New Orleans Food & Music

Day 13: Chad and I woke in a Cracker Barrel parking lot on the outskirts of New Orleans in a town called Slidell. The morning was humid and damp from the rain last night. Somehow after sleeping in many Cracker Barrels parking lots, we haven't gone into have food. Maybe we will have to do that sometime!

Today we were focusing on hitting the French Quarter to visit Cafe Du Monde for coffee and to tackle an Italian sandwich. It's a famous Italian sandwich called the Muffalata and it's layered with different varieties of Italian meats and cheeses. It sounds good, but we weren't sure what size to get!

We were able to find parking at a lot right behind Cafe Du Monde; super lucky guess on my part, and we strolled the streets on the way to the cafe. When we were walking down some of the sidewalks, a large water truck was driving through spraying the streets with soapy water.

Which is a good thing, because the streets and sidewalks were littered with remnants of last night's activities and smelled like an actual garbage dump. Mmmmm puke and alcohol!

The streets were dead and there were only a few people walking around. So this is what the aftermath looks like?! I was really surprised and it totally blew my perception of New Orleans out the window. Every corner there were people walking around asking for food and money. There is truly a large economic displacement in this part of the coast.

We stumbled into Cafe Du Monde and went inside to try the food. We had to use the restroom and the locations of the bathrooms were actually back inside the kitchen. So we got to see a little bit of the magic!

One order of beignets and two chicory coffees please. How were they you ask! They tasted just like a damn funnel cake from anywhere else :( . We could be wrong, but that's how we perceived it. So now we have to go find a funnel cake to compare notes. But, they were warm and fluffy.

The coffee was too hot to even take any sips while we sat inside the cafe, so we took those to go. While waiting for the Italian grocery store to open for the sandwich, we continued walking up and down the main street. There were a lot of buildings that seemed happy and welcoming, while others were a little more run down and extremely ancient.

By the time we looped back to the Italian grocery store, they were letting patrons in. There was already a line with at least five people in front of us waiting to get a sandwich. We could order a half sandwich, whole sandwich, or a supreme sandwich.

Chad and I spoke with the front counter assistant to help determine how hungry we were. We opted for a whole sandwich and stayed to eat it inside the shop. The supreme had added meat, making the sandwich absolutely massive.

After further investigation and rifling through the layers of food inside the bread, there were different slices of Italian meats, a specialty olive salad vinaigrette, and three different kinds of cheese, all hand-sliced meats and from real blocks of cheese.
We could have even gone with half a sandwich. There was so much food!

It was so yummy and we are really glad that we were able to pop into the store. It was still an actual grocery store and the shelves are lined with a bunch of canned items. Super old posters lined the walls and you could tell that not a thing has changed since it opened almost 100 years ago.

Now with full tummies, Chad and I walked the entire French Quarter. We found a really old Catholic Cathedral and walked inside to find a orchestra practicing for an upcoming performance. The orchestra was also accompanied by a choir and we listen to opera singing mixed with classical music.

Chad handed me his coffee so he could snap a photo of a statue and I proceeded to look around the church in awe. When he wanted his coffee back, I had no idea which one was mine since I was so caught up with my surroundings. Chad laughed and knew this would happen and selected his from my hands. Silly Katie, so overwhelmed with music and pretty things.

Next, we tried to go look at an old Cemetery but they wanted $20 per person to enter for a tour. I was pretty bummed because they looked really old, crumbly and unique but I wasn't willing to pay to have someone show me around. Maybe next time?

Towards the end of our parking time limit, we walked into a Tea Store for me to use the restroom. They also happened to do palm and tea leaf readings. Chad and I didn't partake this time and watched as people came and went from their experience. We tried two different types of tea; a strawberry green tea and a hibiscus flower blend.

One of the guys who worked there took time to stop and tell us about his life growing up in the French Quarter. He said he lives and works in the quarter and doesn't have to drive hardly anywhere. They also have to play the parking meter game and don't have a set parking space because of all the events that take place in the streets. Even the locals get their car towed!

Chad and I hit the road in late afternoon and thank goodness we did! I guess they were having a festival the exact same time we decided to roll into town. The streets filled up with thousands of people, similar to the Minnesota State Fair, and the streets were packed to capacity everywhere you went.

Street performers, musicians and food vendors littered the middle of the streets. There were two guys completely painted and silver acting like tin men dancing to techno music. There was another guy who was dressed in a Transformer costume and would get on the ground, molding into a car and would actually drive around on remote control tires.

We headed out of town back to Slidell and took the highway through Mississippi, Alabama, and ended in Florida. The drive doesn't take more than 4 hours and we were really surprised that we got as far as we did. We also stopped at Costco to pick up water and veggies to replenish our supplies.

Crestview, Florida is where we spent the night and where we also compared fried chicken notes at Popeye's. The conclusion after having the same mock-up meal of fried chicken, green beans, red beans and rice was completely incomparable to the home cooked meal at Willie Mae's. We won't be hitting Popeye's again.

Expecting storms later in the evening, Chad and I made camp at a Cracker Barrel parking lot and snuggled in. We had made intentions two roll down the windows as much as possible to allow for the cool breeze to blow in and we would wake up when the rain would start. Night night!