After arriving at the St James Hotel, we checked in. A process that usually takes a few minutes, here took much much longer than that. One person at reception, other guests with queries, nobody available to help with luggage, car parked outside waiting for valet (no self parking). After I would say about 30-45 minutes we were in our room, with the car still waiting for valet. That took another 20 minutes. Not a good first impression here...though the room looked nice. No flatscreen TV though, so no connecting the laptop. No fridge either. Aircon controls so weird I had to call them to show me how to turn it on...turns out you have to press two buttons at the same time. Of course that fact is not shown anywhere on the controls.
Once the aircon was working we had water dripping from the bathroom ceiling. A slow drip, so only a minor annoyance. Hotel problems aside, we took a walk through the French Quarters and found somewhere to have a snack, I had picked out Vacherie. Unfortunately being a sunday, the menu was very limited and we only chose to have appetizers. Those were great though! We both had the crab gratin in a skillet. Very flavourful! I also noted that they had a dish with boudin, which is a Cajun sausage and which is very popular in the Louisiana area. We had seen it advertised along the way on several pub/restaurant ads. I asked if I could just have a try of the sausage instead of the whole dish, and the chef was very accommodating and gave me a sample for free. It was really tasty, with a nice spice to it and not oily despite being a bit fattier.
The next day we checked out more of the area, and had some beignets at Cafe Du Monde.
This is what they look like. I don't know why they put a ton of icing sugar on top, it's not necessary.
In the evening we went to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, another restaurant I had chosen for its reputation of Cajun/Creole cuisine. It was a bit pricier, but my god was the food good! My appetizer reminded me of German food, with a bit more spice. It was a rabbit/pork sausage on greens.
Simone had the crab legs. The sauce for the legs was very tasty, like a thousand island dressing on steroids.
Of course I had to try the gumbo. Chef Paul makes his with chicken and andouille and once again this was a winner. Such a deep and rich flavour I could have had a huge bowl of it.
My entree was a "Blackened Stuffed Pork Chop Marchand de Vin"
Tender Pork Chops Stuffed with Ricotta, Asiago, Mozzarella & Caciocavello Cheese & Fresh Basil, then Seasoned and Blackened in a Cast Iron Skillet and Served with a Marchand de Vin Sauce of Prosciutto Ham, Red Wine and Mushrooms. Served with a Stuffed Potato and Veggies
Oh Em Gee this was delicious! The baked potato was the best I have ever had. Seriously. I ate the entire thing, the skin was so crispy and thin there was no point leaving it. The middle had been scraped out and tossed in some kind of cheese sauce and then put back. Potato has never tasted this good. The beans were nice and slightly crunchy and the chop tender. The sauce on the chop was killer. For a "meat (pork) and veggie" dish, I don't think I've had better than this.
Simone had a combination of two of their dishes, turning it into a surf and turf. Blackened Louisiana drum (fish) and blackened fillet of beef, with their signature "debris" sauce. This sauce takes three days to make we were informed by our waiter. Again, excellent food. We thoroughly enjoyed this dinner.
On our final day we spent the morning checking out the Lafayette No 1 cemetery. This turned out to be really interesting when you take your time and pay attention to some of the details.
A tomb with the Freemason sign on it.
A look inside an empty tomb.
Bent stone plate - freaky.
A lot of tombs had German writing on them. In fact by the amount of German names in this cemetery, you'd think Louisiana was a German colony.
Nature reclaiming a tomb.
This tomb had a whole poem in German written on it.
I enjoyed the cemetery trip, something different and great photo opportunities. Afterwards we left to drive to Tallahassee, our road stop before Orlando.
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