|
|
| | |
|
cerulean city guides
destination: new orleans
The big easy has never been so great! New Orleans is a maze of history, cuisine and character, blending French and African influences into a melting pot that has become one of the most culturally rich cities in the United States. Having grown up a stones throw from this Mecca of food, booze and celebration, I am all too familiar with the ins and outs of Bourbon Street and beyond, and can’t wait to share our favorites with you.
With its share of issues to overcome since Hurricane Katrina (it had its share of issues before the storm, too), New Orleans has made incredible strides towards building back better than it was before. The city is also, more than ever before, full of contradictions and irony. With chic new restaurants standing alongside proud institutions, sex shops open for business next to tony white-tablecloth lunch spots, southern but independent, and always steamy, New Orleans has a little bit of everything going on all at once! Something for everyone. Come ready to stroll and get lost, come prepared for the heat and humidity and for the unique smell of Bourbon Street. Mostly, come to have a good time in a town that lives life like its always Fat Tuesday.
This only scratches the surface of all the amazing things to do in New Orleans, so keep checking back. This City Guide is a work in progress and will be updated frequently!
where to eat...
Galatoire's
209 Bourbon Street
Founded in 1905 by Jean Galatoire, this French seafood establishment distinguished itself on Bourbon Street from its humble beginning. Jean Galatoire brought recipes and traditions from his small village of Pardies, France to create a familial dining style and bistro ambiance for this now world-renowned restaurant. Though a James Beard winner, awards are taken in stride by the list of lifelong customers more interested in the food and their regular waiter than a nod from any critic. Considered the grand dame of New Orleans' old-line restaurants, the place is now under the guidance of the fourth generation of family ownership. Bus boys bring fresh, hot French bread to the table over and over again, but don’t worry, they also scrape up the crumbs at your place setting every so often. Sip sSazeracs- a New Orleans favorite cocktail with Rye Whiskey and Pernod- and drool over the fried oysters swimming in lavish pools of butter and lemon. Many of the waiters were there when I was a child (a few perhaps even when my parents where children), a testament to the saying that the beauty of Galatoire’s is that things never change. Even after 100 years, this ageless New Orleans favorite is as exciting as it was in 1905.
Come hungry and try my recommended menu:
Appetizers:
Fried eggplant with powdered sugar and soufflé potatoes -puffed up slices of crispy fried potatoes- with béarnaise sauce
The Gran Goute- a combination appetizer that allows you to sample some of their finest:
Oysters en brochette- fried oysters wrapped in bacon sprinkled with lemon and melted butter
Crabmeat Maison- a cold crab salad made with enormous lump blue crab tossed with mayo and capers and spices
Shrimp Remoulade- Large fresh boiled shrimp tossed in a delicious remoulade sauce (think mayo, ketchup and Creole mustard- but it is much more divine than that)
Entrees:
Trout Meuniere Almondine- if they have trout that’s fresh, order this dish, which consists of a pan fried trout filet served with a lemon butter sauce and toasted almonds
Crabmeat Sardou- enormous lump crabmeat in hollandaise sauce served over fresh artichoke hearts and a bed of creamed spinach
Dessert:
Order a Café Brulot- an brandy, orange and cinnamon coffee that waiters flambeau table-side. A real show when they light the table on fire with it, and it’s delicious to boot!
Casamento's
4330 Magazine
Oysters on the half shell served up by wise cracking shuckers. Nothing’s changed since it opened in 1919. You still walk right through the tiny kitchen (and try not to trip over the cooks) to reach the loo.
Domilise
This poboy hole-in-the-wall in uptown New Orleans is described as a low-slung locals joint where “Aunt Dot” has been serving up amazing poboys for almost 70 years! Stand in line with a dozen locals at the counter, behind which three ladies are crammed between a fryer and a grill slapping together fried shrimp and fried oyster poboys. Take one step backwards to allow yet another local in the door and you might crash into the stack of five foot long paper bags filled with fresh French bread that was delivered early that morning. Order your poboy “dressed” and you know the fixings will be just right. Grab a seat (if you can find one) in this cramped room and be sure to catch a glimpse of Dot’s living room when the door at the back of the room swings open, then move to the bar for a Pabst Blue Ribbon and a bag a Zapps. New Orleans heaven. If you can find the place, then find a seat, and figure out how to maneuver the line of locals, you are in for a real treat!
Port of Call
838 esplanade
Amazing, foot tall monsoons and cheeseburgers made in paradise. Rumors are that this is one of the several places that inspired the song. Great place to get your party started in New Orleans. Casual, fun and sometimes rowdy. They don’t take reservations and you will definitely have to wait for a table, but elbow to the bar for a monsoon.
Café du Monde
800 Decatur street http://www.cafedumonde.com/main.html
The original French Market coffee stand opened in 1862. Go to the original in the quarter for a powder sugar overload on your hot-out-the-grease beignets with a café au lait made with coffee and chicory. Tip- don’t inhale when you bite or the powder sugar is going straight down the windpipe.
where to shop...
As You Like It
3033 Magazine Street
An astounding collection of estate silver flatware, including patterns no longer in production. Looking for something special? They will find it for you.
Leontine Linens
3806 Magazine Street
The most exquisite, hand-monogrammed, couture linens you will ever find. Pricey but worth it, we covet their towels and pillow shams. The monograms feel like they are straight from the 1930s and will be like nothing else you own.
Martin’s Wine Cellar
3500 Magazine Street
Pied Nu
5521 Magazine Street
A fabulous boutique with objets for home in the front part of the store, and an amazingly curated selection of clothing and accessories in the back. We love it for Korres body products in their apothecary section and enormous shells for the living room.
Neal Auction House
4038 Magazine Street
Find out if there any auctions taking place while you in town to purchase (or just view) some of the most exquisite antiques and fine art in the southeast. Just their catalogs are an art historian’s heaven.
La Boulangerie
4600 magazine street
It’s not impossible to get a real French baguette stateside. Owned and operated by a French expat, this bakery serves up the flakiest croissants we’ve had on either continent. The place doesn’t have a lot of tables for eating in, so we recommend you just grab a few baguettes to go with dinner and take your croissant to go.
destination: austin, texas
Austin is one of
those towns that everyone says is fabulous. Great shopping, great music, great
food, young and vibrant, urban and outdoorsy at the same time. A town of
bicycles and Vespas, dogs on leashes sitting outside of sidewalk cafes,
sculling on Town Lake, environmentally minded, music at the forefront, modern
but TexMex through and through. I recently took my first jaunt to this great
spot in the Texas Hill Country and am sharing a few of my favorite tips. I am
sure I missed some of the best places while I was there, as time was limited,
so if you feel passionate about a better BBQ hole-in-the-wall, or hotel, or
boutique, send us your tips and we will share them, too!
|
where to stay…
Hotel San Jose
Cool off in the shade of the arbors just steps away from fun and
quirky
South Congress Avenue.
Built in 1939 as an “ultra-modern motor court”, the place underwent a massive
renovation to become a luxury boutique hotel with tons of charm. Tiny garden
paths weave between vine-covered adobe walls and massive cacti. Rustic
Texas meets modern
minimalism at this SoCo bungalow retreat that’s worth a stay for sure.
|
|
where to eat…
Lamberts Downtown Barbeque
Get a good dose of modern
Texas
cuisine at Lamberts, located in the historic
Schneider
Brothers
Building
in downtown
Austin.
The old Schneider Store, a
Texas
historical landmark built in 1873, has been updated with a rustic-meets-retro
decor. Hand hewn beams and rustic pine floors contrast mercury glass pendant
lights and green leather banquettes. The food, likewise, is a perfect balance
of good old barbeque and gastronomic flair. Jicama cilantro slaw, homemade
fried pies and biscuits, brisket and fall-off-bone ribs are a few of the
staples on the family-style Sunday brunch buffet (I hate the word buffet and
avoid any restaurant who has one, but this is NOT that kind of buffet).
Amazingly creative cocktails and fresh ingredients keep this place a step above
your average BBQ joint.
|
|
The Salt Lick
Take a side trip thirty minutes outside of
Austin for a glimpse at the ranches of the
Texas Hill Country, ending at the Salt Lick BBQ. The Salt Lick opened to the public
in 1969 after a rancher was persuaded by family and friends that his BBQ was
the best in the area. These same family BBQ recipes that had been handed down
from generation to generation since the Civil War are served up today family
style as heaping helpings of beef, sausage, and pork ribs, potato salad, cole
slaw, beans, bread, pickles, and onions. Yee-haw.
http://www.saltlickbbq.com/
|
|
Airstream Trailers
I can’t give you names and addresses of each and every delicious
spot along
South Congress Avenue
and the nearby South 1st, but you won’t miss them. Gleaming in the
sun, these retro Airstream trailers are serving up quirky and delicious fare
roadside. I got a gourmet cupcake from one, unique flavors of popcorn from
another, and fish tacos and snow cones at a third. I’m getting a stomach ache
just thinking about it all, but this is not your ordinary street cart food. A
decidedly gourmet bent runs throughout the grouping of trailers, each with its
own quirky theme. Organic, natural (even vegan) items are available all over
South Congress, alongside incredibly fresh Tex-Mex fare. Grab a bright pink
umbrella at the cupcake stand to shield you from the sun while you wait (they
offer them for patrons) and be sure to ask for the whip cream squirted in your
cupcake! Delish!
|
|
what to do…
Uncommon Objects
The name says it all- you can spend hours in this antique curiosity
shop full of mid-century chandeliers, turn of the century curios, hats and
bones, shells and saddles. Self described as selling antiques, oddities and
curious goods, the shop owners have taken the wackiest and most bizarre (but always
beautiful) items from flea markets and antique shops and presented them all in
one pace for your viewing and shopping pleasure. It’s the perfect place to find
a few “uncommon objects” to finish off your house- conversation starters found
here!
http://www.uncommonobjects.com/
|
|
Big Top Candy Shop
Oh delicious sweetness, the Big Top Candy Shop is a gooey mix of
old timey ice cream parlor and circus side show. Bins of bulk candy, hard to
find European chocolate bars, bacon flavored candies, and curiosities of all
sweet sorts line the walls of this tiny shop. At the center of this sugar high
sits an old school ice cream soda fountain. Clerks mix up old fashioned root
beer floats and egg custards, while popcorn bursts in an even older-fashioned
popper. It’s like a dreamland from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it’s
definitely worth a stop.
1706 S. Congress, 462-2220
|
|
Mexican Imports
There are a handful of importers lining the storefronts of South
Congress. Stop in any one of them to find Day of the Dead trinkets, Mexican
crepe paper banners, paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and of course tons
of turquoise and silver. Rugs and textiles, pottery and glass lanterns, Frida
Khalo gifts and carved wood pieces are found all over these fabulous stores.
|
|
Barton Springs
The best way to beat the summer heat in
Austin is a quick dip in
Barton Springs, a three-acre pool fed from under ground springs that stays on
average 68 degrees year round. Native Americans called them the Sacred Springs
and came there to heal their wounds, but today it’s a mix of local people with
kids and rafts in tow.
|
| |
| | |
|
|
|