Playtime in the Big Easy: Eating Our Way Through New Orleans & Exploring its Music Architecture, and History
How do you decide where to go on a trip? Here at Parampara, food is often a major deciding factor for Derek and me. We figure where there are good eats, there is culture and history to explore. Besides, a stunning, historical city is a fabulous backdrop for a photo shoot that features our vintage and antique pieces. Since we had some Expedia credits to burn, we took a jaunt down to New Orleans, Louisiana.
On our first night, we headed to BOIL Seafood House. We had the Cajan crayfish ('mudbugs' as Derek called them) and blue crabs. Derek sucked the brains of the mudbugs before peeling them and devouring them. I cracked the crab shell and slurped up the head cheese before tackling the limbs. The claw meat is sweet, tender, and juicy.
Look how happy we look, from Personal Collection
The next day, we had the most amazing pork belly sliders from District Donuts. Sliders. Brew. The slider fitted perfectly in one hand. The meat melted in my mouth with a tantalizing hint of dijon mustard. It was perfect.
The best pork belly slider in the world, from Personal Collection.
Okay, I realize that this is not a food blog (though food is undoubtedly a significant part of any culture), so let me tell you other intriguing aspects about New Orleans that captivated us.
New Orleans, also known as the Big Easy, is a vibrant port city in Louisiana that perches on the Mississippi River and 100 river miles upstream to the Gulf of Mexico. Founded by the French, ruled for 40 years by the Spanish and bought by the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans is a melting pot of French, Spanish, African, Indigenous and American cultures. As a result, the city is known for its vibrant Creole food culture. It is also considered the birthplace of jazz. Legends like Louis Armstrong, Allen Toussaint, and Irma Thomas all call New Orleans home. There are also many marching brass brands hailing from New Orleans. We saw Rebirth Brass Band play at a hip brewery with an outdoor space called Zony Mash Beer Project.
Rebirth Brass Band at Zony Mash Beer Project, from Personal Collection.
One cannot visit New Orleans without thinking about Hurricane Katrina that devastated the city in 2005. I walked around searching for traces of the horrific disaster. Sixteen years after the hurricane flooded the historic town, it seems that most of it, especially the tourist areas, have been recovered. However, my understanding is that the worst-hit district, known as Lower Ninth Ward, is still reeling from Katrina's damages to this day. I didn't travel to the neighbourhood to witness the condition for myself, but I read that many residents have not returned after the hurricane and the ones who remained or returned live in deplorable conditions. The area is a food desert with no direct access to a grocery store (unless one drive and many in the Lower Ninth Ward don't have cars). Its infrastructure is crumbling, the neighbourhood is filled with sub-par roads and dilapidated housing. The appalling situation in the district reflects America's racist and classist tendencies of dismissing the plights of the poorest Americans, many of whom are black and Hispanic.
Derek and I stayed uptown in the Garden District, which, incidentally, survived the hurricane relatively unscathed. Unlike the Lower Ninth Ward, the Garden District is above sea level, which protected it from flooding. It has always been an affluent part of the city. In the 1700s, the area consisted of plantations, where enslaved people worked the land for their white masters. In the early 1800s, plantation owners hired a city planner and architect, Barthelemy Lafon, to subdivide their land. By 1832, the area became a luxury suburb for American elites who didn't want to live in the crowded French Quarter. It became the City of Lafayette in 1833 and was incorporated into the City of New Orleans in 1852.
Initially, the area only had a couple of houses per block, surrounded by beautiful gardens, giving the district its name. By the late 19th century, the lots were further subdivided, which produced a pattern for much of the neighbourhood today. On any given block, there are a couple of early 19th century mansions followed by late Victorian' gingerbread’-decorated homes.
The architecture in New Orleans is spectacular!
As mentioned, a part of the Garden District was laid out by Barthelemy Lafon (1769-1820). He was a fascinating character who was born in France and moved to New Orleans around 1790. In 1806, when the plantation owners commissioned him, he began planning the Lower Garden District. An admirer of the classics, he named the neighbourhood's streets after the Greek muses: Euterpe, Terpsichore, Melpomene, Thalia, Erato, Clio and Calliope. He also introduced Greek Revival architecture to New Orleans. He was an upstanding citizen who also served as the deputy surveyor of Orleans Parish, an office he held between 1806 and 1809.
Portrait of Barthelemy Lafon (1769-1820), taken from Wikimedia Commons.
Lafon's life took a drastic turn in his later years. After the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, he never returned to his professional practices. Instead, he turned to piracy and smuggling and acted as an associate with French pirates Jean and Pierre Lafitte.
Besides his architectural and city planning legacy, Lafon also left behind descendants. He had a long-term relationship with a free woman of colour, Modeste Foucher, that produced several children. Lafon may have been the father of the Creole businessman and philanthropist Thomy Lafon, though there are speculations that he was fathered by a different man.
Derek and I explored the Garden District by foot, and we rode the St. Charles Streetcar to the Warehouse District and strolled to the French Quarter. Our surroundings were so scenic that we took the opportunity to do some impromptu photoshoots with some Parampara jewellery. Our necklaces are perfect for layering. Don't you think?
Parampara Photoshoot by Derek Matthew Auxier Black.