Plantation Tours

You can't possibly leave New Orleans without visiting a plantation. I know many do not want to be reminded of its history but history is still history and it's really interesting if you listen to the story. There are 4 main plantations open to the public and we chose Laura's Plantation because it won many tourism awards and well known for its well documented rich history. The tour wasn't too long, about 1.5 hours and the tour guide gave us a very detailed history of the beginning and the ending of Laura's Plantation. It's very fascinating.

The tour started from the front of the house, as we followed the tour guide through each rooms, he shared with us the stories of each generation. We saw the basement/wine cellar, the slave quarters, vegetable farms, learned how the house was built, who built it, who worked on the farm, how it started, who sold it, who was murdered, who schemed against who and so on. The weather was so beautiful which made the trip even more pleasant. If only all history classes were this interesting! It is definitely worth coming for a visit! :)

We didn't visit Oak Valley but we stopped by just to take photos of its beautiful old 300 years old oak trees. :)

New Orleans - Part III

The day was forecasted to rain. We lucked out, it didn't start to pour until after noon, after we've done walking around in the French Quarter. We started the day at 8am, the morning was freezing with the breeze from the river and the whole place was really foggy. I have never realized it can be this foggy in New Orleans but it was a very good weather to be walking around, except that we can't take the river boat cruise.

French Market is a fun place to visit. They have art works, nick-knacks, souvenirs, herbs and spices, jewelry, and all kinds of haberdashery. The souvenirs are only half of what you have to pay in the stores.

After the rain we went to the Garden District, I wanted to see the old houses and mansions with beautiful gardens. As you can see the first one on the left is 100 years old, the second one below is about 150 years old and the last one at the corner is actually almost 300 years old. So I don't know why the older ones didn't deserve as much attention as the 100 years old? As for the one at the right hand corner, I have no idea how old it is but I figure it must be really old and still in its original architecture. I also passed by the old Lafayette cemetery, but it was too creepy to be taking any photos of it. 

New Orleans - Part II

What must you try in New Orleans? Apart from enjoying the music and entertainment aspects of it? Creole food of course!

 

Considering its history in New Orleans for its famous cafe au lait and beignet, Cafe du Monde became the MUST place to go if you happen to be in New Orleans. We were lucky, we went around 9am and there was no line, it was packed, but plenty of spots to sit down for you to slowly savor your coffee and beignet. By the time we were done, there was a long line outside the coffee stand despite the sprinkle. Cafe au lait was really good, it was really smooth, and the beignet, unfortunately you do need that amount of powdered sweetness if not it just won't hit the spot *guilty pleasure* .

Coop's Place is a small unpretentious pub/eatery on Decatur street, only 3 ladies operating the front of the place no matter how busy the place may be, while the men take care of the kitchen. It's really fun to visit the Coop's because the place serves really good food and is full of character. The menu is handwritten on the blackboard and according to the owner, either you hate it or you love their food. They even have quirky signs posted all over the place such as 'Be nice or you will not be served' or 'The Bartender is always right', etc.

I've always loved gumbo so we ordered the seafood gumbo, shrimp and oyster po'boy. My oh my, the  shrimp and oyster po'boy is awesome! They're very good at frying their seafood, sweet, fresh and not oily at all. I'm not a big fan of raw oysters but deep fried oysters are always good in po'boys! As for the gumbo, I like it but I'd prefer chicken and sausage more instead of the seafood gumbo and gumbo never tastes the same because every place have their own style of cooking it. So it's fun to try gumbo at different places!

When the rain got a little too heavy to be walking around, we took a break at Creole Creamery before heading towards the Garden District. Eat ice-cream and be happy. Underneath the writings was a wall full of  happy faces smudged with ice-creams. It was quite a cold day to be having ice-cream but after walking for almost 5 hours, it was a very welcomed break. 

We were greedy and ordered the sampler with 6 small scoops. We had the lavender honey, gold crunch, chocolate amaretto cheese cake, raspberry vanilla, cafe au lait and double chocolate.

There are plenty of good places to eat in New Orleans, since we were there for  Christmas, most good eateries were closed for the holidays and we were only able to sample a few of  the highly recommended places. 

New Orleans - Part I

I was lucky enough to have spent my 2011 Christmas in New Orleans's French Quarter. I had expected the whole place to be completely quiet because of the holidays but it wasn't. The whole French Quarter was decorated with bright Christmas lights and it was really pretty.Bourbon Street of course was filled with merry tourists such as I.