Easy Livin' in New Orleans

Friday was the start of my drive to the beach. My drive took me to the exciting city that is New Orleans. I've been to NOLA once before in July 2010 for a crazy weekend with SD, MN, and JP (Pepe). When I went that time, the four of us got a hotel room, with SD and I sharing one bed and the boys sharing the other. I found it hilarious that the boys found it necessary to build a wall of pillows between them. JP claimed that he is a cuddler and didn't want an awkward morning-after. SD and I headed to bed early (~3am) whereas the boys stayed out and went to Harrahs. When SD and I woke up in the morning at 8am, we found a giant traffic cone hanging out in front of the bathroom door.  Let me tell you, that is not something that you expect to walk into right after you wake up. Not to be out-done the next night, the boys hid one of the hotel luggage carts in our hotel room, again in front of the bathroom door. Why? I have no clue; those are the boys for ya. All in all, it was an awesome two-night stay in NOLA.

Now that you know what my first trip was like, I can tell you that this visit was much more tame, but consisted of much better food. My preschool friend CA was kind enough to let me crash on his couch for a night. CA and his girlfriend are huge foodies, so CA sent me a long list of places we could try out. They're awesome. See below for that list:

• Green Goddess- in French Quarter
• Boucherie- Uptown
• La Petite Grocery- Magazine st
• Commander's Palace- Garden District, 50-cent martini's for lunch on weekdays
• The Joint- BBQ, Bywater 
• Willie Mae's- best fried chicken in the US
• Crescent Pie and Sausage- homemade sausage and pizzas
• Domenica- John Besh Italian restaurant at the Roosevelt Hotel on Canal St.
• Tamarind- Vietnamese/French fusion
• Three Muses- live music
• Mimi's in the Marigny 
• C'est la vie- French bistro
• Magasin Cafe- Vietnamese
• Jacque-Imo's- get there early, they get pretty crowded and the wait gets long soon 
• Baru- Spanish tapas
• Cure- cocktails
• Maurepas Foods- in the Bywater
• Crabby Jacks- po'boys
• Mahoney's- po'boys
• Parkway- po'boys
• Casamentos- oysters
• Voodoo- bbq
• Dante's Kitchen - Southern food 
• BooKoo BBQ in Finn McCool's
• The Country Club- restaurant with a bar, pool, and hot tub
• Stanley- Quarter for brunch 

We ended up going to Maurepas Food, where I had Gulf Grilled Fish.
Here's the photos of our dinner:

 

Mexican Winter: Tequila, Apple, Lime, Lillet, Curacao, Honey

Pickle Plate: (clockwise from front left): Shitake Mushrooms, Blueberries, Cantelope, Mushrooms, something from the onion family)

Peaches and Peppers. The mint pulled it all together.

Gulf Grilled Fish with blueberries and squash

Squid sausage sandwich - CA's dinner

Gingerbread, mint chocolate-chip ice cream sandwiches - CA's dessert

We then headed down to Frenchman Street, which is much less touristy than Bourbon Street. Though of course we did end up walking down Bourbon Street for a little bit. Next time I want to stop in at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar.