Sunday, November 13, 2011

Best of New Orleans.

Keywords:The time has come to judge and be judged. Though it’s always hard to choose what’s best in any place, I’m presenting a list of all my New Orleans favorites.  As always, feel free to add your own favorites in the comments: New Orleans has no end of hidden gems.
Ornate shotgun houses line Piety Street in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans (AE, NGS)
FOOD

HOTELS

MUSIC

SHOPPING

And a few more personal favorites:
  • Favorite park: City Park
  • Favorite street in the French Quarter: Royal Street
  • Favorite church: St. Patrick’s on Camp Street
  • Best tailgating: Loyola Avenue before a Saints game.
  • Best house-gawking: St. Charles Avenue (Uptown), Magazine Street (Garden District) and Barracks Street (French Quarter)
  • Best people-watching: CVS on Canal Street after midnight
  • Best gym: New Orleans Athletic Club
  • Best sober fun: New Orleans Healing Center
  • Favorite runs: along the Mississippi waterfront, along shores of Lake Pontchartrain or on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar tracks
  • Best Activity for Children: Louisiana Swamp Exhibit at Audubon Zoo
  • Best tourist trap that’s still worth doing: Steamboat Natchez



Best dog: a NOLA retriever that I met on St. Ann Street, French Quarter (Photo by Jeremy Braud)

Women of New 

Photo by Andrew Evans, NGSPhoto GallKeywords:Just like French literature, the plot of a city often lies in the women who live and work in that particular place. It was Alexandre Dumas who first counseled readers to “cherchez la femme” (look for the woman), and literary critics often use the same approach for revealing the heart of a novel or film.…

World’s Best Jambalaya


Video by Andrew Evans and Heather Wyatt (National Geographic TravelerKeywords:The secret is bacon fat. That’s right. Slowly caramelize the chopped onions in a big handful of rendered bacon fat and you’ll conjure up some terrific sweet flavors to balance all the savory and spice (and to think all this time I’ve just used oil). I’ve quickly learned that you can’t flinch at pork products…
Picheloup Place, the street where my father grew up in midcity New Orleans. (AE, NGS)

“You can take the boy out of the bayou, but you can’t take the bayou out of the boy.” At least, that’s what my dad tells me. He was born in New Orleans during World War II and, despite leaving at a fairly young age, he has always identified with the city. No matter that…

Morning Show

Photo by Heather Wyatt, National Geographic Traveler

Keywords:I was very honored yesterday to be on the WWLTV morning show with legendary host and anchor Eric Paulsen. Watch a quick recap of our interview HERE during which I tell everyone how I really feel about this city. (Thanks to everyone at Channel 4 for having me down in the studio!)

Second Line

Second-line jazz parade with the Black Men of Labor on Rampart Street in New Orleans.

Keywords:Jazz music is everywhere in New Orleans — simply walk the streets for a few minutes and you’ll run into it: loud, proud, and infectiously hip-swinging. Jazz funerals are yet another musical phenomenon that sets New Orleans apart from the rest of the world. A celebration in the midst of sadness, the musical parades march…

Vampires and Witches


Photo by Andrew Evans, National GeographicPhoto Gallery
Keywords:Whether or not you believe in vampires and witches, the city of New Orleans is filled with them. I know because I spent my pre-Halloween weekend surrounded by both. On Friday night I attended the Anne Rice New Orleans Vampire Ball, a decadent and dimly-lit festival of enthusiasts dressed either as fanged bloodsuckers or buxom…

Adolfo’s

Chef Adolfo Perez plates his famous rack of lamb at Adolfo's restaurant on Frenchmen Street in the Marigny of New Orleans (AE, NGS)

Keywords:“Monica! MONICA!” A short, wiry-haired man in a rumpled suit coat yelled a woman’s name down the stairs. Three seconds later, a party of four  scrambled up the slanted wooden steps and took their place at one of the tiny square tables not far from where I was sitting. The one-room upstairs restaurant was cramped…

Spooky Louisiana Cemeteries

Photo by Andrew Evans, National Geographic TravelerPhoto Gallery
Ornate, whitewashed stone cemeteries are as much a part of southern Louisiana as the cypress trees and dangling Spanish moss. French Catholic tradition and the extremely high water table mean that many Louisiana cemeteries are built above ground. The jumble of crosses and melancholy statues definitely adds to the gothic feel of this strange corner…

Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue

Gal Holiday & The Honky Tonk Revue at Mimi's in the Marigny, New Orlean
Another night, another great musical discovery. I have to say, the music never stops in this city on the river. After a luscious meal at Arnaud’s, I head on over to Mimi’s in the Marigny, a bar and music club that’s so effortlessly cool, I felt all the cool seep into me the second Ifashioninn4us.blogspot.co
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