New Orleans: 26 hours of goodness

New Orleans: 26 hours of goodness

Sitting down on a wooden bench on the St. Charles street car listening to strangers laugh and joke with strangers, I started to reflect.  I have been here for 26 hours and have had more highlights than most have on vacation in a week.  It's not because I am so special; it is just New Orleans.  Many think of New Orleans as getting drunk on Bourbon St.- I say what a waste.   The music, the food and the history is what this town is about at it's best; poverty, violence, corruption and morons getting drunk on Bourbon St. at it's worst. 

Stacey and I got in to our hotel and headed over to Mr B's for our favorite dish anywhere in the world. Mr B's BBQ Shrimp.  I will say that before, I had shrimp in NO, I only though I had shrimp.  This is an experience not to be missed.  The "BBQ sauce" is not really BBQ, it is butter and herbs and they bring you a loaf of crusty bread to mop the sauce with.  The shrimp are served head on and I prefer to suck on the heads (like crawfish) when I pull them off as you can get extra flavor.  We also had bacon wrapped shrimp n' grits and an amazing smoked artichoke with lump crab in a lemon sauce.  After walking off some of the dinner, we decided to get in line for the 8:00 Preservation Hall show.  This is an old room that gets filled with an audience of less than 100 for a 40 minute set.  A traditional jazz band comes out with a local great leading them for a few months at a time.  This was lead by drumming great Shannon Powell, "The King of Treme".   Off to Cafe Du Monde for late night beignets and cafe au lait.   Though, I usually can't sleep here, I was beat and had to go to bed. 

Wednesday morning after a 6 mile run, it was off for another favorite.  My favorite breakfast.  There is a little dive called Oceana right in the French Quarter. While it looks like a tourist trap dive, the secret is a dish called Eggs Melinzana (SP?).  I didn't see it on the menu but the waitress let me know that they can still make it for me.  Poached eggs on top of shaved European ham, on top of a grilled tomato sitting on top of fried eggplant and covered with.....wait for it.........loads of hollandaise sauce. Yes, I might die but I will die happy.

Off to the Oak Street Block party in the NO uptown neighborhood.  This was a free block party like no other.  We walk in past the gates and The Heard (a local Chicago funk band) is playing on one end. They sounded amazing.  The block party was separated into two stages each two blocks from each other on Oak St.  We walked down to the other end and The Nth Power (a super group founded in New Orleans two years ago and touring the country on the rise) was getting ready to jam.  Jam they did!  After about a half hour of their own tunes they started playing Steely Dan covers that were amazing.    As we looked up in the sky on this sunny day, a sky writer was making smiley faces and messages such as "coexist". 

 It was time to eat.  Right on Oak St is another one of our favorite restaurants, Jacque-Imo's.  We went on in.  After some corn muffins with mild garlic butter (savory and sweet heaven) we started with rabbit in sauce picuante served over grits (appetizer).  The rabbit was fall of the bone tender and the sauce was amazing.  Not Stacey's favorite....more for me!  After a small spinach and sesame salad with a fried oyster we split a the Softshell Crab Godzilla Meets Fried Green Tomatoes.  

Back outside, Leftover Salmon a modern electric bluegrass jam band from Colorado was going hard. I noticed on stage that one of my favorite artists, Frenchie, was painting while they were playing.  Frenchie is a New Orleans music artist that keeps his studio on Oak St.  So cool to watch him dance and create!  After about  5 songs we decided to get some water and see what was happening on the other stage.  

The band at the other stage playing funk music was filled with some of the greatest funk musicians on the scene today...all but one member of  Lettuce, Mo Brown and Kofi Burbidge from Tedeschi Trucks, Otiel Burbidge from The Alman Brothers, Jennifer Hartswick from Trey Anastasio Band a few others that I didn't know.  This was a two hour amazing jam session!!!

We decided to take the street car back-- such charm.  The ride back to Canal St goes up St Charles where there are beautiful mansions, Tulane campus buildings and giant trees. On the trees are  the most amazing flowers- beads.  Beads everywhere reminding everyone of Mardi Gras.  This isn't a gimmick, just like the street car is not a gimmick. It's just New Orleans and I love it.