Day 4

Due to the laziness of doing research, we didn't do much during the day but had extremely fun time at night. Since our friends only had half day Rotary Convention, me and my sister finally got chance to enjoy the free breakfast at the hotel and visited some museum near our hotel (the Warehouse/Art District) while waiting for our friend.

We randomly walked around the area and see which museum we hit first. It was the WWII Museum, which focus on the D-day of WWII. On the way we saw an army band practicing at the back street. It was a Saturday and there were some ceremonies with lots of people. The ticket is quiet expensive, $24 but included a 45 minutes 4D movie. You can buy the admission without the movie but I highly recommended it. The movie is a very high quality production with good special effects and you wouldn't feel it was 45 minutes long!  If you are students, bring your ID, it will cut the ticket half off. This museum is a good place to learn about the D-day. After that, it was time to meet up with our friend and had lunch. 

Po-boys for lunch! Johnny's Po-Boy at French Quarter, which is also feature in "Diners, Drive-in and Dives" before. It was a tiny place with some smelly garbage bins right in front of the entrance but their po-boys are sooooo good. We had the oyster and crab cake po-boys. Miss it already. Too bad I only had po-boy once during the trip. 

There were 2 National Parks (yes, National Parks) at the French Quarter. The Jean Lafitte National Park was OK. Nothing much but some New Orleans history and it was small. So, we immediately head to the other one, the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park (we were running a bit behind the schedule). I don't know why it is called a park but it was fee and have live Jazz band! We stayed for a while, listening to the live jazz and head to the thing we missed on the secondary day - the Old Ursuline Convent and the St. Mary church. We made it! 15 minutes before it closed. Same thing, if you are student. Half off on tickets. Only the ground floor is opened to public at the Convent but it has a lot of beautiful status from France. The church is much smaller than the St. Louis but it remained me the little at my high school but this one is so much prettier. 

Then, it was tea time. At French Quarter, you must try the deep fried pastry at Cafe Du Monde. The pastry is perfect with a cup of  cafe au lait! Just in case you couldn't fit into your schedule, it is opened 24 hours! You can even bring a box of the pastry mix and a can of coffee back home with you.This place remind me about the Portuguese custard tart place back home, which is always packed by tourists.

Next, we went to Mid-City and wanted to check out the Sculpture Garden inside the City Park. Unfortunately, people booked it for a wedding. It was already evening and the streetcar only come every 40 minutes. We walked around the park a bit, jumped back on the next streetcar and head to the Garden Distract for dinner. The place is called Casamento's and.... it was closed!!! We were so disappointed as we know that place has good oysters and soft shell crabs (yea, it was feature on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" as well). Later that night, a local guy told us the Casamento's is only open when the month ends with an "r". I guess "May" just does with an "r" at the end.

It was already dark so we head back to French Quarter for dinner. We really wanted to try soft shell crab that night as we were leaving the next day. The only place we know it served soft shell crab is Acme. This time we have to wait in line for >30 minutes to have a seat but it totally worth it, soft shell crabs (just $22 for 2!), crawfish etouffee, banana foster cheesecake and never disappointed fresh oysters!!! We left their as a happy person again! 

Our happy moods carried on the entire night. We walked on the partying Bourbon Street. Collecting some beads from the people drinking on the balcony. It was hard to get one without showing some of your body parts (you know what I mean, right?). I ended up getting just three beads with some helps from my friends, hehe. Halfway there, we stopped by some bar and had a Hurricane to boots up ourselves. We chilled on the balcony and watched people partying on the street. When we finished our drinks and got buzz, we switched to some jazz bar on the Frenchmen Street. We kept drinking and dancing until the music stopped and headed back to the hotel through Bourbon Street. People still partying there. We went into any club that didn't charge a cover and keep dancing and drinking. I don't know if it was 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning when we were on the streetcar and back to the hotel. It was such a fun night!!! 

Day 5

Me and my sister's last day. We only got half day and it was a Sunday. My sister's friend is a Catholic. So, she woke up earlier and went to a mass at the St. Louis Cathedral. We met her there after her mass. 

There was an restaurant I saw on the Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation show called Antoine's, which is very closed to the St. Louis Cathedral. It is a very expensive restaurant but it is also one of the oldest restaurant in the U.S., which specialized in Louisiana Creole cuisine. Of course food is one of the reason I wanted to go there but I was also attracted to their 15 beautiful dinning rooms! 

Having brunch on Sunday there was great. The price is lower and less people. The whole brunch took us the entire 2 hours but it was so much fun. Our server is a very funny guy. I felt like he "dances" to our table every time he came by. You can ask him as your server if you ever visit there, he gave us his card and I had a picture below. Each entree comes with a Mimosa. Very good deal! I couldn't resist to the oyster and ordered the fried oyster, Huitres en Brochette au Pecan Rice Pilaf . Don't ask me how to pronouns it, because I don't know! It was served over the pecan rice pilaf. The oysters were good as usual but the rice was surprisingly good. My sis and her friend ordered "Veal with Crab Meat". It was yummy but mine was so much better! The other two girls shared a "Sunday Jazz Brunch" and ordered additional 2 appetizers, Huitres Rockefeller & Chair de crabes Champignons Hollandaise (crab meat stuffed mushrooms). The Jazz Brunch is a very good deal, $29 per person including appetizer, entree and dessert. Soft shell crab is one of the entree you can choose from. Sorry that I didn't take pictures on their food. So, I guess you have to go there yourself to see how good it is. Oh yea, they called it "Jazz" Brunch is because they have live Jazz on Sunday!

After brunch we wanted to try their famous "Omelette Alaska Antoine" dessert but it required at least 45 minutes ahead of ordering. Our server checked the kitchen to see if they have an extra one but we were out of luck. It's just too bad their menu didn't mention about the pre-order time. Instead, we had the Meringue Glacée Sauce Chocolat, which is baked meringue topped with chocolate sauce and almond slices. According to our server, it is similar to the Alaska but Alaska contain the soft meringue. Anyway, it was very good as well! 

If you ever dine there, make sure you check out their dinning rooms before you left. They are gorgeous! We weren't sure if it is true when our server mentioned we could walk around the restaurants when giving us our bill. But when we were walking around the restaurant, one of the serve offered us a tour and explained the usage of each dinning room for us. We were lucky that all the servers were taking a break as we were the last 2 tables for brunch. He even let us sneaked in the balcony to take a look. During the "tour", we saw the owner fixing the balcony by himself! I bet the owner must have a passion running the restaurant. It was quiet during the lunch time but the server told us they were booked for 200 tables that night! He said dinner is always full there! All the dinning rooms are beautiful. Some are big that can serve >50 people. Some are small for private dinning. Totally worth spending a little bit more to dine there!

 

After that, our journey was pretty much done. The girls stayed 2 days longer as they had the Rotary Convention earlier and couldn't see the city as much as me and my sister did. We want to buy a Muffaletta to eat on the plane but the Central Grocery is not opened on Sunday. Well, I think I got enough souvenirs, maybe it was too greedy to want another Muffaletta.

Everything was smooth until we were on the plane. There was a thunder storm in Dallas and the plane couldn't land. The plane flew all the way back to New Orleans, re-fill on gas and flew back to Dallas. Of course, we missed our connection flight as we arrived at 1 a.m. If we know it would delay, we would have eat at the Acme in the airport!!!! They couldn't put us on an earlier flight next day but the same flight which is 9 p.m.! We ended up spending $150 for a hotel room to spend a night in Dallas.

Day 5 & 6

Luckily, I lived in Texas before and got some friends in Dallas still. One of my friend came pick us up and had lunch with us. She dropped us in the mall and drove us to the airport after work but chaos started again. I checked in online earlier but now the flight was cancel. So, I could go home until Wednesday. Good thing is the counter assistant was nice and put us on standby at the earliest flight on Tuesday and we were the last 2 got on the plane!!! If we knew the flight was cancel, we would have spend our time more wisely instead of the mall. But look at the bright side, I had very good Mexican food there and gotta see some of my friends!

 

Anyway, I thing this post is long enough. Hope you enjoy it! Good night!

Happy Blogging - Vee