The Rest of our NOLA Trip

The rest of our trip to New Orleans was full of a lot of wandering, exploring, and of course eats - some good, and some not good.

We love District: Donuts, Sliders, Brew:

It a really trendy, cool place that sells specialty, creative donuts and sliders, as well as amazing coffee.  They have different types of cold-brew coffee on tap!

It was so hard to decide between all the delicious kinds of donuts:

We ended up getting a cereal and milk donut, and it was sooooo good!  It actually did taste like cereal and milk - craziness!

We went back later on the same day to buy donuts to-go:

And then a few days later to get a cinnamon bun with a brulee top:

Before our last trip to New Orleans, three years ago, we did a lot of research.  We found out that Commander's Palace tops a lot of lists, and was considered the best restaurant in NOLA.  We didn't visit this place on our last trip, but we did on this trip ... and boy, were we disappointed. 

Commander's Palace is a fine dining restaurant.  It has a very strict dress code, and a pricier menu.  The service is impeccable. 

Unfortunately, the food was bad.  Very bad.  The bread that they brought out was okay, but it was basically day old, store-bought garlic bread:

We tried the famous turtle soup, but it tasted like boring, one-dimensional chili:

We had the shrimp appetizer which was almost inedible.  It had a strong chemical taste that was absolutely terrible:

Christopher had a steak salad which he described as bland and boring:

And then I had a halibut dish with the most terrible, unseasoned sauce I've ever had:

The fish was well cooked, but nothing on the plate tasted good, so that kind of ruined it.  We were so incredibly disappointed, and don't know how this restaurant is still open, let alone popular.  On the bright side, they do have 25 cent martinis:

We talked to a chef at another restaurant who used to work at Commander's and he agreed with us, saying that they survive on their name (still doesn't explain the awards!?).  This food is perfect for people who don't like flavour ... and that's all I'm going to say about that.

If you're ever in New Orleans, you absolutely have to walk around the Garden District.  It is so beautiful, and the homes are out-of-control.  We had so much fun checking out all the mansions, most with huge gates, and surveillance cameras sticking out everywhere.   

We made faces for the cameras.

We walked and walked and walked and walked ...

And checked out the gorgeous, heated, salt-water pool at our hotel:

And dressed up sometimes:

And ate a lot, and I mean a lot, of oysters:

We went to the two most famous oyster joints in the French Quarter, Acme Oyster House, and Felix's.  We ordered some raw oysters and our new obsession, char grilled oysters.

Muffuletta sandwiches are popular in NOLA, and we tried the original muffuletta from Central Grocery.  It's worth all the fuss.

And finally, we went to Root Squared (the sister restaurant to Square Root which we went to for the tasting dinner; in the same building) for their happy hour snack plate which included radish with butter, crispy chicken skin, a scotch egg, salt cod beignet, and pimento cheese:

Everything was delicious, especially that chicken skin.

Overall, our trip to New Orleans was fantastic.  The weather was hot and humid the whole time, with a giant storm hitting just as we were leaving on Friday.  We definitely lucked out.

Do you have any trips coming up?  Where to?

Our Favourite NOLA Restaurant

Our favourite restaurant in New Orleans is the "diviest" dive around.  It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and we had been to this place on our last trip to New Orleans.  It was the one place we knew we had to come back to.

Parasol's is a dingy, run-down looking place, with the best food around.

The firecracker shrimp po boy is Christopher's favourite sandwich of life, and I'm partial to the roast beef po boy; both are absolutely incredible.  Parasol's has the best bread for their po boys, unlike anywhere else. 

The fries are so cripsy, and some of the best we've had.  They are even better topped with cheese, and gravy, which comes with roast beef debris.

We ate our po boys, and then a couple hours later we got the fries.  Basically we spent a good part of our day at Parasol's.

You can sit in the dining area, and order beverages through a little window:

Or you can go around to sit at the bar and plug the jukebox, which had every song we could ever want.  Sitting at Parasol's, we felt like we lived in the neighborhood.  In fact, we loved hanging out there so much on Tuesday, that we went back and spent a good part of Thursday there.

On Thursday Christopher tried the oyster po boy, and I had the amazing fire cracker shrimp.

Then, a couple hours later, we just had to get more of the fries. 

Whatever, #fat.

We cannot wait to go back to Parasol's next time we're in NOLA.  It is our absolute favourite.  If you make it there one day, say hi to Billy at the bar for us - he's a gem.

Have you ever had a po boy sandwich?

Butter Chicken at Subway

Exciting news for sub lovers - Starting tomorrow, Monday April 4th, Subway will be launching their new butter chicken sub, for a limited time! 

Christopher and I never eat at fast food burger joints, but we do like subs, and will grab Subway if we need a quick meal.  He usually orders the sweet onion chicken teriyaki, and I go with the chicken and bacon ranch melt, or turkey.  However, thanks to the kind people at Subway, we got to try the butter chicken sub before it hit the menu, and this might be our new fave. 

As you all know, we love Indian food around here, and butter chicken is a classic Indian dish.  We're always drawn to stronger, bold flavours.  Subway's butter chicken has a lot of flavour, with the perfect touch of spice.  What we especially love is that it is free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.

The butter chicken sub is made with all white meat, and a butter chicken sauce that is made with real cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, red pepper, and ginger spices.  Top that with your favourite veggies and cheese, and you've got yourself a pretty tasty sandwich.

Add a little flavour to your Monday and grab yourself a butter chicken sub for lunch. 

 Do you like butter chicken?

Full disclosure:  Subway provided me with the sub and a package of goodies free of charge, but I was under no obligation to reciprocate with publicity or post about the sub.  All opinions are my own.

Gimme that Souuuuul Food

On Monday morning we headed to Willie Mae's Scotch House right at opening time, as we heard it gets lined up.  We were there about 15 minutes early, and there were already a few people in line.

This place is definitely a dive, and it's not in the best neighborhood ... but it was recognized as having the "best fried chicken in America" by The Food Network and The Travel Channel, so we knew we had to check it out.

The cornbread muffins were warm and yummy:

I had the fried chicken with mac and cheese, and Christopher got his with mashed potatoes.  Both came with peas as well. 

Unfortunately we were both a little bit disappointed.  The mac and cheese was mediocre, and we think our homemade fried chicken is better than this stuff, as is Brother's in NOLA.  This fried chicken was unique though; it had a very light, flaky, almost panko-crumb-esque (tempura-ish) style batter.  We didn't let any of the food go to waste, and it was a good deal for the price; I just don't think we'd make the trip to this place again next time we're in New Orleans.

We spent our Monday afternoon wandering around the French Quarter, and stopped in at Cafe Beignet for some beignets, coffee and jazz.

We love Cafe Beignet, and think it's even better than the famous Cafe du Monde - plus there's no long line and there is always live music.

For dinner we walked for a long while to The Joint, a very popular BBQ spot we'd been to before.  They smoke everything out back:

I had ribs with beans and mac:

Christopher enjoyed pulled pork with coleslaw and mac:

We knew this after our last trip to New Orleans three years ago, but we belong in the south.  The way of life, the food, the music, everything just calls our names.

Do you have anywhere in your city you'd recommend for soul food?

What's the best dive restaurant where you live?

Gospel, Swamps and Stuff

On Easter Sunday we went to a Gospel brunch at the House of Blues.

The gospel music was absolutely wonderful, and the food was delicious.  They were serving up chicken and waffles, biscuits and sausage gravy, amazing cheesy grits and mac and cheese, and all the usual breakfast staples.  Sooooo good!  I highly recommend this Gospel brunch.

Later on in the day we went on a private swamp tour.

It was so nice to have the tour guide to ourselves, as the tour was less structured than it would have been with a group, more causal, and catered to what we wanted to do.  We got to meet some little friends:

A sweet little golden racoon, Blondie:

It was absolutely wonderful, and we're so glad we went on this tour.  The wild boar tried to get onto our boat.  They wanted more marshmallows!

When we were done the tour we saw a hummingbird; I don't know if I've ever seen one so close before.

Two days into our trip, and we were off to a great start with the jazz cruise, epic dinner, gospel brunch, and swamp tour.

And we hadn't even gotten started on the po boys!

Happy weekend friends!

What are you up to this weekend?