Here I am rockin' an Olde Queens Tavern tee. Shout out to all who frequent this spot and all the employees. I'm standing outside of The Ruby Slipper - an extremely popular breakfast spot in New Orleans.
The Ruby Slipper was very busy, therefore we had to wait a little more than half an hour to be seated, but it was well worth the wait.
The Costa Rican.
The Costa Rican is rice and beans over a warm salsa with two eggs, chorizo and slices and fried plantains. I'm a big fan of Spanish-influenced cuisine and this dish was a delicious way to start my day.
The Ruby Slipper has three locations throughout the city of New Orleans. There was a sign on the wall inside of the restaurant that described a little bit about the story behind premise of the restaurant.
There's no place like home!
After brunch at The Ruby Slipper, we wandered around a bit and stumbled upon a small shop with decadant sweets. The shop is called Bittersweet Confections.
The menu
The picture above only features a part of their menu. I wound up getting Bittersweet Confections' version of a peanut butter cup.
Their peanut butter cup is a milk chocolate and peanut butter filling, piped into a dark chocolate shell, garnished with white and milk chocolate hazelnut sticks. YUM!
Me and my peanut butter cup
At my stop at Bittersweet Confections, the employee, Ben, recognizted my Olde Queens' t-shirt and told me that he was originally from Jersey. He then gave us some informatoin of some fun spots in New Orleans to hit up before we go back to Jersey.
After the brief stop at the sweet shop, we wandered into a glass blowing shop.
An ocean scene all created on-premise in the shop.
Everything in the shop was blown on premise. We got to go into the back of the store to see the glass blowers at work. There wasn't too much work going on at the time of our visit, but it was still interesting to see where everything is made.
Then, we continued forth on our walking journey and made our way to The National World War II Museum.
Posting up outside of the museum
The museum was very interesting and informative. Something that stuck out very vividly in my mind were the posters of propaganda between the U.S. and the Japanese that were used during wartime. They are so extreme and because of this, they seem as though they are jokes.
I took pictures of examples from both sides - The U.S. & Japan.
Quick Ways To Spot A Jap. (US Propaganda)
President Roosevelt Depiction. (Japan Propaganda)
As a student it only cost $13 dollars to enter The World War II Museum - not too bad of a price. Afterwards, we found another small museum to explore. It is called the Contemporary Arts Center.
The Contemporary Arts Center was only $3 dollars to enter, so we figured...
why not check it out?
The museum had 7 different exhibits to check out. There was one exhibit called "The Lion: For Slightly" by Eliza Zeitlin.
It's a pretty intricate piece of artwork constructed of primarily metal pipes and wooden planks. You can climb the exhibit "at your own risk."
So I did.
My climb. <-- click the link to see a video.
Here I am beginning my climb.
Another exhibit that is currently on display in the Contemporary Arts Center is, "a thousand threads" by Luba Zygarewicz.
a thousand threads is an exhibit that is constructed of solely tea bags, and a massive amount at that.
Pretty unique idea.
a thousand threads...without Me
a thousand threads...WITH Me.
All of the other exhibits inside of The Contemporary Arts Center were interesting, I would suggest going there if you're ever in town. Not only is it interesting, but it's pretty inexpensive to check out.
(If you don't think that $3 dollars is inexpensive you probably shouldn't travel to New Olreans, or anywhere for the matter, really.)
After our brief museum binge, we needed to grab a quick snack.
A praline!
What is a praline you ask?
A hunk of butter, brown sugar and pecans. They come in different flavors, such as chocolate, coconut and peanut butter. Even though I'm a peanut butter fanatic, I always grab the original when it comes to this tasty treat.
If you've never had a praline, heed this warning:
NEVER SETTLE FOR A PLEBEIAN PRALINE.
I tried a few different pralines around Nola and I found one that was amazing, finally.
The praline was from Southern Kicthen Candymakers. They ran about $2 bucks each.
The delicious, scrumptious, winning praline.
After the hunt for the perfect praline, we walked around a little and found some cool spots - like Peaches Record Store.
Got myself a Peaches Record Store Tee! I'll be sure to wear it in my future travels.
Our stop inside of the record store was short-lived, because we wanted to continue forward with our wandering. The next attraction we stopped at was La Plaza de Armas.
La Plaza de Armas is more or less the main square of the area.
Here I am inside the gated area of La Plaza de Armas of NOLA.
After all of our museum visits, adventuring, snacking and shopping it was about that time of day...
HAPPY HOUR!
In our search to find a bar to grab a drink, we stumbled upon this gem of a sign.
Don't know where this sign is from...don't know what this sign actually means.
So, we decided to stop in somewhere called, Checkered Parrot. They had a two-for-one special. I tried a Nola Blonde and Jessy got a Abita Amber.
Happy Hour - Nola Blonde at Checkered Parrot.
After our happy hour drinks, we went over to a local recording studio with JT the Publicist and local artist, Kevin Stylez.
It was pretty awesome to be inside of a studio in New Orleans. I had the opportunity to jam with Kevin. He sang along as I played the guitar to some songs, like Miguel's "Do You."
Vibing with Kevin Styelz.
After the studio, it was time to eat. We were starved. We went over to a restaurant called Roux. I ordered the gumbo. Yum!
The gumbo with chicken and andouille sausage.
NOTE: andouille is pronounced "an-do-ee." It is basically just a smoked, well-seasoned pork sausage.
Dinner at Roux was very enjoyable. Afterwards, Jessy and I headed on over to Bourbon Street.
We stopped in at an oyster bar that my friend, Dave works at. It's called Le Bayou. But guess what?
We didn't get oysters.
We got drinks instead.
The bartender made me his drink special of the day. It was a rum drink with muddled strawberry, garnished with a cucumber. It was fruity and refreshing. Mmm!
The drink of the day made by Mr. Dave Bliss
Though the gumbo from Roux was very tasty, it didn't keep me full for too long. I decided it was time for snack from Le Bayou.
I got an appetizer called, "Shrimp Ya - Ya."
Shrimp Ya-Ya
This dish was absolutely delicious. It's shrimp in a cajun pesto sauce - therefore, the pesto had a bit of a kick to it. It comes with two pieces of garlic toast.
The creaminess of the pesto sauce with the cajun kick was a great complementary combination.
After Le Bayou we ventured over to a bar appropriately called, Last Call.
Got a drink or two, then called it a night.
Til tomorrow!
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