French Quarter Fest 2009

A breezy day. Lots of music and food. Day 1 of French Quarter Fest was a good fest day. I didn’t plan on doing much more than hitting my favorite food booths and keeping in touch on the net to meet up with people. I did meet one; I taunted the rest of the world, who couldn’t actually swing getting off of work, with tales of remarkable foods and sights.

Stacey was there, selling merchandise for a band called the Tin Men. Not being as plugged into the local music scene as she, I asked, “So what kind of music do they play? Funk?” “Well,” she says, “It’s a guitar, a washboard and a Sousaphone player, um…” She turned to a friend and asked him how he would describe their music. “Tin Men are the world’s foremost guitar, washboard and Sousaphone trio in the world.” Which, of course, didn’t answer the question but made me curious enough to check them out.

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They were absolutely correct.

My favorite FFQ food through the years has been Tujaque’s brisket. It’s boiled tender and served with a horseradish-based Creole sauce.

I had started with some Pork Cheek Confit served with dirty rice from Emeril’s Delmonico, who shared a booth with Emeril’s NOLA. NOLA served ribs with slaw; I think it was both their first year participating in the festival.

To run down what followed: a Mrs. Wheat’s meat pie, Antoine’s shrimp regue (cross between a ravigote and a remoulade, they said; it was fantastic) and some ribs from Bywater BBQ.

The rain held off for the day, I hope it will for the next two days, too. I ran into J. Brown with the New Orleans Art Association; the weather had her kind of nervous about hanging art in Pirate’s Alley for their show this weekend.

On the way back to the car I ran into an impromptu block party at Antoine’s. That merits a separate post.