New Orleans Foodfest and Much More
I begin this adventure on Wed. morning (20 March) in Grand Rapids, as usual, and connect to the Texas Eagle at Chicago. Our itinerary will take us to San Antonio tomorrow and then on to New Orleans on the Sunset Limited on Fri. JoeG has too tight a connection from Carbondale to Chicago, so he decides to ride the Saluki to Champaign, bus to Bloomington and rendezvous with me on the Eagle at Bloomington. The temperature in Chicago and Bloomington is a nippy 23 degrees. A couple of quick texts confirm that we are both hiballin! JoeG suggest I make reservations for both of us for dinner in the diner to coordinate with the slow roll through the East St Louis yards and the impressive view of the St Louis skyline at dusk.
We roll along through Arkansas and then into Texas on Thursday morning. Life is going along just fine until we get to Temple, TX and then what in the lounge should appear but a jolly old elf-- hell no, it's Jim Hudson!! Jim rides along with us until Austin. This is Jim's home turf so it is very interesting to get his extensive local knowledge as we roll through the ever expanding suburbs north of Austin. Jim leaves us in Austin and we continue on to San Antonio. If the TE went straight to the station we would have been on time but, as many of you know who ride the Eagle, it replays the Mexican Army surrounding the Alamo. Using the Tower of the Americas as a landmark, the train comes into town due north of the tower, makes a wide loop to the west, cuts across south of the tower, continues the left turn so now we are due east of the tower, and finally, when we are within “inches” of being back to due north of the tower we finally point the engine toward the Tower and the station. We pull in about 30 min behind schedule and step off of the train.
Our options are now to sit in the plastic chairs in the station from 11pm until 6am, hang out at Denny's or the Riverwalk, or get a hotel. Easy answer, we are old; a flat bed is our only choice!! We check in our hotel and take a “quick” walk on the Riverwalk. We are now in T-shirt weather, 50 degrees warmer than Chicago and it is a beautiful evening. Right outside the hotel door is the Mad Dog British Pub. The place is packed but we find a nice table on the patio and decide to relax with one beverage before hitting the sack for a quick 5 hour nap. This place is pretty noisy, even on the patio, so for our second nightcap we move on to The Worm, a quiet watering hole that also has a very nice Riverwalk patio. About 1:30am I ask JoeG if he knows what time it is; do we have a problem?? Eventually we make it to the room and get a very restful 3 hours of sleep.
It's Friday. We share one roomette for this day run into New Orleans. The roomette provides us with 3 meals apiece and a nap after breakfast. Life goes along just fine until Beaumont. We lose one hour coming into Beaumont and another hour trying to get out of town. We consider getting behind on the schedule as bonus time we don't have to pay for, but we have made late dinner reservation in the diner to include Amtrak Cajun when he joins us at Lafayette, LA. The dinner reservation time arrives, we eat wonderful, fresh grilled cheese triple decker sandwiches from the kids menu (sort of), and about 1/2 an hour after the diner closes, Ant (Amtrak Cajun) gets on the train. He is relegated to eating a sub from the Cafe but seems to make the best of it. Ant rides into NOLA with us, we enjoy getting acquainted, encourage him to try to make it to the Gathering, and wish him well on his bus ride back home.
Our first order of business on Saturday is to get to the French Market for the Foodfest. We are staying in the warehouse district, about two blocks from the Julia St. stop on the Riverfront Streetcar. We ride up to the Ursulines stop and it's about 100 feet to the French Market. Restaurants from all around the south (and a tamale joint from Tucson) are represented. I decide to make a walk through the 3 or 4 blocks of vendors represented before deciding on lunch selections. I don't want to overeat because we are going to a crayfish boil tonight!! JoeG, on the other hand, only gets to about the fourth vendor before he is sampling a hot tamale from Hot Tamale Mama's; a pulled pork and cheese tamale smothered in a very dark chili-- very yummy. Luckily, there is an adult pop stand right next door. Joe needs a wash down and I need some refreshment to get the day started. JoeG spots Peck's jambalaya stand and he's at it again, he loads it up with 2 or 3 different Louisiana hot sauces and dives in to an andouille, chicken and shrimp concoction. We walk past several crawfish options because of tonight’s activities in the swamp. Next in the lineup is another tamale stand. This time JoeG goes for the green corn and red chilies. This is Tucson Tamale Company, if your travels on the Sunset Limited allow 20 or 30 min dwell in Tucson, it is well worth the couple of blocks walk to try a few of the 30 varieties and the bonus - awesome masa! By coincidence, there is another adult pop stand right next door to this tamale vendor.
We make it past the meat pies, pulled pork sandwiches and Memphis ribs from Central BBQ, but we get all the way to the last vendor, The Frybar, and JoeG can't resist the French fries with deep fried whole stems of rosemary and deep fried half cloves of garlic, then the whole thing is doused with parmesan cheese. JoeG “forces” me to help him eat this tasty order. The garlic is golden brown, tender and sweet! Also, the fries come with two different dipping sauces; a garlicky aioli and roasted red pepper ketchup. JoeG talks to the chef and gets the lowdown on preparation. We grab a beverage for the walk back thru the French Quarter. Did you notice - I didn't eat anything – except a few fries! On the other hand, iron gut made a pretty good dent with plans for another trip tomorrow.
We head back to the hotel; changes clothes, and locate the bus pick up point for our swamp adventure. One of our fellow attendees shows up at the bus stop dressed in all black with a white bath towel draped over his shoulder. We decide this guy is serious about eating and he has the girth to prove it!! This event includes all you can eat and local Abita beer for the duration. The buses drop us off at the Bayou Barn. We are about 30 minutes due south of New Orleans in the Carpes Swamps! Out behind this joint there is a whole pig roasting on a spit and very large pots boiling with crawfish, corn on the cob, and new potatoes. When the food is all cooked, it is transferred to a Jon boat that is sitting on some long tables. (Let's just assume that the local health department has taken a close look at this old row boat!) The bow of the boat is filled with the pork pulled straight off the spit, the area between the two bench seats is piled high with steamin, red crayfish, and the stern is filled with corn on the cob and piles of new potatoes.
We grab a small plate for the pork, corn, and boiled potatoes. Remember the little cardboard “boats”, usually red and white, that you used to get popcorn and peanuts in (now days I guess they are for nachos)? We grab a “boat” and a big plastic scoop like you use at the beach, and scoop up a boatload of crawfish. The whole mess is very tasty but it's a lot of work for very little meat from the crawfish. Dessert is bread pudding smothered in praline sauce and pecans, now that's good eatin'! Meanwhile we are entertained by a live Cajun band playing authentic Zydeco music. After this great dinner we have two choices; we can stay in the hall for dancing where JoeG can try to meet his next ex-wife or we can go out and try to walk off some of this chow and explore the back yard. We opt for the walk.
We wander over near the cooking area where a small group of people have gathered. Resting with his head just out of the water is a 9 foot alligator. One of the cooks throws a live crayfish about three feet up on the bank, the gator comes out of the water and snaps it up, and he slithers back to his position in the water. A guy in the crowd grabs a crayfish and walks close to the water's edge, holds out the morsel, and drops it. The cook warns him not to get that close. JoeG is standing by the cook who he tells him the rule of thumb is that a gator can leap his body length in the bat of an eye. I get my camera at the ready! A woman grabs a crayfish and gets within about two feet of the wild animal and kind of fools around with the crayfish before finally dropping it. I thought for sure I was going to get an action shot of a gator's teeth about elbow high on this gal. Luckily, she got away unscathed! That seemed to be enough action for one day so we caught the next bus back to town. BTW, we took one last look, and the towel guy was still eating!! We had lost count on crayfish “boat” #5. JoeG said he figures the guy is on his third towel by now but I assured him that he just wrings out the original towel about once an hour.
It's Sunday and the Foodfest is still on today. Our plans are lunch at the fest and then ride the streetcars. When we board the streetcar at Julia St., I buy a $3 day pass (One ride is $1.25). For those of you over 65, it is usually cheaper to pay by the ride. JoeG pays 40 cents and gets a free transfer to use on another line within 2 hours. Back at the French Market, we start to run the gauntlet again. I'm eating today and stop at the Hot Tamale Mama stand for an artichoke and garlic tamale; a really good way to start this little eating spree. I don't think I need to reacquaint you with the adult beverage stands. I am tempted by the Memphis fried chicken but press on to the Tucson Tamale Co. for a green chili and cheese tamale; JoeG grabs himself a red pepper beef tamale. Both outstanding and, once again, I have to comment on the wonderful, tender masa. JoeG finishes out the tour with Francheese's pulled pork sandwich with goat cheese and grape jelly on a brioche. It was too dry so this only got average reviews. It is probably a good time to move on.
Our next event is a ride on the Garden District streetcar. It is beautiful this time of year in the Garden District and the humidity and temp are moderate so this non air-conditioned equipment is comfortable even though it is standing room only. We ride past Tulane and Loyola and get off for a visit to Cooter Brown's, a classic dive with some of the coldest beer in NOLA. The “people watching” is usually excellent from their shaded front porch but there is some work being done on the levee that has the very popular bike and jogging path out of commission. Still, it’s a relaxing spot to prepare for the ride back to Canal Street.
Once back downtown, the original plan is to ride the museum streetcar. Not that we are looking for a little culture but because it shares the final stop with the Fairgrounds Park thoroughbred race track. JoeG checks his iPhone and figures out we would only catch one or maybe two races, so we turn around and ride to the other end of Canal St and end up at Harrah's casino. In Las Vegas, JoeG introduced me to this great freebie deal at the casinos - as long as you sit at the bar and play the poker machines - the beer is free. For me, that figures out to be about $20 in gambling for “free” beer in an hour. But JoeG hits 4 of a kind on a max bet about a half hour into the game. That means supper is on JoeG. I like this system!
Dinner is at Lucy's Retired Surfers Restaurant. This place is very hip in the evening, at 10pm the 20 something’s and the music are pouring out the door. It is also hip at supper time - mostly folks with bad hips and knees, like us. This joint gets very good local reviews for their food but barely rises to the average bar. I had a trio of enchiladas; chicken with green chilies, pork, and beef. They were saved by a very good Caribbean hot sauce. JoeG tried the blackened mahi mahi on a bed of lime infused rice. It was OK and it was also saved by the hot sauce. A quick nightcap at The District grill and bar and it was time to get to the hotel for an early Monday morning wake-up.
The original plan was to head north on the Monday CONO but when we priced it the sleeper was at high bucket; very high bucket. A check of amsnag revealed a great rate on Tues (thank you, Paul) so we decided to do a points run on Monday and head home on Tuesday. What a fortunate decision that was. Our primary gastro event was supposed to be the Foodfest, but two great meals on Monday changed all of that. JoeG found what looked like a nice place for lunch in Meridian, MS, so we rode the Crescent from New Orleans to Meridian MS, round trip. The train station in Meridian is at 20th Ave and Weidmann's Restaurant is a short two block walk to 22nd Ave. It has been at this location since 1870 serving high quality comfort food. We strolled in about 11:30 and found a couple of tables being served in this beautiful dining room. By noon, the place was packed and for good reason.
We started lunch with an order of fried green tomatoes. For a couple dollars extra, their 1870 sauce is available; a very smooth base and lots of fresh veggies plus a generous portion of baby shrimp. We got the sauce! The tomatoes were perfectly fried in a crispy batter. Combined with the fine sauce, this could easily have been all that you need for lunch. I followed with an Italian Panini and a side of shrimp bisque. JoeG selected the shrimp and asparagus quiche with a side of black eyed peas and cornbread. We will make it a point to get back here for dinner sometime. If you find yourself in Meridian, MS. or even close by, make an effort to get to Weidmann's for a meal, it is definitely worth it. This was a great lunch but it is about to be trumped by dinner.
We get back to NOLA about 8:45pm. The streetcar is standing by at the station for a trip back to Canal St. There was a thread not long ago about this new streetcar and the only complaint seemed to be that it quit running before the LD trains all got to the station. Neither of us could remember if there was an update to that thread. If not, be informed, this streetcar schedule has been expanded to make the last run originating at the station at 12:15am. We hop aboard and ride to Chartres St. From there it is a short walk to make our 9:15 reservation at K-Pauls Louisiana Kitchen. Paul Prudhomme and his wife, K, started this place in the late 70's. Remember the song about the girl that was “country” before “country” was cool? Well, this chef was the master of Cajun cuisine before Cajun was cool and his restaurant still sets the standard for what JoeG considers is as good as it gets. Chef Prudhomme has turned over the reins of daily operation to Paul Miller, a friend from the same little town near Lafayette. JoeG has been coming here for years and he can't perceive of any decrease in quality with the change in chefs. Everything here is fresh, there is not even a freezer on the premises and the menu changes everyday depending on what is fresh at the market and the docks. The kitchen is open to the customer's view and it is like a beautifully choreographed ballet (except it is fat guys twirling around) to watch the food go from the grill to final plating. Let's get on to our plates!!
JoeG gets a martini just so he can get some pickled merliton and onions. He has been talking about how good this root vegetable is since we decided to eat here. I tasted them and they are very good but I'm glad we got them so I don't have to hear about them anymore! He also got an appetizer; shrimp bisque made with Champaign and brie cheese. You talk about a great blend of wonderful flavors! That should get your taste buds popping just reading about it. I have a lowly Abita beer but we are both happy. JoeG told me the portions were not oversized. I ordered eggplant with a terrific Cajun sauce. The order was huge. The sauce was filled with shrimp, whole oysters, crayfish, and the sweetest baby bay scallops. The sauce alone was enough for an entire meal. JoeG ordered pan fried flounder with a shrimp infused sauce. This fish was melt in your mouth. We both had a side dish of quickly pan fried vegetables all cubed to the same size and perfectly cooked and seasoned. BTW, this restaurant has no salt and pepper on the table AND none is needed. We relax with a nightcap and then I notice we are the last ones in the joint so we pack up and walk back to the hotel in a feeble attempt to compensate for the calorie consumption.
Tuesday is CONO day and it departs at 1:45pm. We decide to have a late breakfast, forego lunch, and make do with dinner in the diner. Our breakfast choice is Mother's. I can't decide if it is popular with tourists or locals but the line is almost continuously out the door and around the corner of the building. We both have the breakfast special; eggs, grits, biscuits, and the world's best baked ham (according to them). I have the ham sliced and fried and JoeG goes for the black ham (the scored outer pieces that have all of the flavorings baked on). These are generous portions and there is no problem skipping lunch.
JoeG will get off of the train in Carbondale at 03:15am! We review the fun of New Orleans and realize both of our goals are met, some great food in fun joints and we are right on track to finish the first calendar quarter with 5000 TQP on our way to Select Executive. So, around Memphis we quit reminiscing about this adventure and we say our farewells so we can get some sleep. I hear later that the train makes Carbondale right on time. I make my transfer to the Pere Marquette in Chicago and am back in Grand Rapids and 20 degree temps on Wednesday night. Tickets are already purchased and great gastronomic adventures are planned for next week. I very stupidly said I was hungry for pancakes. JoeG knows just the pancake house we need to visit - in Santa Barbara, CA. The next Gastronomic Adventure will be 4.1 & 4.2. Come back later for the Texas component followed by the California adventure.
Fantastic Report Joe,(Especially liked the "meet his next ex-wife "comment! :giggle: ) Enjoyed Sharing the Short Ride TPL-AUS, Looking Forward to yalls next Great Adventure and Hope I can meet up when ya'll ride the Eagle through Austin on the way to California!
