Foodie Alert: New Orleans Restaurants Pt. 2

In addition to my old favorites, I have two new ones that I'd highly recommend to anyone traveling to New Orleans.

Two Sisters Kitchen (not to be mistaken with a Court of Two Sisters) is a small, down home restaurant situated in a green house on N. Derbigny Street. It is located about 5 minutes down Canal Street from the French Quarter. 

We met the owner, Ms. Doris, while we were there and she was incredibly friendly, wish the same could be said for the staff.  Don't let the staff be a deterrent though, the food was absolutely amazing.  It's clear that it's a local favorite so they don't bother to roll out the red carpet or put on a show like the larger touristy restaurants do, it's completely no frills. We had gumbo, meatloaf, and fried catfish along with sides of macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and rice.  The portions are hearty and it seems like everyone leaves there with a to-go box.  In total, the three of us paid $24 for our meal including drinks, unbelievable for a sit down restaurant these days. Everything was fantastic but let me say the potato salad was like nothing I had ever tasted before.  The consistency was more like mashed potatoes and they were light and fluffly clouds of pure deliciousness.

Advice: Don't forget to bring cash, they don't accept credit cards.  They do have an ATM but the fee is something ridiculous.  Your meal is only going to cost between $6-10, so why pay an ATM fee of $5.00+

The Gumbo Pot is located on Decatur Street, a cute, funky part of the French Quarter that is known for its quirky boutiques and shops.  If you're a dress lover like me don't forget to stop by a boutique called Wish on your way to this place.  The clothes there are very affordable and will get you complimented everytime.  But back to the topic at hand...food.  The Gumbo Pot, as you guessed it, features several different types of gumbo.

My Mother and I both ordered the seafood gumbo and my Aunt had the chicken and andouille sausage gumbo.  Both were delicious and very rich. Everything tasted so fresh, I hoped I would have left overs but I found myself scooping up the very last drop within a matter of minutes.  Our waitress was incredibly friendly and ultimately shared with us everything from how she ended up in New Orleans to her personal Hurricane Katrina story.  In addition to the great food, we enjoyed the candor.  Also, the prices are very reasonable, I think a bowl of gumbo may have been $9 or $10.

Advice: Order a bowl, not a cup.  The cup is $2-$3 cheaper but it's like 1/3 a size of the bowl.

Well, I hope you enjoy my restaurant suggestions, I went a few other places to eat while down there but these restaurants were hands down my favorites.  As they say in New Orleans, 'Laissez les bon temps rouler'!

Foodie Alert: New Orleans Restaurants Pt. 1

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to eat, glad I have a high metabolism.  I spent a week in New Orleans and had the chance to sample what The Big Easy is known for, no not their Hurricanes and Hand Grenade drinks, but their food. 

Three of my trusted favorites are Mothers, NOLA and Cafe du Monde.  All three restaurants / cafes are uniquely different but are the epitome of New Orleans and its rich culture.  I also had a chance to try two other places Two Sisters and The Gumbo Shop.  If you'll be going to New Orleans anytime soon, I'd suggest you try out all of these places, you will not be disappointed.

Mother's Restaurant is located on Poydras Street near the W Hotel.  You'll know it when you see it because of the long lines that lead up to the door.  It doesn't matter what time of the year or time of the day, you're sure to find long lines and it's worth the wait.  Mother's caters to both locals and visitors.  They serve authentic New Orleans specialities like Crawfish Etouffe, Seafood Gumbo, Red Beans & Rice and bread pudding (all of those dishes are to die for). 

Once you make it in side, you will order your food cafeteria style then within 5 minutes it's delivered to your table.  They serve large portions and most meals range from $10-$15.  You will definitely leave feeling satisfied.  Advice: You'll notice they have signs posted saying "No Tipping Allowed".  I always disregard this policy and you'll notice most of the other patrons will too because the servers are amazing and extremely hospitable.  I couldn't imagine leaving them empty-handed, just be discrete when you hand them their tip. Learn more about Mother's

NOLA Oh how I love NOLA which is short for New Orleans, Louisiana of course.  It was the second restaurant opened by Chef Emeril Lagasse in 1992 and located on St. Charles Street in the French Quarter.  If you aren't familiar with Emeril, he's known for his love of New Orleans and also by his favorite saying "BAM". 

NOLA offers all of the tastes of New Orleans but with a higher-end price tag.  You definitely get what you pay for at this place.  The service is impeccable and you'll have not one but two or even three servers to attend to your every need.  This was my third time going and everything I had was absolutely delicious as it always is.  I highly recommend the barbecue shrimp, lobster salad, shrimp and grits, creole redfish, and the pork chop (see the picture I took to the right, I'm not a huge pork fan but it was the best pork chop I've ever had). Advice: Save room for dessert.  My favorite is the trio of creme brulee but all of their desserts are decadent and worth every last calorie. Learn more about NOLA

Cafe du Monde is another must visit cafe located in the French Quarter.  They are known for their beignets, which are delectable French doughnuts that melt in your mouth.  In each order just get 3 beignets covered, I mean seriously covered, in powdered sugar.  You can order several kinds of coffee with your beignets or wash them down with a cold glass of milk (I don't drink either, water works for me). 

They have a two locations in New Orleans proper the actual cafe, also known as the French Market,  is located on Decatur Street and open 24 hours(pictured to the left) and another mini-location at The Riverwalk, near the convention center.  For the total experience check out the French Market cafe. Advice: Sit on the outside, it's great for people watching.  Don't wear anything dark because you will have powdered sugar all over you by the time you finish. Learn more about Cafe du Monde


Since this post is longer than I anticipated, I'll write about my new finds, Two Sisters and The Gumbo Shop, in my next post.

Summer Travel: Did you say FREE?

Just came across this amazing deal courtesy of Travel Zoo.  Apparently, MegaBus is offering free travel from select cities in the Northeast in celebration of Philadelphia becoming their newest bus hub. 

While, I've never taken MegaBus, I have several friends who swear by it and take it on a regular basis between DC and NYC.  The site says they are giving away 10,000 tickets between the cities listed below.  When the free tickets on each route are gone, remaining seats will start as low as $1 each way.  Still a great deal right?  You can travel at no cost between the following 11 cities from July 21 - Sept. 20:

Atlantic City
Baltimore
Boston
Buffalo
Harrisburg
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
State College
Syracuse
Toronto
Washington, D.C.

Taken from the megabus.com website:
With express service on all of its coach buses, megabus.com takes the hassle out of travel. Plus, new double-decker buses boast free Wi-Fi, video services, restrooms, reclining seats, power outlets and air conditioning.

Visit www.megabus.com and enter code "LUVPHL" in the Promotion Code box. Free tickets are subject to availability on select dates and routes, as well as a $0.50 per transaction booking fee.

Safe travels!

San Francisco Treat Pt.I

Right now I'm breathing a sigh of relief.  I'm glad to say my job's annual spring conference is officially over and went off without a hitch.  Well actually that's not completely true, but nothing terrible enough happened to leave a bad taste in peoples' mouths unlike last year's conference.

I arrived in San Francisco on Monday evening and ended up meeting up with a guy I used to date in graduate school for dinner, yes the same one who was recently in VA.  We went to a restaurant called Sens.  Sens is a Mediterranean place located in the Embarcadero section of the city. The food was good, nothing to write home about but it was fairly tasty.  I should've known when I only saw 4 other couples/groups of people there, I shouldn't expect much.

The next day, I ventured out slightly to The Ferry Building, which was originally the Port of San Francisco, as displayed on the buidling.  It's a beautiful space that serves as somewhat of an upscale Farmer's Market.  There were tons of cute little shops selling everything from wine and cheeses to freshly baked baguettes and live lobsters.  They also have several small cafes where you can grab lunch to go.  I went to the San Francisco Seafood Company and had a Jambalaya, the best $9 I could've spent.

Later that evening, I had heard many wonderful things about a restaurant that was also located in the Ferry Building called The Slanted Door, a modern Vietnamese place, so I made reservations and went with a co-worker.  As we entered the place we were greeted by a very lively crowd.  It was very diverse in age and race, yet my coworker and I seemed to be the only brown faces which I thought was interesting.  I sat facing the expansive window which displayed The Bay Bridge perfectly like a picture.  My coworker decided she wanted to share the view so she sat next to me instead of across from me.  I thought it was a little strange but the view was beautiful guess she just wanted to see it for herself.

They had an extensive wine list so our server gave us the option of having half glasses to test out a few.  We sampled a few German Rieslings that were amazing!  We ended up ordering the Grapefruit & Jicama salad with candied pecans and spring rolls with pork and shrimp.  The portions were hearty and both appetizers were absolutely delicious.  I ordered the Carmelized Tiger Prawns for my entree. Yummm (rubbing my belly)  I can still taste it, it was that good.  By the time I polished off my meal I was too full for dessert.  Maybe I can make a second trip before I leave.

To be continued...

Black People Don't Travel

Before you get upset at the title of my blog post please let me explain. I hate to generalize and say that all Black people, specifically African-Americans (AAs), do not travel because I know that's not true. It's just that AAs tend to shy away from traveling abroad for some reason. I haven't figured out whether it's because of financial reasons, a lack of interest in the culture and history of other places, or a combination of both.

The idea that black people don't travel came up in conversation recently with a guy I'd just met. We were discussing the places that we've traveled outside of the United States. I started talking to him about my recent trip to Egypt and how the people there seemed to love us. I told him how it seemed like the people in my party were a hot commodity. The people there wanted to know where we were from and showered us with attention. They were genuinely excited to see us.

I began to notice our group was the only group of African-Americans any place that we went. In fact, the entire time we were there we did not see more than 5 AAs. We knew they were AAs because we made it a point to speak to everyone with brown skin who did not appear to be Egyptian just out of curiosity.

I've been to the Dominican Republic a few times and everytime I go there I rarely see anyone there who looks like me that speaks English. In Europe same thing. You'll see more people of color but they either live there or they're from other countries than the US.


I love to travel and recently when I was going to Egypt, I told several people I was going on vacation there. The responses I received from my AA counterparts seemed to greatly differ from that received from everyone else. The response I often heard from AAs was "Why are you going there?" While everyone else said, "That's exciting, I've always wanted to go there" or "You should go to this place when you get there."

It just saddens me that AAs don't seem to understand the importance or the value of traveling abroad. Trust me, I am by no means rich and have to work for everything I have but I much rather sacrifice for a year to take a once in a lifetime trip then to take smaller trips here and there to places like Miami or Vegas.
It still amazes me that I know people from my generation who have never been on a plane. The United States is great and all but there's only so much you can see driving from point A to point B. I wish more AAs would expand their horizons and look beyond their comfort zone, it's so worth it.

Cultural Differences

While I was on vacation in Egypt, I enjoyed seeing the vast treasures of the ancient world including the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, The Temple at Karnak, and The Valley of the Kings. I had heard of most of the places we visited because I've always studied art and architecture, specifically Egyptian. What I wasn't expecting was how a place so rich in history, could be so poor. For some reason it never dawned on me that Egypt is a third-world country.

While visiting all these places, we were often encountered by the local people who were there selling their wares to the tourists. Some places the people grabbed you. On more than one occasion I was groped by someone standing way too close, maybe they thought I wouldn't notice. I was kissed on the cheek several times. It made me wonder did they feel comfortable doing this because they feel Americans are more free with our bodies because we aren't as conservative or covered us as their women or was it just a cultural difference, they are more expressive of their emotions.

I'd done a lot of research before going and made it a point to be a conservative as possible by wearing long sleeves and long pants when in public, only thing I didn't wear was the headdress. I made sure that no cleavage was exposed, which is hard because I live in wrap tops and dresses and v-necks. But I still felt uncomfortable in the way the local approached me. They'd also make comments to my Father or other men I was with asking, "How many camels?" At first, I was like what the hell, but later figured out what they were talking about. It goes back to the old days when families paid a dowry and apparently in Egypt it's their way of saying how much for your daughter.

Other places we went people yelled out "My Cousin" and "Obama" because clearly they knew we were Black Americans. It was refreshing to see how excited they were to see us. In America, there still seems to be a love-hate relationship between Blacks and Africans who've come to America. I remember having Africans, mainly Nigerians, say all types of negative things to me. In Egypt, there wasn't any of that. Maybe there was, but since I don't speak Arabic I didn't know what they were really saying about us. I just had the feeling they were more accepting and genuinely happy to see us.

Part of our nine day excursion, was a 4 day cruise down the Nile. We ported each day and went to different parts of Egypt to see the historical sites. The second day there I noticed something strange, there were no women working on the boat, even when we began our tours you never saw women working in the shops. I know that it's a mostly (70%) Muslim country but it amazes me that many of the women don't work. From the looks of it, with many of the locals on the streets, smoking hookahs, hanging out outside, I seems like a majority of them do not work. I wonder what the unemployment rate is there.

Going to Egypt was definitely an experience I will never forget. Next time I go, yes I will be going back, I plan to spend some time in southern Egypt in Aswan which is the home of the Nubians, or the brown people.

Here are just a few of my pictures.

Temple of Isis

The Great Pyramids of Giza. Giza is about 15 miles outside of Cairo. It took 45 years to built the largest one.

My Aunt and I with a camel. We did get to ride one, it was definitely an experience.

I'm Going to EGYPT!

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably read a tweet or two about my planned vacation to Egypt. It's been in the works for nearly a year, can't believe the time is finally here. I've been abroad before but this is my first time visiting the continent of Africa.

I love traveling! I've made it my goal to take at least one international trip every year, even if just to the islands.



Something tells me that this is going to be a life-changing experience. I'm so glad that I have this opportunity to go at this time in my life. A few years ago, I might have said no to going, not because I didn't want to go but because I wasn't making enough money to be able to afford such a trip (not that I'm making money like that now) I've just learned the value of making short term sacrifices to get what I want in the long term. I also found it to be a great time because I'm single with no children so there's nothing holding me back.

When I first learned of the trip, I tried to get some of my friends to come but none of them ended up working out for one reason or another. So this vacation will be spent with my parents (Dad & Step-mom), Aunt, my Step-brother and a few of my parent's friends. My Aunt is going to be my roommate. Don't get me wrong I love her, but someone please pray for me because that little woman can snore. You'd never imagine someone so petite could snore the way she does, it's crazy. Apparently she has sleep apnea, so it makes her to snoring worse. But I'm not going to think about that.

Can't wait to take pictures in front of the Sphinx, at the Temple at Karnak, on the boat while cruising down the Nile, and on our planned camel ride. It's always something I studied in school or watched programs about on TV. I'm excited at the thought that this dream is going to soon become reality. With that said, I won't be blogging for the next 2 weeks. I'll make sure to post some photos when I return. Please pray (if that's something you do) for our safe travel and return!

Sit Back & Relax

Last weekend I took a trip with 5 of my girlfriends to the mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains to be exact. We stayed in a luxurious cabin, with an amazing view, in the middle of nowhere. The weekend was very low-key and included massages, a jazz festival, wine tastings and a tour of the winery near where we stayed at The Chateau Morrisette. (I highly recommend this place! If you are willing to drive, it's 300+ miles from DC, but well worth it. Blue Ridge Real Estate offers many option of timeshares you can rent, our package was only $115 per person which included the housing, dinner, massage, & wine tasting/tour)

But anyway, enough of the free promotion. Being away from the fast-pace of the city definitely gave me some time to clear my mind and attempt to sort through some things. When I got there I figured that I'd be without cell phone service, but I hoped for the best. It's funny how you never realize how connected you are until you have no other forms of communication than face-to-face. No calling, no texting, no tweeting, what's a girl to do to entertain herself?

Needless to say, the girls and I did a lot of talking. The conversations mainly revolved around our favorite topic, Men, of course. That always seems to be the topic of discussion these days because as succesful, professional, Black women we have a hard time trying to find and keep a man. We talked about the different men in our lives. We talked about how some of them don't want to be caught and how they have so many options these days, it's hard to find one who's ready to settle down. We talked about how we were tired of the games Men play and us having the play them back in hopes of snagging them. We even talked about how many of our friends and family members have started settling just for the sake of companionship, not because they were actually in love with the person.

The weekend was full of many insightful discussions. I'm glad I had the chance to get away to have some time to say out loud some of the things that have been bothering me surrounded by supportive friends, many who are dealing with similar issues as it relates to relationships and the men in our lives. I definitely still have some issues I'm trying to work through but I'm going to try to take at least one day each month to reflect on my life, my goals, and what the future holds for me. It's a struggle to make time to do nothing but sometimes you just have to sit back and relax.