New Orleans Eating

I ate a lot over the past few weeks. I also cooked a lot. I’m very full. Very, very full.

The very first thing I ate was this:

A Muffuletta. Have you heard of it? Someone called me that as a nickname often and I didn’t know it was an actual thing until I went to New Orleans.

It’s a medley of cheese and meat and pickled peppers and olive oil soaking into a sesame bun. And it’s massive. It’s very hard to eat a whole one. I didn’t even manage half. But I tried very, very hard.

The most famous place for these Muffulettas is at Central Grocery. It’s an old school Italian deli that plays Divorce Court on the TV and serves up good smelling food at the same time. My kinda place.

The architecture here is so unique.

It’s charming and a little tired looking but also pure romance.

And colorful. Oh so colorful. At any given moment a woman will pop out of her store and say, “Who needs a Mojito?!”

And there is this place. It forced me to keep eating after the Muffuletta. It’s famous for its beignets and coffee with a bit of chicory mixed in. The story goes that coffee was expensive so they diluted it with chicory and it’s stayed the same ever since. It has a natural sweetness to it.

It’s called Cafe Du Monde and often there’s a line winding down the street.

This is why. The trick is to shake the bag so the powdered sugar distributes evenly.

I was a rookie so I didn’t do that the first time. You also shouldn’t exhale because a tornado of powdered sugar will erupt.

The pigeons like it though. They came awfully close waiting for that powdered sugar.

New Orleans looks good… but it also sounds good.

There were brass bands in all kinds of places. I went to Preservation Hall one night and saw the Treme Jazz Band and it pretty much changed my life.

Turns out a Muffuletta, Biegnets, Chicory Coffee and Brass Bands are the straight path to happiness. They are also the straight path to an afternoon nap.

What are your favorite New Orleans spots?