New Orleans Is Unique, Y’All
Unique is an adjective regularly used to describe New Orleans, with guide books and websites consistently referring to the city as “unique in the whole of the USA”, a description based largely on the amalgam of cultures which have clashed, fused and evolved into the persona which The Big Easy enjoys today. To us, it feels like this fusion and integration has created a single style: a Nawliner is one particular type of person, regardless of historical cultural background. No barriers, no segregation, joyous inclusivity. You are more from this city than from any one particular background.
A big guy is playing Barry White and Bill Withers on his keyboard on Decatur just off Jackson Square, his gravelly tones perfectly re-creating Lovely Day as we gaze across the sunlit river contemplating the fact that we have seen both the Amazon and the Mississippi in the space of just a few days. Two mighty rivers, two of the World’s most famous, in one week. We are to learn later that 41% of all of the water in the USA drains into the Mississippi – a mind boggling piece of trivia that’s difficult to get your head around.
Unique is definitely a word one could use to describe New Orleans cuisine, too. Seafood is utterly dominant, with gumbo, redfish, crawfish, catfish and shrimps on every menu in a variety of forms. Whole crawfish, crawfish tails, boiled crawfish. Redfish in crawfish sauce. Crabmeat balls, oysters in half shell, crawfish étouffée, shrimp bisque, grilled oysters, fish soup. And then, just when we think meat is going out of fashion, a fabulous jambalaya with chicken, rabbit, pork, shrimps and, of course, crawfish, all in the mix together.
Do you know how to eat a crawfish? Snap off the tail, pull out the meat with your teeth. Then with the meat still in your mouth, suck the juices from the head and let the two flavours combine. Delicious. But with a modicum of imagination you can probably now picture some of the obscenely suggestive T-shirt slogans in town. Anything goes here. Vegans would most likely starve to death in NOLA. Oh, and boy do these guys LOVE deep fried – it takes up at least half of every menu. “Y’know, if it’s fried, it’s good” says a guy on a boat, with not a hint of irony.
There’s just so much to do here, but some things are must-do’s that you just can’t miss. Take a boat ride on the bayou, get on a streetcar, journey up the Mississippi on a paddle boat, walk the suburbs and go mansion peeping, drink the local beers (“can I get another Abita Amber?”….”you got it”) as well as the obvious joys of jazz, blues and food.
Wandering around NOLA’s different quarters is fascinating in its own right – the French Quarter away from Bourbon and Frenchmen is filled with art galleries, jazz funeral shops and outlets with a voodoo theme, all mixed in with those typically Southern low rise narrow wooden homes nestled tightly side by side through the neighbourhood streets.
But take a streetcar ride down St Charles and the homes become grander, the streets become wider, the amazing, ancient gnarled trees become more and more majestic. Take a walk right down Magazine beyond more of those classically Southern states timber houses, to reach hip juice bars and coffee shops and maybe a classic Jewish cafe where bagels and muffulettas top the order list.
Streets of New Orleans
The four of us take the obligatory swamp tour and it’s so much better than we could have imagined. Our guide and boatman Wade explains that “swamp” means flooded forest and “bayou” means very slow moving water, as well as conveying a whole heap of information surrounding the ecology and history of the Louisiana wetlands, the flora and fauna, the changing seasons, and, of course, the long term effects of Katrina.
Guys like Wade, more than twenty years into the job, know where those alligators are hiding: then again, the gators know who brings the fish balls, a combination which means we get to see at least a dozen of the creatures close up. There’s also wild pigs, ospreys and eagles and what Wade says is the smallest heron in the Americas – as well as a good look at a couple of purple dallinule, which he says he only sees maybe a couple of times a year.
Sunday arrives, the last day on which we enjoy Lindsay and Stacey’s company. Our earlier visit to Congo Square taught us that Sunday was the day of the week when slaves from the plantation, if the owner was sufficiently benevolent, were granted a few hours of relief from hardship, a precious few hours in which to indulge in reminiscences for their homeland and to dance, sing and play. Sundays where rare joys were abundant and whose child was jazz music.
Lindsay discovers that there is a modern day equivalent in the neighbourhood of Tremé, where the Afro-American/Creole community gather in numbers to take a jazz procession through the streets every Sunday, so commemorating that piece of heritage. Joining the procession is utterly joyous, listening to the ebullient music and just observing the expressions on the faces of the genuine participants is a piece of real magic. These Second Line processions, as they are known, are from a different culture, a different world, an overt expression of freedom from the kind of oppression we and our forebears are lucky enough to have never known. The whole community is here from children to grandmothers and it’s a privilege to be part of it for a couple of hours.
And so to our last day in this wonderfully diverse yet bonded city, and the last of those “must-do’s”: a trip on a paddle boat on the Mississippi. We would love to say “paddle steamer” but, even though the Natchez has been built to original designs and boasts engines from 100-year old steamers and calls itself the “only original Mississippi boat still in operation”, it is no longer driven by steam. Sure, the original boilers still drive the claxon and the organ (both incredibly loud), but these days the aesthetically pleasing red paddle is driven by more modern means.
Nevertheless, that paddle is still mesmerising, the boat itself is beautifully evocative of childhood images of the Mississippi, and the ride up and down the mighty river is a splendid couple of hours.
So, how do you spend your last night in a city like New Orleans? Go back to Bourbon Street, dive one last time into that fervent, relentless atmosphere? Return again to the Mahogany Club where the jazz is so good and the mood so serene? Eat once more at Mulates, or Creole House, or Mambo?
No, we creep off down Decatur, shun the brighter lights, and head for those dingy, darkened bars where drinkers sit on stools, laughter echoes from the walls and every time we pass we say, we must go there. First to Molly’s, where the craft beer is outstanding and the barman hails, incongruously, from Wolverhampton, and second to Coop’s, where the exchanges are ribald, the language is colourful, and the food is as exquisite as it is rustic.
“Only place in town that serves it how Mama does at home”, she says as she places the steaming bowls before us. Well Mama’s cooking is fantastic, in that case. It’s half the price of downtown and probably twice as authentic. Don’t ignore the dingy bars of Decatur, embrace them and indulge!
New Orleans is done and it’s been whatever the word is for a couple of notches up from a blast. We’re off on a road trip now to…..who knows where next.
It’s farewell to New Orleans, to Nawlins, to the Big Easy, to the “crescent city”. What an amazing, diverse, joyous city, a city with an incredible vibe and a massively colourful history.
Unique, in fact.
29 Comments
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
I remember well my culinary adventures in New Orleans (I was visiting a friend who had lived there for many years and knew all the really great spots to eat). I could hear my arteries hardening but I enjoyed every bite.
Phil & Michaela
That just about sums it up!!😂
restlessjo
I felt like I lived it with you, but that’s wishful thinking. I enjoyed the ride. Some place!
Phil & Michaela
Sure is!
Travels Through My Lens
Enjoy your road trip! Even with all our problems, the US has a lot to offer.
Phil & Michaela
Oh it certainly does
Suzanne@PictureRetirement
You guys could have written the guidebook. Enjoy your road trip. If it leads you to Florida, let me know.
Phil & Michaela
No Florida this time, Suzanne – but thank you!
Miriam
Unique indeed! What a wonderfully vibrant, exciting and colourful fusion of a place. Loved reading your post, in fact I felt as though I was travelling it with you. Enjoy wherever the road leads you next … I’m sure it’ll be somewhere amazing!
Phil & Michaela
Well, I think everyone would leave New Orleans just a little bit breathless!
Helen Devries
You had a whale of a time…just curious, what are those numbers around the bar at Coop’s?
Phil & Michaela
Well, nothing massively exciting, Helen, just the number you get given when you order food.
Helen Devries
You can tell I don’t get out much….
Phil & Michaela
😂
Toonsarah
As so often when I read your blog, I half-felt I was there with you! So I’ve had a blast in New Orleans too 😀 I loved the swamp tour, the old houses, the procession and of course those dingy bars!
Phil & Michaela
It’s all a bit of a whirlwind, Sarah. At our age we needed a lie down afterwards!
MrsWayfarer
I’ve never been, and I enjoyed New Orleans through your eyes.
Phil & Michaela
Thank you – definitely worth a visit!
Alison
Looks absolutely fabulous and just as I imagined. What a wonderful place to spend a few days and soak up all that history. Not sure about the waistline though. Keep on trucking!
Phil & Michaela
To avoid deep fried, you have to ignore about half of the menu. There’s still plenty of good stuff though. And an absolutely absorbing city, too.
WanderingCanadians
Interesting piece of trivia indeed. Not sure my stomach could handle all the deep fried food!
Phil & Michaela
Yeah we had to avoid most of it, too – not our taste. But there’s plenty of other good stuff too.
Christie
Interesting to see the Dirty Rotten Vipers “The Ugly Vipers” are still at the same intersection. The jazz flow through their veins lol
grandmisadventures
Definitely unique in the very best of ways! I love your pictures of the buildings and the river boats. I’m looking forward to being down there in a few weeks to stuff my face with that food! 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Enjoy!
Heyjude
Sounds like a very lively city and one I would have enjoyed 20 years ago, when I had a bit more stamina – though you didn’t mention the weather and I have always imagined it to be very humid there which I hate. Crawfish however I’m sure I would love. Thanks for the visit to NOLA!
Phil & Michaela
It was a little humid but really not bad. Then again, we went straight there from the Amazon so it was bound to feel a notch downwards for us I guess.
Annie Berger
Very impressed with the research you must have done prior to your trip to know where to go and what to do while in the NOLA area – this and your previous post sound like they may as well have been written by a local with many decades of living there under their belt! Like how you veered off the touristy hotspots and into places less famous but likely better food at cheaper prices.
Phil & Michaela
Actually it was quite a difficult job – there’s just so much to do, and such a variety, that it was tricky to make decisions on what to see and do. So glad we found the Second Line procession though, that was just joyful.