Posts tagged Bourbon Street

New Orleans Day Trip/Korean Grocery Trip

6 months ago

by JR in Korea and Culture, Mississippi Life

We left Hattiesburg around lunch, picked up Zach, and made it to New Orleans around 3:00. Because we wanted to eat first , we ended up doing a good bit of driving back and forth through the city. The restaurant is located in Gretna, and the market we wanted to visit was in Metairie.

The Pho Danh restaurant is located inside the Hong Kong Market at 925 Behrman Hwy Gretna, LA 70056. Their Pho is awesome, and we were served within five minutes of ordering. This was our second visit and the quality of the food was still amazing.

Large bowl

Needless to say it was good

After eating, we briefly walked through the market. We didn’t buy anything since we were heading straight to the Korean market. I really want to know how to cook these. Not that I would eat them on a regular basis, but I would at least try them. We are not big fans of the Hong Kong market since they don’t carry as much Korean food as the other market, but the seafood and meat looked really fresh. Also, we may come back and buy a few dishes that we have been wanting. I also want to try the Vietnamese sandwiches that they sell in the back. They looked awesome.

I still want to know how they cook these.

We really don’t know what these are, but they appear to be a set of paper items for kids.

The DongYang Korean market is located at 3324 Transcontinental Dr Metairie, LA 70006. I really like this market, but it would be much better if they made their own kimchi. We were stuck with the large jar size, and although it is not bad, there is nothing like homemade kimchi. There is also a Pho restaurant next door that we will be trying the next time we come back. Driving all over New Orleans was not that bad, but we could probably skip the drive to Gretna and be fine. This would prevent us from even having to go to the west bank/crossing the Mississippi and would save me the dollar toll!

JJ did most of the shopping. A case of Bacchus-D was my only purchase.

We left the market and drove back downtown to the French Quarter. Since it raining when we parked, I left my camera in the car. I was hoping to get some good shots today, but not only was it raining, but it was extremely overcast as well. After a brief stop at Harrah’s Casino (Zach was the big money winner!), we walked down to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and beignets. The beignets were great, but they seem to taste better late at night after a few hours of bar hopping. We left Cafe Du Monde and went to Pat O’ Brien’s. I have a hard time going to New Orleans and not having at least one hurricane. We already decided that we need to make a return trip soon, but will spend the weekend so that we can enjoy ourselves more. I also want to get down to the Garden District and take some photos with my good camera.

All photos taken with my Samsung Galaxy

New Orleans Day Trip

1 year ago

by JR in Travel

The city of New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. Every trip has been a blast and this past Saturday was no different. JJ and I decided that we needed to take a quick day trip to get out of Hattiesburg after spending all week working on school related stuff. I have had a long love affair with New Orleans. This city is the reason it took me an extra semester to finish school. During my undergraduate years, it was nothing to go down for the night/weekend/week. People always ask when is the best time to visit. I have been during Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Super Bowl Weekends, Sugar Bowl Weekends, Halloween, New Year’s Eve and when there is nothing else major going on. I really don’t think there is a bad time to visit.

JJ and I headed south around 12p.m. and had plans to eat a late lunch at Acme Oyster House. Acme is featured in about every guide ever printed for New Orleans and there were about 30 folks waiting in the unbearable heat to get inside. We kept walking and ended up going to Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House next door. I knew the Brennan name from other restaurants in the city but had never eaten here before. We were really impressed with the food and the service. JJ had the seafood gumbo and the shrimp remoulade which was suggested by our waiter. I had a shrimp poboy.

My Shrimp Po Boy

My poboy was great but JJ’s shrimp remoulade was out of this world. I was impressed. It contained boiled shrimp, fried green tomatoes, melted mozzarella cheese, greens, and some type of spicy dressing.

JJ's Shrimp Remolade

I think that we may skip Acme intentionally next time to visit the Bourbon House again.

We then moved to the River Walk and enjoyed a little bit of shopping before heading back down to the French Quarter.

I have probably visited about every bar in the the area and still head back to Pat O’Brien’s for the original Hurricane every trip. Pat O’s has a wonderful piano bar that is always filled with tourist having a good time and enjoying way too many hurricanes.

JJ had never experienced the piano bar before. We were looking to get out of the heat and were lucky enough to find seats inside. Of course we had a few hurricanes and were surprised by the number of Mississippians in the bar. Not only were we surrounded my folks from Jackson, Greenwood, and Hazlehurst but both of the pianist were from Mississippi as well. We got to listen to Henrietta Alves from Winona and another lady(didn’t catch her name) from Hazlehurst play.

Ms. Alves keeping everyone entertained.

We stayed here for a few hours enjoying the music. Not only could they play and sing but their banter with the crowd was hilarious or maybe it was the hurricanes. The pianists take requests written on napkins and can pretty much play anything you want.

Tunes for Tips

I did hear them say that they didn’t know “Get Crunk” but that was about the only request they turned down.

The Piano Bar

Photo Via Pat O'Briens Website

On of my favorite parts of the piano bar is the man that comes out to stand between the pianos to tap on a silver tray covered in coins while wearing metal thimbles on his fingers. There used to be an old black man that played on Friday and Saturday nights when I used to visit. I spoke with him a couple of times back in the day and he was always curious about where we were from and if were enjoying ourselves in New Orleans. I got curious since he was not there when JJ and I visited. I started searching for him online and found out that he passed away during Katrina. He was a fixture at Pat O’s having worked there for more than 67 years. His name was Eddie Gabriel.His grandson also wrote a great article about him for NOLA.COM

Mr. Babineaux playing the tray!

Mr Gabriel was wonderful but there was also another “tray player” who has been working for Pat O’s for over 40 years. His name is Alvin Babineaux and he is also extremely talented. Read more about him here. Here is another article written about Pat O’s and Alvin Babineaux by John Swenson.

After a few hours in the piano bar, we made our way down Bourbon Street and then back to Hattiesburg. It was a quick trip and we didn’t do much but that is why I love the fact that New Orleans is only about a two hour drive away. We are already make plans to go back for a weekend when the weather is a little bit more bearable. The weekend after mid-terms is sounding better and better.

Bourbon Street Cajun food Day Trips Dick Brennans Bourbon House Hattiesburg Day Trip New Orleans Pat O'briens New orleans Piano Bar

New Orleans Bowl

2 years ago

by JR in Travel

Enjoying our first round of Hurricaines.

It has been a little over two years since I have been to a football game. When I heard that the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles would be playing in the New Orleans bowl, I jumped at the chance to go. There were about eight of us that bought tickets and went to the game. We started the day off driving to New Orleans at around lunch time. JJ and I checked in to the Pavillion Hotel which we got on Hotwire.com for $63. Steven, Katye, and Dwayne met us at the hotel and we walked to Bourbon Street. We started off at the Cat’s Meow where our friend Carr was recruiting fellow USM fans to come enjoy the fun.

Carr working the door!

We stayed here for a few hours enjoying the 3 for 1 happy hour and Karoke and then moved over to Pat O’ Briens to enjoy a few hurricaines. We made it to the game and watched as our Golden Eagles got beat by Middle Tennessee State. We went back to Pat O’Briens to drown our sorrows. At around 3AM, JJ and I found ourselves at Harrahs playing cards. After winning a couple of hundred dollars we got back to our room around 4………. I didn’t bring my DSLR but did bring the Canon S3. It is much lighter and smaller and easy to carry around. I thought the shots came out okay.