Gumbo and Etouffee

New Orleans, Louisiana

I haven't had an oyster Po-boy yet. They tend to run about $13.95 with an extra three dollars for blue cheese topping. In fact, I've never ever had a oyster Po-boy, but it's still on the list of things I want to eat before I die.

What we have had is a whole lot of shrimp and sausage gumbo and crawfish etouffee.

We wandered around the French Quarter for hours looking at restaurant menus. In most cases they were not open before 6 PM. We stopped in at Antoine's for some wine and to read the menu. That restaurant has been open and operated by the same family since 1840 when the original ancestor immigrated from Paris and taught the locals that there were better things than boiled meat. Everything on the menu was "A La Cart" and expensive. I figured $200 with tax and tip would do the trick.

We tried a restaurant on Dalphine just a block off Bourbon Street but they were booked until 9:30. Another restaurant we had eaten at before was not open on Tuesdays. I tend to think that Mrs. Phred had romanticized  that one anyway, which had just reopened after Katrina.

Eventually we settled on a little place near St. Charles Square called the Gumbo shop. It offered us a four course Cajun meal for $23.99. I got the shrimp and sausage gumbo, crawfish etouffee, smothered collard greens and praline sundae.

While we were eating, a huge thunderstorm hit the city. I bought some cheap plastic raincoats and Mrs. Phred took off her shoes as we made our way to the shuttle bus pickup point during the downpour. On the way, a wise and friendly overweight black lady told Mrs. Phred  to put her shoes back on. You can step on nasty things at night in New Orleans , broken bottles, AIDS syringes, dead rats... I could see hordes of cockroaches moving to higher ground and rivers of trash flowing down the streets.