New Orleans

Last month, I was able to travel to New Orleans for the day on a last minute trip with my good friend, Jessica! We flew in before noon and had the chance to just spend the day exploring the French Quarter and eating traditional cajun dishes and some new dessert also! The first thing we did when we got to the French Quarter was walk around to see some of the Mardi Gras decorations. Jessica and I have both traveled here before, but never during the Mardi Gras time. New Orleans during Mardi Gras is probably on a ton of people's bucket list, but for me I prefer New Orleans on a mild, sunny day--which was exactly what we got when we went.

After walking around the quarter taking it all in, we went to Acme Oyster House so Jessica could have the chargrilled oysters she had been craving/raving about since her last trip. I'm personally not a big oyster fan, (raw/grilled or fried-- I just never really acquired the taste for it), but because she talked about these oysters on several different occasions I decided to give it another try. They weren't amazing, but also not terrible. Would I order a dozen for myself? No. If they were on the table as a shared appetizer then maybe I'd have one. That's the vibe they were giving me. I ordered some boom boom shrimp to start us off and while they weren't bad they also weren't amazing. For my entree, I had a shrimp po-boy with a small cup of gumbo. The po-boy was really lackluster for me and I definitely would not order that again. The gumbo was probably the best thing I had at Acme, but again it wasn't amazing. Everything about Acme was kind of lackluster for me. I had heard so many good reviews about this being the go to spot, but I honestly did not care for much of what I had. Maybe I had high expectations?

After we finished our late lunch at Acme, we went over to Cafe Beignet. I know, I know "but what about cafe du monde???" I had their beignets the last time I came and all my friends said the ones from Cafe Beignet were better so I stopped by here instead. Basically, beignets are fried dough covered in a heap of powdered sugar. Before ever tasting one, I thought they would be like funnel cakes, but they're different. After googling a little bit, most sites would describe a beignet as most similar to a donut, but I disagree. Both the funnel cake and donut tastes way better in my opinion. Beignets don't really have much going on and for some the simplicity is perfect, but for me I'd prefer a fancy donut of a classic funnel cake. Although the beignets were super similar to the ones from Cafe du Monde, I do have to point out that the atmosphere are Cafe Beignet is way more cozy. I like how it isn't as busy and has more of a lazy Sunday feel to it.

Before leaving, we had a chance to finish our trip in the central business district enjoying affogato from Drip Afogatto Bar. I'm so happy that Jessica's manager recommended this place to us because it was by far the best thing I ate the entire trip! I've never had affogato before, but after trying it, I've been desperately looking for affogato places here in Dallas and looking for recipes to try at home. It was the perfect dessert to wrap up our trip. My favorite part were the chicory flakes on top of the sweet ice cream and dark roast coffee. It added an unique and interesting texture to the dessert and really elevated the entire treat.

I'm really happy that I got to revisit New Orleans. I've always said that I didn't really care for it, but I was totally wrong. I think from my first visit, I didn't enjoy spending a lot of time on Bourbon and to be quite honest, we just had a group that was way too big for my comfort levels on vacation. What I love most about New Orleans would definitely have to be the architecture. I love the French influence on all of the buildings and the place really is enchanting. I would recommend coming to New Orleans for a quick weekend getaway because you can really get a lot done in a short amount of time. Everything is pretty much in walking distance and you can explore the city pretty quickly. I'm excited for the next trip and can't wait to explore new places and try new foods. Thank you for reading, Quynhthy.