Diner en Blanc

I was checking my Facebook one day (that's nothing new). One of my friends mentioned that he was going to this event. I checked the link (http://dinerenblanc.info/). It looked interesting. The pretty pictures made it look so glamorous and exciting. The event was happening in Vancouver. I read the page to learn more about it. It was going to be held at a 'secret' location. Ohhh..there's a start to the excitement. You had to sign up on their mailing list to receive an invite. The idea was that the organizers invited their friends first. If there is space, then they invite their friends and so on. If there is still space, then they go to the mailing list and invite people on there. 

It's a very new concept (for us Vancouverites) for a party. It's the first time in Vancouver. It started in France and it's making its way across North America. You have to wear white. Everything head to toe has to be white. You weren't allowed off-white or ivory. This rule applied to the men and the women. You had to bring your own furniture which consists of a small square or rectangle table and two white chairs. You had the option of purchasing food from renowned chef, Dale Mackay, or bring your own food. 

I signed up for the mailing list. They sent me an email letting me know that it would be $59 for two people. I was hesitate to commit myself to this party. They said the price covers the rental of the space and the entertainment. It seemed like a lot of work and effort to go to a party where I have to bring my own furniture and food and pay to attend. 

My friend, J, bought four tickets to the party. It was going to be her, her husband and two friends. They knew that I wasn't up to paying for the admission fee. I was getting their furniture for them for the party. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse..jk..I could've refused it if I really wanted to. They said that they would pay my admission and I would take care of the furniture. My job now was to bring a friend. Another rule was that my friend has to be of the opposite gender (unless you are a same sex couple). I asked my friend, P, to come. He has invited me to many events and I thought he would enjoy this event. His responsibility was to bring the food. J and her husband bought two packages from Dale. P only had to bring enough food for two people. 

White is not a color in my wardrobe. My adventure with this party started with finding an outfit. It had to be white and elegant. It's an elegant white party. I had a chance to go to Metrotown. I thought at a large mall it would increase my chances of finding something. Man, I was so wrong. I think I wasn't in the know of what color is in season. I should've consulted my fashionista friends about what to wear. The salespeople at the stores told me that white wasn't in season anymore. It wasn't even in the clearance section anymore. I decided on getting a dress over white pants / skirt and a white top. I found a little white dress. It was a nice dress and I'm going to take what I can get within my budget. The weather report called for rain all week for the day of the party. I needed more layers. I found a white sweater to wear over the dress and white heels. I needed more layers.  I was looking for a jacket or coat. No luck. Nobody I know owns a white jacket / coat. Or maybe they just said that because they didn't want to lend it to me. Lucky me. It was sunny in the morning and warm. At the party, I was fine with the sweater I had with the dress. 

There was 1200 people coming to this party. The organizers needed some kind of system to gather everyone. Because my friend is the member, she was the one who selected our team leader. The team leader gathers their group together then they head over to the location. There were different meeting points with team leaders at various points in the city. I found out that our team leader was picking her rentals of chairs at my work. I took a minute to talk to her. Our group was to meet her at Waterfront Station. She told me that there would be 5 other groups meeting at Waterfront Station. Each group consists of 50 people. I was flabbergasted. There would be 250 people congregating at Waterfront Station. We were meeting our team leader by 6:30pm. Our team leader didn't know the location until 6pm. We were meeting J and G at the station. P and I took the skytrain over to Waterfront Station. As we got off the train to take the elevator upstairs to meet everyone, there were at least 4 people that asked us what was going on. I guess us wearing white and meeting a large group of people also wearing white made an impact. We waited for awhile before our team leader lead us to the location. The 'secret' location was Jack Poole Plaza. It was within walking distance for us. It was quite the sight to see a sea of people wearing white. 

We arrived at the secret location. It was blocked off by retractable guard posts and two security guards. We didn't have to show our ticket. We just walked in. Their instruction was to only let people in who was wearing white. Once we got in, our team leader had to let us know where to set up our tables. There were little markers on the ground to guide them. We stopped at a point where we thought it was our row. Our team leader walked away from us. We started setting up our tables and chairs. As we finished, she came back and let us know that we were in the wrong spot. We had to dismantle and move it to the new spot. Once in our new spot, we set up our table. We put on two layers of linen. We had paper placemats. We set up our plates, cutlery and glassware.When everyone waved their white linen napkins, it was time to eat. It was a big moment for us. We got to see what was in our bought dinner from Top Chef, Dale Mackay. In the box, which was for one person, there was olives, grapes, cheese, figs, sausage, bread, pasta salad and panna cotta. My friend, P, brought cheeses, meats and bread, chicken and salad and he made fruit panna cotta. We ate and ate and ate. We were quite full. Our neighbours on my left brought sushi. Our neighbours on my right brought salad and salmon and spinach orzo. 

After we finished eating, we got to light our sparklers. That signifies the opening of the dance floor. Throughout the night there was soothing background music. When dinner finished, there was live entertainment. They played French jazz. At one point they played some flamenco music with some flamenco dancing. Some people danced on the dance floor, some people danced where ever they wanted. We were done by 10ish. It was a good time to leave. I heard that the party ended at about 11pm. If we left the same time as everyone else, we would have to deal with the large crowd. 

Overall it was quite the experience. It was really neat to see the sea of people wearing white. It tested our ability to manage our group logistically. I had to think about how to transport 4 chairs and a table and a basket of food. It was a challenge finding the table. I was lucky and borrowed the folding table from my friend. My co worker had a dolly which I can transport my furniture. Next year, I will sit it out. Maybe in my black outfit and watch the next group of people fumble with their furniture and food.

1st Iron Chef

The Set up
In late May my cousin and I starting plannig an Iron Chef Competition within our group of friends. We have a group of about 15 of us. But a few of them couldn't make it on the date which we decided on.

The timeline:
3 - 6:30 pm - prepping and cooking time
6:30 pm - judging
7:30 pm - dinner

The secret ingredient was lamb. We picked the secret ingredient a few weeks prior because I knew the teams needed the time to prep and plan. None of us are professional chefs. We need almost double the time (or more) to prep and cook.The teams were allowed to marinate the meat the night before.

The teams had to make one appetizer and one entree in the three and a half hours.  Each team had a $100 budget. With that $100, each team had to make 10 portions of food; 7 portions for each team member and 3 portions for the judges.

The judging took place in my upstairs kitchen. Everyone gathered in the upstairs living room to listen to the results and ate dinner. 

The Competitors
We decided to have two teams of 6 members. It was my team and my cousin's team. We were the team leaders. My team used my kitchen. My cousin`s team used her kitchen. We are neighbours in the same house. We randomly picked our team members. We put everyone`s name in a bowl. Then we started picking one name at a time.

The final result:

Team Lisa
Aileen
Carrie
Roger
Geoffrey
Anne Marie
(Anne Marie's friend was supposed to come but didn't end up coming.)

Team Annie
Donald
Brian
Frank
Jenny
Jessica
Jenncinne

Our Dishes
We had a meeting a few days prior to the Iron Chef to plan out our dishes. There are gazillion recipes for lamb on the internet. We had a hard time deciding what to choose. Some of us were on our laptops and phones to surf the internet to see what we can find. A few of our team members found pictures of lamb dishes without recipes. That's what started the ball rolling.

There were so many aspects to consider when cooking and plating the dishes. The cooking we couldn't prepare ahead of time. We  just did it on the day of Iron Chef. With the plating, there was some pre planning. We had to think about the colors of the food, the height of the food and the contrasting flavours.

Lamb 'sushi'
The picture we found didn't have a recipe. It said it is made with lamb in the inside with chicken mousse in the middle and then wrapped with spinach. We didn't know how to make the chicken mousse and thought it would be too difficult to learn by the end of the week. Geoffrey suggested we use egg for the middle layer instead of the chicken mousse. Egg would be easier to work with. Because we didn't have the recipes to work with, we had to do a lot of experimenting. We used an onion sauce as a dip for the sushi.

It was 545pm and we were still trying to make the sushi. Six pm rolled around and two of the judges arrived. I kept the judges company upstairs. While I was talking to the judges, my team continued to work on the two dishes and plated it.



The judges thought it was original but it needed a bit more flavouring. They wanted chopsticks because it was a 'sushi' and expected it to be served with soya sauce and ginger.

Lamb roulade
I thought it would be a good idea to make a roll. It would have some flavouring inside and we made a sauce for the outside. Inside the roll was toasted pecans with honey. On top of the roulade was apricot sauce. It was served with yam puree and beans wrapped in bacon.



The judges thought the lamb was still too gamy. They really enjoyed the yam puree and the bacon wrapped green beans.


Team Annie's Dishes

Our team had no idea what Team Annie's dishes would be. We tried to poke and probe the team members on what they would be cooking and they wouldn't budge. Even the day of Iron Chef, we tried to peek into their kitchen to see what was brewing in their kitchen. The recipes on both teams were top secret until the day of Iron Chef.


Their appetizer was Deep Fried Lamb Wonton with Mango Chutney and Apricot Sauce. It was served on top of a bed of deep fried noodles. I was very impressed. I didn't think that wontons were that easy to make. I liked their plating. It was round'ish wontons on a square plate. It had a variety of different colors but not too many. 




Their entree was a Braised Lamb Shank Stew with Raisin Quinoa and Herb Chips. Their lamb was really well done.  I am not a big fan of quinoa but I thought it was a good combination. The quinoa soaked the stew to make the stew less salty. The judges liked it because it wasn't gamy.




Only three portions had to be plated for the judges. The rest of the food was on platters for everyone to share.  We brought the food upstairs and had it buffet style. When the judges were deliberating, we started eating our food.

The Judges

I didn't know who to pick as the judges. I ended up picking some of my friends. I had to have an odd number of judges (to be a tie breaker). I thought 3 portions would be appropriate for the judges. They just needed to taste the food, not necessarily have a full portion. After the judging, the judges joined us for dinner.

Vaughn
For Annie's team, she ended up with 7 team members. I ended up with 6 team members. Since she had one more member, I thought we can make that extra member a judge. We then put all her team members in a hat. This way we found Vaughn as judge. Vaughn had one portion to himself.

Vanessa and Anthony
A married couple. I met Anthony years ago at one of my dinners. He is a foodie. He really enjoys to eat and cook. I thought it would be fun to have both of them be judges. Vanessa became the judge spokesperson. They had to share one portion of food.

Warren and Christine
Warren is a good friend of mine. He just got married to Christine. I thought it would be more fun if both of them were judges. They had to share one portion of food.


 I had asked the judges to bring some drinks or desserts. Vaughn, Warren and Christine brought some pop and juice. Vanessa and Anthony brought a strawberry pie right from Kraus Farms. It was delicous!




The Results / Aftermath 
After all the prepping and cooking and plating, we wanted to see which team made the better dishes. Team Annie won. The judges like the braised lamb shank. There was no award or metal presentation. The winning team won bragging rights.
I am very lucky that this group is really good with cleaning up. Once we were done, everyone chipped in to help clean up. The next day I only had a little bit of cleaning up to do.

Whistler

I haven't been to Whistler since last summer. I don't go to Whistler very often, especially in the winter to participate in the winter activities.  

My friends and I planned to go to Whistler from Saturday to Monday. We rented a apartment with a loft with a kitchenette. We knew we had a kitchenette so we did some Costco shopping. We bought enough food for all of us and then some! Between all of us, we had shepherd's pie, lasagna, pizza, 2 flavours of chicken wings, a BIG box of Oreo's, chips, bagels and cream cheese, pop, salad, gummie bears, red wine, chocolate milk and ice cream (I might have missed something) for the 3 days we were there. What a feast!





We arrived on Saturday afternoon. The roads were clear so our drive was pretty easy. We settled into our apartment and relaxed for a bit. We had dinner then walked around the village for a bit.

Sunday was an activity filled day for me. My friends went snowboarding and skiing. I don't know how to do either and I didn't want to take lesson that weekend. The week before I went to Grouse Mountain and I went sno-limo'ing and snowshoeing. This weekend in Whistler I wanted to do something different. I decided to go sno tubing and then snomobiling.

My friend told me about sno tubing a few day priors to me heading to Whistler. It sounded easy and something I can do without taking lessons. I had to take the Excalibur gondola up to the first level then walk thru what seemed a like forest. It was a paved path with stairs and was about 500 feet. Then I arrived at the Coca Cola Tubing Park. There was the pay booth. You had to come up to the booth and let them know how much time you are planning to spend there. There was a choice of an hour or two hours. Of course it's a bit cheaper going for two hours. Eventhough it was cheaper, I felt an hour was sufficient. After the pay booth, you walk over to pick up your tube. It is a like big inflatable tire. There is a string attached to the tube which you have to put around your wrist. You pull the tube towards the Magic Carpet and up towards the top. At the start of  the Magic Carpet, there is a person that scans your pass. The Magic Carpet is a really long people mover (like the on in Superstore but not as wide). At the top there are two levels you can go down; Blue (medium run) and Black Diamond (fast fun). There are three rows of blue and 2 rows of black. I started with a blue run. I didn't know how fast it would go. I went down and it wasn't so bad. I did the blue run three times before I headed to do the black run. I did the black run twice before I was finished.

 

After defrosting a bit and fueling up, I was ready for the highlight of my trip. I signed in at the snomobile office. There are about 4 companies that provide snomobile tours and the names are fairly similar. I booked it from the Whistler / Blackcomb website. Their office is right beside the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. The tour company also does ziplining. In the office, there was three of us that checked in for snomobiling and four people checked in for ziplining. Once everyone checked in, we were whisked away in a shuttle. The shuttle drove us about 10 minutes away to their location. Once we got there, there were tour guides picking up the zipliners and then our tour guide picking up the snomobilers. We went into a small building. They outfitted us with whatever we needed: gloves, helmet, googles and boots. We then walked over to the snomobiles. Our guide taught us the basics about the snomobile; how to start the engine, how to steer, and how to stop. Because it was a small group, it was easy to learn and understand. We were ready to go for our snomobile ride. We started off a bit slow to get the hang of things. The trail we went on seemed like a deserted area. There wasn't anything close by. All I see was snow and trees. We went thru the forested area and what seemed like a side of a cliff. I was just focusing on not going too fast because we had to stay a safe distance behind the snomobiler in front of us. For a portion of the trail, it seemed like we were riding along the cliff. It was quite scary for me. I had to be careful steering. If I steered it the wrong way, I could've fallen off the cliff. You were supposed to push the throttle with your thumb. After about 30mins-45 mins, my thumb was getting numb. I kept on having to stop and rest my thumb for a few seconds before starting again. By the time I got into the groove of steering my snomobile, the tour was over. I paid for a 2 hour tour. Twenty minutes was driving back and forth to the location. It was about 10-15 mins for the short lesson.The actual riding time was only about 1.5 hours.

 

After an activity filled day, I was ready to go back to the apartment to defrost. We made and ate some dinner. There was the Fire and Ice show in the village. The show was only on Sunday nights. It was some snowboarders and skiiers having a friendly competition. Before they did their competition, there were some fire dancers (hence the 'Fire' in the title). The competitions consists of jumps and spins. The show was about an hour long and was entertaining. We went back to the apartment and  rested and watched some TV.




Monday morning we walked the village to sightsee in the snow. Some of us went to the washroom and a few of us that didn't go to the washroom decided to make a snowman. It was fun watching them make the snowman. It was nice to see 30something years olds feeling like they were young again. I saw a nice untouched patch of snow where I wanted to make a snow angel. While walking around to the area, I slipped and fell and hit my head. It hurts. I still feel the effects of the trauma to my head. I am glad I fell at the end of my trip.

Grouse Mountain

I haven't been to Grouse Mountain in a few years. The last time was when I did the Grouse Grind a few years ago. I climbed the Grouse Grind and then took the gondola down. This time is for more of an adventure.

The first activity was sno limoing, We originally wanted to go sno mobiling in Whistler. But my friend decided he didn't want to go so far. He had a dinner to attend that night and going so far would be an inefficient use of time. I don't know how to ski or snowboard. I was looking for activities for us to do. I found sno-limo. It looked interesting. It kinda looked like a cruise ride in the snow with someone pushing you. It was a bit pricey but it was worth a try. We booked an one hour tour. The tour started at 11am. We were the only ones on the tour. They took away our bags and stored it away. It would've gotten in the way during our ride. We sat down on the limo and they put a few layers of blankets on us. I was happy that I would be warm on this ride with so many layers of blankets. The sno limo is me sitting on the limo with a tour guide pushing me. We then proceeded to start our tour. They were pushing us down a small hill when my friend said that it was like a roller coaster ride. Little did we know. They took us on the ski lift. I have never been on one before. I thought I would freak out cause I'm kinda scared of heights. The guide lifts the limo up a bit and it fits on the ski lift. Another advantage to going sno limoing is that you bypass the lineup for the skilift. It kinda seemed like we butted in line but the boarders and skiers let us merge in line. Our tour guides took us down ski hills. They took us down a few blue runs and a few green runs. Now I get a sense of what skiing is like. It's very dangerous. One disadvantage of going sno limoing is that you don't have control of it. It's the tour guides that pushes the limo. Since you are so high in elevation, it's cloudy, misty and hazey. When we were going down the runs, it seemed like I was fighting with the mist going towards my face. It was so cloudy that it was hard to see the runs. I felt like I was on the Space Mountain ride in Disneyland; you can't see what's ahead of you. I did scream on the first run because I didn't know what to expect. I felt I shouldn't scare away the skiers and boarders with my screams. After the second run, I wasn't scared anymore. My the time I got used to the ride, it was over.

After the sno limo ride, we needed to defrost for a bit. We had a small lunch on the mountain. We shared some pulled pork poutine. I know it's fattening but it's so delicious.

With a filled belly of poutine, we were really to tackle our next activity; snoshoeing. It is walking in the snow. It isn't a strenuous activity. On this tour it was just my friend and I. It was good because then the tour guide can go at our pace. We were going quite slow. It was because we weren't used to walking in snoshoes. I liked our tour guide. He was prepared for worst case scenarios. He had a first aid kit, a shovel and a whistle. I'm sure he had other items too but I am not sure what they are. As we walked in the forest, he explained to us about the nature surroundings. There were also special attractions in the forest. One is this carving in this tree. It was so interesting to see that they can carve something so beautiful while the tree is still standing. The other interesting attraction is the yurt. The traditional yurts are made from mud and dirt. This is a modern one with electricity and insulation. This was used as the Coca Cola headquarters during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since then it has been used for anything.

This was a fun filled day in the snow. It was exciting to try a new activity (sno limo). Our tour guides made our experiences filled with fun facts.

Day 5: Oak Alley Plantation / Swamp Tour / Sugar Bowl

This is the only day we rented a car. Our original plan was to go to Oak Alley Plantation, the swamp tour and then go outlet shopping. We rented the car because the places we wanted to go was far away.

The first attraction we were heading to was the Oak Alley Plantation. There were a few plantations to choose from. We picked this one because it was a larger and more beautiful one. It was an hour drive away from the French Quarter, where we were staying.

It was so beautiful. We arrived at the side of the house. We walked to the front and we saw the Kodak moment. This was what we saw in the marketing brochures for this plantation. It was the house with a long walkway and lined with oak trees, hence the name Oak Alley. Each side is lined with 14 oak trees for a total of 28 oak trees. There was a tour every half an hour. We were greeted with tour guides dressed in period costumes. Inside the house were items reflecting the time period. Outside the house they had a small concession stand. We shared a Mint Julep (two parts bourbon (whiskey) blended with one part homemade mint syrup). It was something different. It was quite good. Being the cheap drunk that I am, I got a tiny buzz from it. The land the house was on was quite large. Behind the house, they had a small civil war tent set up.  It was quite neat to see it.There was also a small video monitor with civil war videos playing. We watched it for a few minutes. On the other side of the grounds was a small cemetery of the last owners of the house. It was kinda creepy but neat. After walking around the grounds and soaking in life of the 1800's, it was time for lunch. We went to the Oak Alley Plantation Restaurant. It was a hop and skip away from the house.


For me it was the best restaurant experience in New Orleans. The restaurant wasn't a fancy restaurant. It was a very plain jane type of restaurant, very basic. It wasn't very busy. There was a table of three beside us and they had their laptop on and watching a funny show on it. It was a bit disturbing at times. We were all relaxed to enjoy our meal. After our food arrives we all pull out our cameras to take pictures of the food. We tried our best to order local food, like fried catfish, crawfish stew over fried catfish. and duck fingers (breaded duck breast tenderloin fried and served with a raspberry - habanero dipping sauce). The food was delicious. The service was ok.

Our second stop was the swamp tour. It was about 30 minutes away from the plantation. The tour was supposed to start at 2:15pm. It was the last tour of the day. We had to make it! From the plantation to the swamp, the GPS took us for a ride. We took a few detours and took longer than we anticipated to get to the swamp tour. We thought we were going to be 10  mins late. We called them to let them know we were on our way. We got there right when the tour started. The swamp tour was


riding in a boat through the swamp. It was something different. I was eager to see the alligators in the swamp. Once we started the ride, the tour guide said he hasn't seen alligators in the last few rides on the swamp. It was no Disneyland ride. There were no mechanical animals to scare us. If we were lucky we would see real alligators. No luck today! The tour guide has a baby alligator as a pet. He brought it on the boat to show us. This is me and the baby alligator. We headed to the Sugar Bowl right after the swamp tour.

 We were excited to see the Sugar Bowl. It was the biggest thing happening that day. It was a college football game. It was Michigan versus Virginia Tech. Around town we saw many people wearing Michigan or Virginia Tech clothing. We totally scored by getting cheap tickets the night before. Thank you guy on the streetcar for telling me where I can get cheap tickets! We didn't realized how busy it was going to be. The plan was to pick up the tickets at around 5pm and then do whatever then head to the game closer to 7:30pm. When we got to downtown to pick up the tickets, it was a zoo. It seems like everyone was there for the game already. I have never seen so many people come to the game that early. The were actually heading to the fan zone first. The fan zone reminded us of the Olympics. There was so many people. There was a concert stage. There were booths selling alcohol and food. It was a huge party outside before the game. It was time to head into the Superdome. We were standing in line. The guy in front of us told us we can by pass the huge ass line by lining up in the woman's line.

We were a bit confused by what he was saying.When we saw the sign, we understood what he said. The male line was HUGE. The female line only had a few people. This was the first time we saw something like this. We went thru the line in a jiffy. After we went thru the line, we realized why it was separated. The male line had male security to search them. The female line had the female security to search them. We had pretty good seats. It was lower bowl seats. We got to our seats to watch the game. Before the game started, there was the marching band performing to pump everyone everyone up. In the stadium, if you were sitting on the left side your seat had a yellow pom pom to cheer for Michigan (their colors are navy and yellow). If you were sitting on the right side, you would've gotten a burgundy pom pom to cheer for Virginia Tech (their colors are burgundy and yellow). The four of us didn't know much about football and didn't know what was going on with the game. We stayed until the half time show. It was really cool to watch the two teams marching bands and the cheerleading teams. The marching band had about 300 people. It was huge! We left after the half time show. It was enough football for us.

After the football game we wanted to eat dinner. The other day we met this lady at Starbucks and she gave us some restaurant recommendations. We had a GPS with us. We went thru the list to see which restaurants were close by and open. The restaurant on the list which was closest to us was Luke's. Luke's is a Chef John Besh Restaurant. We got there just in time. We got there about 9ish and it closes at 11pm.  The picture is of jumbo shrimp and grits. We also had a dish of smoked pork shank, Mangalitsa belly and bratwurst. It was very German not very 'local' to us but it was something different. We also had parmesan crusted skate wing with some root vegetables. We ate a great meal there.

Day 4: street car / magazine st / ghost tour

I had a good start to my day. My friend managed to fix my camera. I didnt have to buy a new camera.

We had some coupons for Cafe Beinets. We had a drink and a beinet for breakfast. We didn't have too much planned. Our day started at 11am. The major thing we wanted to do was go on the street car. We decided to go on the St Charles St line. It goes on St Charles St in a 'c' shape line. We knew there were some shops and restaurants on Magazine St that sounded pretty interesting from the ads in tourism books and recommendation from friends. Magazine St is parallel to St Charles St and they are about 6 blocks apart. I found a dessert place name Sucre on Magazine st. The plan was to find Sucre and walk around Magazine St. We found Sucre. It was so nice and pretty. Pastel colors decorated the place. It sold gelato, sundaes, cakes , macaroons and chocolates. For the four of us, we ordered a sundae, a chocolate cake and a cupcake. We didnt finish the whole thing because it wasnt very good. Sucre reminded me of Thierry on Alberni st but has a more casual atmosphere.

There was a Starbucks on Magazine st. We like to use wifi when available to us. Connie wanted to make a phone call and was wanting to find a payphone. Pay phones seem to be extinct. I suggested using Skype to make the phone call. While connie was trying to make her call, I sat at a table with a lady for a few minutes. Then i asked her about restaurant recommendations and other areas we should check out. One of the places she suggested was Oak st. Oak st was easy to get to from the streetcar line. We managed to find Oak St. What the lady didnt know was that 98% of the stores on Oak St were closed because of the holiday. We were hungry and found a bbq restaurant which was opened. It was a great meal. We shared ribs, hickory smoked chicken, hush puppies and chicken wings.

After dinner, we had to head back to the French Quarter to go to the ghost tour. We were at the streetcar stop when we saw a group of guys. One guy started talking to us. He sat by us on the streetcar. We were chatting with him the whole way back. Him and his friends are in New Orleans to watch the Sugar Bowl. I asked him the price of the tickets. I told him people we talked to said that the tickets are about $200 each. That would be too much for our blood. He told me the site to go on for cheap tickets. We managed to get some tickets to tomorrow's Sugar bowl.

Day 3: cemetary tour / French Market / more eating

After a late night last night, we started our day early. The cemetery / voodoo tour started at 10:30am. It was quite interesting. We went to a roman catholic cemetery. I mention roman catholic because it was initially only for roman catholics and is maintained by the roman catholic organization. There is so much history in regards to the tombstones and how people were buried. The tour only touched on voodooism.

The tour ended at the Good Friends pub. We tried the Separator (coffee, ice cream, baileys (?) with whipped cream). While we were there, we got this guy to help us take a picture of us drinking the Separator. While he was moving back to make sure he can see all of us in the picture, he tripped on the step and fell and had my camera in his hand. My camera fell out of his hand and landed on the cement ground. It looked scratched but it screwed up my lens. Its broken. We are trying to fix it. I dont know if it is fixable and will likely have to buy a new camera. Hence, there will be no pictures in today's blog.

After the camera ordeal, we headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp co. It was really neat in there. Almost everything had a Forrest Gump reference. We ordered a few entrees and of course had shrimp in them.

We were walking distance to the French Market. We walked by the French Market the other day but all the shops were closed. This time we actually got a chance to see inside the stores. The actual market reminded me of Seattle's Pike Place Market. It was long and narrow. There was a vendor who sold alligator jerky and sausage. We tried some. I didnt really like it. The jerky was too tough and the sausage was too fatty and tasteless.

We were on our way back to the hotel when we stumbled upon Antoine's Restaurant. In the tourist books, it had an expensive price range. We were still kinda full but we wanted to try the oysters rockafellar ( what this restaurant is known for). I didnt like it too much. But the restaurant itself is pretty amazing. It looks like a small restaurant when we first walked in. One of the waiters told us that there are 9 dining rooms on the main flr and 5 on the upper floor. It was hard to comprehend that the restaurant was that huge. We walked around to check out the other dining rooms. The walls were filled with autographed pictures of stars and newspaper clippings from many years ago, evening dating back from the 1950's.

Our last meal of the night was at Clover Grill. It looked busy and there was a line up outside. It is a really small 24 hour restaurant. There was only on group of 4 ppl ahead of us. There was only one server and he was running off his feet. He was a super flaming gay guy and that was what made him amusing to us. We ordered four dishes: one hamburger and 3 breakfast dishes. It was so comforting to eat the warm food after walking in the cold.