eating

Your favorite cheap traveling crewe (note the spelling) is spending money and loving it! We are in the middle of a four day soiree to New Orleans. It is our second trip to the frenetic and tasty Crescent City. There is no other place in the world, where food makes such an impression. While we are eating a meal, we are planning the next one. Conversations with strangers center around the restaurants we've graced with our appetities and nuggets of information about new destinations are culled. Yes, the city is wild and vibrant and insane and yummy, but it is also where my daughter, my first born, now lives. She's out in Meterie, a suburb of NOLA, living with a very nice guy and your illustrious VFH team has decided to travel to visit her finally.







My daughter, Ally, is an honorary member of the Vacation From Home team. She is a well traveled young lady and her trips started with a jaunt through Italy when she was just 5 weeks old (of course while on her father's hip). She possesses the same wanderlust as her old man. Over the past few days of reconnecting with my lovely daughter (for we haven't seen much of each other over the past 5 years) we realized that we have seen much of this world, together and apart. It is a unique connection between parent and child and especially now, to see her so very very happy in New Orleans, a place I wish I could live myself, is a dream come true for any parent.



So, the normal rules of the Vacations From Home credo don't really apply in this situation. To re-experience New Orleans and to be graced by my daughter's smile once again is enough to forget how life can be demanding for just a few days. This is not to say that we're going super extravagant here, but we have been looser. Of course, there will be no Galtoire's or Brennan's or Antoine's or Emiril's...No... sigh...


With a nod to finances, we planned the trip for mid-week, while Janet was on spring break. We left on Tuesday morning and will return Friday evening. Because of this we were able to get airfare and a room at the Inn on Bourbon Street, part of the Ramada family, for just $350 each. The hotel is central to the antics on Bourbon, but behind the closed doors there is a serenity that is devout. One needs to pay extra for the balcony rooms that open onto Bourbon where one can ogle the exotic dancers and hand grenade carriers and bead throwers, but we would rather look down on the pool in the courtyard.

Tuesday Ally picked us up at the airport and we toured the modest apartment she shares with her boyfriend and then went to visit him at work. We then drove down River Street with the levee looming overhead, passing the barn Ally has ridden out of, and might I add, for free. The owner's son is coached by Ally's boyfriend and she was able to barter this bit of enjoyment. (I told you my daughter was an honorary member of Vacations From Home!!!) We then picked up St. Charles and through the beautiful Garden District to our hotel in the French Quarter. We checked in and then immediately headed over to the Acme Oyster Bar, where we did not have to endure a line as we sat at the bar. We had a dozen fresh and a dozen chargrilled..................delicacies not found anywhere near New Jersey! The bill came to just 52 with the tip and drinks.

Later that evening we met her boyfriend at Port of Call, a hamburger joint on Esplanade, just on the very edge of the Vieux Carre. We had been wanting to go to this enigmatic place since we watched a man contort maniacally to cajun music at the Crawfish Festival a couple of years ago. We jumped and leaped and feinted and bobbed and twitched like a crazed person all the while brandishing a fly-swatter, and, wearing a Port of Call t-shirt. We resolved then that on our next visit to New Orleans we had to go.

Turns out that Port of Call is a well respected cheap eats place in town. Half pound hamburgers or steaks served with baked potatoes. There were a couple of items like salads listed on the menu as well, but it had mostly drinks on the placard with names like Monsoon........ Zagats actually lists it as the top burger joint in town. As we sat at the nautical motiff bar we watched a man in a Sheriff's outfit bring out burgers to people there; huge plates piled high with burgers dripping with melted cheddar and mushrooms. By the time the kids arrived we were drooling.


Burgers are roughly 12.50 depending on what you want on them and on your potato. Drinks were reasonable too, although for our walk home through the quieter section of Bourbon Street we splurged and each got a large Monsoon for $10 that leveled us by the time we reached the hotel. The kids in this case were much more responsible and as I sipped my torrid concoction I sighed as they walked to their car arm in arm.