Day 6: Nola Livin'

Here I am wearing my Hoagie Haven t-shirt, standing outside of Lil' Dizzy's Cafe. I got a quick cup of coffee from there and then walked around the city.

It didn't take much wandering for me to be hungry, so I wandered over to a burger place called, Port of Call.

In front of Port of Call...the inside of this place has super dim lighting.

This picture doesn't do the food justice. I got a plain burger with blue cheese on the side. 

Absolutely delicious.

Port of Call was packed, but we lucked out and found a spot at the bar where we were able to be served fairly quickly.

After the grub, the adventuring continued.

Found this Estelle Musson House.

The sign on the house reads:

"Estelle Musson had this Italianate-style house built in 1881. After she was abandoned by her husband, Rene Degas, went almost blind, four of her six children died. She moved here with her sisters, Desiree and Odile from their family home at 2306 Esplande Avenue. 

A portrait of Estele painted in 1872 by her brother-in-law and cousin, French impressionist artist, Edgar Degas, is housed at the New Orleans Museum of Art. 

The house remained in the Musson family until 1902."

I thought it was pretty interesting...or rather...pretty tragic.

Anyway, I took a trip over to City Hall where my friend, JT works to pay him a visit.

JT & I in front of City Hall

While I was at City Hall, I was fortunate enough to meet and speak with the Deputy Mayor, Andy Kopplin. He was nice, welcoming and happy to see that there is an abundance of young people visiting NOLA!

After our visit to City Hall, we ventured on over to Magazine Street - as per many recommendations. 

Magazine Street has lots of little unique shops and restaurants. We walked a fair amount of Magazine in both directions. 

Below are some pictures from some of my pit stops along Magazine Street.

Grabbed a coffee from Corner Muse. They had a piano in there for customers to play.

Purchased two 45s from Jim Russell's Records. I asked the store manager to pick me out two of her favorites. 

After magazine street, we decided to head back to Bourbon Street to continue to fulfill our tourist duties. 

Want to know what a big deal is in New Orleans besides beignets, drinking and Po-boys? 

Seafood - oysters in particular.

I don't care much for seafood, but when in Nawlins'!

Raw Oysters from Le Bayou

DISCLAIMER: What I am about to say may offend you.

You've been warned.

"Eating" a raw oyster was probably one of the most pointless things I have ever done. 

Okay, now let me explain. 

I put the oyster on a saltine cracker, sloshed some tartar sauce on that thing and squeezed some lemon juice as a final step of preparation. 

Then I put the saltine on my bottom lip and threw the oyster down my esophagus. 

I'm sorry...what was the point of that? 

The only thing I tasted was the tartar sauce and the saltine cracker that I chased it with.

Pointless.

I don't see myself doing that again anytime soon.

Anyway, in hopes to consume something a little more tasteful I ordered a chocolate martini. 

Chocolate Martini from Le Bayou.

Now that was something that had a taste and I enjoyed.

The Best Bartender in New Orleans, Mr. Dave Bliss

After Le Bayou, we went down the street and grabbed some HUGE ASS BEERS, then called it a night.

Thanks for the good times, NOLA.

Day 2: Nola Livin'

Here I am wearing my A$AP Rocky t-shirt. Shout out to A$AP fans, all my fellow Sony College Reps and the good people at Sony Music and RCA Records.

In the picture above I am on the Streetcar - the form of public transportation in the city of New Orleans. It is pretty inexpensive.

$1.25 for a one-way trip

$3.00 for a day pass.

Here is a picture of the supermarket, Rouses. It is the most popular grocery chain down here. 

Would you like some cheese with that wine? This cheese was deeeee-lish. But at $23 per pound, I passed up on making a purchase. Good thing it was on sample.

New Orleans knows how to pull at my heart strings...Peanut butter cover pretzels!

But the maddness does not stop there...

Peanut butter covered PEANUTS.

I didn't purchase any of these sweet treats, but I did take a sample or two.

You can purchase alcohol virtually anywhere in New Orleans. This is something very different fromwhat I am accustomed to, being a Jersey resident. Anyway, in the grocery store I stumbled upon 7 different types of the local, Abita beer. 

Here are all of the different types of Abita beers that Rouses carries.

1 - Jockamo IPA

2 - Purple Haze (Raspberry flavored)

3 - Strawberry

4 - Turbodog (Stout)

5 - Restoration Pale Ale

6 - Golden

7 - Amber (Abita's flagship flavor)

After the trip to the grocery store, we went over and grabbed some Sunday Brunch at a restaurant and bar called Santa Fe.

Here is a picture of the outdoor seating arrangements at Santa Fe.

I think that Santa Fe's menu could be best described as Creole-influence Mexican dishes. I wound up ordering a dish called Rueda de huevo.

Rueda de huevo - a fried tortilla topped with sweet potato mash, pulled chicken and an egg. 

The dressings include, jalapenos, guacamole and sour cream.

The dish I ordered was absolutely delicious, it tasted like nothing I have ever tried before. The sweetness of the sweet potato mash mixed with the spice of the pulled chicken was very unique, yet balanced. To top it off, the crunch of the fried tortilla pulled all of the textures together very nicely.

After brunch we headed back to our hostel for a minute just to put some of our things down and then headed back out to the Streetcar.

Here is Jessy getting onto the Streetcar.

We took the Streetcar to City Park. City Park is extremely large and beautiful. It has a lot of different activities ranging from outdoor concerts, to restaurants and to scuplture gardens.

Here I am standing in a scenic spot - that's a big tree!

Just standing outside of the Botanical Gardens...

Riding a lion statue, located next to one of the pavillions in the park.

After walking around for a bit and observing all of the beauty of the park, we made a quick pit stop at the Morning Call Cafe to listen to some live music and grab some beignets.

The Morning Call Cafe.

Here is the live band that was playing, their name was, Ovidio Giron y Los Ranas.

Here are the beignets from Morning Call.

I will let you know what place has better beignets down here. So far, the ones from Morning Call were a bit doughy, but I intend to try more...from different places.

When we were swinging on a giant swing in City Park, we got to talking to a local man named, Dallas. He told us of some local 'hotspots' for food. 

So...

After walking around City Park, we were hungry, yet again. So we walked over to a place that Dallas reccommended called, Mandina's.

I got a shrimp Po' Boy.

Shrimp Po' Boy.

For those of you who do not know, a "Po' Boy" is basically a sub/hoagie (whichever you prefer to call it based on your region, respectively). If you get a po' boy "dressed" that means it comes with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and pickles.

As you can see from the picture, I got a fried shrimp po' boy, dressed, It was delicious. I am a firm believer that the bread can make or break a sandwich, and this french loaf definitely sealed the deal on this local favorite.

That's all for now, off to explore some more...