Sunday, May 1, 2011

A Week in The Big Easy, Part Two

I honestly thought this was going to be a two-parter at most, but it appears I can blather on at length; expect one more after this.  Anyway, getting to it...

Day 3:
Being Easter Sunday, we knew we weren't going to be in for a very busy day, but there was still quite a bit open.  We started off the day (after another amazing breakfast) walking through the French Market, which is essentially a flea market geared at the tourists.  That's not to say it wasn't neat to walk through; I ended up picking up a souvenir or two later in the week.  At the end of the French Market, we stopped for a snack of popcorn crawfish at the Market Cafe.

After walking about the French Quarter a bit more to see what was or wasn't open, we stopped at the Royal House Restaurant. It was here I had my first taste of alligator with an alligator po' boy. You often hear that alligator tastes like chicken, but I would argue it has a taste of its own.  After a bit more walking around and a brief break back at our room, we decided to take a little break from the traditional Louisiana cuisine and go for a bit of Thai food at Sukho Thai in the Marigny neighbourhood. As I said, in New Orleans, it's very hard to go wrong when picking a place to eat, and Sukho Thai was no exception.

After dinner, it was back to Frenchmen Street.  This was our first night at the Spotted Cat, which quickly became our favourite hangout for the trip.  Drawn in from the street by the sound of some killer dixieland jazz, we spent the evening enjoying Ben Polcer & Friends.  I'm not quite sure what else to say about them other than they were fantastic to listen to.  Piano, banjo, and quartet of horns proved that neither drums nor bass were critical for churning out an incredible rhythm.

One thing that's very different about the way they do things in New Orleans is the way the live music is funded. Very few places charged any sort of cover despite having several acts a day, some starting as early as 2:00 pm (there was, however, usually a one drink minimum per set). The bands also make heavy use of a tip bucket, with one band member often taking a break while the rest of the band plays, working the room with the bucket. You got the sense from that while they likely did get a bit of pay from the club, they relied heavily on the tip bucket for their pay.  I'm not sure if it's an approach that would work in a place like Toronto (though as I don't take in a lot of shows, for all I know you may see it up here), it looked like a fairly successful way to do things in New Orleans. Of course, that's the view from the outside; when I'm there again (and I will be) I may have to get the scoop from the musicians themselves.


Day 4:
The day before, we booked an afternoon tour of the Honey Island swamp with the Cajun Encounters tour company. While the airboats with the giant fans may look exciting, we were told that speeding around on them doesn't give you much of an opportunity to enjoy the sights of the swamp itself, and the wildlife hate them. So we stuck with the riverboat.

It's not hard to understand why the Louisiana swamps and bayous have a great influence on music; in contrast to stereotypes that swamps are dirty and dark, they are beautiful.  As we wound through the cypress forests, Spanish moss hanging from the branches, our guide Ted Gauthier shared stories of the plant life and wildlife in this unique ecosystem, the conservation efforts to preserve them, and the effect of Katrina on those who live their lives in this place.  He also pointed out a honey-producing Tupelo tree, the source of inspiration for a Van Morisson song. Though everyone comes for the alligators, they really are a very small part of the majesty and history of the swamp.

After getting back from the tour, we had a late lunch at River's Edge Restaurant of seafood omelette filled with crawfish. If it seems like we were going heavy on the crawfish, you can't get them up here, so best to get them while we could.  We toured the city on foot a bit more before having a late dinner at Deanie's Seafood Restaurant.  Despite the apparent popularity of the place, we weren't actually as impressed with this place as we were with most of the other restaurants.  It wasn't terrible, and it could have simply been a fluke, but it didn't live up to the expectations we had.

Back to Frenchmen Street again, and back to the Spotted Cat. Tonight we caught the set of Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen Street All-Stars. Initially playing some Davis-Mingus-Coltrane era free jazz when we arrived, they quickly branched out into blues and swing as the night went on. At one point, a nearby swing dance troupe decided to grace the club with their presence, putting on a lively show for the rest of the night as the band played on.

Seeing the swing dancers reminded me of an experience I had back in high school. The band I was a part of was playing a battle-of-the-bands hosted at the high school. As a band focused on jazz and blues, we were very much the black sheep of the show in amongst the punk, grunge, and metal bands. Swing had gained a bit of popularity at the time with "Jump, Jive and Wail" and bands like the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, but I was still feeling unsure of the reception we would get.  Halfway through our first tune - a lively swing number - I looked down into the audience. Not only did it seem like people were taking in interest in us, a couple were feverishly swing dancing together directly in front of the stage. Seeing those two dancing so happily along to our music was one of the greatest feelings I've ever had making music.


Day 5:
Today started off with a cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. No, I was not dragged there kicking and screaming. New Orleans is considered to be the one of the best cities in the world in terms of cuisine. There's a reason that songs have been written specifically about Louisiana dishes (it's actually a Hank Williams Jr. tune, but I like Healey's version even more). So I was actually looking forward to the prospect of learning Creole and Cajun cuisine. The instructor, Anne Leonhard, was excellent; beyond the cooking itself, the entertaining 10-15 minute history of more than 200 years of New Orleans culture and it's impact of the development of Creole/Cajun cuisine was fascinating. By the end of the class we had been shown the preparation of (and ate) jambalaya, gumbo, bread pudding, and pralines.

After an afternoon trip to the Audobon Zoo (which is nowhere near the size of the Metro Toronto Zoo, but was fun nonetheless), we took in the Red Fish Grill for dinner. Not only had our friends eaten there earlier in the week and loved it, but our cooking instructor also highly recommended it. Louisiana seafood is excellent, and this restaurant did wonders with it.  For anyone going there, Red Fish Grill is a must.

When we arrived at Frenchmen Street, the Spotted Cat was packed, and most of the other jazz clubs seemed to be between sets. Cafe Negril still had space, and John Lisi and Delta Funk with Jason Ricci were putting on a great show.  While an interesting funky groove was being laid down on a electrified resonator guitar when we arrived, we were also treated to some Chicago-style blues as the set went on.

If it seems like I'm glossing over the musical acts in these posts, it's not intentional; it's just difficult to describe in words what they were like.  All of them were great, and I'd recommend checking them out to anyone.

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