so in my previous post i mentioned that i had just gotten back from new orleans. it was my first time there and i had the time of my life! it was never a place i desired to go but boy am i glad i did.
i traveled with my good friend hana to go to jon kong's wedding. i had met hana through jon and jon i met through monica. the two of them were child hood friends back in toronto. monica, jon and a few of his friends and i met in vegas in 2005 (or was it 2006?) and then again when we went to austin, tx and when he would visit sf.
first off, new orleans (aka nola) was HOT and humid. i did a lot of sweating and smelling but stupidly only brought one casual outfit and three dresses. packing fail on my part....
day 1-we checked into the hotel and headed out to EAT. jon had told us about a restaurant called stanley's that had the best soft shell crab po' boys. we ordered one of those and soft shell crab eggs benedict. both were super yum but semi heavy. the best part about the meal was the hot sauce! (crystal's-official hot sauce of the new orleans saints btw). for a linner snack we headed to a place called mother's. it reminded me of katz deli but with soul food. i tasted my first bowl of grits and debris (nola dictionary: debris is the meat and fat drippings off of a roast beef) among other things. that place was awesome-especially for their homemade rasberry jam and biscuits! for dinner we headed to the rehearsal dinner for an authentic crawfish boil! hana and i got there a little late and it was already dark. by that time there was no more carbs left-just a ton of crawfish poured out onto a table. we just ate and ate and ate and there were still a ton of crawfish left! i got to meet hana and jon's uw friends at the boil and we headed out to bourbon street with the promise that jon would come meet us later that night.
wow bourbon street was so crazy awesome it deserves its own paragraph. it totally reminded me of dublin with people all over the place. it was even crazier because there was music blasting from the bars and people on the balconies above throwing beads. (dont worry, no boobs were shown by me and anyone around me) oh and did i mention that alcohol was CHEAP? there were shops that sold hurricanes (=red death) and grenades (=neon green death) and others that looked like a slurpee store but all the slurpees had different types of alcohol in them. so so fun and so so crazy! we ended up at an irish bar with an outdoor area for the night which was a little less crazy.
day 2-nursing my hangover. just kidding! hana and i headed back to mother's to try more of their awesome food. this time we tried the crawfish etouffee even though you would THINK we were sick of crawfish from the night before.
after lunch mon and i decided to go for a run to help us train for our relay race. lemme just tell you that 2 miles in humidity feels like 10 miles. my priss ass is so used to running in the gym that i simply couldnt run the 2 miles! i ended up going to the gym at the hotel to run more and then immediately jumped into the pool (one of the best feelings in the world!)
around 530 we headed to the W for the wedding. it was gorgeous and so was the bride! and true to new orleans fashion we paraded with a jazz band down to the reception dinner restaurant (paul k's which is the number one caterer in nola) i cant rave enough about this meal. it was the best meal ive had in a while. hana ordered the fried green tomatoes and crawfish etouffee. i had the crab cake and the blackened drum. holy crap just thinking about the food makes me salivate. and not to mention the BEST bread pudding for dessert. oh...and it was open bar top top shelf. talk about an awesome wedding.
then it was back to bourbon street and surprisingly back to the same irish bar as before. it was just that fun!!
overall nola = awesome (and way better than vegas) i want to go back. like NOW.
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