We have had a week here in New Orleans and I really think we have only touched the surface of this crazy place. I blogged about the first few days here, but below are a few more highlights:

Jen and I decided that we should maybe do some other things on this holiday than eat and drink, we wanted some culture so we naturally headed to the Southern museum of food and drink! It was actually really interesting, there was a lot of information about the origins of Southern food, a nice section on BBQ and smoking and a large collection of information on cocktails and Absinthe – something that was common in New Orleans at the turn of the century.

Po’ boys have featured heavily in our time in NOLA. So we went out looking for another place to try them, coming across Killer Po’Boys. They mix things up, and I went for the pork belly – This was Nola rum and ginger cane syrup glazed pork belly, with an amazing lime slaw and garlic Ailoli. The Pork was beautiful, just the right amount of fat, spicy and tender. The Lime slaw had a nice kick, lemongrass was in there and a touch of coriander.

I had heard that one of, if not the best Jambalya was at a place called Coops – so of course we headed over there one night. Its a bit of a dive bar, but the food was epic. The Jambalya is rabbit and sausage and was delicious, shredded rabbit, lovely soft rice and of course that cajun spice – epic! Jen had the fried chicken, which was the best I have ever eaten, crispy skin, moist chicken and slight spice. All told probably our best meal in New Orleans, if you ever find yourself in NOLA – get yourself to this place!

We did a short tour of the amazing above ground graves in the largest cemetry in New Orleans – really interesting taking in Voodoo, Chess players, Playboys and Nicholas Cage (see below) on our second to last day. Our amazing tour guide Judy suggested Deanie’s. Another great meal (running out of platitudes!) I had crawfish etouffee (crawfish tails in a beautiful fishy broth) and some broiled crawfish and fries. Jen had a crazy big seafood salad, piled with crab, huge prawns and artichoke.

For our last night we hit Gumbo Shop, to try one more Gumbo! I kicked off with Alligator sausages and a spicy dipping sauce. I have never had Alligator – it was good, a dark meat and with the spice it was really nice. Main was the Chicken and sausage Gumbo, that was great (but not quite as good as Prejeans). I wrapped up with a slice of the famous bread pudding and a fantastic Whisky sauce – a little like bread and butter pudding it was light as a feather. A brilliant end to our great trip to New Orleans.

A few snaps of various music we saw on the street and in the bars and of course the famous (and disgutsing) grenade down bourbon street, which kicked off quite a night!

And finally I will leave you with a picture of Nicholas Cage’s above ground grave that he bought for half a million dollars – the crazy ba***rd! Its huge!

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