JazzFest, Part 1: The Food

So, bit of background. My sister Lynn has been going to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (JazzFest) for several years now. It happens around her birthday. This year, I was finally able to join her, and experience my first jazz fest (and BOY was it needed)! This is the first of a series of blogs about the event. The upshot: It was GREAT!

Of course, if you're going to talk about New Orleans, you've got to start (and end!) with the food! I had 29 hours (12 p.m. Saturday until 5 p.m. Sunday) to enjoy as much as I could.

JazzFest is very cool, in that the whole event is at the fairgrounds, with stages, tents, food booths, craft booths, beer booths set up around the whole site. So no travelling around town, just walking from one great performance to the next. But don't think because it's at a fairgrounds, the food is elephant ears and cotton candy. This was real New Orleans food served by the finest (=best, not most expensive!) restaurants.

Saturday:

Muffeletta - if you don't know what it is, look it up! - nice, fresh way to start. Lynn had one of the hits of the festival - remember, she's been here before, so she knows - a cochon de lait po-boy. Essentially sliced pork, marinated in milk and served in a roll with a rich, creamy sauce. Unbelievable! And we got our first taste of crawfish for the fest - fried eggplant with crawfish sauce. All washed down with a Foster's.

I had seen some fried chicken go by, so I got 5 wings - just like they're supposed to be, no frills, and delicious! There's a place in Tallahassee called Shingle's Chicken House . . .

An hour or so later, after some walking, I had a crawfish etouffee'. Can't go to Louisiana without an etouffee'!

Near the end of the day (we left around 6), Lynn got us iced cafe' au lait, and crawfish bread. Think of it as a crawfish calzone. Mine was a bit overdone, and I had just had the etoufee', so it didn't really do anything for me.

Of course, that was just the end of our day at the fest - that evening I had red beans and rice at the Rock'n'Bowl. But more on that later!

Sunday:

After a typical breakfast at the hotel, we had beignets and (hot) cafe' au lait at the festival. Fantastic - Cafe du Monde quality - you get three LARGE beignets COVERED with powdered sugar. OK, my life's complete. But wait, there's more!

Shrimp po-boy - very good, but the guy in line before me got more shrimp. What's up with that? Oh well. Lynn got another cochon de lait, but, in addition, she brought over crawfish beignets. Oh . . . my . . . God . . . THOSE were good! Basically crawfish hush puppies - and tasty! The sauce tasted like the crawfish sauce from the eggplant - can't complain about that!

And I ended the day (again, around 4 or 4:30) with 3 more beignets, this time with an iced au lait. Debated having three more, but had to go!

Very happy - and not overstuffed! Came home and made red beans and rice tonight. Still in my system, I guess!

Next: The Music!