After spending a week in New Orleans I can safely say it is one of the best cities in the world.  It is so awesome that I would gladly live there despite the oven-like heat and suffocating humidity; it was as if I could taste the thick, muggy air.

While the climate was devastating the city itself was extraordinary.  We were lucky enough to know someone living in city—lucky also because she knows every nook and cranny there and just happens to own a great bar—so we got to cut through the touristy nonsense and get a real feel for the city.

I could go on and on about the Crescent City but to do so would be futile; you really need to experience it for yourself.  Note that I’m not talking about heading there during Mardi Gras and getting plastered, but to really take some time and experience all it has to offer.

Every single day I heard great tunes, drank solid beers (Abita and NOLA, neither exceptional but great thirst quenchers in the ninety-plus degree heat) and ate amazing, amazing food.  

N’awlin’s food is unlike any other on earth.  I’ve eaten “Cajun” or “Creole” food but nothing came close to the flavors I experienced there.  Gumbos, rice, bread pudding, crawfish, alligator; everything was delicious.

One thing about NO that I really love is how the best food is found in the most unlikely places.  The best Po’ Boy I ate was at a bar called Parasol, a dumpy, decrepit building in the Irish Channel with a bar up front and small kitchen in the back.  

Our friend let us in on this secret (although Gourmet Magazine and numerous other periodicals have written about it) and I never would have expected the food coming from this place to be so tasty.  The fried oyster and shrimp Po’ Boy was a dream but the less common Roast Beef variety tasted as if it dropped off of the dinner table of heaven.  Wow.

Although I’m pretty upset to be leaving, we are making our way north to Lafayette.  There isn’t much to do there, but from what I hear it is home to the best boudin and cracklin on earth.