Full Passport: Back to New Orleans

06 January 2013

Back to New Orleans

A long time ago, in an age known as 'my twenties', I lived deep in the Cajun heartland of Louisiana in a town few people have heard of and even fewer have seen with their own eyes. In that land of crawfish fields, tornados, casinos, and hospitality - I was fed. I was fed a'plenty.

Back a'piece there were crawfish boils, etouffes, gumbos, po'boys, collard greens, okra, bbq, red beans (and rice), and a spicy crawfish-velveeta-pasta concoction I sometimes dream about. I gained some 25 - 40 pounds in two-years in Louisiana - and not a pound was wasted. I left 8 years ago with some great stories, some great friends, and a constant aching to return to Louisiana.

While I was living in the back-bayous of St. Landry Parish, I would often of a Saturday grab my car keys and drive to New Orleans - roughly 2 1/2 hours away. I'd drive all the way there to have lunch at Mona's Lebanese Cafe, or meet up with a friend, or grab some beignets. I'd drive all the way there because I could not resist the siren call of the narrow streets of the French Quarter or the mammoth Greek Revival architecture of the Garden District. I'd drive all the way there because New Orleans felt like home.

Ironically, it was 'homesickness' for Baltimore that kept me from moving to New Orleans the Summer of 2004. I moved North, narrowly escaping starting a new life in New Orleans just months before hurricane Katrina would devastate the Crescent City. Sometimes the fates are with us.

Since Katrina I have been back to New Orleans only a handful of times, and distance and various adventures have kept me away for six-years. Fortunately, due to a random series of events involving my cat, my car, and my sanity, I returned last week to the city I love more than any other (well, maybe 'the city I love just as much as I love Baltimore').

What was best about this return trip? Well, the food was great, no lie. Two dinners at Emeril's New Orleans (seafood gumbo YUM), a lunch at August by John Besch (I can't tell you what I ate, but it was delicious!), and two dinners at Orleans Wine Bistro (which were more satisfying, more affordable, and served with more friendliness than any of the other meals I had on my trip) all helped satisfy my cravings for Louisiana flavors.