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.