Good eats.

January has had a lot of culinary high points so far:
Baru: a whole mess of tapas: ceviche, excellent fried oysters, mazorca (a roasted corn dish), and patacones (fried mashed plantains with guacamole and chipotle chicken), plus very nice sangria.  My first visit, and it won't be the last.
Dick and Jenny's: barbecue shrimp with goat cheese and thyme grits, and drum with pecan risotto and praline sauce.  I had not been here since 2007 and I think there was a change of management in between; either way, everything was great and I want to go back to try some of the other entrees.
Lilette: gnocchi, roasted duck, and somebody else's leftover beef cheeks.  This was another place I have not visited in years, and it's still amazing.  Very rich, impeccable food.
Peche: shrimp croquettes, baked drum with mushrooms and squash fritters, and rum cake.  I don't think it's been open a year yet, but this is probably my fifth visit.  I'm going to keep returning.  (Special thanks to Kate and Richard!)
Rio Mar: the full tasting menu of appetizers and desserts (the empanadas, grilled octopus, mango sangria, and tres leches cake were particularly memorable), plus baked drum with shrimp-stuffed plantains.  This was a gluttony marathon, and it was all amazing.  (Special thanks to Rina's mom!)

Only one low point to report.  Biscuits and Buns on Banks is a new breakfast/brunch place in Mid-City (I'm not linking to it because I can only find a Facebook page).  It has problems.  We were told there would be a twenty to twenty-five minute wait; forty-five minutes later, we're finally seated, at which point we wait another forty-five minutes for our food.  I was pretty cranky at that point so the food would have had to be pretty darn good to make an impression, and it was not.  I can't think of any reason I'd go back here when Wakin' Bakin' is a block away.

Probably a lot else to report, but I'll just say that I have been to half of the New Orleans "bad decision" bars this month and leave it at that.  Oh, the Saints lost and I got a job.  That pretty much covers it.

Weather

We had an ice storm.  It was cold.  Frozen water fell from the sky.  The doors to my girlfriend's car froze shut and she had to crawl in through the hatchback.  My workplace shut down Tuesday and Wednesday.  Roads closed.  Could have been much worse.

Precipitation yesterday:

Today:

Recent Pictures

Eleven empty bottles of St. Germain on the side of the road:

 Cats!:

 Drag brunch:

 Lights at Celebration in the Oaks:

 Smug nativity camel:

 View from the Ferris wheel of death:

 Flamingos:

 Zoo sign:

 Leucistic alligator:

Gorillas:

We've had some rain:

Gingerbread Oak Alley Plantation:

Recent Goings-on

Quick sum-up of eating and activities, not in any particular order:
Wayfare on Freret: I had a daily special eggplant sandwich which sounded better than anything on the regular menu; it was quite good, but on the whole seemed a buck or two too expensive.  Probably not going in the regular rotation but I may go back for meat pies and a beer.
Dat Dog: Still amazing.
Theo's but for lunch: a quite good caprese-style grilled cheese sandwich.
Breakfast at Stanley with an old buddy from New York: I liked the Eggs Stanley but I think it's worth paying extra to go to Atchafalaya.
Free Christmas concert by Jeremy Davenport at St. Louis Cathedral.
Watching FSU win the championship at Tracey's: good sports bar.
Front row for the Amazing Acro-Cats at the Allways: I saw a cat play the cowbell.  It blew my mind.
Brunch at the Country Club: Excellent breakfast burrito, bottomless mimosas, and a Christmas drag show.  What's not to like?  (That reminds me: while in Hawaii, at a day-after-wedding breakfast with mimosas, somebody said that you can keep a bottle of champagne from going flat by putting a spoon in the neck of the bottle.  My mom asked me if I had heard that before, and I was forced to respond that I've never seen a bottle of champagne open long enough to go flat.)
Chinese food from Jung's Golden Dragon on Christmas Eve: possibly the best General Tso's chicken I've ever had.
Shopping at the Bloomin' Deals: Christmas-themed coffee mugs and cookie cutters, three hardback books, and a pizza cutter for seven bucks.
Celebration in the Oaks: Yeah, it's a little corny, but it was also festive and romantic.  We went up on the ferris wheel and had a nice view of the skyline.  Also, I am concerned about that ferris wheel: while we were waiting in line, it started making some troubling screeching noises, and the operator quickly walked away saying "I'm not going to be under it when that thing collapses."  I swear that is what I heard her say.
New Year's Eve on a bywater apartment building roof with friends, watching professional and amateur fireworks all across the city.

Separate post with recent pictures forthcoming.  Also, sometime before Saturday, I'll post about the Saints.

Hawaii Write-Up

I waited to write this update so long, it's probably going to be a little terse and short on details.

What I did: take a snorkel boat trip to the Molokini crater and turtle reef (or as the captain said, "Well, it's a reef and there are turtles."); wander around old Lahaina (very touristy, and none of the museums were open during advertised hours); drive up to Haleakala and get my National Park Passport stamped; attend a lovely wedding by the ocean and drink a lot of wine; hike in Iao Valley with my brother; run on the beach and watch sunsets; drink local beer (nothing spectacular, but the pineapple-wheat is interesting and the Longboard lager is solid); visit the very good Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum; ate a plate lunch and food with spam in it.

What I think: I don't grok Hawaii.  Yes, the beaches are nice and the weather is consistently stunning.  But everything I did was touristy and I sort of feel like the trip was the equivalent of visiting New Orleans and never leaving the French Quarter.  My confusion about "authenticity" is compounded by the fact that I read Sarah Vowell's Unfamiliar Fishes while I was visiting--I highly recommend it.  Man, Hawaii has a complicated history, and I felt a little awful about being an American tourist over there.

TL;DR: Uniquely pretty with excellent weather, but my favorite beach vacation is still Fort Pickens.