Greetings from New Orleans!

[OU812]

When your drunk, all bets are off.

Along with some other things.  ;D

[KyNola]

No beads!  Plenty of good food though.  For those of you who have never been to New Orleans, NePas and I will heartily recommend it.  We will both be happy to give you plenty of do's and don'ts, including giving your normal body clock time to adjust to New Orleans time.  This town doesn't get started very early and having lunch and dinner is not just eating.  It is an event that time can't get in the way of.

New Orleans French Quarter is one of those places where in your first visit you either love it or hate it.  If you love it, you never truly leave, right NePaS?

KyNola

[squirtthecat]

I concur.

We went down to NOLA for our honeymoon, and 2 more followup trips... 

Good times!

[La Quinta]

Ky...you are lucky to be there...what a great place to go...and just have fun and eat and drink and be merry!!!  ;D I love NOLA...had some great times there! The food is out of this world!!!

[KyNola]

Heading home tomorrow. :'( Going to a restaurant tonight called Cochon.  It also has it's own butcher shop.  Hope the butcher shop is open as I'm guessing there could be some really cool things in that butcher shop.  If nothing else, just to look at!

Have had an incredible vacation.  Maybe our very best stay in NOLA.  Weather has been incredible.  Haven't even left yet but we already miss it.

KyNola

[Tenpoint5]

Sounds like your having way too much fun Kynola!! Have a safe trip home BTW if your MAK is gone. I don't have it!! ;D

[Ka Honu]

KyNola - Let me know how the andouille is from Cochon.  I'm thinking of stocking up there instead of going out to LaPlace.

[ronbeaux]

Nice trip! We try to get down there so we can explore.

[hal4uk]

Wish I was there!
I know how you are... 
You probably liberated someone's washboard and jumped on stage!

Y'all have a safe trip home.

[KyNola]

Well, back to the real world.  Arrived safely home yesterday.  KaHonu, Cochon's restaurant and butcher shop is great.  Absolutely the best smoked beef brisket I have ever eaten.  While I saw the andouille in the butcher shop, sadly I did not have the opportunity to taste it.  If I recall correctly, it was $7.99 per pound and looked incredible!  All butchering and smoking is done on site.  I'm sure they would cut you a sample if you explained you were going to buy enough to feed the State of Hawaii.

Best line I heard on the streets of the French Quarter during French Quarter Festival, a lady who obviously had never been to NOLA or anywhere remotely Southern said "they sure eat some strange things down here". ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D  Yeah we do!

KyNola

[Ka Honu]

"they sure eat some strange things down here"

SWMBO (a left-coaster) calls it "swamp food" as in "He took me to New Orleans and made me eat swamp food."  She likes it and complains if I don't make red beans or gumbo for a while but there's still some kind of cultural block there.

I'll try Cochon's andouille next week (YES!) and let you know.  If it's as good as I hope, it may replace Wayne Jacobs.  Theirs is only about $7 a pound but it costs about an extra $3 a pound to amortize the cost of the rental car and (more to the point) I have to stay relatively sober for several hours on the road trip.

Did you make it to Jacques Imo's?

[KyNola]

KH,
I just got back and already envious of you going next week.  Have fun at Jazz Fest.  Expecting huge crowds again this year.  FQ Fest drew 512,000 over the 3 days of the weekend.

All the good stuff in season and appears plentiful this year; shrimp, crawfish, oysters and soft shell crabs.  Crawfish are a little more expensive this year as the unusual LA winter stunted the growth of this year's crop.  Still plenty good though.

No Jacques Imo's yet again.  Too many restaurants, way too little time.