Saturday, April 28, 2007

And the next adventure is...

In a few hours I leave for a two-and-a-half week trip to Southeast Asia. I'm going to be travelling to Vietnam, Angkor Wot in Cambodia, and Bangkok, Thailand. I hope to sample some great food and take a lot of pictures along the way. I'm also scheduled to take a cooking class at the Blue Elephant Cooking School in Bangkok. So I'll be back here later in May with lots of new stories to tell!

Friday, April 13, 2007

Noshing in New Orleans
















A couple of months ago my husband attended a conference in New Orleans and I tagged along. This was my second trip to New Orleans (my first one was in April 2004) and both times I had gained a few pounds by the end of the vacation. You'll see why. Here are a few photos from my week there.

As soon as we landed in New Orleans and got settled into our hotel (The Sheraton on Canal Street on the edge of the French Quarter), we took a walk along Decatur Street and made a beeline to Johnny's Po-Boys.
















A po-boy is a traditional Louisiana submarine sandwich. This one has breaded deep-fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo on a crusty French baguette.




This is a deep-fried soft-shelled crab po-boy sandwich with a bowl of gumbo, also from Johnny's Po-Boys.









A Muffuletta sandwich from the famous Central Grocery in the French Quarter. Another hearty sandwich made famous in New Orleans, the muffuletta is packed with layers of salami, capicolo, and mortadella meats, with provolone cheese and an olive/pickled vegetable mixture.























And, of course, a trip to New Orleans wouldn't be complete without a visit to the legendary Cafe Du Monde on Decatur Street. The beignets arrive to your table hot and piled high with icing sugar.

















We enjoyed a nice dinner at Brennan's restaurant. I had the veal with crab meat and hollandaise sauce. We had to ask the waiter what the little yellow package tied with a green ribbon was at the corner of my plate--it turned out to be a half a lemon tied in yellow cheesecloth. Ha!


This is another traditional Creole dish of crawfish etouffee with rice. I wish I could buy crawfish here in Vancouver.


























I can never have a enough seafood. This is a cold shellfish platter from Bourbon House restaurant. It's loaded with oysters on the half shell, mussels, shrimp and scallops.

New Orleans is one my favourite cities in North America. The food is excellent, the people are friendly, and the jazz music is fantastic. I can't wait to go back again someday.