Cafe du Monde in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport

I had a layover in Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. While in New Orleans, regardless of if it is just an hour in the airport between flights, the tourist thing to do is stop at Cafe Du Monde. 

 I had a Cafe au Lait.

The beignets! As far as beignets go, I was reminded that Cafe du Monde's beignets are better than the beignets that I have occasionally in Florida. These were very fluffy, almost croissant like on the inside.

St. Charles Tavern in New Orleans, LA

I got a recommendation to try the St. Charles Tavern in New Orleans from someone who was staying in my hotel. Not having any dinner plans, I walked a couple blocks down the street and gave them a try.

I had the Boudin Ball Po'boy. I tried boudin balls for the first time at Jacques-Imos Cafe a couple nights earlier in the city, but I had yet to have a po boy in New Orleans. A combination of the two sounded good! These boudin balls were different from the ones I had a Jacques-Imos Cafe. These had less of a batter around the meat inside and were a bit more uniform in their consistency. Different, but also good. The boudin balls were served on a white bread with lettuce, tomato, and a remoulade sauce. Fries were served on the side.

Audubon Zoo Food (Roman Candy Company and Cypress Knee Cafe) in New Orleans, LA

I spent one afternoon in New Orleans at the Audubon Zoo. Food happened while I was there. The first thing I ate came from this nifty looking food cart called Roman Chewing Candy. Apparently this cart is a New Orleans landmark because I later started noticing it on postcards sold in gift shops elsewhere in the city.

I'd never heard of Roman candy before, but it turned out this was a type of taffy. It was being pulled right there in the cart. There was a choice of vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. Since strawberry was being made fresh as I approached the cart, that's what I went with.

It was chewy and sweet. Like most taffy, this got horribly stuck in my molars and made me want to brush my teeth for the rest of the afternoon. Regardless, it was still a tasty candy.

The Roman candy didn't quite hold me over until I was done exploring the zoo so I stopped into a restaurant there called Cypress Knee Cafe. While all the other restaurants I passed in the zoo served typical zoo/theme park snack bar foods, Cypress Knee Cafe had a bit more interesting menu. They were located in the Louisiana Swamp section of the park, and had appropriately themed local cuisine.

I hadn't had any jambalaya while visiting New Orleans. I ordered it here to remedy this. Cypress Knee Cafe served a decent sized bowl filled with flavorful rice and chicken. I didn't get any shrimp or sausage in my bowl which are normally standards in the jambalaya I've had in the past. I don't know if these aren't in the zoo's recipe for jambalaya or if I just got a bad mix in my bowl. Regardless of the lack of variety in the meats, when it comes to the flavor of the jambalaya here, it surpassed my low expectations for a snack bar in a zoo.

Pho Orchid in New Orleans, LA

I was waiting to watch a few Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans when I stopped into a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Orchid. I think I may have decided to enter Pho Orchid at a bad time. It seemed like they were transitioning from their normal menu to a special take out only menu that they had during parades. I entered and I was given their normal menu. I was ignored for a very long time before a server came back to my table to take my order. In the meantime, everyone else entering right after me was being told to order at the bar off the Mardi Gras menu. I was a bit confused as to whether or not I was given the normal menu by mistake until a server finally came back to take my order.

I ordered the Grilled Pork Bun. This consisted of vermicelli noodles topped with the meat, lettuce, bean sprouts, pickled carrots, cucumbers, and a side of their house sauce. Overall, it was pretty tasty. Some of the pork was pretty fatty, but otherwise I had no major complaints. The vinegar based sauce, along with hoisin and sriracha kept all the noodles nice and moist. 

Besides what seemed to be confusion among the staff about whether to take my order or not, my meal at Pho Orchid was very satisfying.

Cafe Beignet in New Orleans, LA

When I walked by a place called Cafe Beignet on Royal Street in the French Quarter in New Orleans, I decided to stop in. I had sampled beignets from Cafe Du Monde a couple of days earlier and wanted to get beignets somewhere else in New Orleans to compare.

Cafe Beignet was in a cool little brick building. It was long and narrow with low, arched ceilings.

Cafe Beignet had signs hanging on the wall proudly announcing that they were featured on Food Network's Best Thing I Ever Ate with Alton Brown.

I did a little Youtube searching and found the segment from the show that featured Cafe Beignet. Alton Brown endorsed beignets are probably good beignets, right?

I didn't get the proper beignet accompaniment and get chicory coffee. I instead ordered a chai latte to drink. It was pretty standard.

Then it was time to try the beignets! I'm sorry to disagree with Alton Brown, but I preferred the beignets from Cafe Du Monde. The beignets here were much denser than the fluffy beignets that Cafe Du Monde served. Not to say that these weren't good. I think it would be hard to mess up a beignet too badly, but if I had to choose, fluffy beignets would beat dense beignets.

French Market Restaurant in New Orleans, LA

I was trying to decide where to eat dinner while walking around the French Quarter in New Orleans when my nose made the decision for me.

The French Market Bar and Restaurant had a porch where they were cooking crawfish. The smell wafting out of the boiling pot was so tempting that I went in to have some crawfish.

I ordered 1 pound of crawfish along with a side of corn, potatoes, and sausage. This steamy boat-shaped bowl of bottom feeders was a huge amount of food. According to my server, most people order at least two pounds, but one was plenty for me. They had a nice garlic flavor that wasn't too overpowering.

Eating crawfish in New Orleans was checked off my list of foods to eat in the city...

Jacques-Imo's Café in New Orleans, LA

After a day of wandering and riding streetcars around New Orleans with no real destination in mind, it was decided it was dinner time. A random streetcar stop was chosen which appeared to have some nearby restaurants, and we started exploring. A Lebanese or sushi restaurant were the winning choices for the area until Jacques-Imo's was spotted. I had overheard people on the streetcar talking about the restaurant, so we decided to check it out. The sign out front advertises Warm Beer, Lousy Food, and Poor Service. It sounded like a gimmicky way to get people to pay for the experience of a bad restaurant. We were there and overheard people taking about the restaurant, so why not? Turned out that Jacques-Imo's was not any of those things and ended up being my favorite dining experience in New Orleans.

Jacques-Imo's appeared to be a somewhat typical looking bar when entering the restaurant. That's until they take you to their table through their show kitchen to the multi-level dining room in the back. Once seated and we took a look at the menu, Jacques-Imo's was much more of a gourmet fine dining establishment than I was expecting. The meal started with garlic cornbread. I've had cornbread and I've had garlic bread, but I have never had the two combined. It was delicious.

Under the appetizers, there were two items that have been on my food bucketlist for a while. I was debating which one to get, but we ended up trying them both. The first was Boudin Balls. These were stuffed with jalapenos and pepper jack cheese, served with Creole mustard sauce for dipping. I was told before going on my trip that I had to try Boudin Balls. These deep fried balls of mystery sausage meat were somewhat reminiscent of a jalapeno popper, only way better!

The other appetizer which I had to try was the Fried Rabbit Tenderloin. As someone who had a pet rabbit for years, I always wondered what rabbit meat tasted like. Until Jacques-Imo's, the opportunity didn't easily present itself to find this out. The meat had somewhat of a creamy quality which was very nice. I'm not sure of this is a characteristic of rabbit meat itself, or if perhaps the creaminess was infused into the meat from being fried. Either way, I can now say I've eaten rabbit and it was very tasty.

A spinach salad came next. It was topped with a fried oyster, which was unexpected.

I had the Stuffed Catfish for my entree. To blackened filets of catfish were served over a mound of crabmeat stuffing. This was topped with hollandaise sauce and scallions. This dish was bursting with flavor. The seasoning on the catfish was somewhat spicy, countered with the creamy hollandaise. The crab stuffing was also very nice!

The catfish was served with two sides. I chose the Red Beans & Rice and Corn Macque Chow. The red beans and rice was good, but nothing new to me. I had never heard of corn macque chow though. It's apparently a sort of stew made from corn and other vegetables. I enjoyed the dish!

Jacques-Imo's Cafe wasn't on my list of restaurants to check out in New Orleans. My visit to the restaurant was completely random, but I'm glad I ended up there. Jacques-Imo's Cafe turned out to be my favorite food experience while in New Orleans!

LA Boiling Crab in Orlando, FL

I had lunch at LA Boiling Crab in the Mills-50 District of Orlando. Surrounded by Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, this place specialized in New Orleans style po boy sandwiches, crawfish, crabs, and other types of seafood. 

I ordered the soft shell crab po boy. This sandwich was filled with fried soft shell crab, lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayonnaise. It was served on a French baguette with a nice, crispy crust. The crab was very tender and the batter that it was fried in had plenty of flavor.

I shared an order of beignets for dessert. These four fried fritters were topped with plenty of powdered sugar. They were light and airy on the inside. They may be a type of doughnut, but beignets aren't just any doughnut. Beignets are the official state doughnut of Louisiana! An appropriate end to a meal at a restaurant with LA in the name.

I had fun at LA Boiling Crab. It had been a while since I've eaten Cajun food, so having a po boy and beignets was enjoyable. At some point I want to return here and try some of their crawfish and crabs which smelled delicious as I was eating.

Cajun Cabin in New Orleans

While traveling on a twenty hour road trip from Central Florida to Oklahoma, there was two choices for lunch. Option 1 was to stop at a fast food restaurant and eat the food in the car. Option 2 was to stop in New Orleans and find some authentic Cajun food to get to-go and eat in the car. I obviously decided to go with option 2.

After finding a parking spot in the French Quarter, I made my way to Bourbon Street and went on a very quick (15 minute) tour of the area, and then settled on a restaurant called the Cajun Cabin. They had fake trees in the dining room and alligators on the walls. The back of the restaurant was complete with a faux cabin filled with tables.

I ordered a dish called A Taste of New Orleans. It came with a cup of jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, and some sort of gumbo. The jambalaya was the prettiest dish with it's bright yellow rice topped with a pepperoncini, but it tasted kind of bland. Regardless, it was still pretty good. I'm not normally a big fan of red beans & rice, but Cajun Cabin's beans were really good. I would say they were some of the best I've eaten. The gumbo was also really good. I'm not exactly sure what was in it, but it was much better than I was expecting.