Friends, Food, Fun, and some French 😉 A weekend in New Orleans is a great getaway if you want to catch up with friends and refresh your soul.
We have been to New Orleans several times and many a time captured the ‘Big Easy’ ethos of this laid-back and happy-go-lucky attitude of this city. During this trip, we soaked in some of its regular destinations but added new places to our getaway as well.
Our weekend started off with Friday nightlife. On the schedule were Frenchman Street, Faubourg Marigny, and Bourbon Street for some quintessential live jazz music. The ‘birthplace of jazz’ and host of Mardi Gras obviously knows how to party till late. Unfortunately, while my friends were having a good time hopping music clubs, my flight had gotten so delayed that they were all partied out by the time I landed. But one can catch up on all that jazz another day 😉
Saturday, we did our classic tour of the French Quarter, a walk, by historic Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral, sneaking out some pics of ourselves among other wedding and prom shoots going on. Other rituals included watching live shows, appreciating street art and artists, and shopping at the French Market.
The French Market has a wide range of small retail stores, arts and crafts stores, restaurants, farmers markets, Flea markets, global antiques, and souvenir stores.
When you stroll around Jackson Square, you can check out art by the local artists, who have an open-air art gallery on the sidewalks. You can spend time in leisure watching street performers, dancers, drummers, magicians, live shows, or a bird lady letting many a bird perch on your hand! You can also get your fortune told, tarot card read, or a caricature made 😉
Walking further towards Bourbon Street, you get to the heart of the French Quarter. You can notice the unique architectural style with French and Spanish influences. They have balconies with beautiful hanging gardens on top of restaurants, clubs, and galleries. During Mardi Gras season these balconies are crowded with people throwing bead necklaces on the parade.
During this visit, we could not squeeze in a Muffuletta sandwich from NOLA’s famous Central Grocery on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, but the best substitute was to pick their Hot and Spicy Olive Salad a Sicilian Cajun Salad to make Muffulettas at home. Strolling along French Quarter, you can also pick the famous NOLA Pralines, Praline candy, Tabasco sauces, and more….
Of course, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a sacrosanct visit to the famous Cafe du Monde. Biting into their deep-fried square soft dough dusted with mounds of powdered sugar is like biting white clouds and feeling like sweet heaven. You can find my review of Cafe Du Monde written in 2013 here. https://hotsweetspicyrecipes.com/cafe-du-monde-new-orleans-a-beignet-heaven/
Reflecting on the review I wrote 9 years back, the cafe still produces delicious squares of heaven, and they seemed to have listened to feedback and sped up the waiting process. The decadent beignets with their house blend aromatic chicory bean coffee, really revitalizes you for an afternoon of leisure.
Saturday evening, my friends and I enjoyed a late dinner at the upscale Indian Restaurant-Saffron NOLA located on Magazine Street. We chose an Indian restaurant since we found many NOLA restaurants offered limited vegetarian options, and most of our group was vegetarian. The menu was interesting, the ambiance classy, and the service was excellent and hospitable.
We started off with some delicious mocktails called Strawberry Fields-which had the flavors of strawberry, cardamom, orange, and lemon. It’s always a pleasure when restaurants cater to those who don’t drink alcohol yet let us enjoy a fancy drink instead of just soda or lemonade.
Since it was late dinner, we skipped the starters and jumped to the entrees. We ordered Tandoori Naans with Daal Makhni- stewed lentils and beans, which was excellent and perfectly reflective of the Punjabi roots of the Executive Chef & Restaurant owner Arvinder Vilku. The Bangin Baingan- which was roasted eggplant with tomato spiced with cumin, fennel, onion seeds, and mustard seeds fell short of our expectations since the eggplant was still tough and would have got better with little more cooking. The surprising and interesting thing on the menu was the curried seafood gumbo. The fusion Gumbo made with crab, shrimp, okra, and basmati rice was a delight. This recipe was pure seafood, without any pork or sausages. Not only did I like the flavors of this curried seafood fusion gumbo, but I loved the presentation and the drama involved in serving it.
Lastly, our girls’ night, had a perfect end when we polished off the scrumptious dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding cake -served with toffee sauce, berries, and fig-date ice cream paired with their Saffron NOLA Masala Chai. I still have a sweet memory of how lip-smacking and delicious it was….
The Vilku family members showed gracious Indian hospitality by coming and talking to everyone at their tables, making sure we were having a happy dining experience in the perfect ambiance of the restaurant.
While in NOLA for the weekend, we made sure to fit in a beautiful walk in Audubon Park. The park is serene and beautiful, with massive and ancient live oak trees and other green vegetation. Along the stream and lagoon, you can enjoy beautiful birdwatching and photography with egrets, herons, ducks, and turtles in the background. The 2.4 miles walk in the park surrounded by natural beauty is no sweat, just pure pleasure.
Sunday lunch was a Mediterranean affair at another uptown Magazine Street restaurant- Shaya. This was recommended by other friends who had visited NOLA. On looking up that it was a James Beard award-winning restaurant, we added it to our schedule.
The restaurant has a modern ambiance with clean lines and open seating with additional patio dining. The service started with fresh, warm pita bread made in their in-house wood-fired oven, paired with zaatar-infused olive oil. While we were scrumptiously nibbling the warm pita, we ordered a wide array of foods. We started off with the delicious Baba Ganoush- creamy eggplant, garnished with charred green onion and olive oil and Cauliflower Hummus- garnished with caramelized onions and cilantro.
The menu at Shaya offers many small plates and large plates of food that can be shared over courses family style, but we were a large group preferring vegetarian, non-vegetarian, and nut-safe foods, so we simplified by ordering individual dishes. A Lamb Burger is not commonly available in many burger places, so I was excited to see it on the menu and ordered this spectacular burger, served with zaatar toum, sumac pickled onions, halloumi cheese, and arugula with a big stash of fries on the side. Each bite of this burger was divine. The other non-vegetarian dish ordered was the Crawfish Pride to see what a fusion of Cajun NOLA-Israeli cuisine looked like!
Our vegetarian friends ordered Falafel sandwiches, which were pita stuffed with Falafels, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, and hummus, or just Falafels and a side of rice. The rice was not on the menu, but they obliged by creating it; unfortunately, it was too dry and undercooked.
The Mocktails and Teas we ordered were all refreshingly interesting. The House Pomegranate Lemon soda, the Hibiscus Mango Tea, the Mockly Booze-free Cocktails called Eye Opener with tangerine, lemon, peach, basil, and lemongrass, and the Mediterranean Mint Tea.
Though the food was excellent, our dining experience was not. Sunday lunch seemed like a busy time to visit this restaurant since we were stuck with slow service. Our wait staff created many awkward dining moments for us by bringing our food at very different times, which made some of us just sit and wait while others almost finished their food. The staff also didn’t provide many details on the serving sizes, so we ended up ordering an excessive amount of food, having already started with small plates of starters.
Sadly, irrespective of the amazing Baba Ganoush and the divine burger, Alon Shaya’s restaurant didn’t match the hype and expectations I had built up. I kept thinking of the finger-licking good food, amazing ambiance, and excellent service at the Mediterranean restaurant called Aba back in Austin and promised my friends to take them there.
After our lunch at Shaya, we took a nice walk up Magazine Street and visited some cute Boutique stores. The stores and storefronts had a pretty look and feel for creating Instagram pics. Though by shopping on a Sunday afternoon, we missed checking out some interesting stores closed for business.
It was a hectic weekend and we didn’t waste any second of it, filled with activities, conversations, food, fun, and places. One just needs a perfect group of friends to make life special and a weekend with them to refresh and rejuvenate your soul. I am blessed.
