New Orleans Day 1: Pee and Prawleens

New Orleans. I wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand, people kept telling me how smelly it was, yet on the other hand, I was dying to visit the south and try authentic beignets, gumbo, po boy sandwiches and alligator. And while I will say, that yes it was smelly, I ended up having a great time.

My boyfriend and I made the trip down there a few weeks ago. We arrived in the city around 3 o’clock and the first thing on our to-eat list was po boys. We were starving after being on a plane all morning so we decided on going to the first place we saw that had them instead of looking for the best place. We did see that Killer Poboys was right around the corner so we stopped there after reading good things on yelp. However, when we got there and realized they didn’t have the traditional fried po boys, we decided to go elsewhere and ended up at Deanie’s Seafood. We tried the shrimp and oyster po boys. The oyster one was definitely better.

After we finished eating, we went back to get settled in our room at Hyatt French Quarter; which I would highly recommend by the way. I’m a huge fan of Hyatt and of any hotel that doesn’t use those old gross looking comforters. The hotel was a little too close to Bourbon Street but once inside, it didn’t really matter. 

Once settled, we decided to do a little exploring and take a walk to The French Market. On the way, I saw a guy peeing on the sidewalk next to his drunk friend passed out on the ground. Gross!!! Several blocks later, my flip flop broke and I accidentally stepped on the sidewalk. I realllly hope that no one peed there. Anyways, I was pretty much stuck so Drew went off in search of new flip flops for me. After stopping in H&M and Urban Outfitters, he couldn’t find any so I hobbled my way over to the nearest gift shop and ended up buying some hideous ones there. I will say that they were very comfortable though. 

By the time we got to Jackson Square, the sun was setting and the St. Louis Cathedral and Mississippi river were beautiful. We walked by Café du Monde, went into a couple of gift shops and ended up buying some pralines (praw-leens) from Magnolia Praline Co. after trying samples from a few different places. I felt ridiculous because I had no idea what a praline was up until that point. I knew they were popular in New Orleans but I kind of thought they were those cookie straws. I’m definitely going to have to try making them at some point soon. I bought a postcard with a recipe for them at a gift shop. I haven’t made them yet so I don’t know how they’ll turn out but here’s the recipe: 

After returning from Jackson Square, we weren’t really hungry yet but since we wanted to try as much food as possible, we decided on getting Gulf Nachos and drinks at Batch Bar in our hotel. I saw the nachos on the menu while planning our trip and was dying to try them. The menu describes them as having layered blackened shrimp, grilled corn, crawfish abita queso, roasted red peppers, chipotle sour cream and pico de gallo. They weren’t as good as I was hoping because they were a little fishy tasting but I’ll admit, I’ve been craving them for the past couple of days. 

After our appetizer and drinks, we headed back up to our room a little bit weary about what the next day would bring but also excited to explore a new place.