Lousiana – Here and There

Obviously on a work trip I spent most of the days in a conference room. However, there was still time to explore some of New Orleans and here are a few of the activities that we partook in.

Swamp Tours: Cajun Encounters vs. Airboat Adventures

A swamp tour to see the alligators of the bayou is pretty much a must-do if you’re in New Orleans. There are several different tour groups, and I’m here to compare two of them for you. I would recommend both, but there are differences in the experiences depending on which group you go with. Both options are about 30-45 minute bus rides away from the French Quarter, and for the options that I took the pricing was around $75 on average.

We’ll begin with Airboat Adventures. For the thrill-seeking, roller coaster loving types, Airboat Adventures offers a high-octane zip through the swamp. The unique parts of Airboat Adventures?

Obviously racing through the swamp on a tin barge with a giant propeller fan furiously working behind you.
Our crazy-ass driver actually jumped into the water with the alligators and fed them while swimming amongst the animals.
A baby gator is passed around the boat for some pretty awesome selfies.

One thing to note: if you don’t like loud noise, this may not be for you. They give you solid headphones to wear, but it’s still pretty loud regardless.

Cajun Encounters is a bit more of a mellow trip through the swamp. I would recommend paying the $70 because although there are cheaper options, the $70 gets you a ride on a smaller boat fitting 10 people that can go into the smaller canals and river ways. The unique parts of Cajun Encounters?

You do probably see more alligators on Cajun Encounters than you would on Airboat Adventures.
As I mentioned, going through the small canals of the swamp offers some fantastic photo opportunities.
You do get to see wild boars (see video below). These animals come right up to the boats for food and are absolutely adorable/enormous. We just happened to luckily enough (or unlucky to some of the other passengers) almost witness an alligator attack a baby wild boar. The boat captains intervened and used the boats to shoo away the predatory alligators, but the commotion did get a lot of hearts racing.

You can’t go wrong either way, you just need to decide for yourself what kind of adventure you’d like.

New Orleans School of Cooking

This was one of the highlights of the trip. Our department head graciously booked us all for a hands-on cooking class as a team builder activity and it was a hell of a lot of fun. Beer and wine were included, so the libations made it quite an event. Our chef instructor was young, enthusiastic, and had a contagious passion for cooking southern food. We were split up into four groups, each group being in charge of one of the menu items (you can change the menu depending on your dietary restrictions): Gumbo, Stuffed Mushrooms, Jambalaya, and Bananas Foster. Obviously being such a big group, not everyone got to do everything, but I would suspect if you visit, you’ll be more hands-on in making each part of the menu. I was part of the Gumbo team, and specifically helped out in making the roux for the soup. I had never made gumbo before, let alone roux, so it was a great learning experience. After the cooking, we all sat and feasted on our creations, and although the food wasn’t super-duper restaurant quality, we loved it because we made it.

The Garden District

An easy cab or trolley ride away from the French Quarter, this is the area to go to if you want to see some ridiculously nice mansions. The area between Magazine Street and St. Charles Ave holds some of the most impressive houses in such a small area that I’ve ever seen. Guided tours are available, though just walking around and admiring the architecture was enough for me. Magazine Street offers some cool little boutique shops and restaurants to meander in and out of as well. Also located in the Garden District is the Lafayette Cemetery that’s worth strolling into for half an hour to see the traditional tombs and wall vaults made famous in movies and popular culture. Across from Lafayette Cemetery is the famous Commander’s Palace restaurant, which we didn’t actually eat at, but heard from others in our group that it’s excellent.

New Orleans Ghost Tour

Don’t do this drunk. I’m serious. Not because it’s too scary or anything like that. It’s just that this walking ghost tour doesn’t mix well with inebriated people. Our tour guide Jack was having an awfully hard time keeping people’s attention and he clearly was getting frustrated by it. His stories were good, but they were far too long and complicated for a group that had clearly had a few drinks in them. And you don’t get to go into any of the buildings he was talking about. I’m not saying I wouldn’t recommend it, but do it earlier in the night and/or on the night off from the bars.

Frenchman Art Market

Located in the heart of the Frenchman Street area, this outdoor market is a great place to find some creative, local art for sale. Most of the crafts range from jewelry to furniture, and clothing to paintings and have an unsurprisingly hipster look to them. Nonetheless, it’s a cool place to take a stroll and pick up a souvenir or two.

I’ve just recently returned from a work trip to New Orleans, LA and needless to say it was quite a week. New Orleans is everything you’d expect from the Mardi Gras capital of the world. With the open alcohol beverage laws in the city, New Orleans can easily cause a few rough mornings. Bourbon Street in particular is as wild as its reputation and I’ll say this right off the bat: It’s not for everyone. Bourbon Street on a weekend night is probably as filthy drunk of an area that I’ve ever seen – it’s neither a compliment nor an insult; it’s the truth. Unless you’re in you’re early-twenties with a fondness for frozen drinks that are really sweet and loaded with the shittiest alcohol, I doubt that you’ll want to spend too much time there. But I do recommend you walk down it at least once to experience the chaos (and the smell you’ll quickly want to forget).

Since this was a work trip, most everything was taken care of by the company, so I can’t give you too many specifics on pricing. But I’ll give you my quick thoughts on a several restaurants and activities in the next few posts. We’ll start with food in this post.

Cafe Du Monde

The signature cafe of New Orleans, this eatery is open 24 hours a day and tourists and locals flock there for their coffee and signature beignets. For me personally, I think it’s “eh”. You kind of HAVE to go there because it’s such a historical place. But at the end of the day to me it was just a too doughy fried dough and coffee. It’s not bad, it’s just not worth the hype. It also doesnt’t help that it’s usually muggy and hot in New Orleans, which isn’t exactly the climate conducive to me wanting to eat a hot donut and coffee.

Cafe Amelie

This is a weird review because we didn’t eat there. Why didn’t we eat there? Because it was closed when we arrived. Why did we go when it was closed? Oh, it’s because we had a confirmed reservation. So yeah, we were a little shocked/pissed/amused/confused when we saw the place empty and a sign saying that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. A useful bit of knowledge that they probably could have told us when we made the reservation AND when we called again to confirm we were good to go. The patio from outside the gates looked nice though.

Three Muses

Probably my favorite of all the places we ate, Three Muses is located on Frenchman Street just east of the French Quarter. I would highly recommend going out there if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of Bourbon Street. Frenchman Street is still pretty crazy, but it’s a bit more of an older crowd (late-20s, early-30’s) with more venues that lean toward hipster with live jazz music than fratty dance party. On a weekend night, it’s best to make a reservation at Three Muses (and at any Frenchman Street restaurant in fact) because the place is not very large. Our group of 6 just happened to be lucky enough to show up when another party of 6 who had a reservation was late. The hostess ended up seating us because the other group wasn’t on time (they’ll give you a 15-minute grace period). When we were there, a female jazz singer and her trio of instrumentalists were performing music that sounded like it was out of the Roaring 20s; it was a fun, lively atmosphere. The food comes in small sharing portions so it’s best to get a few. My personal recommendations are the Mac and Cheese, Bulgogi, and Tempura Shrimp. My co-worker also said the lamb sliders that I never got around to tasting were excellent. As far as their cocktails, you should have a cool, refreshing “Earl Grey Gardens” with dinner and a “The Other Redhead” as an after-dinner libation.

Oceana

Works as a good lunch place on Bourbon Street to get a real good shrimp po’ boy or seafood dish. It felt kind of like a chain, though it wasn’t, so don’t expect anything here to blow you away. Keep it as a lunch option and not dinner because it’s solid, not spectacular. The french fries there randomly were really good though.

Domenica Restaurant

Domenica was the restaurant our work group went to for our first dinner and I very much enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say you should put this at the top of your least or even to make it a target to rush to, but if you do end up there I think you’ll enjoy it as well. I had the Tagliatelle made up of slow cooked rabbit & porcini mushroom ragu (much to the chagrin of my co-worker who couldn’t stop picturing me eating a bunny) and it was delicious. The Salumi & Formaggi platter they put together for us was spot on and I sampled the Red Snapper which was a popular choice amongst my co-workers. The surprise favorite dish though was the Roasted Cauliflower w/ seas salt and whipped feta. Definitely get that as an appetizer.

Evangeline

If you had asked me two years ago, I would have said Evangeline was a must-do. But after going there this second time around, I would say not a must-do, but a recommend. I want to say that the restaurant was having a bit of an off day, but that’s still not an excuse. Anyone who ordered beer got beer that was pretty warm (not very welcome in the heat of summer), and our waitress while very nice, seemed a bit stoned. At one point, my co-worker asked simply for yellow mustard and the waitress returned empty handed apologetically saying “We’ve run out”. What restaurant runs out of yellow mustard?? The food was fine though, and the patio is really nice with the Christmas tree lights strung up.

The patio is nice, but if it's really muggy, stick with the A/C inside. — The patio is nice, but if it’s really muggy, stick with the A/C inside.

The Ruby Slipper Cafe

We came here for brunch, and I’ll say off the bat that they did not leave a good first impression. I was running late, so I didn’t see it, but apparently my friends who put our name down on the wait list were treated pretty rudely. That being said, we still stayed and personally, I’m kinda glad we did despite the bitchiness people encountered. I tried their Eggs Cochon, which is their signature dish, and it was awesome. I’m not sure why I was skeptical of a dish that had pulled pork, poached eggs, and hollandaise and cheese over a buttermilk biscuit, but it was really good.

Category: Lousiana

New Orleans: Quick Hits – Activities

New Orleans: Quick Hits – Food