Segway

I don't like tourists, and I think I can safely say that my relationship lies somewhere towards the hate side of the love-hate continuum. But it's still a tub-of-war. Let's be clear, there are some tourists who are totally fine. Those are the adventurous, curious-but-respectful, un-assuming type of tourists. They don't mind having to talk through two languages and they don't mind cultural idiosyncrasies like differences in tipping and transportation. But then there are the loud, obnoxious, and bossy tourists who can't handle anything that doesn't seem to go their way. By sight it's hard to tell the two different, but more often than not (in my opinion), the bad tourists are the most obvious tourists. For that reason I try to not look like a tourist when I travel. I wear normal clothes (read: no fannypacks), try not to do touristy thing (read: no tour groups), etc. Here's where the catch-22 comes in. Tourism is one of the driving industries of New Orleans, and most of the Quarter thrives on business from tourists. Even though I love to hate tourists, I acknowledge that the location of tourism in the economic atmosphere of New Orleans is, and has been, crucial to its survival after Katrina. Still, I think tourists "suck." Maybe I'm being irrational, but I've never been able to shake my distaste for looking like a tourist.

That said, let me relate my recent foray into the dreaded world of tourism. Today, Carolyn and I took a segway tour of downtown New Orleans. This is probably the most touristy thing I have ever done in my life. Before we got there I was so excited. I've always wanted to go on a segway, but I've never had the chance (or the money!). So when Renée, my boss, told us that NolaVie would pay for a segway tour, Carolyn and I jumped on it. I've always thought that a segway would be AWESOME. For people who have watched Arrested Development (I am a fanatic), you can't think of segways without thinking of GOB, who would climb up mounds of dirt (and pretty much anything else too) on his segway. You definitely CANNOT do that on a segway. We even asked our guide if it was possible, and she said no, unless you had a special off-road segway (which may or may not even exist). Regardless, you can't even ride over a curb without throwing off the balance, so driving over mounds of dirt would be impossible.

Our tour was at 2:00 and we were the only ones on it, which I suppose was nice, but is made it a little awkward too. Our tour guide Dawn started by teaching us how to ride a segway. Dawn is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but moved to New Orleans after having visited it consistently for more than 10 years. She was one of the best tour guides for anything that I have ever had, and she made learning to ride the segway super easy. It seems really hard at first, but once you get used to it, it's pretty easy. The segway is powered by a gyroscope, which reacts to your body movements, which is sooooo zen (kidding). Riding the segway was super fun, sort of like riding a roller coaster, actually. It's really hard to explain what it feels like, but the same feeling you get when you step on the ground after skiing or rollerblading also happens after riding a segway. I was a little bit nervous at first to actually ride it because the roads in New Orleans are littered with potholes. I'm not kidding when I say that riding a bike in New Orleans would be comparable to riding a bike in Rome, and that is something I NEVER want to do. Also, the drivers in New Orleans are on crack, which made it that much more interesting.

What I didn't like about the segway were the looks we got from passer-bys. Most of them were friendly or curious, but some of them were disdainful. I even heard somebody that "That's so fucking stupid." I suppose that that is a similar attitude that I would have had upon seeing tourists on a segway, but it was embarrassing when it happened to me, because I felt that we were being obnoxious. The tour was also only sort of interesting as well. Dawn did her absolute best to make it not boring (and she did succeed), but Carolyn and I had seen all of the neighborhoods we went to already, and the history part of it was only so interesting. There were some interesting ghost stories and New Orleans history included, but for the large part it was basically segways with a side of history.

I do have to say though, that I would have preferred to be on a bicycle tour. We would have seen the same things with less touristy embarrassment, and we would be getting our daily exercise. In the end, I suppose I'm still a little conflicted about whether or not I enjoyed it. The segway was a blast. Looking like a tourist? Not so much.

The Streets

The streets in New Orleans are some of the most interesting streets I've ever been on. Asides from being riddled with holes and cracks (which somehow is becoming endearing...), they have a lot of character. The streets readily reflect the atmosphere and attitude of the people who live on them. Each street seems to have it's own history and culture. Some streets are shrouded in the antique and some streets are sparkly and new. The streetis where people go to socialize. It's much like Copenhagen in that, during warm and sunny days, the streets are filled with people. Cafés open their doors to the outside and the patios of restaurants are crowded with people. It's almost odd to walk down the street and not see people walking around, or see the doors to shops hanging open. One thing that I think embodies this is the fact that neighborhoods will often have block parties on their street. Of course, the level of this differs between neighborhood (the newer neighborhoods tend to be less street-oriented, in my opinion, while places like Marigny, Magazine, and the Quarter are very street-oriented).

I especially love the street names. The streets in the Quarter are all named for French or Spanish people or places. Toulouse, Bienville, Iberville, Bourbon, etc are some of the French inspired names, with Bienville and Iberville named after the two founders of New Orleans. Each of these streets also has a little plaque that tells you whattheir names where under the Spanish rule, for example Royal St. used to be Calle Real.

The Quarter and Marigny are full of streets named after saints (St. Anne, St. Philip, St. Peters, etc.), which is due to the Catholic influence in New Orleans. One of the more (lets be real, only) interesting facts that we learned on our segway tour, is that the street names change at Canal Street. Canal Street is the divider between the Quarter and the Central Business District, also known as the American Sector. When New Orleans was being populated, the French and the Americans did not get along, so the Americans decided to change the street names once they got into their section. Thus Bourbon becomes Carondelet and Royal becomes St. Charles. The "American Sector" is also home to the Muses: Thalia, Eurterpe, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, and Polymnia. Something else very New Orleans is the pronunciation of these streets. Chartres St. is pronounced like "Charter," and Burgundy St. is pronounced "burGUHndy."

The organization of the streets in New Orleans also sets the city apart. Almost all of the streets in the "sliver by the river," that is, The Garden District, the CBD, the Quarter, Marigny (if you don't know where these are, look them up on my maps page!) are one -way, even if they are large enough to be two-way. Originally this developed because the streets were not wide enough to be two-way (this is true in the Quarter and Marigny). I've been fascinated by this since I've been here. I can't think of another city that is like this. Sure, there are one-way streets, but the older parts New Orleans are literally all one-way. New Orleans is the oldest city in the country, but places likeNew York and Boston were built long before cars ever became popular and they don't have such a prevalence of one-way streets. Places like New Orleans East, Gentilly, Metairie, and the Lake Districts are primarily two-way, which makes sense because they were built later than the rest of the city. But still.

Finally, since I live in the Quarter, I'm going to use it as an example, but this is also true for Magazine and the CBD. Music seems to be the life-blood of these streets. It's hard to go outside and not hear music coming from somewhere. During the day it's the street musicians, and during the night it's the jazz clubs and dance halls. Street musicians are everywhere, but in my opinion the best are on Royal St. And by best I mean that they're really, really, really good. Unfortunately they tend to congregate where there are tourists, because tourists are the people who give them the most money. Some of my favorite (and memorable) street musicians are on Royal St., though, and even though there are street musicians by Canal St., Royal St. attracts the best. The music that they play gives a welcoming feel to the streets. New Orleans is famous for its Jazz culture, but I think the Street Music culture deserves just as much publicity. jazz musicians sometimes play on the streets, but the best place to find them is in Jazz clubs (of which there are many, all over the city). The streets are the only place that you cansee some of these musicians.

A unique category of Street Music, which more or less only exists in Louisiana, are the jazz funerals and second lines. Many of the funerals in New Orleans are followed by a brass band parading through the streets. The second line is the group of non-music-playing people who follow the parade. I remember when I was in elementary school reading an article in National Geographic about jazz funerals and how they celebrate the life of the deceased instead of mourning their passing. This articlehas always stuck with me, and I only realized the other day that the second line was what the article was talking about. Witnessing a second line is a once in a lifetime event even though they happen frequently in New Orleans. There is really no way to know when and where a second line will happen. Like street musicians, you have to hear them to find them. The second line will often parade behind the band waving or twirling white flags in the air (Coincidentally, I also saw a wedding that was like that, so maybe second lines happen at wedding too?). It really was interesting to watch, and I liked it a lot more than some of the "regular" funerals I've been too. I've attached a video I took of a second line for a wedding.

Pub Trivia: How I Learned That I Was Actually Stupid

So Kat is writing the official pub trivia post (her blog is www.nolafsp.blogspot.com), but I thought I would write one as well for friends and family. Over the weekend we decided to do a story on pub trivia in New Orleans. For those of you who don't know, pub trivia is where many, many people get together on teams and compete in a competition that is similar to trivial pursuit. Each pub does trivia differently, and some are harder than others. There are almost always prizes involved for those who win, AND for the last place team.

The first pub we went to was Finn McCools. Finn McCools is an Irish pub that is supposed to have the hardest pub trivia in town. Since this was the first pub trivia we had done, we didn't really know what to expect. The bar was insanely crowded. Like INSANELY crowded. There were over 20 teams and not even enough room to stand (several teams were writing on the wall). The bar itself is really cool inside. It was very Irish, and several of the bartenders were actually Irish, which I liked, because I've been in Irish pubs that didn't serve Guinness (and that blows). There was all sorts of memorabilia on the wall too, but not in the fake Applebees kind of way. One of my favorite items was the hand decorated sign that read "Fuck Thierry Henry" (for anybody who doesn't know, in the last world cup, Thierry Henry scored a goal against Ireland off of a handball, which kept Ireland from advancing to the world cup). Finn McCools also serves typical pub food like fish and chips and other beer-battered things. I wish that we had actually gotten a chance to try the food, but we had all just had dinner, so we were too full to merit buying the food.

The bar quickly filled up with people, even though it was already packed by the time we got there, which was about 15 minutes from the start of the game. Each team had to come up with a team name in order to play. We chose "The Team Who Shall Not Be Named," but some of the other names were hilarious, like "Vaginasaurus Rex," "We Teach Your Kids," and "Condoms and Rattlesnakes." My personal favorite was "North Koreans For Sarah Palin 2012." Each team was then given a sheet on which they would write the answers. This ended up making it take a really long time, because we needed to have the sheets given back to us at the end of the round, and with over 20 teams in a tiny space, you can imagine the gridlock that ensued.

There were five rounds of ten questions each, one of which was a picture round. The best 5 teams got prizes of varying value according to their superiority. The last place team got a sack of potatoes, hilarious considering that we're in an Irish pub. I'll spare you a description of the different rounds, but let's just say that they were REALLY HARD. Seriously. We averaged 3/10 on each round. My brain was in some serious pain by the time we were done. In the end we got 17 points (the winning team got 50), which thank god wasn't last place. I'm pretty sure we got second to last though. The only team that "beat" us was called the "Delgado Dropouts." Delgado is the local community college. Sigh.

We left potato-less, which for us was a major accomplishment, because for a while there we were worried that we'd have too many potatoes for our own good. I'm not kidding, these questions were so hard. Not only did they require knowledge that we didn't possess, but they were also word games. Our crux was probably that they had so many questions about things in the 70s (game shows, bands, etc.). Obviously this presented a problem. The whole time Carolyn and I were thinking that our dad would have OWNED at this game. He and I both collect random facts, but he's 30 years older than me, thus his fact knowledge is 5:2 against mine (I hope I did that right...). You do the math, because I sure as hell can't.

Since then we've been to two other pub trivias. I won't describe them in detail, since that's boring, but I can safely say that they were significantly easier than Finn McCools. Both of them catered to a younger crowd, AND they didn't involve tricky word-play questions. At the Bridge Lounge, which is on tuesday nights, we probably ended up in the middle. I liked this trivia much more than Finn McCools. It was more chill, more relaxed, and in general more fun (because, you know, we could like, answer things). I did have two beef though. 1) Their geography section was not really geography, and they also had two wrong answers. One question asked for the biggest city in the Prime Meridian. This is obviously London, but their answer was Greenwich. Not only is that wrong, since Greenwich is a part of London, but Greenwich isn't even a city. Another question asked for one thing that Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania had in common. We answered that they all shared a bored with West Virginia (which is true). The correct answer was that they were all commonwealth states. This is also true, but it's not the only answer. Maybe I'm being nitpicky. Maybe the people who wrote the questions are stupid. Who knows. 2) They had a music section where you had to finish the lyrics of a song. Oh. My. God. It was impossible. Like actually. I think we only ended up getting two points out of 15. That's a 13 percent. Carolyn and I also got a question about The Princess Bride wrong. I'm so ashamed to admit that, because I've probably seen that move like 20 times. Other than that, I really liked this one. it was quick, fun, and the questions were super interesting.

The third pub we went to was Half Moon. I think I liked their pub trivia the best. Their's was the easiest by far, and their atmosphere was the most fun. It was a lot of twenty-somethings and the host was super relaxed. I also like this one because they had quirky prizes worked into the middle of the game. The team with the best team name got a prize (My favorite was "The Kids Are All Gay, but that didn't win, unfortunately), and in the second round after the 5th question, your teem could buy shots for points. Anyway, I'll stop pontificating, but if you're ever in New Orleans, you should definitely hit these places up.

I'd also like to note that it seems that pubs like these three MUST be in sketchy neighborhoods. Not that that should deter you (it obviously didn't deter us), but I'm just saying.

Finn McCools: http://finnmccools.com/

The Bridge Lounge: http://bridgeloungenola.com/

Half Moon: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/57/1495439/restaurant/Lower-Garden-District/Half-Moon-Bar-Grill-New-Orleans

Magazine Street Adventures

I've been really bad recently about keeping track of the places that I've been going to. I always forget to bring my camera and then I forget where I went. New Orleans has been really interesting so far. Today we were in the car and my sister asked Kat, "Is there a New Orleans ghetto?" Yes and no, was her response, "It's all mixed in together." I think that's a pretty accurate description really. Like I said in my previous blog, New Orleans has no zoning laws, so everything is pretty much mixed up together with houses and stores in the same block. I think one of the best examples of this is Magazine Street. The street sort of bounces back and forth between houses and businesses with no real discernible pattern. It almost seems as if Magazine Street just happened, which gives it an almost joyful kind of feel. Carolyn and I had been wanting to explore Magazine for a while, but we're lazy and passive and neither one of us suggested it, so we just didn't do it.

All last weekend Kat was out sick with this awful cold (which for the record, was given to her by her father!) and Carolyn and I were left to find things to do on our own *GASP*, which doesn't sound all that scary, but we're both creatures of habit, particularly the habits of procrastination and laziness. We decided that we wanted to go to Magazine street but were too cheap to ride the street car (the fact that it actually doesn't run on Magazine made that decision simple) and didn't have a car meant that we were going to walk. I actually really enjoy walking, especially in cities. Next to biking, it's one of the best ways to see a city up close and personal. So we walked to Magazine, or rather down Magazine, since it starts on Canal in the Central Business District. The first stretch of the street is almost exclusively residential, with the National WWII Museum, a school, and some cool-but-nondescript shops and cafés thrown in there for fun. The houses are typical New Orleans style, long and skinny with three or four pillars in the front and high ceilings.

Things really started to get cool when Magazine intersected with Camp street. This three block section is the first long section of exclusively businesses. The street was lined with cute cafés, restaurants, clothing stores, home decor stores, and a hodge-podge of other random places. I also like this section because of its bright colors. I have an affinity for bright colors, and this block is one of the more colorful blocks I've seen so far. My favorite store is the H&R Block office, which is painted the bright green color of the H&R Block logo. Unfortunately we walked this on a Sunday, which meant that the stores were closed. We will definitely go back here though, because some of the stores were really cool looking. There was one store with this INSANE shell covered chandelier/candelabra monstrosity that really shouldn't exist. Also in this section is a specialty sign store. The signs they make are in many of the different stores up and down Magazine, and are actually really cool

The next section is all residential, and extra gorgeous. There's this house that I particularly liked that is all white except for the shutters and doors, which are bright red. I think that's really cool, and kind of unexpected. Of course I didn't bring my camera with me, so pictures will be coming later. Also in this neighborhood is the leaning house, which actually looks crooked. The trees here are huge and very old, which give the neighborhood a very antique feel. The houses were also pretty eccentric and had a lot of character.

The section after this one is the next exclusively business blocks and continues on forever. This is where Slim Goodies and La Divina are (hint: read my other blog posts!). This is also the home of Breaux Mart, one of the best-named supermarkets in the history of supermarkets...and fraternity bros, or should I say breauxs. I like this section a lot, actually. It's really cozy and has an interesting mix of businesses. There's a sushi restaurant, several cafés, a Greek restaurant called Byblos, a pet shop called Petcetera, and many other kitchy places. I sort of get the feeling that this place is really hipster, but then again that vibe comes from pretty much all of Magazine street. We stopped here that day, but we came back to this section when Carolyn's friend Sarah came and visited. We went into a bunch of the clothing shops, which all seemed nice, but were mostly for women and pretty pricey. We did go to The Funky Monkey, however, which aside from having an awesome name, is also pretty cool inside. It's a vintage store, although it does have some brand new items, most of which are from American Apparel (which also happens to have shop on this section of Magazine). The store was painted orange inside and filled with all kinds of treasures. Like the giant pink afro, for example. Or the large men's platform heels. You know, something for everybody! I didn't end up buying anything, but I would totally go back. We ended the trip at a café called Rue de la Course, which had really mediocre coffee, unfortunately, but it's a local business and the only other option was Starbucks *barf*. This section is where Magazine takes off. The shops are an interesting blend of chains and local businesses (again, no zoning laws). I really, really, really want to keep on walking, but the night was coming so we decided to call it quits.

Unfortunately this is pretty much as far as I've been on Magazine, as it is right by Kat's house and we tend not to venture further. In total, the walk from our apartment to Magazine and Seventh was three miles and took one hour. It was really pleasant and I recommend going the distance, literally and figuratively. For those of you who want to scope it out before you go, Magazine has its own website, with a listing of all of the businesses that line it. You can find it at www.magazinestreet.com

La Divina really is divine

So there's this gelateria in New Orleans called La Divina. The first time I saw it I got really excited, because I LOVE gelato. Anybody who went to Italy with me can tell you that I ate gelato pretty much every day. I even set a goal for myself to go to the 10 most famous gelaterie in Rome and compare them to see which one I liked better. I only made it to about five, but I definitely consider myself a gelato connoisseur. I've decided that every gelateria can be judged on how good they make gelato by their Chocolate, Pistachio, and fruit flavors, extra points for interesting or quirky flavors (like Rose or Basil). So naturally I had to try La Divina to see if it stacked up. So far my American gelato experience has been...mediocre at best. Hanover has a gelateria, and the woman who runs it did study with a gelataio in Italy, but somehow I just don't really like it. She only has about six flavors at a time and her chocolate tastes like frozen chocolate pudding (although her Pistachio is wonderful!).

That's the back story. Here are the results. I went into La Divina last week re

ally excited, but also a little skeptical. Let's just say I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. Immediately, I could tell this place was legit. Their store was very inviting and warmly lit and had seating inside and out. Once I got to the counter, however, I realized that I was in for a treat. The flavors were amazing sounding, AND they all had traditional Italian names, even the fruit flavors. The more I looked around the store, the more I noticed the little details that made it really authentic. Unlike certain stores that try to be Italian, but really fail miserably by making spelling mistakes, La Divina got it all right. They even had "produzione propria" on the window, which authentic gelaterie in Italy have. It means that they make everything on the spot with natural flavors, herbs, and ingredients.

I ordered the lavender and banana. The lavender was absolutely amazing, and it tasted like lavender. The banana was excellent as well. I just went to La Divina again and has Irish Tea, which was essentially Earl Grey flavored and Pistachio. The Irish Tea was absolutely amazing! It was creamy and delicious and actually tasted like Earl Grey. The Pistachio, however, definitely passed the test. It was at first very sweet and pistachio flavored, but without the nutty taste. After the first couple of bites I

started to taste the nut as an after taste.

I highly recommend this gelateria!

They also sell coffee and paninis, and though

I haven't had one, my friend Kat assures me that they're delicious. You can find it in three different places: Magazine St and Seventh, St. Peter's street in the French Quarter, and by Loyola University. Here is their website: http://www.ladivinagelateria.com/

Katrina's Impact, part 2

My previous blog post is basically a description of the different parts of New Orleans in relation to how they survived Katrina and how far they’ve progressed. Going through the neighborhoods on the “Death and Destruction” tour, however, has left me wondering why some of the neighborhoods have recovered and why some of them have not. There are many things that could have affected their responses to the crisis, such as geography, population level, isolation level, etc. I can’t help but think, however, that socio-economic class is the only thing keeping people from rebuilding and starting their lives over.

The thing with the restructuring of New Orleans is that the government has not really given any money to individuals to help rebuild their homes. Rebuilding is also expensive and time consuming. The water in New Orleans sat for over a month, seeping into the walls, through the drywall or sheetrock, and into the studs and wooden framing. Mold started to grow because of the persistent dampness (and intense humidity, as Katrina happened in the height of the hot season) and quickly spread to the other not-flooded parts of the house. Even in houses that only had a foot of water on their ground floor, the whole floor had to be gutted, de-molded, and rebuilt. As a result, those who can, and want to, have rebuilt. Those who can’t, or don’t want to, haven’t rebuilt. People whose neighbors rebuild are also more likely to rebuild themselves. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true, which results in pockets of rebuilt houses and abandoned houses in neighborhoods.

The two neighborhoods that we visited first, Metairie and Lakeview, are relatively affluent. Metairie especially is wealthy and is littered with monstrous houses. As a result, these two neighborhoods are relatively well built. There were very few abandoned, or even boarded up, houses in these neighborhoods. There were, however, many empty lots, but since houses in New Orleans don’t have basements, these lots looked like big yards. The difference was that those houses were razed. After Katrina hit, the city government passed an ordinance that mandated that houses be boarded up if they were to be abandoned. Recently, they have even gone so far as to suggest that houses that are in a persistent abandoned state should be demolished. This makes a lot of sense, as living next to a house that is filled with mold and abandoned is not only unhealthy, but also aesthetically displeasing. In neighborhoods where the people are affluent, or at least socially able, the problem houses have been taken care of.

Gentilly, New Orleans East, and the 9^th Ward have different social and economic situations. The problems here start even before the flooding. Many of these houses, though they are under sea level, are close to (or on) the ground, are single story, and are built out of wood. In fact, in these neighborhoods, the houses that survived more frequently are the ones made out of brick. Because they were built so close to the ground, these houses suffered more damage than others. They were not built to sustain flooding at all, which is one of the reasons why they suffered so much damage in the first place. Once the damage was done, however, other things factored into their continual disrepair. People who left after Katrina often found better lives in the cities that they moved to. In addition, these neighborhoods were (and are) primarily working class neighborhoods, and many people didn’t have the money to rebuild or repair their houses so they just left.

According to this article (http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/post-katrina-demographic-shifts-could-boost-rebuilding-efforts-i/19609776/), New Orleans, demographically at least, is smaller, less diverse, richer, and older. The article also argues that having money made it easier to rebuild afterwards. Of course it follows that economic agency made rebuilding easier. The people who lived in these three neighborhoods did not have enough money to rebuild and, according to the article, often did not receive insurance settlements fast enough to rebuild. The tragedy is that these people were forced to stay where they had fled too. Almost everybody who moved from New Orleans after Katrina accepts it, but only as a necessity.

While there are so many charities working in New Orleans to help rebuild, it still isn’t enough. Charities can only do so much, and frankly, help like this should not be put onto the shoulders of charities. The government, while is has poured money into New Orleans, has really done very little to help individual people. I’m not an economics expert, but it’s clear to me that the areas with the least amount of social agency were the once least recovered. The problems that existed before are part of problem now. These neighborhoods, particularly the 9^th ward, have lived in marginalized conditions for years, and those conditions have prohibited reconstruction. There should have been more government involvement in the process, and there should be benefits of some sort to returning homeowners. Nobody stays away willingly, and since the federal government was part of the cause of the flooding, I think it's only logical to have them take part in the reconstruction of individuals' homes.

Something else that struck me in these neighborhoods was the vacant business buildings. Having no businesses is a major hindrance to rebuilding. Some of these neighborhoods are isolated to the extent that basic goods like toilet paper and food must be bought from across the city. I’m not entirely sure what could bring more businesses back to the city. It almost doesn’t make any sense that there aren’t any businesses, because they would clearly have a lot of business. My sense is that the outside world still perceives New Orleans as a disaster zone. The article points out, however, that more young people are moving to New Orleans, which is a major business attraction. Lets hope that’s the case, because I really think that if there were more businesses, the badly-recovered neighborhoods would seem more appealing.

BUTCHER: A sWine Bar

Today for lunch we ate at this place called BUTCHER: A sWine Bar. It's located in the Warehouse District and pretty much lives up to its reputation as a cool, casual, hip place to have lunch. It was full of all different types of people, from business men to hipsters. The premise is all about meat and meat products, but not in the gross, over-the-top, 'meat-lovers' kind of way. This is evident form the giant poster of different cuts of pork on the wall behind the main counter. All their sausage, salami, pancetta, and other types of meaty things are made on the premises, and they usually try to incorporate meat into things that normally don't have meat in them (like Bacon Pralines). The restaurant also has a curious Italian vibe, which I think comes from their use of traditional Italian names for meats. I really appreciated this because it made it more authentic, and payed homage to the famous Italian meat culture.

I ordered the Buckboard Bacon Melt, which has bacon, Swiss cheese, collard greens, and pepper aioli on it. I was a tiny bit apprehensive because I don't really like collard greens all that much, but the sandwich was very good. I love sandwiches, and I LOVE making them. I put just about everything that I can on the sandwiches I make. Sometimes they get unmanageable, but most of the time they're absolutely delicious. While I take great pride in my sandwich making ability, I could never have come up with this sandwich. The bread was perfectly grilled, just crunchy enough on the outside but still warm and buttery on the inside, and it was so simple (just 4 ingredients) but so tasty. The aioli added a lot, I think, and helped mask the often overpowering flavor of collard greens. It was an interesting Italian twist on a typical American sandwich with typical Southern vegetables.


What I liked most about the meal, though, wasn't actually the sandwich, oddly enough. It was the chips. These chips were made on the spot and fried to perfection. They were salty, but a little sweet, and melted in my mouth. They were quite possibly the most delicious chips I had ever had. When we were little our dad always used to make homemade chips, which were always superior to any chips that we could get from the grocery store. These chips were as close as I've gotten to those. They weren't fried too much, just right, so that they weren't to crunchy. They were almost paper thin, which made them even more delicious, in my opinion.

What made the meal even better, though, were the portions. I hate it when restaurants serve huge portions, but I also hate it when restaurants serve portions that are too small (and almost always super expensive). Not only were the portions just right, but it also was cheap. I ate all of my chips and sandwich and didn't feel stuffed at the end, just pleasantly full, and my sandwich was only 9 dollars.

I highly recommend this place, because it certainly delivers. Also, on a side note, BUTCHER is also attached to a restaurant called Cuchon. Cuchon (and BUTCHER), have won many accolades recently and have been on various definitive food lists from all over the country (including the New York Times!). For more information, check out their website: http://www.cochonbutcher.com/

-Christian
p.s., I must give credit for the pictures (since I forgot to bring my own camera): http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2652/4187349389_7e21e0f0c1.jpg, and http://biteandbooze.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/dsc07343.jpg

Katrina's Impact

On my second real day in New Orleans, Renee Peck, who is my boss (and Kat’s mom) took Carolyn, Kat, and I on a so called “Death and Destruction Tour.” At first I was a little apprehensive about catastrophe tourism. I thought that I would feel really voyeuristic turning the destruction into spectacle. In the end, however, I think that I learned enough during the tour that it counteracted my guilty feelings.

First, I want to try to portray exactly how far New Orleans has come. Or hasn’t come. Certain districts that were badly damaged by the floods were back in fine shape, but certain districts are still wrecks. The Metairie and Lakeview neighborhoods were definitely the best rebuilt of all the neighborhoods we saw. This may have been because the path of the floodwaters in these neighborhoods was often very random, leaving one block virtually untouched and the next block under four feet of water. Every once in a while there was a boarded up house or a house in the process of being renovated, but considering that they were all in need of being refurbished, these houses were in good shape. The houses in these neighborhoods are typical suburban houses with well-manicured lawns and trees. The houses in Metairie are especially gorgeous in the over-the-top, filthy-rich-mansion kind of way. These neighborhoods have recovered very well, to the point where it does not necessarily look like a natural disaster hit them, only as if they’ve suffered under the weight of the recession.

New Orleans East, Gentilly, and the 9^th Ward are different stories. These three neighborhoods are bordered by the three spots where the levees were breached, so it is no wonder that they were the most destroyed. New Orleans East was the most recovered. Driving down the highway that bisects the neighborhood, however, made it seem like a ghost town. While half of the houses still lay in disrepair, almost all of the businesses were skeletons of what they had been. This part of New Orleans is literally isolated from the rest. Not even the hospital, which is instead a weed infested abandoned building complex, has come back to this neighborhood. We did not drive off of the highway, but seeing New Orleans East from the road was enough to get the feeling that even six years after Katrina, progress was creeping along. Gentilly is obviously still struggling. It is worse off than New Orleans East, but not by much.

There are still houses that have been left to decay and not been gutted or boarded up. The mark that the National Guard battalions left on the houses, which indicates when it was searched, who it was searched by, and whether there were any dead bodies inside, is still on almost every house. Both of these neighborhoods, however, still have people living in them with clean lawns and cars. It may take awhile, but these areas are on the road to recovery.

Compared to the rest of New Orleans, the 9^th Ward is a wasteland. Weeds have overgrown the vacant lots and very few pre-Katrina houses are still standing, let alone visible. Old houses are still lying in shambles next to vacant lots with destroyed cars parked in the driveway. The 9^th ward gives the impression that Katrina happened the other day. Despite the widespread lasting destruction, progress has been made. Many different charities have helped rebuild houses and the Make it Right Foundation (http://www.makeitrightnola.org), led by Brad Pitt, with the Musicians’ Village (http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.org) led by Habitat for Humanity have started to transform the neighborhood. I recommend checking out the websites, because not only are the houses really cool, but they programs are as well. Both require the owner to have lived in the 9^th Ward and to participate either financially or physically in the reconstruction. The houses built by the Make it Right Foundation are very environmental, heated by geothermal energy, and powered by solar panels. One great thing about these houses is that the owners are guaranteed to have professional support in their upkeep. And they own their house. There is an interesting article discussing the pros and cons of this project, I recommend that you check it out. The article is called “Getting It Right: What is Brad Pitt Really Doing For New Orleans,” on www.good.is. While the houses are extremely modern (some of them, I must say, look kind of ugly) they are all inspired by traditional New Orleans architecture. In addition, and possibly most importantly, they are all raised off the ground to above the minimum footage required for flood insurance, and they are far more stable than the previous houses. This is crucial in the neighborhood that received some of the highest flood levels in the city.

The 9^th Ward was the last place that we went, and while it still looks bleak and devastated, the brightly colored, newly built houses give the neighborhood hope. New Orleans is slowly repairing itself, some areas faster than others, but it looks pretty good. I’m going to take my next blog entry to analyze the rebuilding pace, most of which essentially comes down to socio-economic class. Many people think that they only places that were flooded were places where the poor lived. That is false. Katrina didn’t discriminate and poor and rich were flooded equally. The difference lies in their ability to bounce back.

New Orleans: First Impressions

This is my first blog post for this blog, so bear with me. I'm a little rusty, and I haven't checked this for spelling mistakes, etc. This is basically a stream-of-consciousness style recount of the first day and a half in the city.

When my sister and I arrived at the New Orleans airport, the first thing I remember saying was, “I can smell the humidity.” We were greeted with that old, musty smell that only really humid places have. It’s not a bad smell at all. If anything it evokes endearing and antique feeling, slightly cozy. After the drive from the airport to my friend Kat’s house, we went on a little walk down Magazine Street. The street itself is very similar to Newbery Street in Boston or Strøget in Copenhagen. It’s filled with mom-and-pop stores and kitchy restaurants, all with the iconic New Orleans second floor patio, many of which were brightly colored. The feeling, however, is very different. It’s tempting to look at the buildings and the street and think that they are rundown. The street was pretty bumpy and the buildings were pretty old, but the more I looked and the longer we walked the less rundown they looked. In fact, Magazine Street isn’t rundown at all. It reminded me a lot of some of the streets in Rome that I had been on. It had the same small, relaxed Southern European feel that Rome had, but the bright colors added a distinct South American or Caribbean undercurrent.

The next morning we had brunch at a restaurant called Slim Goodies, which was on the part of Magazine Street close to where Kat Lives. Magazine Street is actually significantly longer than Newberry Street and Støget, and because New Orleans has relaxed zoning laws, it’s also part residential, which makes for an interesting hodge-podge of houses and businesses. Anyway, Slim Goodies was really good! The restaurant itself is kind of hipstery, with cute polaroids of customers taped all over the bright blue walls. I ordered the Heaven, which is a pecan waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. The waffle was just filling enough to not be over powering, and the pecans added a yummy crunch to it.

Afterwards Kat’s mom, one of my two bosses (the other of whom I haven’t met yet!) gave us a driving tour of St. Charles and the Garden District. The houses in these neighborhoods are huge, and that’s an understatement. They are all incredibly old and suffered little or not damage from Katrina. Many of them, especially in the Garden District, are very narrow with extremely high ceilings. They are very Greco-roman inspired (or at least my untrained eye thinks they are) and are really just absolutely beautiful. These are also the neighborhoods where John Goodman and Sandra Bullock live, and where Tulane and Loyola Universities are.

Our next stop was the French Quarter. We spent about five minutes driving around the French Quarter before Kat’s mom actually dropped us off there. All I can say is that the place is really beautiful. It’s very charming and has a distinct old-world type feel. The Vieux Carré Commision (VCC), which is the historical preservation committee for the French Quarter (Vieux Carré means “old square” in French) must approve any new construction in the French Quarter to make sure that it is in keeping with the historical nature of the district. Because of that, the Quarter still looks as old as it did in the 1930s, when the VCC was established.

The first place that we went was the Café du Monde, which is apparently open 24 hours (although Kat says that’s not really true). We had Beignets and coffee, both of which are very New Orleans. The Café is arguably one of the most famous landmarks in the French Quarter, and as such is a definite tourist trap. The café was really impersonal because of that, I think, and the atmosphere was kind of lacking. The beignets were delicious though, but I don’t really have anything to compare them to, so we’ll see house they add up as the weeks progress. The area around the café is what used to be the open-air French Market, and it looked really cool, but I

didn’t really get to see all that much of it. The next place we went was Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is like another animal compared to the rest of the French Quarter. It’s pretty much the heart of the tourist industry and it’s filled with bars and strip clubs and populated by drunken tourists, especially at night. We walked up and down it a couple of times taking in the whole thing. The street holds some really interesting history, as well. One of the oldest operating gay bars in the country, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, is located on the intersection of Bourbon Street and St. Phillip’s Street (which is actually the street that I live on). The day we were in the quarter the Saints, the local Football team, was playing the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs for the Superbowl, so after we had explored the street we decided to decided to go to a bar and watch the game. The Saints lost, which made the rest of the evening kind of depressing. Overall, however, my impression of the French Quarter was interesting. I’m really excited to get in to the neighborhood and start looking around and exploring.