Easter weekend

My girlfriend and I didn't have to work on Good Friday, so we took the opportunity to cross something off our New Orleans bucket list: lunch at Galatoire's.  This was an experience.  First, they don't take reservations for lunch in the desirable downstairs dining room, so one has to wait in line.  Second, a system has evolved in which people who want to eat lunch but don't want to wait in line themselves for three hours pay homeless people to wait in line for them.  Frankly, I have conflicting thoughts about that system, but waiting in line and drinking mimosas sounded like fun, so that's what we did.  We arrived at about 8:30 and just made the cut-off; only one group behind us managed to get a table for the 11:30 lunch sitting.  So we stood in line, observing Bourbon street come to life, drinking breakfasty drinks from the Old Absinthe House down the street, and making friends with the group behind us (mostly used to live here, now live in Denver and come back for reunions).  Then, the lunch.  We told our server Peter that we were newbies, and he gave us the dope: a quick lunch at Galatoire's is two hours, and some parties will stagger out at around a quarter to five.  We started with drinks (a very nice rose and an excellent Tom Collins) and then did our best to eat our way through the menu.  I am going to confess my surprise: sometimes you might expect an old guard restaurant to coast by on its name and former glory (and from what I hear, that's the case with Antoine's), but my god this was a good meal.  We had oysters en brochette (I don't know how you make oysters wrapped in bacon and fried so delicate, but they did it); shrimp remoulade (better than Arnaud's); turtle soup (different than Commander's, but as good; less emphasis on the turtle, more emphasis on the vegetable ingredients, maybe); crab and avocado salad (oh my god).  For the main course, I had grilled redfish meuniere amandine, and it was divine; Brigette had the crawfish etoufee, which was impeccable from the bit I tasted.  Oh, and we had the cauliflower au gratin, which was insanely heavy but I couldn't stop eating it.  Finally, we had the key lime tart with chantilly cream and a mango sauce; the crust was a little hard to deal with, but I still liked it very much.  All that with a bottle of wine and another round of cocktails at the end (a pretty good brandy milk punch), and we rolled ourselves out at about 3:30.  Peter said that wasn't bad for a first try.  We took a nice stroll to Jackson Square to let things settle, then went back to the Absinthe House to meet our new Galatoire's friends for a round of Pimm's Cups.  It was a good Friday.

On top of that, the rest of the weekend saw a trip to the Audubon Insectarium, drinking on the patio at Dos Jefes, and the best weather of the year.  I like this time of year.

One day in particular.

As the pictures in the last post indicate, I've been having a lot of fun in town notwithstanding the blogging silence.  The threat of all that fun to document kept adding up until it was overwhelming, so I just decided to dump the visual record of the festivities and leave it at that.  I'll get back to a regular blogging schedule now that the backlog is resolved.

But I do want to remember a particularly special Friday spent with my girlfriend.  We both took the day off of work and had lunch at Willie Mae's Scotch House for the best fried chicken I've ever had, bar none.  Pretty darn good lemonade too.  Then we took the tour at NOLA Brewing on Tchoupitoulas.  Very informative, and the beer is free!  I am looking forward to returning to their Taphouse to try some of the specialty brews.  After that, we walked down the parade route, stopping stopping at the Food Drunk food truck for a king cake burger.  This concoction got a lot of press, and it was good but more for the novelty.  But at that moment, it made absolute sense to eat a frosted hamburger at Lee Circle.  Our walk continued to the Civic to see Neutral Milk Hotel, who put on a non-stop energetic show.  Two thumbs way up.  The evening wrapped up where all evenings should: at The Saint for a nightcap.  That was a great day.

The past few months: an overview.

Ice storm, Comic-Con, Jean Lafitte, Dinner Lab, Krewe du Vieux, Shovels and Rope, the Krewe of Rolling Elliotts in Chewbacchus, Mardi Gras parades, the Morning 40 Federation at One Eyed Jacks, Hugh Laurie, fire, The Plastic Platoon marching on Mardi Gras Day, The Little People's Place, Welcome to Night Vale at the Civic, Jim Monaghan's St. Patrick's Day Parade, Rob Ryan and Thomas Morstead in the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Parade, chillest float driver ever, crazy drunk lady advising everyone to drink a little red wine when pregnant, Pelicans game, Stella yelling contest at the Tennessee Williams Festival, cookout at Lake Verret, Wienermobile, view from the Westin, Cochon Cotillion, drone at French Quarter Fest, Lasyone's meat and crawfish pies, colorful house.  And that's just the pictures.  It's been a good couple of months.