Two regional food things surprised me on the trip: beer and hot sauce. Beer is much more regionally varied than the Bud Light commercials suggest — try getting Kokanee in South Carolina … or Yuengling in Yosemite … or Dixie anywhere outside New Orleans. Same with hot sauces. We are not a nation of Tabasco users. Surprised me. Here’s how it breaks down: The Northeast Favorite: Frank’s RedHot From the Garden State, Frank’s [...]
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The trip into Texas was rough. We’d just left paradise, Florida’s Forgotten Coast, and had a great time in New Orleans (minus a little snafu in Alabama). The road through Louisiana’s bayou was fun. We even got to ride a ferry. We passed through the “Cajun Riviera” of Holly Beach, a place destroyed and abandoned in 2005 thanks to Hurricane Rita, and then we were destroyed by Texas. Man, I really don’t [...]
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I’m sitting on a bed in a disgusting motel room — the most disgusting motel room I’ve ever been in in my life, and I’ve been in my fair share of cheap motels. I’m crying. I feel a little better when I realize that I can’t remember the last time I’ve cried, but then I look back at the stains on the carpet, the destroyed furniture, the knife slash in [...]
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A shotgun house, I mean. Or a double shotgun, if you are so inclined. Now, I don’t want to share my bedroom wall with anyone ever again (short version of a long story: I will always hate Norah Jones thanks to 434 W. Wellington #607, Chicago) but damn, these are cute. Here are some of the shotgun houses we loved in New Orleans:
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Bourbon Street, the flagship street of New Orleans, is pretty disgusting. Firstly, it smells like a mix of vomit, spilled drinks, sweat, and rat diarrhea (caused by eating too many cockroaches, I imagine). Then there are the strip clubs. Bourbon Street has the highest concentration of strip clubs you’ll see this-side of … well, Portland, evidently (well-played, Google — didn’t see that one coming). There’s Babe’s Cabaret, Big Daddy’s, Deja Vu Showgirls, Larry Flynt’s [...]
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We had some beers in New Orleans. They were yummy. Try these if you see them in your local beer store: Perfect Tin Amber Ale Lisa’s favorite brew, Fat Tire Amber, is also an amber ale, and Tin Roof’s went down just as deliciously. Comes in cans, so it’s boat-friendly. Brewed in Baton Rouge. Abita Amber Abita is one of the better-distributed Louisiana brews (I’m pretty sure I had their Purple Haze [...]
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Sometimes you just have to do that tourist thing. Like, when you’re in New Orleans, you’ve GOT to go to Café du Monde, THE Café du Monde, the one in the French Quarter. Here’s why you have to go: The Original Café Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Café is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on [...]
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As is often the case, I can’t say it better than some random person has already said it on Wikipedia: If you ask any New Orleanian where to get the best po’ boy in the city, chances are that you will get a different answer from each person. Po’ boy restaurants are a part of a person’s identity just like the neighborhood they grew up in. Once a person finds [...]
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Looking back, I feel like there’s a ton of stuff we missed in New Orleans. That’s partially because it’s so big and overwhelming — there’s only so much you can take in if you’re visiting for just two days. Ideally you could visit for a day or two, withdraw for a day or two, then head back in to visit all the things you missed. Or live here for a [...]
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The Syndicate Wine Shop