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nysharks 10 years, 7 months ago.
Good luck. We’ll be watching.
When are you doing this? And what a cool idea!
I am still working on the schedule but the Jet Blue program runs from Sept. 7 through Oct. 6th. The research on the different cities is quite daunting. Besides using this site and many other websites for food tips, I even got some good tips from the Jet Blue customer service center which is based out of Salt Lake City. I didn’t know that Mexican cuisine was big there. I hope to be able to blog about the trips here.
For today the schedule was to spend the day in New Orleans by starting off the morning with some beignets at Cafe Du Monde, take out some muffulettas at Central Grocery, and then have lunch at Willie Mae’s Scotch House. The rest of the afternoon would be spent back in the French Quarter with dinner plans at either Mother’s or Crabby Jack’s.
But figuring that I didn’t want to waste a lot of time looking for parking by making two trips to the French Quarter, I decided to start the day in New Orleans first by having lunch at Willie Mae’s and then drive into the French Quarter to walk around.
After reading the reviews on Willie Mae’s, I planned to get there just before they opened at 11am as I didn’t want to wait a long time on line nor have them run out of fried chicken. But I was up by 8am and was wondering what to do for the next few hours when I looked at my GPS and saw that I had programmed Laplace, Louisiana in it. Laplace is the Andouille sausage capital and was only about 20 minutes west of where I was staying. I made a few phone calls and found out that the meat markets out there were already open so I changed plans again and decided to head to Laplace.
When I drove out there I was actually looking for Jacob’s World Famous Andouille but I turned into the wrong parking lot next door of a small strip mall. There I saw a large sausage man sign which looked awfully familiar. The sign was for Bailey’s, another butcher shop that makes andouille sausage. When I went in, I then figured out why it looked familiar. Food Network personality Alton Brown had been there when he taped a segment of Feasting On Asphalt, a show that I really liked. Well if the place was good enough for Alton, I would get some of their andouille too.Andouille is a smoked sausage that is often used in Cajun recipes. Coming from the northeast, I was surprised to see what the real stuff looked like. You don’t often see andouille sausage in the supermarkets back home and for that matter, I didn’t see it in the supermarkets that I had been to on this trip. I thought the sausage would look similar to other Italian sausages or even a kielbasa but it was more darker and dense in texture. It kind of reminded me of those really good salami’s you see in the specialty section of a grocery store. And even though they were shrink wrapped, the smell of garlic was just oozing out of the package. I bought one pound to bring back home with me, so I didn’t get to try it yet. I had brought a cooler with me so I put the sausage in there as I made my trip back east to New Orleans and to Willie Mae’s.
I got to Willie Mae’s by 10:30am and found a parking space right in front. The restaurant is in a run down neighborhood but there was hardly anyone outside. Across the street from the restaurant looked like an abandon school and on the other corner was an empty lot. Being a bit paranoid after reading one of the reviews, I called the restaurant to see what their hours were for today. Someone said that they had gotten to the restaurant early only to wait an hour outside before they opened up. Another review had mentioned that people start lining up about 15 minutes before they open but only one other person showed up at 11am. Needless to say I was the first one in the door at 11am.
Everyone has raved about the fried chicken so I had to get that. I had a choice of a side dish and asked the waiter whether the red beans and rice was better or the b,29,610160.001002001001001002001001001001001001001001001,15,63187,69.96.78.106
614350,592468,614344,2010-09-26 09:37:58.863000000,Re:2010-11 College Football”
NYSharks
Low 90’s in NOLA this time of year did you wear your sweater? Must have been a cold front going through that day! [:D]
Ahh there is nothing like LA in the summer, where the air is as thick as your gumbo.
Awesome start, nysharks! I’ve had that sinking feeling at a few tours of Confederate places as well, but then I’ve had the painted-up version presented too and that’ll actually make you mad. Still don’t think I’ve ever been to a place where the presentation was both comprehensive and honest.
I wonder if they got the flies from ArchieMcPhee.com?
The rule for banana pudding is there should be a cookie and a banana slice in every bite, but there are definitely exceptions. If you get to Charleston, they make a wonderful version at Jestine’s Kitchen, but if it’s something you would never order, they have other great desserts too. Glad you enjoyed your catfish; Mississippi should be doing it right. I think I’ve been to that buffet and it was kind of meh. Almost overwhelming in the array of choices, and some of it really well done. It’s like Disney World–some folks absolutely love it and most folks will only need to do it once.
I’d make an early morning stop at Round Rock Doughnuts just outside Austin if I was there!
John
Shouldn’t be a problem, it is on the way to Louie Mueller! Hmm, if they can make a burger out of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, why not a brisket sandwich out of Round Rock Doughnuts? Except for a few objections from my cardiologists, what would be wrong?
I’d make an early morning stop at Round Rock Doughnuts just outside Austin if I was there!
John
How many days will you be in Austin? Threadgill’s on any night is great, good music and food. Hut’s is not too far away across the river and worth it.
For BBQ there are options, but I recommend planning on heading to Elgin. You could drive south for some of your wishes or maybe north and try the new Salt Lick. I say this as heading to Driftwood will take away time that you would want for other places. It’s a great drive though.mark
I will be in Austin for only 3 days. I have been to both Hut’s and Threadgill’s and enjoyed them both. Not sure if I will have enough time to fit one of them in. I was thinking of going to Moonshine for Sunday brunch and will be hitting Lockhart for BBQ. Also in the plan is Salt Lick and Louie Mueller. I also plan to see Junior Brown play at the Continental Club on Congress st.
Any opinions on Juan N Million and Taco Xpress, saw them featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives? They looked kind of interesting but TV shows are like the side view mirror on your car, objects may appear larger than they really are. They are right now on my list only if I am in the area and am hungry. I dont’ think the latter will be the case though.
This web site has every restaurant worth knowing in NOLA:
http://www.nomenu.com/open http://www.nomenu.com/open/
You could spend a year in NOLA alone and not hit every good place.
Wow! Thanks, that is some list. You are right about New Orleans, there are so many places to try and not enough stomach space to fill.
Amtrak has done something like this in the past too. I sure would be tempted!
How many days will you be in Austin? Threadgill’s on any night is great, good music and food. Hut’s is not too far away across the river and worth it.
For BBQ there are options, but I recommend planning on heading to Elgin. You could drive south for some of your wishes or maybe north and try the new Salt Lick. I say this as heading to Driftwood will take away time that you would want for other places. It’s a great drive though.
mark
Most of the small town BBQ places around Austin are closed on Sunday (except Southside Market). You mentioned fried chicken, then consider Tujague’s in N.O.
When are you doing this? And what a cool idea!
Great report! I’m worn out from all of your traveling and eating!
The first food destination was the Deep South. I took a 6:55am flight from JFK airport to get to New Orleans. But NOLA was not going to be my first stop, I wanted to go to Mississippi. One reason for the trip was to be able to cross off another state on my list. This will mark my 47th state visited. The other reason was to try the delicious Gulf seafood, oil spill willing.
When I landed in New Orleans it was hot. Not super temperature hot but steamy, sweaty, sticky hot. The temperature was in the low 90’s but it felt a lot worse. I haven’t experienced this kind of heat in the Northeast in quite a while.
As soon as I got my rental car, I was off and driving east to Mississippi. I didn’t have breakfast so I was pretty hungry, but I didn’t stop until I got to my first food destination, The Blow Fly Inn in Gulfport, MS.
The Blow Fly Inn was highlighted in the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, hosted by Guy Fieri. It looked like a fun place and they put little plastic flies on your food. I also used various web review sites to make sure that the place was OK.
http://www.blowflyinn.com 
The restaurant is kind of off the road. I was using my Garmin and when it had me go down some backroads I was thinking that I might have put in the wrong address. But at the end of the road, there were a clearing and there was the restaurant. It is located along the Bernard Bayou and
the building is up on stilts. Beneath the building is a dock/porch from which you could watch the world go by. It seemed pretty peaceful, but you could see they had the set-up for the place to be rocking in the evenings.
http://www.toyou.com/diningnation/images/blowflyinn.jpg 
On the specials board, the soup of the day was cream of crabmeat, corn, bacon, and tomato. Since I like all of those ingredients I had to order the soup even though it was over 90 degrees outside. I also ordered a lunchtime special, the red beans and rice with catfish strips for $8.95. I wasn’t really sure about the catfish strips since I don’t see them too often in the northeast and I haven’t eaten any in years. But the waitress said the regular portion of just red beans and rice with sausage was twice the size and I knew that and the soup would really be over doing it.
The soup was an enjoyable cream soup that was quite tasty, but I was disappointed in how little crab was in it. You could taste the crab but there was only about 2 chunks of crabmeat in the cup.
http://www.toyou.com/diningnation/images/blowflysoup.jpg 
Next came a salad which comes with the luncheon special. I ordered it with a remoulade dressing. Standard iceberg lettuce salad with some nice pieces of cucumber and carrots. After that came the entree.
I was suprised at the portion size of the red beans and rice. The red beans were tender with chunks of sausage in it. On top of the rice were 5 strips of catfish. I am in no ways an expert on red beans and rice but I thought this version was a little too soupy. Maybe it is supposed to be that way but I prefer mine a bit thicker. But I was very much impressed with the catfish strips. They were lightly coated and had a nice clean flavor, not fishy at all and not greasy either.
http://www.toyou.com/diningnation/images/blowflylunch.jpg 
Suffice to say the soup and the hearty red beans and rice was enough to fill me up, but the lunch also came with banana pudding for dessert. Not being a fan of bananas and feeling pretty well stuffed I took a few spoonfuls of the pudding. Again not being,29,610160.001002001001001002001001001,9,63187,69.99.28.162
613428,613373,613424,2010-09-21 00:19:10.993000000,Re:What are Y’all’s favorite NFL and College football teams?”
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