New Orleans

Veteran’s Day/Armistice Day

Uncle Pete's letters to his brother Val on the German surrender of 11-11-1918.

Today’s paper came out with all the conditions of the armistice – unconditional surrender I should call it. Why, the terms the beaten Huns accepted do not even leave them with a tooth brush they can call their own. My great-uncle Pete was a pilot during World War I. Fortunately, he had not completed...

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On Creole Cuisine, or, What It Means To Be New Orleans, with Richard Collin

The New Orleans Underground Gourmet by Richard Collin, 1973.

The book is a battered paperback, the “New, Revised and Up-to-Date Edition” of The New Orleans Underground Gourmet (subtitled: “Where to find great meals in the city and environs for less than $3.75 and as little as 50c.”) published in 1973 and written by Richard Collin. Collin, who died in 2010, and his wife...

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Creole Turtle Soup.

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Every time I go to Galatoire’s, I find it hard to resist their Turtle Soup. My last bowl of it got me thinking about making it at home. So, I decided to take it on. Historically, turtle soup gained popularity with the European explorations of the West Indies, where turtles became an important food...

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The Local Molecular Supplier

Making Bloody Marys the molecular way with Purity Vodka.

While browsing Sunday’s Cocktail Bazaar at the Monteleone, Ann Tuennerman pointed out the table where the folks from the John E. Koerner Co. were displaying their goods. Koerner has been around over 100 years, with the third and fourth generations of the Koerner family now operating the business that was started in 1906. Ann...

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Pontchartrain Pete: the Embittering Ends

Bitter Truth's Creole Bitters.

Last word on bitters. I promise. I had talked in my previous posts on Tales of the Cocktail 2011 about Bitter Truth’s Creole Bitters, that they were touted as a modern (or retro-engineered, I’m not sure which) version of Peychaud’s Bitters, the long-standing New Orleans product without which the Sazerac cocktail cannot be made....

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Still Bitter—Tales of the Cocktail 2011

Samples lined up for "The Emporer's New Bitters" seminar at Tales of the Cocktail 2011.

Bitters were the big buzz at Tales of the Cocktail 2008, the first one I attended. I was researching an article on absinthe (pdf); its reappearance and place in New Orleans drinking history. Bitters were back this year, although they probably never went away. “The Emperor’s New Bitters” was the Thursday afternoon seminar I...

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La Galerie d’Absinthe Opens in SoFAB

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I’ve written a couple of posts through the years about absinthe, that old French spirit that remains shrouded in mystery and misinformation despite it being on the open market in the U.S. since 2007, after being legally unavailable here since 1916. (For a pretty thorough telling of how absinthe came to be banned and...

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Marching On

Le Krewe D'Etat's new blinky skull ring.

As post-Carnival depression sets in I like to go over all the pictures (blurry from cell phone) from the season and try to recapture some of the spirit. On Friday, as always, Hermes and Le Krewe D’etat rolled Uptown. The weather was sketchy but the showers held off most of the evening. We caught...

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Carnival Reflections, Or, Mardi Gras In New Orleans Is The Last Bastion Of Civilization On Earth And Not Just A Bunch Of Chicks Flashing Their Breasts For Beads (Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That)

The New Orleans Carnival is descended from ancient religious rites of the Greek and Latin World. Ovid described the Greek shepherds of Arcadia who, five thousand years ago, celebrated a spring festival in hopes of better pastures and the remission of sins. —Henri Schindler, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 1997. I was reading the...

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Gone Crabbing

This past weekend (27 degrees at dawn) I was invited to ride along with some commercial crabbers. Freezing hijinks ensued.

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More Tut

More Tut

There’s some more Tut stuff I ran across after my previously posted article on E. John Bullard and NOMA’s coup of an exhibit back in 1977 of The Treasures of Tutankhamun. Just a couple of photos: my parent’s still have the exhibition catalog, which I snapped a pic of at Thanksgiving; and, this photo...

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Furnishing Louisiana

Furnishing Louisiana

I was lucky enough to be invited to preview Furnishing Louisiana: Creole and Acadian Furniture, 1735-1835, the latest book from the Historic New Orleans Collection. It’s been in the works for over 30 years now, as furniture collectors (and scholars) Jack Holden and Pat Bacot, along with photographer Jim Zeitz, began documenting just about...

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Louis Prima: A Legend’s Place

Louis Prima: A Legend’s Place

Louis Prima rose up out of New Orleans and tore through the entertainment world for nearly fifty years. Saturday, Dec. 4, saw Prima getting the attention he’s deserved from the city that he tirelessly promoted as he performed all over the world. New Orleans Musical Legends Park is a little nook of sorts at...

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The Man Who Brought King Tut To NOLA

The Man Who Brought King Tut To NOLA

I remember in 1977 when The Treasures of Tutankhamun came to NOMA. It was a big expedition; it may not have been my first visit to NOMA, but it certainly was the first one that stuck. One evening Dad piled us into the old 1968 Ford Country Squire station wagon—with the big V8 engine...

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Rainbow Roundup

Rainbow Roundup

What had to be one of the most well-documented NOLA weather phenomena since the great snowfall of December 11, 2008, occurred yesterday as a double rainbow stretched over New Orleans during rush hour. I would have not seen it had not a disaster brought me across the lake earlier in the afternoon. Without going...

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My Top Five NOLA reads.

So NOLAnotes issued a NOLA book challenge. Here are my favorites, an incomplete list limited to my top 5 non-fiction books, in no particular order. Old New Orleans by Stanley Clisby Arthur. A walking tour of the French Quarter written by the man who also wrote Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Make...

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All Saints 2009

All Saints 2009

I try to go to the cemetery (St. Louis No. 1) every year on All Saints day. Save Our Cemeteries is there every year, too, with a list and the map from the Dead Space project to help families locate tombs. They’ve been doing a good job over the years working with various groups...

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Absinthe, Absinthe & More Absinthe

Absinthe, Absinthe & More Absinthe

Updated 07/23/2009. Tales of the Cocktail 2009 is now over. From the opening ceremony Wednesday, July 8 (celebrating the 75th anniversary of NOLA’s own Herbsaint), to the Wormwood Society’s grand soirée closing things out on Sunday night, it was a whirlwind of boozing, networking and learning. Tales of the Cocktail’s official cocktail, the Creole...

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The Mystery of the Gin Fizz Solved at Tales of the Cocktail

Updated, see below. So a while back, while researching the Roosevelt Hotel’s opening, I couldn’t help noticing all the references to the Ramos Gin Fizz, along with the Sazerac (at the Sazerac Bar) it’s the hotel’s signature drink. The Ramos Gin Fizz was the favorite drink of Governor Huey Long, famous rogue politician who,...

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Bravo’s Top Chefs Visit the Hotel Monteleone

Bravo’s Top Chefs Visit the Hotel Monteleone

The Hotel Montleone, one of New Orleans’ historic hotels, and home to Tales of the Cocktail, is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Carousel Bar. The Royal Street landmark is famous for its literary connections. Literary greats have haunted its halls for decades. Tennessee Williams was a frequent guest, Truman Capote often quipped that...

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