Pictures from the Sandwich Islands

The airport in Honolulu, last transfer in a long day of flying to Hawaii:

 Leaving turtle reef:

Tropical water:

 A scenic overlook:

 Comfortable:

 Wedding venue:

 Wedding sunset:

 Maui church:

 Old coral-rock building:

 Fort:

 Banyan:

 Haleakala crater, or maybe Mordor:

 Haleakala:

 Looking down on Maui:

 Observatories:

 High up:

 Silversword:

Whaler's try pot at the Sugar Museum:

 The Needle in Iao Valley, believed to be the phallic stone of the Hawaiian god of the underworld:

Cairn:

 Iao Valley:

Iao Valley (imagine this idyllic river choked with a thousand corpses):

Oak Street Po-Boy Festival 2013

I attended this year's Oak Street Po-Boy Festival.  For those unfortunate souls who don't know what I'm talking about (probably nobody, since I think I know everybody reading this blog), take a look at the Wikipedia entry.  The festival (which seems to have dropped the "Heritage and Preservation" part of the title) has been going for five or six years now, and this is probably my fourth visit.  Yeah, I know it's crowded and can be a bit of a mess, but for sampling a lot of different creative po-boys, it's hard to beat.

This year was different because, purely by tagging along to the right place at the right time, I ended up being conscripted as an official judge in the Specialty Seafood category.  Ultimately, we selected the Seither's Seafood seafood au gratin po-boy as the champion, although the Jack Dempsey's soft-shell crab remoulade was a close second.  It was a cold Sunday, and there was something about the seafood au gratin that made it the perfect comfort food for the day.  Also in contention were a soft-shell crab with wasabi mayo and caviar from Chiba, a crabmeat boudin po-boy from Bayou Girls, a shrimp & crabmeat po-boy from Ms. Linda, a smoked salmon with satsuma sandwich (not really a po-boy) from Breads On Oak, and a godawful "crawfish enchilada po-boy" Voleo's seafood which convinced me never ever to eat anything from Voleo's seafood.  And on top of that, I wasn't expecting to be a judge so I had already tried the barbecue shrimp from Pascal's Manale (buttery, peppery, and reliably delicious), the fried-chicken-and-waffle-boy from Palate (meh, maybe it would have been better if it was served a little warmer), and then after judging I had a really good garlic-stuffed roast beef po-boy from Sammy's Deli.

I don't want to get all high-falutin' about po-boy theory, but I think the specialty seafood category was inherently handicapped.  If you have the traditional seafood toppings of fried shrimp or fried oysters, those give you the kind of meaty structure you need to compete with the bread.  A lot of the specialty seafood contenders, on the other hand, were too mushy to stand up.  The soft-shell crab worked better, but because the po-boy festival portions are so small they still felt like they lacked substance.  I think the seafood au gratin worked because the melted cheese added a chewy structural matrix.  But on the whole, I think I'll stick to traditional seafood po-boys.

Friday and Saturday, 11/22-23

Pretty good enchiladas at Taqueria Guerrero, probably the best I've had in town although there are a couple of places I haven't tried yet.  Finally got around to trying the very good drinks at Twelve Mile Limit.

Then a lovely wedding at the Peristyle in City Park (with an acoustic version of I Want You To Want Me for the recessional) and a reception at the Pitot House with music by Debbie Davis and the Lost Bayou Ramblers.  Good food, good friends, and an all-around wonderful experience.  As an added bonus, I had a fun encounter with an inebriated wedding guest who (1) asked if I was courting my girlfriend, (2) sang me an old Gilette jingle and told me to shave because she'd prefer it that way, (3) railed that kids these days don't know good music, and (4) then changed his mind and wanted to adopt me because I liked Debbie Davis's covers of the The Ink Spots' I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire and the The Kinks' Sunny Afternoon.  At that point, his wife gently wrangled him away and sat him down, where he remained for the rest of the reception.  Excellent times.

Recent activities

I let the blogging lapse again for a bit and I apologize.  I'll get a couple of posts up today and then there will be another hiatus while I'm out of town for a week, but with luck I'll have some good pictures after that.

So, recently I have enjoyed: cooked an edible Thanksgiving dinner for four; eaten a much better Thanksgiving turducken hotdog with stuffing and andouille sauce at Dat Dog; celebratory drinks with a friend at Saint Lawrence, a bar that is pretty good by Quarter standards; a truly bizarre but edible vegetable stir-fry at Cosimo's in the Quarter; a good burger at High Hat; delicious German beer at the reorganized Aline Street Beer Garden, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite bars; visited the new H&M clothing place; and endured more insane weather.  I broke out the flannel sheets when it got down to the thirties on the night before Thanksgiving, but we've been back in the high 70's since then.  This is weird.

Autumn in New Orleans

Look at the first graph on this page.  Those are the fluctuations we've been dealing with: a couple of days of nice crisp autumn weather, a couple of days of disgusting swampy not-November weather.  It is ten degrees warmer out now than it was yesterday; tomorrow, it is predicted to be fifteen degrees cooler than today.  I do not like it, nossir.

Weekend 11/15-17

Friday night: delicious Saints Black & Gold Rolls Sushi Brothers followed by cocktails at The Saint.  Seriously, you would not walk into the Saint and expect to find consistently excellent and creative mixed drinks.

Saturday: a baby shower which I mention only because it had pear and goat cheese donuts I was told came from that new donut place The District.  District,  if you're going to rip off Cake Cafe, at least do a better job of it.  Then a jerk chicken burrito at Juan's and a show at The Howlin' Wolf.  The opening act was Rareluth, a strange little act out of Lafayette consisting of drums, bass, keyboard, sometimes wind chimes, and an interpretive dance section.  They really set the tone for the main act, Of Montreal.  I've never done drugs, but I have to imagine that it would be something like seeing an Of Montreal show.  Very wild, with projected video displays and giant puppets and a whole lot of energy.  I wasn't too familiar with their work, but I had a lot of fun.  Then we walked back uptown (perfectly safe, Mom), with a pit stop at the Bridge Lounge for an overpriced beer and french fries from the Slider Shak (of the greasy style, but good).

And while we were sitting outside the Bridge Lounge, we had an encounter.  A young woman approached us and asked to use a cell phone to call her boyfriend because her battery was dead.  She was damp from the intermittent rain, wearing a bow tie, very drunk, and had no idea where she was.  We helped her get in touch with her boyfriend who was waiting for her at the Half Moon, and because that was in our direction we offered to walk her there.  Along the walk we got a truncated version of her recent history.  She moved here from Nebraska six months ago with her boyfriend "for a change" and liked the city so far.  Earlier that night she had been drinking downtown with friends who then abandoned her, and she wasn't yet familiar enough with the city to navigate on her own.  She gave us a hug when we got her to the Half Moon and called us her guardian angels, which was nice.  Her boyfriend seemed like a real jerk, but what are you going to do?  So that's my good deed for the week.

Sunday: Have I mentioned that the weather here is seesawing unpredictably?  Two days of fall weather followed by two or three of swampy 80-degree heat seems to be the pattern.  So today was a sweaty walk through Couturie Forest in City Park followed by a stressful Saints victory over the hated 49ers.  Dinner was from Naked Pizza and was delivered in a box with the cryptic message "REMEMBER TOMORROW" scrawled across the inside of the box.

Another day before an election, another last-minute political mailer.

The Moth Storytelling

The Moth is a storytelling podcast I have listened to for a while.  One of the events under its jurisdiction is the curiously capitalized StorySLAM in which volunteers tell five-minute stories on a certain theme.  Last night was the second of three scheduled StorySLAMs in New Orleans.  I missed the first (on the topic of "Firsts") but caught last night's slate of stories about "Scars."  I frankly didn't know what to expect because the podcast is curated pretty well but the live show would be folks off the street volunteering to share with the audience.  It turned out very well!  There were ten storytellers and an encouraging diversity in styles and tones.  We heard from the guy who was arrested in '91 in California with a heap of drugs, the guy with the bullying older brother and the lawnmower accident, the medical student who changed paths because of a bike accident, the archaeology dig that led to a journalism career, and the cab driver who survived a carjacking.  Although some of the stories had little to do with the theme, they were all interesting.  And the MC, Peter Aguero, was just top notch.  I look forward to going again.

In other news, it got cold.  Real cold.  High of 72 yesterday, high of 54 today.  I walked around last night as it got dark and the arctic air blew in.  I don't miss snow, but I do like good brisk walking weather.

Miscellaneous

First of all, the aftermath of the typhoon that hit the Philippines is horrifying.  The United States got by scot-free this year, so the very least I can do is donate to relief funds.  Maybe you'll consider donating as well.  Now back to your regularly scheduled narcissism.

New Orleans has a new Costco and I am probably a little too excited about it.  Something about walking around the cavernous interior, eating free samples, and wondering what I would do with two gallons of olive oil or seven pounds of frozen chicken thighs just feels satisfying.  Anyway, I've got a membership card now so if you want to shop or buy cheap gas, let me know.



I went to another trivia night at the Half Moon, now being operated by Geeks Who Drink.  They run a tight ship and it starts an hour earlier, so I imagine I'll be attending more frequently.

Finally, I think I am going to tweak my Domenica Project.  I went again last week and quite enjoyed the roasted carrot with goat cheese, red onion, shaved brussels sprouts, beets, and hazelnuts (and another four cheese for leftovers).  But looking at the menu again, I just want to order the duck pizza again next time, which will undermine my ability to try them all.  (At least until the uptown location opens).  Therefore, I will instead try other happy hour specials around town and report back.