Louisiana Swamps are exceptionally beautiful.
This coming weekend, Nov. 3-4th, the Audubon Zoo hosts the annual Louisiana Swamp Festival on their lush green grounds. With admission to the city’s world-renowned zoo
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Archive for October, 2012
Louisiana Swamp Festival 2012:Music, Food and Fun Cajun Style
October 30th, 2012 by cindee
Celebrations in the Boo Carre: Halloween in New Orleans
October 24th, 2012 by cindee
Like any other holiday, New Orleans’ Halloween celebrations are big, loud, and full of fun-loving visitors and locals. With all of the in-the-street cavorting and wild costumes, All Hallows’ Eve in the Big Easy has come to resemble Mardi Gras season more and more with each passing year.
Some of the biggest celebrations take place downtown in the French Quarter, particularly on the Esplanade end and on Frenchmen St. Around Frenchmen especially, the streets are congested with flashy, splashy costumes of all themes—some of the handmade getups are truly a sight to be seen— and plenty of brass bands and dancers.
The Delachaise – Uptown’s Upscale, Late-Night
October 14th, 2012 by cindee
The Delachaise
The Delachaise is especially lively when packed with patrons touting plates of delicious, high-class bar food alternatives and topped-off wine and beer glasses. The wine and beer selection is enormous and impressive, with more than 20 different red, white, rose, and sparkling wines, as well as nearly 30 types of bottled beer and several more available on tap. I personnally think that this is the best selection of wine by the glass in the city.
In addition to fine spirits, the Delachaise’s food menu is the result of the chef’s world travels, unique, and served well into the night. In addition to the typical wine bar cheese plates and olives, they are perhaps best known for their French fries cooked in goose fat, frog legs, and flank steak bruschetta. They also serve gourmet grilled cheese and the Boz sandwich, plus Bangkok-style shrimp Clemenceau and Cuban twice-cooked pork.
After ordering your food and drinks at the bar, you can choose to dine inside or outside in their quaint but chic patio courtyard. The unique architecture of the building can really be appreciated from outside, especially its unusual shaped copper roof and the bright red sign matching the red umbrellas out back. Sit back, relax and watch the streetcar go by.
New Orleans’ Free Fall Food Fest: Louisiana Seafood and Crescent City Blues & BBQ
October 8th, 2012 by cindee
2012 Louisiana Seafood Fest
For the city of New Orleans, festivals—and most celebrations in general—tend to revolve around an essential cultural trifecta: food, music, and the arts. Whether it’s bigger, ticketed festivals like New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest or Voodoo Music Experience, or smaller, free fests like the two being held this weekend, they all sample the best the city has to offer in each of these three cultural categories.
This weekend, October 12-14th, downtown New Orleans hosts two different free festivals that attract visitors and locals alike each fall. Louisiana Seafood Festival celebrates the taste and quality of the state’s world-renowned under-the-sea delicacies, and the Crescent City Blues & BBQ Festival combines genres of music and food that have been slow-cooked to perfection in restaurants and venues around the city.
At Woldenberg Riverfront Park on the Mississippi River, stages of live music, rows of food tents, and strips of artist booths converge to support local seafood eateries and artists alike. From fish, shrimp, and crabs to oysters, crawfish, and other seafood eats, just about every edible underwater creature available in the Gulf of Mexico and local waters will be represented.
Eat Local, Eat Fresh: New Orleans’ Farmers Markets
October 1st, 2012 by cindee
Tasty Creole Tomatoes
Sustainability has become a hot topic in the current age of conservation and self-sufficient living. For residents of New Orleans, this is no exception, and locals and visitors alike can easily enjoy the scrumptious, fresh delights like local produce, seafood, dairy, farm-raised meat, fresh baked goods, and cut flowers via local farmers markets regularly held around the city.
If you’d like to sample some fresh local produce on your next visit to New Orleans, there are a number of farmers markets to choose from and several different locations. Every day at the edge of the French Quarter on Decatur St, the French Market is an expansive marketplace covering several blocks with tents and tables of goods from 10am till 6pm. The market is filled to the brim with food and merchandise vendors of all stripes, including many local farmers, bakers, fishermen and the like.
Crescent City Farmers Market hosts markets at three different locations three days of the week, so there’s a chance you’ll be able to see at least one of them on your next visit. The Thursday Market is held Thursday afternoon in Mid-City at Orleans Ave and Bayou St. John, which makes for a beautiful location and a lovely breeze while you browse. On Saturday mornings, the market is held downtown at Magazine St and Girod St, which is also a nice contrasting background to walk through, with fresh produce and other goods peddled against the backdrop of the city’s downtown and Warehouse District areas.
