Super Bowl week in New Orleans

The past nine days I was in New Orleans for work for the Super Bowl. I was managing a portion of the hospitality activations for a client and in doing so got to be in the same room as some serious football stars including: Marshall Faulk, Rob Gronkowski, Eli and Peyton Manning, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, Steve Young and Roddy White.

Although this was an extremely busy week with not a lot of sleep, I still managed to enjoy some of New Orleans best. The first day I ate some of the ultimate New Orleans foods. I started the day with one of my favorite treats, king cake from McKenzie's. I learned that McKenzie's is a bakery that started in the Great Depression and has since gone out of business, however a competitor purchased the recipe and is producing their goods. Although I have heard from locals there are better king cakes out there, this satisfied my craving momentarily and kept me wanting more.

When it came time for a lunch break, I suggested to my coworkers that we go to Mother's. I must admit that I heard about Mother's through the tabloids because Beyonce had eaten there the week prior. This restaurant is a uniquely New Orleans tradition and was opened in 1938. They are known for their baked ham. The restaurant is grungy looking inside but that can sometimes be a sign of the best places. I had the Ferdi Special (named after a local merchant and regular patron), which is a po' boy packed with baked ham, roast beef, debris and gravy. In case you're wondering, debris is the roast beef that falls into the gravy while baking in the oven. Yum!

After a long day of loading in the event site, a coworker and I had a backwards dinner and stopped at Cafe du Monde for a beignet and coffee appetizer before heading to dinner. Although I am sure no locals go to Cafe du Monde because it is extremely touristy, I couldn't pass up the chance to go here while in New Orleans. The coffee is traditionally served Au Lait, meaning mixed half and half with hot milk. The beignets are a square piece of dough, fried and covered in powdered sugar. These are so good that I was literally eating the powdered sugar by spoon after finishing the beignets. I couldn't get enough. 

After Cafe du Monde we went to NOLA for dinner. This is one of Emeril's restaurants that I had been to last year when I was down in New Orleans and it was so good I had to go back again. I had eaten so much already, that I was only hungry for a bowl of gumbo. 

After recovering from my first day of food coma, I found some other local spots throughout the week. I had been told that I had to check out Central Grocery, which claims fame to being the "home of the original muffuletta." This place was founded in 1906 and is a small old-fashioned Italian-American grocery store with a sandwich counter. They were featured on the PBS special Sandwiches That You Will Like and a five best sandwich series on The Today Show. The staff here was friendly and the sandwich phenomenal. You can order a half sandwich or a whole sandwhich. The whole sandwich is about 8" in diameter and would be way too much food for one person. I ordered the half sandwich and it was my favorite thing I ate in New Orleans. You can buy the ingredients to bring home, and I wish I had. 

Another sandwich spot I checked out was Johnny's Po Boys. I was inspired by the line I saw outside of Johnny's Po Boys and had to check it out. This place is the oldest family owned po-boy restaurant in the city of New Orleans.They have been featured by Good Housekeeping as one of the top 100 value restaurants in the United States and Rand McNally's Best of the Road. I asked some locals in line what I should get and they recommended the shrimp po' boy. My mouth was literally watering while I was waiting in the 30 minute line to order my food. The restaurant smelled amazing and everyone's food looked delicious, in a southern fried kind of way. The sandwich was so good and I was so hungry that I actually forgot to take a picture. There was also a lot of southern hospitality here - the people I was chatting with in line were so nice and I ended up sitting with them to eat.

Beyond the food in New Orleans, there is also the charm of the beautiful French Quarter neighborhood. Check out these pics that made me want to come back for another visit, next time not for work. And Travi needs a bike basket like that dog, right?