Eating My Way Through New Orleans

The first stop for any visitor to New Orleans should be the Café du Monde, at 800 Decatur St., and in business at the same location since the early 1860s. It's the home of the famous beignets, which are often compared to the common donut — and that would be a great mistake!

The beignet is lighter than any donut I've ever eaten, is served warm, and is sprinkled with so much powdered sugar that one can see the thumbprint left by the waiter!

Squeeeeeeal - oink, oink, oink! Oh, excuse me, I completely forgot myself! The reason you might want to start at Café du Monde is that you can then plan a return trip — you'll want to experience beignets more than once!

This young man was our waiter. Almost all the waiters at Café du Monde are Vietnamese because it's currently Vietnamese-owned.

Carriages across from the Café du Monde

 

I had great pasta and shrimp at Joey K's, at 3001 Magazine Street. Joey K's serves good New Orleans cuisine in generous portions, has a fun ambiance, and is a favorite of locals.

In Algiers Point, I had breakfast at Toute de Suite Café, at 347 Verret St., off the tourist path, and another favorite of locals. I had an outstanding breakfast, and there was a good piano player providing background music, an unexpected treat on a Saturday morning.

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My hosts are great cooks, and I was treated to alligator sausage! In the photograph below, the lighter links are alligator.

And ready to eat!

The same meal included crayfish, a.k.a. "crawfish." Delicious!

If you're imagining that the alligator sausage and crawfish are served spicy-hot, you'd be correct. Here's a picture from my hosts' kitchen — they buy cayenne pepper by the quart!

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And now ... back to the treadmill exerciser!

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