City revels in revelry, delights in good food
Spending time in New Orleans is like leaving the country without needing a passport.
No other American city has a history quite like New Orleans: founded by the French in 1718 on the high ground at the mouth of the Mississippi River, ceded to Spain in 1763 whose 37-year-rule is still evident in street names and architecture, reacquired by the French, bought by the Americans in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and menaced by the British in the War of 1812.
It's a city that revels in revelry and delights in good food, good music and good times.
Its legends are filled by figures such as Old Hickory, pirates, ghosts, 'gators, Mardi Gras, voodoo queens and vampire nuns.
Anybody who thinks of New Orleans only in terms of Bourbon Street and the Super Dome is doing the Big Easy a big disservice.
Yes, every first-timer to the city owes it to himself to take at least one saunter down Bourbon Street, if just to take advantage of the city's liberal open carry law in regard to alcohol.
A newcomer really should stop in at Pat O'Brien's Bar on St. Peter Street in the French Quarter to sample its renowned Hurricane cocktail, a sneakily smooth rum-based concoction created during Prohibition when the city was swimming in illegal rum smuggled in from the Caribbean.
But, sadly, during the day most of the street looks a little seedy and cheap, filled as it is with strip clubs and tattoo parlors.
But don't let the address stop you from visiting Bourbon House, 144 Bourbon St., for the seafood and oysters both raw and charbroiled on its menu.
And that's the great thing about New Orleans, there's good food everywhere.
A visitor doesn't need a restaurant guide, just explore the streets of the French Quarter and there'll be a five-star restaurant, a small bistro or a neighborhood eatery around every corner.Specialties include seafood of every type, gumbos, jambalayas, red beans and rice with andouille sausage, and etouffée, a dish of seafood simmered in a sauce made from a light or blond roux and served over rice.And po'boy sandwiches are everywhere and in every variety.Essentially a hollowed out French bread roll, a po'boy can be stuffed with fried shrimp, crab, catfish, crawfish, hot sausage, fried chicken or roast beef.A “dressed” po'boy adds lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayonnaise.Another on-the-go meal to try in New Orleans is the muffuletta sandwich. The Central Grocery at 923 Decatur St., lays claim to creating the muffuletta as a way to feed hurried Sicilian immigrant truck farmers bringing produce into the city.A muffuletta is a type of round Sicilian sesame bread, and a muffuletta sandwich is a loaf of this bread split horizontally and covered in layers of marinated olive salad, salami, ham, Swiss provolone, and mortadella cheeses.Close by the Central Grocery is the Cafe Du Monde in the French Market, famous for its beignets and chicory coffee.A beignet is a square piece of dough, fried and covered with powdered sugar. It sounds plain, but paired with a steaming cup of coffee, a beignet will put any doughnut, kolachie and cruller to shame.
Within sight of the Cafe Du Monde is the St. Louis Cathedral that fronts Jackson Square with its statue of the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson.St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest cathedral in continual use in the New World.It is flanked by its historic neighbors, the Cabildo, formerly the city hall when the Spanish ruled the city and now a museum, and the Presbytere, once a home to Capuchin monks, and now part of the Louisiana State Museum.The Catholic influence in the city is perhaps the reason Mardi Gras became so popular in New Orleans and its environs. The last chance for partying before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras is a series of parades put on by organizations called krewes featuring floats, beads, masks and music.In fact, Mardi Gras World, a museum and workshop dedicated to making and revamping floats and figures for the event, has become a big tourist attraction.A local artist and painter named Roy Kern and his son, Blaine, built their first Mardi Gras float on the back on a mule-drawn wagon in 1932.Success led to the creation of Kern Studios 15 years later with Blaine Kern becoming the city's leading parade float designer and builder.The Kern family opened the working studio to the public in 1984. Visitors can tour the large warehouse where past figures and floats are stored until they can be repurposed for a new parade and where new floats and figures are created.In fact, several tours are a great way to get quick background on some of the history of New Orleans.If murder, madness and mysticism is your cup of tea, any one of numerous nighttime ghost walks around the city can acquaint visitors with the alleged “vampire nuns” said to still haunt the old Ursuline convent or the house of horrors kept by Marie Delphine LaLaurie noted for torturing and murdering her slaves, or the “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans,” Marie Catherine Laveau.
A riverboat trip down the Mississippi River takes visitors to the site of the Battle of New Orleans, where on Jan. 8, 1815, General Andrew Jackson and his American army defeated more than 7,500 British solders bringing an end to the War of 1812. In fact, the treaty to end the war had already been signed but word did not arrive in New Orleans till after the battle.Legend has it that the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte and his crew of buccaneers fought for the American side in the battle.Whether true or not, New Orleans has a soft spot for the old sea dog.Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, 941 Bourbon St., claims to be the oldest structure housing a bar in the United States, and says it was Lafitte's base in New Orleans. Ghostly sightings of the privateer have been reported on the premises.Speaking of ghosts, perhaps no event better illustrates the New Orlean penchant for partying than the newly established Krewe of Boo Halloween parade.It's more than children and dogs dressed in costumes marching to the sound of a local high school band.Viewed from a spot along Canal Street, the parade featured fire trucks, police cars, rock bands, dance schools cross-dressing drill units, dancing waitresses and Halloween-themed floats where masked and robed riders tossed the crowds the traditional swag of beads, plastic cups, T-shirts and bagged snacks.Because of the youngsters in the crowd, the more racy parts of the parade were eliminated, but it ended with the night still young and the good times still rolling in the Big Easy.
