April 13th – Day 10

Well here I am in New Orleans on our wedding anniversary! Don’t worry I have already found a gift for Wendy. She is not getting want she dreams of though, that is me kidnapping Tab Benoit and bringing him back as her toy boy.

I walked over to Frenchman to visit the Louisiana Music Factory, the best record shop in the South. It is 10:30 and a sign on the door says closed – open at 11. I am a little hungry so I wandered across the street to Café Rose Nichaud. I know the food is good here. Local business people use the Café for their morning meetings. A little interesting history about Rose Nichaud – In the early 1800’s Rose became the first known coffee vendor in New Orleans. Rose, a slave, saw the opportunity to provide a service to French Market vendors, workers and shoppers by providing them with fresh hot coffee. Rose created a portable cart which she pushed around the market on Sundays, selling “café noir ou café au lait” Her entrepreneurial efforts were a quick success. One customer is quoted to have said, “Her coffee is like the benediction that follows after a prayer.”

 I had a healthy (for New Orleans) dish – the Rose Benedict – the signature dish of the Café – organic yellow corn rosemary cheese grits topped with open faced biscuit with garlic mayo, portabella mushrooms, caramelized (when in the U.S. spell like the U.S) onion, avocado, tomatoes, sunny side up eggs, asiago cheese and argola. I could have added alligator sausage but I decided to go vego for at least one meal. Pretty amazing breakfast and one I will have again. 

Tonight, William has invited my neighbor and myself to Mr. B Bar ‘n’ Restaurant for a crawfish boil. William has taken me to this bar before and it is on St Phillips and does not attract tourists. Indeed we gate crashed a wedding reception. An incredibly eclectic gathering of people that only New Orleans could muster. No suits and ties here. Just an amazing sight of characters straight out of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ the John Toole award winning novel that must be read by all.

I made a real mess of my first crawfish. I attacked it from the wrong end and finished up with crawfish brains all over my face, glasses and t-shirt much to the mirth of William. After three of so of the tasty little morsels I had the eatin’ down pat.

I was back at the apartment by 7:30 and flicked through the T.V. channels. Came across a crazy movie called Coffee and Cigarettes. I really enjoyed the show. Check it out at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_and_Cigarettes if you dig left on center films then you might like it.