Eating our Way through NOLA...Dragos, Oak Oven, and Beyond

As of today we have visited 137 local restaurants. Our goal is to make it to 200 by next summer! Food in New Orleans beats food we have had anywhere. We've had Italian just as good as the Italian we had in Italy. We've had the best steaks and seafood of our lives. Even the po'boys are created with such care and pride we are certain they taste better than anywhere else. Willie Mae's has the best fried chicken on the planet and you haven't experienced refreshing until you've eaten a real New Orleans Snoball on a hot summer day. Over the next few weeks we have already mapped out a few more places that we are excited about: Doris Metropolitan and Galatoire's (both steakhouses in the French Quarter), Mona Lisa (a small Italian hot spot that supposedly has bread alone worth dying for) and Gene's Po'boys are a few worth mentioning. We love going to Dat Dog, Company Burger, Café Du Monde, Theo's, and Katie's...however we are still on a mission to try as many places as possible! Recently we went to a place called Oak Oven. They grow their own veggies, make pasta from scratch, and even serve handmade sorbet and gelato with fruit straight from their garden. We had fish, fettuccine, fried eggplant, and blueberry sorbet. On another recent occasion, we went to Drago's, famous for their seafood. It was one of our best meals yet! Matt had chargrilled oysters and Andouille-crusted redfish. I had seafood bisque and lobster. Delicious!

New Orleans Botanical Gardens

Not only does City Park have a Sculpture Garden, there is also a Botanical Gardens Exhibit that is just beautiful. We spent Saturday wandering through the gardens and looking at the flowers. Here are some photos we took...

Meet Max

Yep, we got a dog! His name is Max. He's a German Shepard- about 1 year old. We were able to adopt him from an awesome local rescue program that trains dogs. He is already obedience, house, and crate trained. He'll stay in the house with us and travel with us too. We have had the best first day together!

A New Orleans Saturday: Po'Boys & SnoBalls

Po'Boys really are something to get excited about. Today we tried out a new place- Guy's Po'Boys on Magazine Street. Matt had pastrami and swiss and I resorted to my usual, fried shrimp. They were delicious. Later in the day we couldn't resist a good ol Plum Street snoball... This time I chose Lemon Meringue Pie Cream and Matt mixed Blackberry Cream with Pina Colada Cream. Nothing like a snoball on a hot day!

Happy Hour at Fulton Alley

Can you believe that in almost 6 years, Matt and I have never been bowling together? If we have, we can't remember it!! Fulton Alley is behind Harrah's Casino on, well, Fulton Alley. It is quite fancy for a bowling alley with specialty cocktails and upscale décor. We went during happy hour and got some pretty cool specials like half an hour of bowling and shoes for free! We decided to add another restaurant to the list by trying out pork belly sliders from the onsite restaurant. Matt won both games, by a landslide.

Swamp Time...

Walks in the swamp are always pretty cool... alligators, frogs, monster crickets that can't jump, snakes, and spiders. Okay, maybe cool and a little scary! The wetlands are so beautiful in their own way and are actually pretty peaceful. It's almost the time of year when giant flies take over the swamp trails so we're enjoying it while we can!

 

Irish House

Monday night is such a great night to go out because even though there's plenty of shows and live music, the crowds are few and far between. This week we grabbed dinner at The Irish House on St. Charles Avenue. We practically had a private harp ensemble performance because there were only 3 or 4 other diners in the place. We both started with some Irish Soup, potato and leek for me, carrot and ginger for Matt. Then Matt ordered a burger and I had classic fish and chips. It was a pretty cool place and the harps were beautiful.