It's Caterpillar Season!

To paraphrase someone else, I hate those f*****g caterpillars! You know them, you love them. They are buck moth caterpillars and they live in live oak trees all over the city of New Orleans, and in mid April to mid May they start crawling out of their evil lairs. They crawl out of the trees, they jump out of the trees, they find the most unlikely spots so that you can sit on them, grab them, etc.

Why do I care about these seemingly minor part characters in the life of New Orleans?
Because they have hundreds of needle-like hairs lined with very uncomfortable poison, that's why. I get stung every year no matter what precaution I take. Maybe I am just an idiot or a glutton for caterpillar punishment. Either way, I try to be careful, but they are alway waiting for me. Under a brick. On the handle of the recycle bin. In the debris that has collected in the drain area of the trunk of my car. One year two caterpillars (not just one because their conspiracy against me requires joint efforts) crawled onto a blanket I had put down for the express purpose of avoiding the caterpillars. Of course, I rolled over onto both of them, giving me a nice size welt on my leg for two weeks.

The week we moved into our house was the last in April, 2005. Three months before Katrina. The sidewalk in front of our house, as well as the stairs of our house, were a teeming mass of caterpillars , like some evil carpet of pain. You can step on them but for every one you kill there are a hundred out there. Waiting. So there must be a way to kill these guys, right? Old school New Orleanians will tell you to wrap your live oak with aluminum foil, about six feet off the ground. This will confuse the caterpillars and they will not crawl down and out of the tree. I guess they are supposed to turn back around and hang out until, well, just until. I don't mean to be disrespectful but the foil method does not work. It does not work! The caterpillars still get out of the tree, by crawling out or by falling out. At least your foil-lined tree looks festive.

The other and more reliable way is to call Parkway Partners. They are like a city organization, supplementing the city Parks & Parkways group. That's the group that will not mow the park by my house but that is another story. Parkway Partners will come out and spray your tree(s) with buck moth caterpillar poison for only $75 a tree. Once they spray, no more of the pesky buggers. At least until next year.

So watch out under the live oaks. Don't open your sunroof or put your convertible top down. Look at everything before you touch it. Get your kids to squash every caterpillar they see, they love it.

2008 French Quarter Fest And The Food That Comes With It

This weekend we went down to the French Quarter to enjoy the music, the people, and the food of the French Quarter Fest. It was crowded,no doubt, but it seemed a bit less so than last year. We seemed to have no problem navigating through Jackson Square or around The Mint. Of course, we never made it to Woldenberg Park and that is usually where it is the busiest. We had no trouble finding a place to sit down while we enjoyed the food and the music either, which made it a wholly enjoyable experience.

This year we decided to avoid the big stage at Woldenberg Park for two main reasons: its always crazy crowded and Pam has a broken toe. This makes it difficult to do a lot of walking (for her). I also decided to document all of the foods we ate while out and about. There are many food vendors and I always have a hard time choosing a few from the many. I usually end up ordering something from nearly every booth and eating myself sick, but this year we shared every plate and I think this ended up much better. So, here it goes . . .


The pupusa (left) and the chicken tamale (right) came from Jazz Tacos. The pupusa was delicious and the salsa was well done and complimented well. The chicken tamale was chock full of veggies as well as chicken.


Jonathan insisted on raw oysters but finally came around when I convinced him that there were none for sale. He settled on this cajun roast beef po boy. I am not sure what made it 'cajun' but it was good.





This is a pulled pork and cole slaw po boy. It is not the same as the famous Jazz Fest Cochon Du Lait po boy, but it was pretty darn good. BTW, the cochon du lait po boy can be purchased all year long at Walkers BBQ, 10828 Haynes Blvd. This is good news for me because it is my favorite Jazz Fest food item!




Paige tried the egg rolls (not pictured here) but found them too difficult and painful to eat with braces. So we went in search of some easy to eat food and found the grilled chicken with lemon grass from Bach Dang Cafe. The chicken was tender and had a strong lemon grass flavor. Of course it did, there was grilled lemon grass in the dish! It was served over vermicelli.



Spring roll from Bach Dang Cafe. These are available on the weekends in the French Market and we think they may be the best spring rolls in town.

A taquito from Jazz Tacos. This was the least impressive of the items we got at Jazz. But, I am not really a fan of fried Mexcan fare either.







After listening to Zydeco music for a while we decided to walk down Royal Street to hear some other sounds and to eventually work our way to Jackson Square. We listened to VaVaVoom for a while and enjoyed their music. I also enjoyed that they performed right across the street from Touche Bar, where I was able to get some drinks for me & Pam. When they finished up we moved on to Jackson Square, and to more food . . .

A stop by Jacque-Imos yielded boudin that was tasty and smoky. Oh, and it came with homemade creole mustard that tasted a lot like a white remolade. Go figure.






We also got the well-known duck debris po boy. I have read elsewhere that some do not like this and it was a bit goopy. But, it tasted like a delicious slow cooked duck in goopy duck-flavored sauce, and that is OK by me.





This is a spice seafood caprese salad from Cafe Giovanni. It had shrimp, crawfish, and maybe a scallop. The dressing wasn't too spicy and I have always been a sucker for the tomato/mozzerella combo.





Muriel's goat cheese crepe with a crawfish/seafood sauce. Pretty good but nowhere worth the 45+ minute wait in line. Fortunately it was my sister-in-law who did the waiting. Ha ha.






I welcome any opinions on the food choices at the French Quarter Fest or any opinions on my opinions. And since this is my first blog ever, maybe go easy on me.