Music and Food in New Orleans...

The unique local cuisine of Louisiana is much vaunted. We found it to be interesting but largely uninspiring, and we were weary of it by the end of our week in N'awlins. We confess that we did not seek out fine dining but tried to eat in popular modest establishments featuring local specialties, mostly in the French Quarter.

In doing so, we did discover the essential distinction between Cajun and Creole. Cajuns are decendents of French people who were forced out of Nova Scotia when they refused allegience to the British Crown. Louisiana, bent on growth, welcomed them. Creoles are much more vaguely defined - they are the offspring of "non-Americans" which includes (extraordinarily) American Indians as well as African-Americans, the Spanish and French. Historically, Creoles live in the French Quarter.

We deliberately sampled Po'Boys (really just bread rolls with any filling), Gumbo (a thick and hearty soup with meat or shellfish), Jambalaya (another spicy thick soup or stew) and such delicacies as crawfish, baked oysters and boudin (an unpallatable dry fish/meat cake). Fried everything is available, and it's delicious, but after several meals, we earnestly tried to avoid anything fried. Boiled, grilled, barbequed or sautee'd entrees can be found, but you have to look for them in better class establishments.

Fried shrimp, boudin balls and baked oysters with cheese. Enough of this food!

The best meal we had in New Orleans was not "local" food at all. On a friend's recommendation, we went to the upmarket Mr. B's Bistro in Royal St and enjoyed grilled steak and fish with real vegetables and delicious bread! This was our most expensive meal here, but easily the best.

We are delighted to have had the opportunity to sample Creole and Cajun tucker in its home territory, but it is not something we would come back to New Orleans for. This city is fascinating and beguiling, and is well deserving of a visit because of its architecture, history and attractions, but the local cuisine is not the reason we would come!

The music is another story. Here, in the birthplace of jazz, we enjoyed a wide range of live music at many venues. Day and night, Bourbon Street is a cacophony of sounds emanating from bar after bar - many use music to attract patrons, those that don't use other devices like "barely legal" strip clubs. We called into many places to hear the current acts, mostly for the price of a drink, sometimes you can listen and watch from the door. Buskers on most corners add to the ambience of the French Quarter. We explored beyond Bourbon Street by visiting Frenchmen St in Faubourg Marigny on the advice of Sunshine, a cupcake lady. "This is where the locals go!" Along this street, the establishments publish month long calendars of their performers in the windows, so if you know the acts, it's easy to decide where to go.

Street performers in Bourbon Street add to the noise levels of the French Quarter. We heard that local residents have started to complain.

Clare has a taste for Zydeco (piano accordian), and maybe the best (and noisiest) act we saw was at Krazy Korner in Bourbon Street. We actually hunted this act down, having read about it, and the energetic performance by Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers proved to be not what we expected but very entertaining. Deafening too! And popular - this would be the one pub act that we saw that could command a fee from the hotel. The place was crowded and jumping, and the Hellraisers were very effective at collecting tips for themselves.

Leader of the Zydeco Hellraisers puts on a hell of an act.

Other members of the Hellraisers put in stellar solo performances.

Our formal homage to traditional jazz was at Preservation Hall in St. Peters St. This is a small old, dingy dump of a performance space but it is dedicated to the preservation of old-time jazz culture. Preservation Hall has three 45 minute performances every night, and it is packed to the rafters with about 100 people for each of them. Standing room is $10 at the door, and reserved seats (about 15 of them) can be booked online (we did) for up to $40. Those in the know pay only $10 and make sure they get in first so they can sit on 10 or so floor cushions in front of the reserved seating. The act we saw was the Paulin Brothers, a well known and well travelled brass band, and they were mighty good fun. We also got to hear the background of the family - the Paulin brothers dad, who inspired their musicianship, died only a few years ago. Three out of the 6 performers were not from the family - the piano player was a young Japanese lady, Ms Watanabe.

The crowd for "standing room" starting to form outside Presevation Hall over an hour before the first peformance of the evening

Photography is banned at New Orleans' Preservation Hall, so this image is from the NY Times.