Things to deal with in New Orleans.

Sometimes we get severe weather, even outside of hurricane season. A doozy of a storm blew through on Wednesday while I was having lunch at Domilise's (fried oyster po-boy, dressed). My apartment occasionally has a little water intrusion in heavy rains; sometimes through the windows, sometimes underneath the back door if the wind is right. Normally it's just a matter of mopping it up, and when I got home on Wednesday night I made sure to check that the floor was dry. But come Thursday morning, something didn't smell quite right. I febrezed a basket of laundry that was waiting to be washed, took out the trash, and went to work. By the time I got home, the funk was much funkier. After closer inspection, I discovered that the quadrant of the rug in the living room closest to the back door was indeed damp and fragrant. Now there's a fan pointed at it and we'll see if that does the trick. Additional suggestions are welcome. Not the end of the world, and certainly not as bad as what's going on elsewhere, of course, so if that's the worst thing that happens this week I will be happy.

Meat pies!

I like meat pies. When I was living in New York, one of my sanity-preserving rituals was taking a stroll down to Red Hook and stopping for a bite at Down Under Brooklyn Pies (looks like they have since moved). I'd sometimes get a key lime pie down there too, although it looks like that place ain't dere no more after Hurricane Sandy. (Red Hook was the part of New York that most reminded me of New Orleans; there was one intersection with brick paving and overhead power lines and old buildings, and when the sun was setting you could almost imagine you weren't in New York anymore.)

Anyhow, the best meat pies I have ever tasted come from Natchitoches. I don't make it to North Louisiana very often so I wait for the meat pies to come to me via the New Orleans Road Food Festival. (That's what it was called when it started a few years back, and that's what I will continue to call it because the new name they went with this year is bland and unsearchable.) Every year so far, Lasyone's sends a delegation and I eat an embarrassing amount of meat pie and crawfish pie. Best hand-held food I know of, by far, and worth waiting for. And it's probably good that I only get to eat them once a year.


But I also keep my eyes open for other meat pie options. At the Freret Street Festival a few weeks back, I had two different meat pies. First, Cane River Meat Pies does a very respectable pie, although their crawfish pie is a little underwhelming. Second, I was pleasantly surprised by the lamb meat pies from Wayfare, a new place on Freret. I will be returning to try those again. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival starts on Friday and the website reports that there will be an alligator pie available, so that's next on the list.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Power went out at work, so I went to lunch at Commander's Palace with some friends in town for the French Quarter Festival. I had the creole nachos and the crawfish grilled cheese sandwich. Life is good, more updates to follow. Spoiler alert: meat pies and lots of 'em.