Thursday, 2 September 2010

Day 2: New Orleans or Speakeasies Need Better Lighting



My day in New Orleans started out pretty slowly, my hosts all had to work so I was on my own until the afternoon when I had plans to meet up with a friend who promised to give me his tour of Nola. Lucky for me Thom and Chris live in the beautiful Garden District and there were a bunch of breakfast places within walking distance. I took Chris’s advice and walked down the street to Surrey’s Juice bar. It was a cool little place with lots of fresh, tasty juices and breakfast/lunch foods. It was still a little early for lunch so I went for the Migas, which was eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese, onions, peppers, crunched up tortilla chips, and pico on top. I also got a biscuit and cheese grits and their juice special of the day which was orange, mango, pineapple. Everything was super tasty and I am definitely putting Migas in my breakfast repertoire.


Mmmm, cheesy goodness.

After a slow stroll back to the house I hung out and did some blog stuff until Whit came to scoop me up for a personal New Orleans tour. Whit is studying environmental law and urban planning and just got back from an internship with the EPA in DC. He is definitely up on his NoLa history and loves to share his love and knowledge of the city with visiting friends such as myself. We took a drive through the city and down to the Lower Ninth Ward and Bayou Bienvenue. This was my first visit to New Orleans since Katrina and I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. It was tragic and beautiful all at once.

Seeing Brad Pitt’s new beautiful pet project homes (Make It Right http://www.makeitrightnola.org/) alongside dozens of driveways leading to vacant lots was heartbreaking but also held a small hint of hope. Only five years ago this neighborhood was nearly totally devastated, only a few heavy concrete block structures survived the storm, every other home in this area succumbed to the powerful storm waters. I tried to imagine what it might have been like to see your home and all those around you literally torn from its foundation and swept away by flood waters but I have no basis on which to imagine that scale of destruction. Now, amidst the empty driveways of a ruined neighborhood are the beginnings of something new and (hopefully) better. The "Make it Right" homes are built to withstand storms and work with nature rather than against it, the country's first amphibious home is now located only blocks from those levees we have heard so much about. It is certainly a project that is full of hope, but what kind of difference does or will it make? I really can't say, but even a tiny bit of hope in itself is something.

Our tour continued with a walk around the French Quarter, a couple to go beers, and an obligatory beignet at CafĂ© du Monde. But just wait, Whit’s best activity was still to come. Somehow I forgot that my friends from Tallahassee love food just as much as I do, and Whit is also familiar with my (sometimes over the top) passion for cheese. It seems like I really lucked out because Thursday happens to, be wait for it….. WINE AND CHEESE SCHOOL!!!

Every Wednesday and Thursday night the St. James Cheese Company hosts “Cheese School” where for a bargain $20 you get a 2 hour cheese tasting/lesson (and each cheese is paired with wine!). So, obviously when Whit proposed this plan I couldn’t say yes fast enough. And lucky lucky me, this week’s class was being co-sponsored by a local wine shop so we got some fancy pants wines and an expert description for each! The cheeses this week were all Italian and all very, very tasty. We definitely didn’t have any leftovers (of wine or cheese). I also left with a distinct feeling that cheese should be a main factor in my next career choice.


Before

After


Cheese paradise

So, as if I hadn’t had a big enough food filled day, Thom had one more unique food experience in store for me, a pizza speakeasy. Yep, that’s right, an honest to goodness speakeasy. One of his friends had built a full-scale, restaurant quality hearth pizza oven in his back yard and once a week runs a totally awesome (also totally illegal) pizza restaurant in his very own back yard. I’d been looking forward to this all day and it did not disappoint. If I lived in New Orleans this would definitely be my regular Thursday night dinner spot. As Thom and I walked through the hidden gate (seriously I would not have been able to find it on my own), we were greeted by the pizza man himself, Thom got a big hug and I got a friendly handshake before he had to run back to the oven. We went up to the counter, put together our order (traditional crust, smoked tomato marinara, goat cheese stuffed smoked jalapenos(!!!!!!!!!), zucchini, and mixed greens), got a few beverages (Thom went for a Dark and Stormy while I got a rum and homemade pineapple soda), and we took a seat at a slightly unstable table in the corner of the yard. It was getting pretty late but there were still a ton of people there and it took a while for us to get our pizza but we chatted with the other undercover diners and with the help of some strong libations time flew by. It was better than I ever hoped, cheese stuffed jalapenos are definitely going to be a part of my next pizza night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really get any good pictures (speakeasies are definitely not lit for photo ops) but this one will have to do.


So, all in all New Orleans has set the bar very, very high for the rest of my road trip stops.

No comments:

Post a Comment