the season of the king cake.

It’s not Carnival season without consuming at least one king cake per week in the Big Easy.  However, these rings of dough have changed quite a bit over the years.  The king cakes of my childhood were much simpler.  Much less like a big cinnamon roll & more just a slightly sweet & rather dry bread sprinkled with sugar & maraschino cherries strategically placed on the surface of the king cake every few inches.  One thing that hasn’t changed is the plastic baby hidden somewhere inside the king cake (representing the baby Jesus, yes, we are indeed a Catholic city).  As a kid, half the joy of eating a king cake is the possibility of finding the baby in your slice of cake!  And, if you selected a slice with a maraschino cherry, you had a good chance of discovering the baby hiding just below the cherry, naturally all the kids wanted the cherry slices. 

As an adult, getting the baby in your piece of king cake doesn’t have the same excitement as it did when I was child.  The tradition is that if you get the baby, you bring the next king cake.  Once Carnival season begins, you have king cakes at every gathering, dinners with friends or family, office meetings, what have you.  My friends brought king cakes to their respective offices to share with their co-workers during the first week of Carnival season.  At one office, the baby was left behind in the king cake box.  At the other office, the baby disappeared completely.  My friends have no idea which co-workers got the babies, but whoever they are, they’ve committed serious Carnival fouls by not declaring that they found the babies & bringing in the next king cake.  I don’t know what these people are thinking, actually, I don’t believe they are thinking or they’re just completely clueless.  Those sort of people don’t even deserve to eat king cake!!

Moving on from Carnival fouls, we must also recognize the potential perils that the king cake baby poses.  The baby isn’t nearly as easy to find in a king cake these days, it could be anywhere.  Unless the baker chooses not to put the baby inside because many are concerned about the choking hazard.  So, instead, they put the baby on top & allow the consumer to insert the baby into the king cake from underneath so it is not revealed before eating.  If the baby is inside the king cake, the packaging includes a large warning of the plastic baby doll & potential dangers of choking on the little plastic baby.  Moral of the story: if you hit something hard as you bite into your slice of king cake, do NOT swallow.

the Butcher's "Elvis"

Now that we’ve thoroughly covered the little plastic baby that completes the king cake consuming experience, let’s discuss what sort of king cake to eat…there are SO many options these days.  I was never a huge fan of those old dry king cakes of my past.  What we now consider a “traditional” is a cinnamon filled, braided king cake covered with icing & sugar.  The sugar is always dyed the three colors of Carnival: purple, green & gold.  Building from the traditional, you can add fillings…apple, lemon, blueberry, cherry, cream cheese, cream cheese & fruit…you get the idea.  These “filled" king cakes are more like a deliciously naughty breakfast treat.  I recommend pairing it with a glass of milk or bubbly, depending on how festive you’re feeling. 

All of these filled king cakes are still considered pretty safe, bakers & pastry chefs have gotten much more adventurous with their king cakes in the past few years.  I read an article on nola.com highlighting some of the most inventive new king cakes around town.   I tried the “Elvis” at Cochon’s Butcher, I have to admit, it was rather disappointing.  I give the “Elvis” an A for concept & a C- for execution.  I haven’t had Domenica’s new invention, which includes a gold leaf topping, but I hear very good things.  I have a list of different king cakes to try before the end of Carnival season & I better get serious because it’s a short season this year. 

the baby crowns from my Randazzo's king cake

All of that said, locals, especially New Orleans natives still have their old favorites that we will remain loyal to til the very end.  Manny Randazzo’s king cake is considered one of the best.  Haydel’s is also in the top 5.  Back in the days of McKenzie’s, all locals picked up their king cakes there, I still miss that place, their glazed donuts, chocolate turtles, & petit-fours.  I’m getting a little farklempt just thinking about McKenzie’s, still a major loss to the city’s sweet tooth.  When I worked at UNO out by the Lakefront, I used to stop at a great neighborhood bakery named, Adrian’s.  Everything at Adrian’s was delicious!  Sadly, we lost that Adrian’s with Hurricane Katrina, but one of the bakers from Adrian’s opened her own place, Sweet Savors, not far from the old Adrian’s.  I’m not often near the Lake, but a king cake from Sweet Savors is definitely worth the trip.  BTW, Adrian’s does have another location in New Orleans, so you can still get their king cakes, too.  GoNOLA.com has an article discussing some of locals’ favorite king cakes, several of which, I’ve mentioned above.  For those unfortunate souls that don’t live in New Orleans & won’t be visiting during Carnival season, many of our most popular bakers (including Randazzo’s & Haydel’s) ship fresh king cakes all over the country, you can simply order online.

The big question…to fill or not fill your king cake?  Are you a king cake traditionalist?  And, who makes your favorite king cake in town??

resurrection

talking Turtle Soup at Desire Oyster Bar on the Culinary History Tour

Somehow I’ve let six whole months pass without one blog post, talk about a blog slacker.  I just went back & read my last blog post, which feels like a lifetime ago.  I did get quite busy after beginning the culinary history tours & the summer heat did wear me out.  Still, no excuse, if I had enough energy to screw around on Facebook, which I did, I should have been blogging.  Of course, blogging takes a lot more effort than posting silly crap on Facebook.  That said, as always, I have continued to keep up with documenting everything, including images of every great plate of food I’ve been served…& then posted them on Facebook. 

just after a SOC tour in Lafayette Cemetery no.1

Anyway, let’s dig in…what have I been up to, you may ask?!  Besides the New Orleans Culinary History tours, my Save our Cemeteries tours of Lafayette Cemetery no.1 (my personal favorite historic cemetery in the city), viewing the latest season of HBO’s Treme at Buffa’s followed by live music, watching some very disappointing Saints games, eating a lot, hitting some art markets, a bit of traveling, Thanksgiving at the Fairgrounds, fireworks in the fog on New Years Eve…AND, a fractured ankle. 

Hanukkah blue cast

Yep, that’s right, the walking tour guide managed to get herself injured just before tourism picked up for the Fall.  Parking is outrageous in the Quarter, so when I have my culinary tours, I take the streetcar downtown, an advantage to living less than a block off St. Charles Ave.  There’s a bunch of construction further downriver on the streetcar line right now, so the RTA has passengers get off of the streetcar at Louisiana Ave. & board a bus, which travels down St. Charles Ave. & takes us to Canal St.  As a native, I certainly know how to cross the neutral ground without tripping over the streetcar tracks.  However, while walking over a patch of grass, my foot fell right into a small hidden hole & my ankle just collapsed on me.  I nearly fell on my face, fortunately, I caught myself, but the damage was done.  My ankle started throbbing immediately.  Thing is, I had a group of 19 guests to meet in an hour for the culinary tour, so I decided to suck it up & hop on the bus.  I put my ice cold water bottle on my ankle, popped an extra pain killer (I carry everything in my bag of tricks).  I then walked in pain for about 5 hours total, between the walk from the streetcar, the three hour tour & walk back to the streetcar (well, the bus).  I can’t say that was the wisest choice, but I couldn’t imagine canceling the tour last minute.  Once I got home, I put my foot up, iced it & stayed off of it as much as possible over the next week.  Miraculously, my ankle seemed to improve, so I got back on the streets & was fine for about two weeks, then one evening, after catching up on a few episodes of HBO’s Treme on DVD, I stood up from the couch & my ankle once again gave out on me.  My immediate reaction was what you’d expect, “FUCK!”  I made an appointment with a doctor the next day.  This injury actually took place over the summer, but it took two months for the doctors to properly diagnose it.  At first, the doctors told me that I had a mild ankle sprain, I was told to continue walking on it, wear a super tight stretch ankle brace, but elevate & ice, as well.  After a month with no improvement, my podiatrist put me in a stabilizing boot…super fashionable & extremely comfortable to walk in.  After that, I was on the bench as far as my tours were concerned, no way I could hobble around & keep up with my guests.  The terrain inside a historic cemetery is treacherous enough on two good feet, not a place for a semi-cripple to be wandering around.  So, I spent another month still walking, well, hobbling, around in that ridiculous boot.  Still no improvement.  In fact, the pain was worse, but the doctor remained perplexed.  Finally, how about a MRI, the doctor suggested…what a brilliant idea!  I show up in the podiatrist’s office to review the results of the MRI, & my doctor tells me that radiology doesn’t see anything other than some inflammation.  That seemed impossible, so the doctor took a closer look…low & behold, she finds a hairline fracture in my ankle just under the big white glow of all that inflammation.  The fracture looked like the goddamn winding Mississippi River.  And, I ain’t no doctor, but I can’t imagine walking on this fracture for two months helped, can you??  Once it was established that I had a fracture rather than a sprain, my podiatrist looked at me & said, “you’re not gonna like this, but…you need a cast”.  Fantastic, just what I wanted for Hanukkah…I got the cast just a few days before the festival of lights began.  So, I chose a blue cast in honor of Hanukkah & left Ochsner with a nice shiny set of crutches…NO walking on the foot for a month.  I’d never had a cast before, so this was a real treat.  This meant, of course, still no tours, but also that I rang in the New Year while still in a cast…which looked great with my cocktail dress. I purchased a super large pair of dark black tights & just stretched them right over the cast, way glamorous.  What a look!  Finally, the cast was removed a few days later, hallelujah!!  I’ve been back on two feet for nearly two weeks & I’m headed in for my check-up with the doctor in two days.  The first few days out of my cast were surreal…my foot felt like it weighed several tons & buzzed like crazy, as if it’d been asleep for a month.  I cannot tell you how fantastic that first stand-up shower without having to bag my damn leg was, I felt as if I’d been baptized!  I’m slowly relearning how to walk without crutches, but I’m still not back to guiding tours.  In fact, I’m worried about being in good enough shape for Mardi Gras (February 12^th)…not something that I can miss!!  Although, I have to admit, I’m not too disappointed that I don’t have to guide any tours between Mardi Gras & the Super Bowl, can we say CLUSTER FUCK!

As Carnival season has begun & we’ve all started gorging ourselves on our favorite king cakes, I’ve also started work on my Mardi Gras costume.  Another group theme with some friends, this year we’ll be a glamorous walking Crawfish Boil, sparkling from head to toe with glitter…I’ll be the bag of Zatarain’s Crab Boil.  I cannot reveal any other details beyond that at this point, but stay tuned, the costumes are coming together quite nicely.  My dining room has once again become costume crafts central, with a big plastic table cloth on the dining room table, hot glue gun plugged in, piles of felt, & every color of glitter in the rainbow!  Of course, it would be sacrilege for us to masquerade as a crawfish boil without having one, so after strolling the streets of the Bywater, Marigny, & Quarter, we’ll be heading back to our home base, my friends’ home in the Bywater, & hosting a big crawfish boil of our own in their backyard.  Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to Fat Tuesday & even a few parades before then.

In the meantime, I’m walking a little, resting a little (sometimes a lot), crafting up a storm, & maybe even writing a few more blogs…although, I may not have much to say, so we’ll see. 

contentment.

As of today, I’ve got 2 New Orleans Culinary History Tasting Tours under my belt.  Although I realize I shouldn’t jump ahead of myself, I’m feeling pretty confident.  When I was training & just tagging along w/other tour guides, I have to admit, I’d get a little pooped in the 3^rd hour of the tour.  That’s not the case when I’m guiding the tour.  As with all my other tours, I’m invigorated during the tours & on a high for at least another hour afterwards, the exhaustion doesn’t hit until later (especially if it’s been a tour in the heat of a New Orleans summer).  I guess that’s what happens when you’re doing something you actually enjoy.  After nearly 10 years working at UNO library, enjoying my work is something that I’m still getting used to.  I love this tour, seriously, it’s fantastic & a must when in nola, even if you live here, take your out of town guests next time you’re hosting.  You get great food & excellent behind the scenes sneak peeks in amazing old restaurants. 

For those of you that have been following my blog since the beginning, you know that I’ve come a long way in the past year & a half.  After 2 car accidents, lots of physical therapy, losing my job at UNO (& the benefits package, including health insurance along with it), I didn’t think I had anything left in me.  I was low, really low & it took a while to work up the motivation to pursue something new & something unknown.  Fortunately, I finally worked up the courage, took the tour guide training course with Friends of the Cabildo, & well, the rest is history. 

Every tour, I make new connections with people from around the country & even around the world.  What a difference from staying cooped up in the offices behind the scenes at an academic library.  For those who know me well, this is quite an achievement for me given the fact that I’m sometimes a self-proclaimed misanthrope.  I normally don’t like strangers & won’t talk to them…I mean, I’ll make friendly conversation waiting in line or with a cashier, but otherwise, if some stranger tries to talk to me, especially at a bar, I will have none of it!  When strangers are my tour guests, I’m happy to chat with them & bond.  I guess I don’t question their motives as much.  I don’t just trust strangers, people have to earn my trust, so I don’t generally open up with those that I don’t know, at least casually.  However, on my tours, I’m an open book…stories of my childhood in nola, surviving Katrina, nights out on the town.  So, my tours actually give back to me in many ways.

I’m also getting a lot of great reviews online from my tour guests.  I have to say, I can never get enough validation.  As someone that grew up with pretty low self esteem (a chubby girl with big curly hair), getting all this great feedback gives me quite a boost.  The most common comments that I get are my high energy, passion, knowledge, & the connection that I make with my tour groups.  That all makes sense to me, because I knew that’s what I’m good at before I began guiding tours; along with my love for my hometown, it’s why I decided to become a tour guide. 

So, I guess I’ve finally chosen the right path…

when one comes to New Orleans, one drinks.

As a native New Orleanian, I started drinking alcohol relatively young.  At 12 years old, I enjoyed my first drink, well multiple drinks, at the end of summer JCC camp staff party (w/my mother’s blessing b/c I was under the supervision of my boss & not driving).  Of course, back then, it was just wine coolers & jello shots.  By high school, I’d moved onto the party punch, ya know that fruit punch in an ice chest with a good dose of Everclear & inevitably some grass & dirt.  It was disgustingly sweet & could knock you on your ass.  But, back then, I was NOT a beer drinker, so the party punch was my only option at keggers.  Although I found that punch too sweet, I do have to admit that I liked rather sweet cocktails in my early drinking days, my favorites were White Russians, Fuzzy Navels & Melonballs.  During my college years, my taste for alcohol had matured.  I finally gave beer a try, Abita of course & a lot of fancy foreign beers.  However, when I do drink beers these days, my favorite is the Champagne of beers, Miller High Life, simply light & refreshing.  Now, I’m a proud wino, although, I do enjoy a cocktail, too (gin is my liquor of choice & I can never resist a very dirty gin martini).  For years now, my Cheers (the place where everyone knows my name & they’re always glad I came) has been the Delachaise on St. Charles Ave., my favorite watering hole in town & a great wine bar. 

Anyway, I could go on & on about my drinking history & current passion for alcohol, but let’s move on to the topic at had.  Last week, on Memorial Day, I guided my first drinks tour for a friend & a group of her girlfriends visiting from out of town.  Since this was a private tour, I created it on my own & gave my tour guests a few options for different bar & cocktail stops in the French Quarter.  Even with my voice going midway through, I have to say, the tour was a great success! 

We began at the Napoleon House, for a Pimm’s Cup.  Although the Pimm’s Cup is an English cocktail, it’s become very popular in New Orleans over the years.  When locals are in the mood for this refreshing cocktail, they go to the place that’s famous for it, the Napoleon House.  The space was built in the late 18^th century & was the home of Mayor Girod.  Despite what those damn buggie drivers in the Quarter will tell you, Napoleon NEVER lived there.  When Napoleon had been exiled to St. Helena, some New Orleanians, including the mayor & the pirate Jean Lafitte, hatched a plan to rescue Napoleon & bring him to New Orleans.  The Mayor added another level to his home which was intended as Napoleon’s New Orleans residence.  Hence the name, Napoleon House.  It’s a great old historical building with a beautiful little courtyard.  After passing our tour guide license exam last year, me & my tour guide friends went there for celebratory Pimm’s Cups.  So, I think that the Napoleon House was the perfect place to begin my personal drinks tour.

After finishing off that slice of cucumber, my favorite part of the Pimm’s Cup, we walked deep into the quarter to our 2^nd stop, Jean Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar for a Hurricane, a strong cocktail, but a classic New Orleans drink.  Although the Hurricane was created at Pat O’Brien’s, they now use a mix to make the drink, whereas Lafitte’s still uses fresh fruit juices, so all locals will tell you that Lafitte’s is the better Hurricane (even without the signature glass, resembling a hurricane lamp & inspiring the name of the cocktail).   Lafitte’s is one of the oldest buildings in the city & said to be the oldest operating bar in the country (but who knows if that stat is accurate).  I warned my tour guests that the drink has an extra shot of clear rum on top of the fruit juice.  When you drink the Hurricane with a straw, that final shot of rum really sneaks up on you, & if you’re not already buzzed, you will be after the last sip.  My suggestion was to stir up the drink with that straw so that the rum blends more with the fruit juice, not that the cocktail won’t still get you thoroughly sauced. 

Thanks to the fact that New Orleans has no open container law, we took those Hurricanes to go & started our walk back upriver to a bit classier establishment.  We made our way to Antoine’s Hermes Bar, one of my French Quarter favorites.  It has a separate entrance from the restaurant & you don’t have to be all gussied up to go in there.  Now, I don’t have any particular favorite cocktail at the Hermes Bar, I simply suggested a few options, such as the Sidecar.  However, it was happy hour, so we all went for the $4 glasses of bubbly.  I was planning on getting the gals a snack at this point since they’d just sucked back those Hurricanes & the bar has a nice little tasting menu from the restaurant.  Sadly, as it was Memorial Day, the kitchen was closed.  While at Antoine’s, I did take the opportunity to tell the group about New Orleans carnival krewe traditions since the restaurant has dining rooms named for the 4 oldest carnival krewes in town.  There’s plenty of photos & old paraphernalia in each dining room (I’ve had the good fortune of seeing each one during the New Orleans Culinary History Tours), but there are also displays in the bar.  Carnival traditions are an intriguing subject to out-of-towners, there’s nothing like them anywhere else. 

We all enjoyed our bubbly & were ready to take on the next drink.  So, on to the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone for Ramoz Gin Fizzes.  This bar literally revolves!!  One of the gals in my group asked me how long it took for the bar to complete one revolution, I didn’t know…so, I timed it.  Turns out it takes just 10 minutes for the Carousel Bar to make one complete revolution, there’s a bit of trivia that I’m sure you’re glad you can now tuck away into the recesses of your brain.  When sitting at the bar, you hardly notice that it’s moving, unless you look behind you & see your surroundings changing, which made me a bit dizzy.  As I tried to shake of the dizzy spell, it was time for my Ramoz Gin Fizz…a cocktail that I’d never had the pleasure of trying before! Wow, it’s like dessert in a glass, frothy, a bit sweet, & rather filling.  I enjoyed it immensely, as did the rest of my tour group.  Fortunately, the Carousel Bar also supplies endless bowls of complementary snack mix, we scarfed down at least 6 bowls easily!  While sipping our Gin Fizzes, I told the group that this bar had once been a regular watering whole for some of America’s great literary figures, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Truman Capote, & even Hemingway frequented the Carousel Bar.  They all lived just blocks away in the French Quarter, so they often gathered there for drinks, & I would imagine, rather interesting conversations. 

After our carousel ride, I had one more bar planned to finish off the tour, another favorite of mine in the Quarter.  We made our way to Arnaud’s French 75 Bar for, what else but French 75’s, of course.  It’s another restaurant bar that has a separate bar entrance & very classy décor.  We walked all the way there & found the lights off & the doors locked…c’est domage!!  I was so disappointed, not only had I planned to have a cocktail, I was going to insist that we enjoy the scrumptious soufflé potatoes with béarnaise sauce.  I was so embarrassed that I’d brought the group all the way over there only to find it closed. 

Even though my final bar stop at French 75 was a failure, we had already spent 4 whole hours wandering the quarter & partaking of tasty libations.  After all that schlepping & drinking, it was time for me to say good-bye.  The girls had a reservation at Bayona for dinner an hour later (incidentally, one in my personal top 5 nola restaurants list), so I recommended that they kill the time with a visit to the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel for the famous Sazerac cocktail.  If you don’t like licorice, you won’t care for this cocktail which always has either Herbsaint or Absinthe.  But, it was the very first cocktail, so if you’re feeling adventurous & you’ve never had one before, the Sazerac Bar is the right place to give one a try.

The next day I heard that they did make it to the Sazerac Bar to have their signature cocktail & then had an amazing meal at Bayona.  What a perfect way to end a Memorial Day weekend in the Crescent City. 

Perhaps I shouldn’t have revealed all the brilliant secrets of my drinks tour, but if you’ve been following my blog, you know that I can’t resist sharing every little detail when I tell a story.  I now have a great drinks tour in my repertoire, which is an essential one to have ready as a tour guide in the Big Easy.  Now, I need to focus on preparations for my first solo New Orleans Culinary History Tour in just a week.  I’m both excited & nervous, just as I have been for the first of each of my other tours.  Once I get a few under my belt, I’m sure that I’ll be cruising right along. 

Stay tuned…

no voice. no tours.

After my stepsister’s wedding 2 weeks ago, my voice was fading fast.  I figure it was a combination of a lot of talking during all of the wedding festivities & competing with the loud band during the wedding reception (the speakers were conveniently positioned just above my end of the family dining table).  Along with my voice loss came one of those razor blade sort of sore throats.  I immediately began the usual home remedies, gargling with warm salt water (trying not to gag with every gargle), plenty of hot tea with honey, OJ, Airborne, the works!  I managed to regain my voice after taking advantage of a tour-free day mid-week.  However, I jumped back into the game the next day & the sore throat came right back, along with a progressively raspier voice.  After 2 weeks of this ongoing misery, I finally got an appointment at the doctor’s office, the diagnosis: LARYNGITIS.  The treatment: an immediate steroid injection to combat some of the inflammation in my throat & instructions from the doctor to “rest my voice” for at least the next 10 days.

Needless to say, losing one’s voice is certainly an inconvenience to anyone.  However, it quickly dawned on me that not having a voice was going to make it very difficult to guide a tour.  I had to line up subs for the rest of my tours this week & lock myself up in my house, so that I could avoid speaking all together.  As my sister put it in a text to me earlier today after finding out that I have laryngitis, “that’s no good for business”.  Of course, you never realize how valuable some things are until you have to go without them.  Anyone that knows me, knows that I’m a talker, to put it kindly, so it’s hard enough to keep my mouth shut as it is.  But, being a tour guide requires you to be a talker.  Yes, I use visuals & I also talk with my hands, but the words are the most important tool when guiding a tour. 

As I hunker down at home, relying on texts & email to maintain some connection with the outside world, I’ve been thinking about what measures I can take next time in order to avoid loosing my voice again any time soon.  I always make sure to drink plenty of water during my tours & I also carry ricola (my personal cough drop of choice).  Clearly, that’s not enough.  Again, those that know me, would say that I have no problem projecting.  Not only am I a talker, but a loud (& many times, fast) talker.  However, perhaps I need to learn some better techniques on how to project without straining my vocal chords.  Any suggestions you might have are welcomed.   

In other news, the last tour that I guided before my voice completely gave out on me was a drinks tour this past Monday for a group of girls (a friend & 5 of her girlfriends visiting from out of town).  The tour was a great success.  I’ll give a detailed report, with bar & cocktail highlights in my next blog post. 

For now, a bit of prep work for my first solo New Orleans Culinary History Tasting Tour coming up next Saturday & perhaps a movie on Netflix instant view.  Just a QUIET weekend at home.