Cafe' Du Monde New Orleans

The Original Cafe Du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

Coffee first came to North America by way of New Orleans back in the mid-1700's. It was successfully cultivated in Martinique about 1720, and the French brought coffee with them as they began to settle new colonies along the Mississippi.

The taste for coffee and chicory was developed by the French during their civil war. Coffee was scarce during those times, and they found that chicory added body and flavor to the brew. The Acadians from Nova Scotia brought this taste and many other french customs (heritage) to Louisiana. Chicory is the root of the endive plant. Endive is a type of lettuce. The root of the plant is roasted and ground. It is added to the coffee to soften the bitter edge of the dark roasted coffee. It adds an almost chocolate flavor to the Cafe Au Lait served at Cafe Du Monde.
The Cafe Du Monde Coffee and Chicory is traditionally served Au Lait, mixed half and half with hot milk. However, people have a personal preference on how they like their coffee. People like their coffee strong and black, or with sugar; maybe with a little more milk, or maybe a little weaker brew. I suggest that the Coffee and Chicory be demonstrated using vacuum bottles to keep the coffee hot, and to give the customer the opportunity to experiment finding their personal preference.

Our Coffee is also available Decaffeinated. We use an Ethyl Acetate process to decaffeinate the coffee used in our blend of Coffee and Chicory. Ethyl Acetate is a natural chemical found in many fruits.Enjoy!Learn more about Cafe'Du Monde at www.cafedumonde.com

French Quarter--New Orleans!

FRENCH QUARTER HISTORY
French Quarter History consists of over 200 years of characters, chaos, and intrigue. From the Faubourg Marigny and Treme to the Mississippi River any history buff will be fulfulled here. Take a walking history tour or a Haunted New Orleans tour to find out much about the Historic French Quarter. Make sure to educate yourself on the Cabildo and the Spanish Quarter and of course, stop in St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square and see the original Louisiana Purchase. While you are here, take a moment to remember the devastation of Katrina. Take a Katrina Education Tour. And then round your trip out with some great jazz music and listen to the greats like Louis Armstrong or some of the new cats like The Marsalis family, Trombone Shorty and Kermit Ruffins to name a few.
While the French Quarter is a fascinating place to simply sit and stare, it becomes ever more so when you make the effort to learn a bit about its history, quirks and secrets. A veritable panoply of guided tours are available to address all manner of subjects specific to the French Quarter and a knowledgeable, enthusiastic tour guide can peel back the wrappings and allow you to see what’s really inside. These quick crash courses take the form of everything from polite, informative walking tours to pub-crawls, paddle wheeler sojourns, horse-drawn carriage rides and bizarre nocturnal romps in search of ghosts and vampires.

Some tour guides work independently and offer their services almost as a “friend in New Orleans” – for hire. Some of them are highly specialized and offer a microscopic look at one area of interest. Others just touch on a little bit of everything. At the other end of the spectrum is Gray Line Tours, a comprehensive one-stop shopping Mecca on the tourism front with numerous tour options available from one brochure. The company offers investigative tours of the French Quarter and Garden District as well as a sweeping look at the entire city. Specialty tours include a cocktail tour, swamp and bayou tours, plantation tours and ghosts and spirits tours.
Too much to see and do! We'll be in the French Quarter on Friday. Learn more at www.frenchquarter.com

Laura -- a Creole Plantation!

Louisiana Creole is a blending of three different ethnic influences: the west European, west African, and includes a significant input from the Native American.

Creole is the non-Anglo-Saxon culture and lifestyle that flourished in Louisiana before it became a part of the United States in 1803.The Creole functioned in an elitist structure, based on family ties. In its philosophy, economics and politics, European custom and modern thought were thrown out and, in their place, a strict, self-serving pragmatism was born out of the isolation and desperation that characterized Louisiana in her formative years. The earliest, tragic lessons of survival in Louisiana created a family-oriented world that would, for centuries, put little value in public education or public works and even in the rule of law.

Creole Louisiana was a place where class, not race, determined social status, where rural life conformed to rigid disciplines, where human bondage created wealth, where adherence to the family business and tradition was paramount, where women ran businesses and owned property, where democratic ideals and individualism were held in contempt and where, until the 20th century, people spoke French and lived this way, separate from the dominant White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant American culture.
Over the last 200 years, the meaning of Creole has changed, often dictated by many varying Anglo definitions, all based on the concept of race. These imposed meanings varied from: descendants of French and Spanish aristocrats to racially mixed or to anyone of African blood. In the Louisiana Creole mind, such distinctions are not only irrelevant, they contradict and hide the essential nature of this vanishing, alternative culture. The Creole experience in Louisiana is a close cousin to Creole cultures world-wide. The nearest examples are found in the Caribbean: Cuba, Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique. The Indian Ocean holds: Réunion, Mauritius, Seychelles and Goa. In South America, the Guianas and Brazil are recognized as Creole countries. You can learn much more at www.lauraplantation.com

Muriel's Jackson Square

We will be enjoying fine dining at Muriel's Jackson Square on Friday Evening while in New Orleans. Pictured is the Seance Lounge upstairs at Muriel's.

Ghosts, according to legend, are spirits who have not crossed over yet. Here at Muriel's, we are lucky enough to have a resident ghost, Mr. Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan. Our Seance Lounges on the second floor are named as such because it is believed that this is where Mr. Jourdan spends the majority of his time.
In 1788, there was a disastrous fire in New Orleans that burned 80% of the buildings in the French Quarter, including the original building on Muriel's property. The next year, Mr. Jourdan bought the property and built his dream home for himself and his family. He was, unfortunately, quite a heavy gambler, and one night in 1814 he wagered his beloved home in a poker game and lost. Before he had to vacate, however, Mr. Jourdan committed suicide on the second floor, in the area where our Seance Lounges are situated today. Thus, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan never had to really leave his home, and continues to reside there to this day.
We also have a slightly mischievous ghost in our Courtyard Bar...one possibility is that Mr. Jourdan gets angry and goes downstairs to throw glasses to release some angst. Another possibility is that Muriel's has a second, slightly mischievous ghost that roams the property. Three times since March of 2001, glasses have flown from behind the bar 12 feet across to the brick wall and shattered.
Muriel's also has a carriageway that dates back to the late 1700's, and some clairvoyants say that many troubled spirits reside here, for this area was said to be where servants were housed at night.
Our resident ghosts here at Muriel's are harmless, and can sometimes be very entertaining. So be on the lookout during your next visit to Muriel's...you might just experience more than our cuisine! Find out more at Muriel's website at http://www.muriels.com/

PECAN CRUSTED PUPPY DRUM

6 oz. Drum Fillet
2 oz. Pecan Crust
(equal parts ground pecans and bread crumbs)
4 oz. Pecan Relish
1 1/2 oz. Lemon Butter Sauce
Creole Seasoning
Seasoned Flour

Pecan Relish:
2 oz. Pecans
1 oz. Onions, diced
1/2 oz. Bell Pepper, diced
1/2 oz. Celery, diced
1/2 t. Garlic, chopped
1 oz. Claw Crabmeat, shells removed
1/2 t. Creole Seasoning
1 oz. Butter

Method
Place butter in sauté pan over medium heat. When melted, add onions, peppers, celery and garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes. Add crabmeat, pecans and Creole seasoning and sauté for 1 minute more, stirring frequently. Set aside. In another sauté pan, over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of oil. Lightly coat both sides of the drum in the seasoned flour, shake off the excess flour. Carefully place the fish in the sauté pan and cook for 2 minutes (until golden brown). Turn fish over and top with pecan crust. Place sauté pan in a pre-heated 375° oven and cook until fish starts to flake (about 5 minutes). Place pecan relish on plate and then add the fish over the relish. Spoon lemon butter sauce around the fish.

Lemon Butter Sauce:
1/2 c. White Wine
1/4 c. Champagne Vinegar
1 Shallot, diced fine
1 oz. Lemon Juice
Salt
White Pepper
1/4 lb. Butter (unsalted), cubed
1/8 c. Heavy Cream

Method
Place white wine, vinegar and shallot in a small pot and reduce to almost all liquid is evaporated. Add cream and reduce until thick. Lower heat to low and slowly whisk in butter one cube at a time. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Season with salt and white pepper.

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The spicy side of life!

TABASCO® brand products are made by McIlhenny Company, founded in 1868 on Avery Island, Louisiana, and still family-owned and operated on that very site.
Across the country, Louisiana is known for its spicy food and Iberia Parish is the epicenter of Cajun culinary.TABASCO brand pepper sauce is Iberia Parish's greatest contribution to the culinary world. On restaurant tables around the globe, it is the most famous, most preferred pepper sauce in the world. For over 140 years, Tabasco has been produced by the Mcllhenny family.
The pepper sauce that Edmund McIlhenny created in 1868 on Avery Island is much the same TABASCO® Sauce that is produced today, on that very same site. The basic recipe, the process by which it’s made, and the ingredients remain unchanged. And five generations of McIlhennys and employees have dedicated themselves to preserving its legacy. Learn more at www.tabasco.com