Jazzfest closes, we keep eating

We sat down to dinner Sunday night at Mother's on Tchopitoulas Street, after a long hot closing day at Jazzfest. There's nothing fancy about Mother's, but the food is local and good, the staff is friendly and efficient, the lines move fast, and there are tables. Who dat said I'm fussy? I'd been jonesing for jambalaya all weekend. Usually the jambalaya stand is my first destination when the gates to Jazzfest open, but the purveyor whose jambalaya I loved didn't return after the storm, and his replacement has been serving something that tastes like Rice-A-Roni. Dry Rice-A-Roni. I gave him one last try this year, yuk, and promised myself to finish the weekend with jambalaya at Mother's. Excellent. That will be the plan in future. There will be no unattended children.

Does your town go in for decorated hearts/bears/ cows/apples/whatevers ?

It's going on now in New Orleans, the beautified creatures are Mardi Gras Bead Dogs, 

and will be auctioned later this year

 for the benefit of the local ASPCA.

This guy is part of a coordinated set of pups at the Lee Circle. He looks hopeful, in the way pups do when they're looking for food. We could relate.




And of course, there were a few hungry lookin Who Dat dogs. Well, we Giant fans know why they're hungry.

The other dogs for which New Orleans is known are Lucky Dogs, which are average hot dogs sold from above-average looking carts. My recommendation: take a picture of the cart, leave the dog.

Jazzfest closes and we partake of a light supper

Some of the same characters show up year after year at Jazzfest -- I mean among the music lovers, not the musicians. That many of the musicians will return, and that new talent will surface, are givens. But among the fans, there's the barechested god Mercury in sandals, tight shorts, graying pigtail, earring, amulet.  I think in his real life he's a dentist from New Jersey. Sliding and grinding behind a feathered Mardi Gras Indian are two genteel ladies in their Garden Club best. Every year they show off moves that would make a pole dancer blush.The slim blonde in bra top and cutoffs who so memorably tore up the dance floor at the Cajun stage a couple of years ago is feeding ice cream to little blond twins in a stroller.

The television series Tremé has generated a lot of jobs for locals, hence a lot of good feeling, and a number of bands included its theme in their acts. The theme adapts wonderfully well to different musical genres, too.


And the food. Always the food. Booth after booth of local
 and regional specialities. Two kinds of jambalaya, 3 kinds of gumbo this year but the hands-down best is the pheasant, quail and andouille gumbo, po'boys: cocoon de lait, softshell crab, fried oyster, duck, crawfish. Crawfish beignets, fried oysyter salad, crawfish remoulade, fried chicken. Cajun music, modern jazz, Willie Nelson, Dixieland jazz, blues, Jimmy Buffett (local boy makes good and moves to Long Island), zydeco, Dr.John (local boy makes good and moves to Long Island), non-stop.

Here is the capsule description of Jazzfest : it's kinda like a state fair, only with MUCH MUCH better music and MUCH MUCH better food and no animals.

And so, weary and still wearing a baked-on enameled coating of 100 SPF Neutrogena, we had this visit's last dinner at Mother's on Poydras Street. Not fancy, but good food, authentic and generously dished up with kindness and good feelings.



Jambalaya, fried oysters, red beans and rice. How nice. Then back to to room to "pack"-- 3 pair shorts, 3 tanks, slacks and silk sweater for restaurants with tablecloths, shoes, spare shoes, extra shoes, other extra shoes, and a truly frightening collection of the products and implements that keep me presentable. Hard to maintain the delusion of being low-maintenance when I have to confront all that stuff at once. Oh, well, at least I didn't have to worry about electric adapters and converters.
While packing we watched the latest episode of Tremé. Life imitating Art imitating Life imitating Art?

Dinner at Brigtsens, New Orleans Saturday night

Can't come to NO without dinner at Brigtsens. Frank and Marie are so happy to see you, you just feel like the most welcome company they've ever had. We almost always try new places, but this is one dear favorite we'll never miss. The restaurant is in several dining rooms in an old house that somehow keeps getting nicer without changing and without being cutesy,

We came for the food! Lots of good choices! We started with:



Oops, no, we didn't, that was his Louisiana strawberry shortcake. We are just a tad self-indulgent, but that was not the starter. I will try again.





Left: crabmeat salad with heirloom tomatoes; right: crawfish & corn soup. Joy.




His main- Mr. Brigtsens' seafood platter




His main - Mr. Brigtsen's seafood platter, on the left, and mine - veal with andouille gravy and cheese grits.




OK, now you can go back and look at those strawberries !

Dinner at Lüke, New Orleans

After a day at Jazzfest, sitting at a table with a drink in a real glass and planning the next day at Jazzfest sounds like a good idea. Lüke is a bastion of the John Besh empire, and if Chef Besh was respected before the storm, he is now held in absolute awe for the way he stepped up and kept on. More than that, he serves good, often great, food, which is really why we're here. The other thing I should mention is that the umlaut in the name of the restaurant is purely decorative and has no meaning or function. Oh well.
This is not our first time here, and the reception has always had kind of a bewildered, almost stunned quality. This time we were told that our table was just being cleared off and set up, and would be ready shortly. Sure enough, in 15 minutes, a dazed young lady led us the length of the restaurant to a corner where there were no vacant tables. "Um," said she, "I think I forgot where he said to bring you. Wait here." So we did, and soon some other kind soul found us and led us to a table up front. Which had been standing vacant and set up since we arrived. well, we came to eat, not to argue, right?
And eat and drink we did. Thirsty after a long day in the sun, I had a French 75, generously poured in a large brandy snifter, and he had a Bellini. Then:

Fried oyster salad with bacon, romaine, avocado for me (are we starting to detect a theme here?),

 and Flammenküche(Alsatian onion/bacon tart) for him. This is really for two, but as you might imagine, he had help.
And then, not being one to waste an opportunity -- why spend almost a day travelling to order something you can get home?

Not the best pic in the world but I was on the second French 75, so I'll help out--glorious spicy buttery shrimp&grits.
Meanwhile himself had been watching all these giant burgers go by to other less deserving patrons, so that's what he had.



and those French fries really deserve their own portrait.
He had bread pudding (they revoke your visa if you don't have this at least once per visit), and I finished up with what the menu called chocolate pot au crème but what was really chocolate mousse. Nice, though.
Would we come back? Of course, we always do. Maybe for breakfast.

Jazzfest bulletin, New Orleans

We arrived yesterday, too late for the first day's music (flying on mileage, couldn't get a nonstop), not too late for dinner. sign of the times: each year it gets more and more difficult to tell the JazzFesties from the other travelers. Example from LAG to Charlotte leg of trip:

Me to older gentleman in straw hat, plaid shorts, sandals-- ooh, are you going to Jazzfest too?

Him (offended) no, my partners and I have a business meeting.

Oh, well. Arrived, cleaned up, dinner at Cochon. Boucherie plate starter-- a not bad plat de charcuterie, maybe a little skimpy. But then I loooved my woodfire roasted oysters so much that I cancelled my next dish and had some more ersters. The Diner had a fried oyster sandwich (not a po'boy, rather a creation on white toast)


followed by ham hocks with red beans n rice. Very meaty hocks, some of the meat scraped off and crisped, more still clinging to the wreckage. The bread basket looked like the usual white tasteless fluff rolls, so I was surprised and delighted to bite into old-fashioned lard bread! Mmm, mmm, mmm. And because I had had such a dainty little meal (only a few oysters, after all), treated self to a giant slice of deep dark chocolate cake. Worth it.

Today, Friday, spending the day at Jazzfest.

Some random snaps that you might enjoy:

Front side of Mardi Gras Indian suit, on exhibit as folk craft, along with truly awesome beadwork appliqué. This is where embellishment belongs!

This one is a ball gown for a Mardi Gras queen on a float, not a street Indian. Nice that the two very different groups were sharing the same exhibition tent!







 


some random crowd scenes. As you can tell this is not a fashion event but I'm lovin it. Dinner out tonight, more music tomorrow.