Sunday, August 12, 2012

My field trip to the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans (pictures)

I spent the weekend in New Orleans and when I asked people what was really important to see what came up again and again was the food. As a coffee lover I had to go to the legendary Cafe Du Monde. This coffee shop is well known by the locals and the tourists alike and serves some of the arguably best coffee downtown.



Cafe Du Monde borders the Mississippi river and is on one of the main streets in the lower French District. It's hard to miss with a line of people in front nearly 24 hours a day. This place never stops. We got there early and the locals were just beginning to get up so luckily we didn't have a huge line or long wait.




Coffee here doesn't taste like anything I have ever had before. It's not some frothy mocha fancy whip topping. It's either black coffee or coffee au lait (coffee with milk). That's it. I guess the lack of choices also cuts down on the line. You can't stand there and say, "What should I get?"

However the cool thing about this coffee is they add chicory root. This tradition started during the Civil War when the Union had a blockade against the city to stop shipments from arriving. As a cheap substitute the shops had begun using chicory root and when they could finally change it back the locals protested it and the shops use it to this day. 

So this coffee has a very unique flavor that I never found outside the city. Good but strong. I got this cup of awesomeness to remember the experience by.


I was surprised by the level of service as well. We had a waitress that took our order and when I was done with my coffee she came by and cleaned my mug so I could take it home in a gift bag. It was an extra nice touch that I appreciated. 


Did you know the coffee isn't even what they are famous for? It's these things they call Beignets. The closest thing I can equate it to is a doughnut but it's not a doughnut at all. It's fried bread dough smothered in powdered sugar. They don't travel well and are best eaten while still hot but they are so good they are worth raving about. 

I ate these little treats at several restaurants but these were cooked perfectly and very soft and just melt in my mouth good. I can see why people travel from all over the world to eat here. 


This is me in my lion shirt. It's been raining like crazy the last few days and the humidity is doing a crazy thing to my curly hair but this is me enjoying my morning. 

That's about it. 

I hope you enjoyed my travel pictures. We had lots of fun and my family will be talking about this trip for years to come. I feel like I ate my way through New Orleans. I had so much good food it's hard to say what was the best thing I had and now that I am home I will have to think about returning to a normalcy and maybe even a diet. 

I am afraid to step on a scale to find out if extreme measures will be necessary. lol

First, I have to work on edits for The Unicorn and the Virgin (m/m) but will post more about my trip later for you all to see. If I finish today, I will treat myself to read one of the new books I picked up while at the booksigning at the Authors After Dark conference.

Incentives always help me to work harder. 

Lots of love to you all,
Missy Lyons
www.missylyons.com





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