It was an early start in LA to head to the airport – thanks to the L.A Marathon which meant highway closures and road blocks. So we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6am and made our way to LAX. Nat swiftly directed George through the back-streets of LA; and George swiftly directed the vehicle in the correct direction. We reached the airport in record time and had two hours to spare before our flight.
We experienced our first full body scanner experience at LAX (Nat says: I’m glad I was wearing nice underwear). Other than that, the security queues were as long as to be expected in the US; and the people were as loud and obnoxious.
Then 4 hours later we touched down in The Big Easy. Needless to say Nat’s excitement levels escalated pretty quickly – but for our own safety, she has vowed to stop using the Southern drawl she learnt during the Year 8 production of ‘Huckleberry Finn’.
Our home for the next 4 days would be Maison Perrier – a Bed & Breakfast located well outside the tourist hub of Bourbon St, in the leafy green Uptown/Garden District full of plantation houses and Southern mansions.
The bed & breakfast owner, Tom, was a wealth of information. He proceeded to talk us through the best restaurants in “N’Awlens” and managed to get us a booking at one of them for dinner that very night. That, my friends, is the kind of service that makes foodies very happy after an early morning and long day of flying.
Our first night in ‘The Big Easy’
Our first evening in New Orleans was spent exploring the surrounding neighbourhood, the Garden District – which is a few miles outside of the main city. The streets are lined with large, beautiful trees and the houses look like something out of Gone With The Wind.
The B&B is walking distance from some of the best restaurants in the South, so we were fortunate enough to spend the evening enjoying some of the South’s finest cuisine including crispy oysters, roast duckling and my favourite dessert thus far – Louisiana Pecan Pie (Southern pronunciation: “pe-CAHN PAEEE”. We sounded like ultra-Dundee-bogans when we said ‘PEE-can’) at Upperline Restaurant.
Southern Hospitality is incredible – all the people we have met, from waiters to shop assistants to locals, are willing to give you their time and advice about the best ways to enjoy New Orleans (Tip #1: Avoid Bourbon Street).
We have managed to figure out their ‘streetcar’ system after a couple of attempts, and now don’t glaringly look like tourists when we’re commuting between our accommodation and all the sights.
Day 1: Southern Art, Pralines, Steamboats
Our first full day in NOLA (“New Orleans, LOuisiana”) commenced with a hot breakfast, and a trip into the city to do some sight-seeing and walk around the French Quarter.
On the streetcar into the city, we were surrounded by a large group of travellers from New York (East Coast pronunciation: ‘Noo Yawk’) who very quickly turned our tram ride into ‘The Locals Guide to NYC’. We were advised of the best places to go shopping in NYC (much to George’s dismay and anxiety re: his impending retail-therapy doom).
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art was beautiful – even though none of us profess to have much knowledge about art, we still enjoyed experiencing a variety of exhibits encompassing modern, landscape and even Mardi Gras costumes!
We then braved the walk to Bourbon Street – which is a combination of Chapel St, St Kilda, Swanston St and King St, all in one narrow, disgusting laneway that the locals avoid. We were not discovering Bourbon Street at night-time – which is a precarious exercise in itself – but rather in the aftermath of St Patrick’s Day.
Let us set the scene: It is an extremely humid, hot Monday morning and all that the nasal passages could encounter was stale beer, spirits and yes, vomit. We quickly exited the city’s main ‘nightlife’ hub (well, for tourists that is) onto the adjacent Royal Street, which was filled with vintage boutiques, antique stores, cafes and stores chocked with hand-made Southern pralines (Southern pronunciation: PRAH-leens) – which are a sickly sweet biscuit/candy made from butter, sugar and pecans.
We enjoyed an incredible lunch at Restaurant August (a fine-dining favorite of the locals), which included contemporary Creole cuisine – crawfish ravioli, oven-roasted tuna and an incredible caramelized banana pudding. The filling Southern cuisine necessitated an afternoon siesta, before we headed back into the city, to the Mississippi River to board the Steamboat Natchez for our Harbor Jazz Cruise for dinner, drinks, live music and an amazing view of New Orleans from the water.
We spent the first hour sitting on deck, watching the sunset and the lights slowly turning on throughout the city skyline – all while listening to live jazz music. Although the music was fabulous, and the Southern food staples (creamed spinach, fried chicken, bread pudding) were tasty, the conversation with the couple next to us was one of our most memorable experiences thus far.
Scene: Middle-aged African-American couple from New York. The husband’s name was Michael, but we didn’t quite catch his wife’s name amidst all her hair bobbing, finger waving and ‘I told her hell NO girlfriend’ moments. So we aptly named her Chaniqua or Latisha…
And yes, she used the phrase ‘I got my hair did…’
We were in stitches for the entire cruise, and barely even noticed that the steamboat was pulling back into the dock.
Day 2:
We started our morning with a run through the gorgeous Uptown & Garden District, down to Audubon Park. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing New Orleans in the crisp, clear morning around the Park. Clear highlight of the morning was seeing squirrels! And while we acknowledge they are just the American equivalent of possums, they are infinitely cuter – especially when they are eating things.
After a nice, hot breakfast and a quick stop at the Post Office (to mail home our totally expected Lego & Disney acquisitions), we educated ourselves at the Civil War Museum, followed by an iced coffee at Jeri Nim’s Soda Shop at the nearby WWII (‘D-Day’) Museum, modeled on an authentic 1940s soda shop.
Our afternoon was spent in the gorgeous antique, vintage shops lining Magazine Street (which spans over 5km…) before a French dinner at Lillette (Food highlight: Nutella Custard with Hazelnut Praline and Dark Chocolate ‘Spoons’ to eat it with.)
Day 3:
Our last day in New Orleans started with a much-needed sleep-in. The entire ambiance of ‘The Big Easy’ is contagious; everyone is so laid-back and hospitable here, that it’s easy to fall into step with the speed (or lack thereof) of the locals.
So it was highly appropriate that our final dining experience was at Galatoire’s – a New Orleans institution for over 105 years, serving amazing traditional Creole & Cajun cuisine. The waiters are shuffling, old men (probably the same age as the restaurant itself) wearing suits and bow-ties, which matched the interior evoking old world charm, perfectly.
Our waiter – let’s call him Bernard – was the funniest waiter we have encountered thus far – old, grumpy, sarcastic and a little bit surly. We tried gumbo for the first time – an amazing spicy okra (the name “gumbo” derives from an African word for okra), seafood and vegetable soup. And of course, the piece de la resistance of the meal: Louisiana Pecan Pie!
All full of gumbo, fresh fish, creamed spinach and pecan pie, we wandered down to the ‘D-Day’ Museum. This new museum has been privately-funded predominantly by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks; and was recently named ‘The National WWII Museum’ by Congress.
Production values were at an all-time high, in this dynamic museum which spans over several large buildings, some still under construction; and the 45-minute 4D film screening of ‘Beyond the Boundaries’ (narrated by Tom Hanks) was impressive, with sound effects, chairs that move and shake along with the film’s explosions and smoke machines – but behind the shiny, loud curtain lay the US propaganda. (Nat’s Political Gripe: The moral of the film was – the entire success of WWII hinged on the involvement, soldiers and firepower of the United States of America. Brilliant presentation, and emotions expertly evoked; while lacking in accuracy and substance. #IraqWaranyone?)
And on that note, it was time for a swing dancing class at The Spotted Cat Night Spot in the Marigny District, on Frenchmen Street (a local hub of brilliant, live music venues… And no tourists in sight), followed by the live jazz offerings of ‘The Orleans 5’ while we sat and enjoyed the unique, infectious N’Awlins ambiance.
We could not have asked for a more quintessential and perfect way to end our experience in the Deep South.
What we will remember: The Southern Hospitality was incredible – as was the Louisiana Pecan Pie. (Nat: I look forward to trying out the pecan pie recipe from my new Southern cookbook)