New Orleans, Part I

I went for the first time last week. I was a little apprehensive food-wise because I am not very adventurous when it comes to seafood. I mean--I guess I am in some ways. I eat sushi, but really only ahi and salmon. And I do like jellyfish. I like scallops, shrimp, crab, and lobster okay, but am not a fan of oysters or catfish. And we had crawfish (crayfish) as pets in elementary school. So I was excited about having a muffuleta, beignets, and chicory coffee, and I was trying to gear myself up for trying some of the seafood.

wednesday
The first night was our program party at Crescent City Brewhouse on Decatur. There were a bunch of different fried things: crabcakes, fish (catfish?), wontons. The crabcakes kind of sucked, but I liked the fish, and the wontons were okay. A friend more familiar with catfish thought that's what the fried fish was but it didn't taste anything like the catfish I'd tried in Little Rock. I think what I really liked about the fried fish was the spicy batter though! We also had little muffuletas--the bread was a little too soft for my taste, but that olive spread makes everything good! The beers were really expensive--yeah, they were big but not $8 big. Still, I don't think drinking is about thinking logically so I had a couple mugs of the Weiss. Very good!

thursday
we had lunch at Liborio Cuban Restaurant on Magazine Street. I wanted some veggies so I don't know why I ordered the Bistec Cubano. I guess because it said it had onions. I have trouble when I read menus with knowing when the vegetable is more of a garnish or seasoning versus a main ingredient. It did come with plantains though and really, it was great. I just wished I had more vegetables. One of my friends ordered rabbit, for which I will never forgive her, but she said it was good. Another friend ordered shrimp creole and said it was as good as her mom's. The fourth ordered Ropa Vieja. I tried a bit and it was definitely better than the ropa vieja at Cafe Habana in Ann Arbor. The flavor was much more interesting. I had a yerba mate soda but wished I'd ordered the pineapple soda my friend ordered. Both were quite a bit on the sweet side (I think when I order sodas other than the standard Coke and 7-Up I expect them to be less sweet) but still good.

Thursday night we headed to a publisher's party at the aquarium. The food was awesome, if a bit salty. There was crawfish etouffee which I ate because it was the first thing I found, I was really hungry, and worried I wouldn't get anymore free food. (That's what these parties are all about. Seriously.) Anyway, it was great. I'd say crawfish is similar to shrimp--it's got that same chewiness. And it wasn't too fishy for my taste. The best thing we had at this party was grits with shrimp and mushrooms. Yum... it was too salty, but still really good!

After that we headed to Bourbon Street. OMG there are slurpee machines that dispense daiquiris. They are all over. My friends who are not into sweet drinks thought they sucked, although one person said the margarita is not too sweet. I heard the peach is not good. I just love the concept. I swore I wasn't going to drink, but I couldn't pass it up. Plus I think I wanted a cold drink more than anything else. So I picked a flavor that only had one kind of alcohol in it: the Hurricane. I figured that at the very least I didn't need to be mixing alcohol. It was great!