Beignet: The New Orleans Treat!

Of all the New Orleans/Louisiana/Cajun/Creole/French dishes that are out there, I have to say that I'm very partial to the Beignet (pronounced Ben-Yay). Even though I do my best to avoid pasteries in my everyday life, I tend to be the type that makes exceptions while I'm on vacation (afterall, what are vacations for if not for splurging a little?), and I made plenty of exceptions for my sweet, lovely beignets while in New Orleans last weekend!

What Is A Beignet?

A beignet is, simply put, fried dough with powdered sugar toping. Sounds delicious, right?

You're probably thinking that a beignet is just a fancy name for a doughnut, and you wouldn't be too far off. Beignet, for those not fluent in The French, quite literally means fried dough, and according to Wikipedia, the word can refer to quite a few different (but similar) pastries in France and other parts of Europe. For our purposes here in the states, we know only of the famous New Orleans style beignets.

Beignets are made with a slightly sweetened dough which is made to rise ever so slighlty as to be puffy, then deep fried. Many times they are served in little triangular shapes or even crescent shaped, and they are topped with what any sane person would consider an obese amount of powdered sugar. They are most often served for breakfast, but can also serve as appetizers, and sipping on a cup of café au lait is practically required while snacking on these pastries. For a simple dish, they are absolutely magical!

Where To Get Them

Now if you go to New Orleans, you will likely be told to go to Café du Monde. And you should. Once. It's a staple of the city and it's pretty well known for this delicious doughy treats. It's also been coporatized and turned into a machine. In itself, that's not a bad thing, and the beignets are good and the café au lait is strong and tasty. You'll love the beignets and you'll be tempted to go back for treats the next morning. But please don't.

Instead, make the trip into the French Quarter (like you're not there already…) and go to Café Beignet on Royal Street. Not only is the café more… café-esque, being small and quaint and full of friendly staff, the beignets and café au lait is vastly superior to Café du Monde. The beignets are made fresh to order and the mix is done in house. When we went, we got the perfect balance of warm, gooey, doughy center and crispy, flaky outside, all perfectly sweetened and just as covered in powdered sugar. Even the café au lait was better! Because of it's location, there may be a bit of a wait in the mornings, but I garauntee it's a shorter wait than at Café du Monde!

Further Tips

By now, I'm guessing you're already booking your trip to New Orleans or fervently searching the Internet for ways to have these wonderful treats shipped to your door. If you find that magical shipper, please let me know! I would not recommend getting the Beignet Mix you can find online though as it tends to be overpriced and just doesn't come out right.

My only other tip for you is to be VERY CAREFUL while you eat these delicous treats! They are caked in powdered sugar which isn't known for staying on the pastry. You will likely get some sugar all over you if you aren't careful. You may want to break common convention and eat over your plate or with a napkin under your chin. It may look odd, but your clothes will thank you!

So go out and book your tickets to New Orleans now and make sure to make time for a few beignets during your trip!

New Orleans And Southern Decadence

New Orleans was a blast, and so was Southern Decadence! 

I’ve been to the Big Easy twice, once in 2002 and then this most recent trip.  There is certainly a change in air in the city, but I honestly felt like it was a change for the better. 

In any case, the highlight of the trip for us was Southern Decadence, which is a giant street party for the boys! ;)  We have a great time, met some new friends, and even caught up with a couple old friends while there, so even though there may have been an excessive amount of alcohol consumed (and really, what trip to New Orleans doesn’t include mass amounts of alcohol) there were still quite a few memories made!

Alive And Home

Yes, I'm alive.

And yes, my husband and I made it back from New Orleans in mostly good health. Aside from both catching a cold of some sort, we're good to go.

I will have more real updates here in the near future, but you know how it goes when one gets back from vacation: excessive amounts of catch up at work, meeting with friends to talk about the trip, etc.

I'm planning on doing a video blog on general impressions of the city and have a few posts in mind about specific things like food and bar navigation. But for now, just know that it was a real blast!

Day 2

So It Begins

Dear New Orleans

Dear New Orleans,

I would appreciate it if you didn't have thunderstorms the entire weekend I'll be visiting. That sunny day you have scheduled for Monday is great though, can we get a few more of those?

LYLAS,

Dickie

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!

The husband and I have been planning another short trip for the tail end of this year. We both had a few vacation days left for the year, and being that he can't take his time during the holiday shopping season, we decided to take some time off sooner rather than later. Also the strong feeling that we were going to snap if we didn't take some time for some much needed R&R was a driver to get us to take a few vacation days.

Our original plan was to take some time in October and either go back to Riviera Maya, or maybe stop into the other side of the Mexico and take in Puerto Vallarta. We found a few decent deals for both places, and the idea of sitting on the beach of an all-inclusive resort was really appealing... until we saw a great deal to New Orleans.

The New Plan

I LOVE New Orleans. Like Lady Gag in Bad Romance, I "lurve, lurve, lurve" New Orleans. It's a great city, tons of history and culture, and lots and lots of booze. Esvan has never been, and it was a great price for flight and hotel, so we jumped on the deal!

I've not been to New Orleans since Katrina, so for all I know things are drastically different. If the recent news reports are to be believed, everyone in New Orleans is poor, dying, destitute and without hope as the city completely crumbles around them and no one bothers to help… including the news crews that are just sitting around filming it all. While I'm sure there is still some residual effects remaining from the devastation, I'm also pretty certain that, at a minimum, the touristy parts of the city are up and running fine. After all, the French Quarter was not that affected by Katrina.

In any case, I'm completely psyched for the trip. The chubby kid in me is coming out and I'm am already craving some quality Cajun and Creole cooking. I want a po' boy, I need some jambalaya, I have to have some beignets! More red beans and rice? Yes please! Oh, did you make an off-season King Cake just for me?! Yum!!

But it's not just the food I'm excited about. The culture of the French Quarter is fantastic. Yes, there are certain tourist traps to be avoided at all costs (I'm looking at you, Pat O'Brien's!) and shops that are just a waste of time (oh look… another shop full of beads), but you simply can't beat meandering the streets of the French Quarter with a drink in hand, wandering in and out of jazz clubs and interesting artisan shops.

And for a people watcher like me, the evenings along Bourbon Street provide endless hours of entertainment (literally… most of the bars are 24/7). I can plant myself on a balcony and just watch the crowds ebb and flow and see people let go of their inhibitions and just have fun.

Oh, And BTW...

Did I mention that during weekend we booked to go down there the French Quarter plays host to one of the biggest gay parties in the country? While I knew that Southern Decadence would be happening in late summer/early fall, we did not know that it would happen to fall during the same weekend we chose to go to New Orleans. We also did not know that a few acquaintances from Chicago and a couple friends from college would be in New Orleans at the same time, so we not only get to party it up a little bit, but we get to do it with some old friends!

Frankly, we're there to be tourists first and drunken revelers second, although in the Big Easy those things tend to go hand in hand. I want to explore the area more, I want to do an architecture and history tour, I want to hit up the zoo and/or the aquarium, I want to eat at all the best restaurants, and after all that is done, I want to enjoy some drinks in the midst of the party.

We're both looking forward to the trip, and I can't wait to share stories and photos once we get back!