New Orleans - Solo Trip!

First book I saw in NOLA.

Well! I finally made it to the Big Easy, and I was (mostly) alone. Would I go again? With friends, for next time I think.

Don't get me wrong, I experienced really beautiful moments there by myself, but also some scary moments of...well, being femme, alone, in a wild ass city where drinking is the main attraction for most. Did I watch someone crack open a whiteclaw at 10am on a weekday while walking their dog? Was I followed around at night by some shady characters until I dipped into a shop or bar? The unfortunate answer to both is yes. 

But did I also witness the legendary Kermit Ruffins play trumpet after I had just seen Kendrick Lamar perform an hour earlier? Hell yes I did. I made some new friends too, and they kindly let me tag along at night so I wasn't just out at bars, a drunk wallflower obsessively people-watching from the corner.

And then there's the food!!!

Had my first legit gumbo and loved it (I'm a soup person, it tracks) but also tried the beignets and felt disappointed. Growing up in France, the beignets I ate were circular, pillowy with yeast, and stuffed with either Nutella or strawberry jam. They're also known as boules de Berlin; think a Boston cream donut without the icing. The Café du Monde beignets reminded me more of the youtiao I had in Xi'an, what is essentially fried dough sticks, dipped in hot soy milk and consumed as a breakfast staple. They are drier with a crispier exterior. Similarly, in New Orleans, the soy milk is replaced with sweet café au lait. I gotta say, it wasn't worth the hype, but it was worth doing once!

The muffleta was insane and came in an insane portion. I had a few bites of greasy hot meat and cheese, spicy gardinera falling everywhere, and wrapped the rest up and gave it to a homeless person on the street corner. No way was I going to finish that. 

Now how did I find my way to New Orleans, alone? Well the people I do trivia for were going to the annual cocktail conference (booze and booze galore) but then they got Covid. So it was just me and a bartender from their business attending the conference. He'd been many times and had a lot of friends in the industry. I didn't want to be a parasite so we mostly did our own thing during our 6 day stay, but we did enjoy one breakfast together, consisting of the most amazing fried chicken I've ever had at Willie Mae's.

the best fried chicken I've ever had

I went to a couple of the conference parties thanks to the bartender. Boy, what an experience. Never before had I seen literal liquor fountains. My gin was full of edible glitter, and booze was free. I mostly walked around in awe and then nervously chain-smoked outside. The venue was packed and I hadn't been around such a large crowd of people in 2 years thanks to Covid, which seemed to be a distant memory here. I hadn't yet caught it but resigned myself to the eventuality. There was no way I wasn't going to get it here, a place where people come from all over the country to party.

We rolled up to another party during the trip and two U-haul pick up trucks were parked in front of the bar, the backs lined with sheet plastic, filled to the top with water. I doubt it was chlorinated, but that didn't seem to bother people. Germs were free flowing just like the booze. Packed elbow to elbow, the bar crowd put a can of sardines to shame. It took us 20 minutes to finally be able to order and then we hauled our beers outside to the curb, which was just as busy as the inside.

The days blur but after a couple days of going out, I dragged my hungover ass to the Audubon Aquarium overlooking the Big Muddy. It was raining every day around 1-3pm and my phone kept warning me about flash flooding, but I plowed on by foot like the New Yorker I am, determined to find shelter at the aquarium and nowhere else. When I got to the kiosk, the girl behind the counter looked at me and grabbed a pen. Bleary-eyed, I watched her write something on my ticket and pass it to me under the glass between us. She wished me a good day and I started to walk away before I realized I hadn't been charged. Was it pay-what-you-want day? I wondered if I had missed something as I walked through the entrance. When I actually looked at my ticket, I realize she had waived the fee and written me a little note. Blushing, I turned around to see if I could thank her, but she was busy with the long line that had been behind me. With that small act of kindness my headache eased, and I slipped into the scintillating blue light of water tanks that always feel just as magical as they did when I was a kid.

Always going to remember this kindness.

I love aquariums. So much unknown under the water, in the vast depth of our oceans and yet we look to the stars instead. I saw my first albino alligator, apparently something specific to Louisiana waters. I learned that over 60% of New Orleans is at or below sea level so they need to actively pump water back into waterways to stay dry. Rehabilitated birds of prey sat on rafters in the enclosed areas of the aquarium, while children ran their hands over the rough skin of rays in petting pools. I stayed as long a possible in the comfort of the dark, watching jelly fish swirl through artificial currents. After a good three hours I emerged back into the humidity and sunlight of New Orleans streets and made my way to Crescent City books to get a book to bring back to G.

big catfish smile because it didn't realize I ate fried catfish earlier

I had never experienced flash flooding until I finally got caught downtown during a storm where the rain fell in hard fat drops from the sky and filled the streets with so much water it filled up gutters and rushed onto sidewalks in waves. I saw people casually sandbagging the French door entrances to their little shops and boutiques like it was standard procedure. The rain had no where to escape to in such a short time and for diehard pedestrians like me, it signaled doom. My sneakers filled with water every time I took a step and my feet up to my ankles were soaked for the rest of my day. It was miserable business until finally I found a brewery with a deserted patio where I could discreetly remove my shoes and socks to air dry my feet. Gross, I know, but it absolutely beat squishing around for another several hours, and I did try all their sours. Thanks Courtyard!

One of my last days I spent walking from Frenchman St all the way through the grungy Bywater district to Bacchanal Wine, which overlooks old train tracks and abandoned warehouses. The state of the neighborhood shocked me. We weren't more than a couple miles from the fancy Vieux Carré or Marigny, and yet everything here was decrepit. There was no one around, which only added to the creepy silence around me. Roads were cracked, stripped, and full of holes you could easily drive a motorcycle into. Old furniture and trash were piled against walls, in front yards, and on the sides of streets. 

an example of the street conditions

Houses that looked occupied were surrounded by others that were dilapidated, doors and windows boarded up, flags bleached white by the sun. I realized how sad it was that this city, rich with US and Black history, drunken joy and mirth, was falling apart at the edges. At the mercy of natural disasters and weather like flash flooding, even if the government had the money to repair everything, there wouldn't be enough time between chaos. It comes down to a game of damage control until, I suppose, the city infrastructure falls apart completely. I had experienced the flash flooding and could now imagine what a hurricane might look like for this city. 

I ended up at a Kendrick show at big Smoothie King Stadium later that night. The tickets were only 80 bucks and I was in GA, right in front. 32oz cans of modelo were 15 bucks. They pour it out for you in the biggest plastic cup I've ever seen.

Food round up:

Gumbo Shop: Andouille and chicken. I am a soup simp.
I loved this gumbo. I will be remaking it at home.

Willie Mae's: this fried chicken was life changing.

Verti Marte: the spicy muffuletta sandwich that almost gave me a heart attack. 

Galatoire's: Snails in garlic butter. Except for the Sazerac,
everything I had here had too much butter. Sorry.

Three Muses: Yaka Mein, an asian-creole noodle dish I had to try.
Good spice, but the noodles were spaghetti ;(

Bourbon House: Charbroiled Oysters.
Had to do it once, not sure if I would again. Too much parm!

Adolfo's: Rack of lamb and veal with a cream sauce I didn't like.
Not pictured, mussels I still dream of.

Turkey and the Wolf: Good sandwich, equally good decor.
Run by a man-child with lots of heart.

Compère Lapin: treated myself for my last dinner in NOLA.
Seabass over okra stew, not pictured were the crispy pig ears.
Both were delicious.