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New Orleans 2007

May 26 2007 – May 30 2007

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Flew in around 11:45. Our luggage came out in like 15 mins – we think it was a record. Came out and got a cab to our condo. The ride took about 20 mins, but we hit a little construction traffic along the way. The Condo's location is pretty good. 5 min walk to Harrah's and the Riverwalk area. About a 15 min walk to the French Quarter.

We were going to go to the Wine Experience at the Hilton, but it was really crowded and we weren't sure if there were tickets left, so we decided to walk to the French Quarter and see what we could scrounge up for lunch. We started walking down Decatur, with the plan of going to the Gumbo Shop, but the line was out the door, so we decided to head back to Crescent City Brew Pub. They were really busy too, but we were able to sit right away at the bar. Mark had the oyster club sandwich and I had the German sausage platter. The oyster club base is deep fried oysters, with avocado, spinach leaves, radishes, tomatoes, sauerkraut, and Canadian bacon; it was also served with home made potato chips. It was actually pretty good. My sausage platter was overdone, but probably would have been great if it were a little juicier. The platter came with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Mark also ordered a cup of gumbo. It wasn't bad, but it was disappointing. It couldn't touch Mark's, by a mile. After that we worked our way up and over all the way to Barracks (one block before Esplanade). Esplanade is the far border of the French Quarter. Working our way back, we did a little barhopping and exploring down the West end of the Bourbon Street. Stopped and had the world famous Hand Grenade drink. It was good, but a little too sweet to us. Definitely dangerous, since it's made with Grain Alcohol.

For dinner we headed back to the French Quarter to Olivier's at 204 Decatur Street. We started off the Gumbo Trio which consisted of a creole gumbo, a file gumbo, and an okra gumbo. Mark's favorite was the file gumbo and Sue's was the okra gumbo, but once again Mark's was better than any of them. We had a 2002 Trimbach Gewurztraminer with the appetizers. For dinner Sue had the Crab & Salmon Cakes and Mark had the Crawfish Etouffe. Both dishes were good but we both agreed the Crab and Salmon cakes were better. We had a 2001 Chateau Des Fines Roches Chateauneuf du Pape with the dinner. While the wine was a little too warm, we chilled the wine in the ice bucket brought out with the Trimbach. After the wine chilled some it was pretty good. Not as much fruit as expected, but for the price we would order it again. The wine prices were very good for a restaurant; the Trimbach was $34 and the Chateauneuf was $40.

After dinner we went to Harrah's casino to see if they had any lounges that had live music. They didn't so we decided to go to the Ice Bar within Harrah's. The bar was circular and had scantily clad dancers who moved between 4 dance platforms. one above the bar, where they all danced together and 3 solo platforms scattered around the bar. We had a few martinis then came back to the condo to call it a night.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Today, Sue slept in a little, then we headed out to Central Grocery for some good Muffuletta's, but they're closed on Sunday, so we wound up at Landry's Seafood house for lunch. I had the Blackened Catfish Atchafalaya and Mark had shrimp and andouille gumbo and an oyster Po'Boy. We also had "strings and japs" (onion strings and jalapeño strings) for an appetizer. It was surprisingly good. In fact this was the best gumbo we've had thus far, besides Mark's, of course. Then after lunch, we stopped for some big easy daiquiri's for the walk home.

We headed out for an early dinner at about 5:30 hoping to get to The Gumbo Shop before the line starts. We were able to get seated as soon as we arrived. We decided to do a Cajun Tapas for dinner. We had seafood gumbo, chicken andouille gumbo, alligator sausage, boudin sausage, red beans and rice, and jambalaya. The gumbos were about the same, except different…. the main ingredients. Once again, Mark's gumbo is better, we might need to make some when we get home. The alligator sausage was very good and the boudin sausage was excellent, finally something real spicy. The red beans and rice was decent and the jambalaya was lacking. We had a German Riesling with the dinner. It was a little too sweet, but not bad with the food, especially the spicier foods. We headed back to the condo, completely full. Sue had some blisters on her feet from all the walking, so we decided to stay in the rest of the night.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Sue woke up early today, for her…. 8:30, but we still didn't head out until 12:30. We went to Napoleon's for lunch. They are supposed to have the best muffuletta it town. We had the muffuletta, not bad but ours is better. It's really hard being good cooks! We also had the seafood gumbo, imagine that, and the boudin sausage. Both were good, but not as good as Gumbo House's. We had a 2004 Zabaco Dancing Bull Zinfandel. It was $21, a little warm, but not terrible… obviously not that good either. They had it down as a "Red Zinfandel", some restaurants shouldn't be able to sell wine! We then walked to the A&P Royal and St. Peter to get something for breakfast and Crystal Light. We then tried to find some bar or Daiquiri place. Found Mango Mango, ordered two daiquiri's; Big Easy's are better and a better buy. We then walked back to the condo, picked up two more daiquiri's from Big Easy, although we weren't done with the other daiquiri's, then went up to the room and watched the White Sox game. During the walk back, Sue thought we walked by John Stamos, but Mark (me) believe's it was just because we briefly saw an episode of Full House before we left for the day.

Sue took a nap, then we went to Café Adelaide for light dinner. I had a spinach salad – which was really good. Mark had seafood gumbo. We had a few drinks, hung out and then walked home.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Today we hung out in the morning after we got up then went to Café Adelaide for lunch. They had $0.25 martini's during lunch. The commander's martini is really good. I had the chicken adelaide with a strawberry spinach salad – yum! Mark had the turtle soup and the crawfish sandwich – which Mark really liked.

We decided to hit the casino for a little while. We played the slots, briefly, very briefly. Then we moved to the blackjack tables. I only lost $5, Mark didn't fare as well. But it was a way to spend some time. Then we decided to walk to get some Daiquiri's, stopped at the Famous Door for a beverage and some live music, then went to the Big Easy to get the Daiquiri's, then headed back to the condo for some tv.

For dinner we went to Tommy's Cuisine. Sue had the lamb chops, Mark had the duck. Both were really good. On our way home, we hit W.I.N.O (Wine Institute of New Orleans), What a great shop. It has the "enomatic". Yummy, but expensive. The amount per taste is about 10% the amount of the bottle.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Happy Birthday to Mark. We decided to go to Cochon for lunch. We sort of made this a tapas, having the boudin, the gumbo and the short ribs. All were really good. Afterwards we went to the World War II museum. A good, education trip. Afterwards we stopped back at W.I.N.O., for a few beverages. We met another couple, Mike and Sheila, who have been married for 13 years, have no kids, and a male cat and a female dog. Sheila joked that as a couple we were twins. Then she started talking about her dog, Akasha, Sue's jaw dropped because obviously that's just crazy since our dog's name is Akasha. It was fun but we had to leave the Twilight Zone to get ready for dinner so we headed for home.

We booked a 6pm table at Restaurant August for Mark's birthday. We decided to go with the Degustation menu – a nine course meal with wine pairings. When we were seated, Carlos was our waiter, we were given a compliments of the chef appetizer. It was served in an egg shell with caviar with egg foam. Served chilled. tasted of green onions. Not crazy about it, but Mark likes it.

1st course - a salad called Tete de Vous (?) – with Chenin Blanc. The wine was a little fruit forward. Salad was served with a vinaigrette. Wine was a little too fruity and overpowered the food a little, but still good.

2nd course – foie gras with sauternes. The foie gras was served with strawberry-rhubarb sauce. The foie gras was a little salty, but paired well with the sauce and the sauternes.

3rd course – Mersault with Viognier blend with whole crawfish in a cream sauce. This course was a lot of work. We weren't sure exactly how to eat them, so we had to ask our waiter. Carlos was nice enough to show us how to eat them. Once we knew what to do, it wasn't so bad. It was actually a decent course, but probably more work than it's worth.

4th course – Pan seared scallops with pinot noir from Carneros. The wine and food was paired well; Mark really liked it, but Sue wasn't crazy about it. It was served in a Veal Morel Mushroom sauce.

5th course – Montrachet with mammal – at least that's what our waiter told us. He was convinced on keeping the next course a secret, which made the tasting a lot of fun for us. This course was Rabbit, 2 ways with Ratatouille. Yummy. The meat was served in a creamy sauce and a good pasta. A good wine pairing too.

6th Course – 2004 Tablas Creek Grenache. Veal ravioli with truffle foam. Good. wine pairing also good. Mark thinks this is the best pairing of the night.

7th Course – Kobe Beef with Tomato foam and fresh asparagus with Philip Moran Pinot Noir. Beef melts in your mouth – reminiscent of corned beef. Good, but a little too light.

8th Course – tawny port with grilled goat cheese sandwiches with tomato sorbet and honey with pine nuts. Very good and creamy. matched up well with the tawny port.

9th and final Course – Champagne with panna cotta with stewed strawberries. Yummy. Unfortunately, Sue was very full by this time. But yummy!. Sue guessed when she saw the champagne that strawberries would be following.

After the dinner , the waiter, who knew it was Mark's birthday, invited us back to the kitchen. How cool, huh? We got to meet the chef, Mike Gulotta. We were able to tell him how yummy everything was and how much we appreciated the hard work. It was very cool to see everything. The kitchen was well organized, but smaller than I expected. It was really cool to see it, in the middle of the dinner rush.

The whole experience took about 3 hours. We were both really fully and satiated by the end of the meal.