These three books (one factual journey, one memoir, one cookbook) have two things in common: they’re all new this year and centered around food. TWAIN’S FEAST – Andrew Beahrs Andrew Beahrs, an East Bay local, displays his affection for the great Mark Twain in this thoroughly researched book. Twain’s Feast explores the history of foods Twain waxed eloquent about that… Read more →
“In New Orleans, gluttony is a way of life.” – Morton J. Horwitz I’m getting those Basin Street Blues again. I’ve done articles on the Uptown, Carollton and Garden District, more Uptown & Bywater, on French Quarter food and drink, and the Fauborg Marigny and Treme neighborhoods. Now I cover the more commercial, high-rise-littered CBD, where some of Nola’s best… Read more →
It’s New Orleans’ time… again. I’ve written on the Uptown, Carollton and Garden District, CBD, on French Quarter food, more Quarter eats and drink and the Fauborg Marigny and Treme neighborhoods. Here’s more from my July visit to Nola in the Uptown/Garden District and Bywater, plus coffee and breakfast stops. Uptown/Garden District HANSEN’S SNO BLIZ – In early 2009, I… Read more →
In 100% humidity at 100 degrees (with no relief at night), spending a week drinking and eating doesn’t sound like the best idea, but for eight years running, it happens every July in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail. For cocktail lovers and industry, this is THE drink event of the year (yes, I was at the Manhattan Cocktail… Read more →
Tales of the Cocktail brought me back to my beloved Nola. I’ve done articles on the CBD, Uptown, Carollton and Garden District, Fauborg Marigny and Treme neighborhoods, and on French Quarter food. Now I’m back in the Quarter with drink and food updates… French Quarter Cocktails Loving the time-transporting atmosphere of the truly magical Jean Laffitte’s and the dank, historical… Read more →
“As soon as I arrive to how it all fits together, I have to fathom out the ‘system’ of the city, have to walk, sniff, observe, sit in the buses and trams, make the city my own.” – Cees Noteboom, “Nomad’s Hotel” Back for yet another installment on the one and only New Orleans (last article was on French Quarter… Read more →
Back to incomparable New Orleans… I continue to share of my long list of finds after recently renting an apartment on the edge of the Quarter, exploring every neighborhood I could (here’s my last installment, more to come). The French Quarter, touristy though it may be, is everything it’s reputed to be and more (next time I’ll share fave jazz… Read more →
New Orleans, city that enchants me. Even in its gritty crime and scarred, beating heart, it is radiant, full of history, color and hope. I have many places to write about here… too many for even multiple articles. But I’ll share some from time to time, hoping you’ll go and explore like a local. Here are favorites from Treme and… Read more →
Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table – Sara Roahen Certainly this was the ideal book to read prior to and on my recent trip to New Orleans. But on its own merit, Gumbo Tales is a tender, well-crafted memoir that caused my mouth to water and my heart to constrict with bittersweet longing. One of the… Read more →