Discovering the Food of New Orleans

I will be the first to admit that when I decided on traveling to New Orleans that I was most looking forward to all the food I would get to try. Good thing for all the walking I did because none of the food would be considered healthy for you.

Your probably wondering what was the first thing I tried when I set foot in the city. Beignets! My friend had taken me to City Park where they have this place, Morning Call, where you can get coffee and Beignets. I am not a coffee drinker so I settled for a good cup of hot chocolate and some Beignets. The squared doughnuts come three to an order which is more than enough for one person. The only problem I had with them when they arrived is that I thought they would be loaded with powdered sugar. They appeared to only be lightly dusted with the sugar and not dumped on like I imagined they would be.

They would have been if I didn’t get them to take away with me because most of the powdered sugar was at the bottom of the bag.

I am sure you are thinking this is plenty of powdered sugar on a Beignet but wait until you see the Beignets I ordered from Cafe Beignet in the French Quarter. Nothing compares to them and all the sugar used for each doughnut.

One thing I noticed after I took my first bite was that they are light and not heavy like a doughnut from the store. It’s because they are not the type of doughnuts you would buy from your typical cafe or grocery store. I had figured they would be really heavy because of the powdered sugar weighing them down. Boy was I wrong!

Besides Beignets, I had to try the shrimp po’boy and muffaletta since I couldn’t live on Beignets the entire time I was there. Actually I really wanted to try the shrimp po’boy since the only ones I had ever had were from Bubba Gump’s and that doesn’t count. I had my chance and got to have the po’boy twice. The first time I tried the po’boy was in Audubon Park where they have a clubhouse where you can grab a bite to eat. That is exactly what I did; found a seat outside on the porch and ordered the shrimp po’boy and fries. I was not disappointed. The shrimp tasted like it had been caught that day. They are lightly breaded so you still got the taste of the shrimp and not the breading itself. An interesting fact I found out from my friend about the bread the po’boys go on is actually po’boy bread. For some reason, I was thinking the bread would be on regular French bread. Glad I was wrong in this instance and that there really is a thing as po’boy bread which it turns out is even longer than the French bread you would buy in San Francisco or the stores. The bread is massive.

Another place I ordered the po’boy was at Remoulade on Bourbon Street.

That isn’t the only thing I tried when I was in the French Quarter. I also had the muffaletta sandwich there but I wasn’t too fond of it. It had a very strong olive oil taste to it. Too much to my liking so I only had it once. Speaking of Bourbon Street, you can’t walk down that street without at least saying you had a drink there. I did what anyone would do and I ordered the Hurricane to go along with my sandwich. I might have been disappointed in the sandwich but not the drink.

Now you didn’t think this was all the food I tried. Well, it was for places within and around the French Quarter. Otherwise, my friends cooked dinner while I was staying with them. I told them they were spoiling me since they made shrimp and crawfish jambalaya, blackened catfish and red beans and rice. The food was so good that I ended up buying a cookbook so that I could make some of this when I am home.

What are your favorite foods when you are traveling? Is it something you’ve heard of before and wanted to try it in the place it is famous for i.e. Paris’ escargot and New Orleans jambalaya? Is it something that is new to you and you want to try it since food is part of the experience in traveling? What is it about the food that makes the trip worthwhile to you?