New Orleans Part 2

Wow. I took a lot of photos on this trip.
Blame LM Preston for the picspam! ... If I can ever get blogger to upload any *(&$(&#($ing pictures... Does anyone else's take A CENTURY to upload ONE STINKING picture? x.x

First, I just have to say. The food. Oh my god, the food.



After writing my first post and staggering into hotel at like 11pm, just in time to watch The King's Speech win the Oscar (totally deserved, that movie was awesome!), I plopped myself down at the bar and ordered the first thing on the menu. Some sort of crab thing, I noted in my half-dead state.
I'm still not 100% sure how they made it (it seemed to be half-shelled crab claws breaded and fried with remoulade sauce?). But it was DELICIOUS. And the bartenders were super-nice, even though I was clearly ordering food right as they were supposed to start closing up.
Then an 85-year-old man partially paralyzed from a recent stroke started asking whether I was on birth control and explaining how he'd had a vasectomy just in case, and I decided it was time to leave.

The next morning, after setting up my company's booth at the conference (boxes of books = FREAKING HEAVY), I skipped out into the bright, sunny, 80-degree weather (sob sob I miss it) to procure more noms. I stopped in The Napoleon House (funny story -- this radical rebellion-type group was plotting to rescue Napoleon from his island exile and sneak him over to New Orleans to put him up in this house... But then he died before they reached him), and ordered a roast beef po' boy.



O.M.G. Granted, it did drip all over me. And my skirt, and my shirt, and my hands and face. But wow was it worth the mess. Mmm... I'm getting hungry just reminiscing.

Some other great food highlights:



Tray of oysters from the raw bar after my colleague and I nommed them all (it was his first time eating raw oysters, too!).



Cute side-alley gelatteria where I enjoyed a cup of lemon gelatto.



My first boozy drink ordered whilst walking about in public. SO strange to sip a Cosmopolitan as you parade along the riverfront. Then later, coworker was all, "oh my god, I saw some people today walking around with mixed drinks! At like, 3 in the afternoon! I can understand a beer, but hard liquor?" And I was all "errrrrrrrrr... wow, yes, those people are clearly strange whatIwasdonewithworkforthedayanditwashappyhourokay?! I only had one!"
*shamed*

After that I waited until proper nightfall to have a drink. Like this hurricane from Jean LaFitte's blacksmith bar (more on that when I get to the ghost tour day):



Let me tell you, NOLA is a one-drink-a-day kind of city for me. Those puppies are strooong...

Coming up next time: ghost stories, cities of the dead, and mardi gras celebrations!