New Orleans Road Food Festival

Today John and I hopped on our bicycles and rode down town towards the French Quarter on this sunny, gorgeous 81F day. We were not just riding down to the French Quarter to browse along the cobble stone streets, we were on a mission. This weekend, six blocks of Royal Street was shut down and taken over by gourmet food trucks and vendors from New Orleans and around the country. Some 50 stalls were set up, offering everything from Oyster Po'Boys, Crawfish Sausages, to Fried Aligator on top of Grits. We met our friend a few blocks away and with cameras in tow began working our way up the crowded street trying to pick one stall to stop in, only to be distracted by the offerings of the next stall! We ended up having to compromise, grab a cold beer in a "go-cup", and view every stall before being able to pick one to return to.

 

We had hoped to get to see and taste the "worlds longest oyster po'boy" but got to the festival a little to late to grab our own free sample! Here's a mouth watering excerpt from the festival's website about the po'boy:

" Take about a thousand piping-hot oysters, expertly fried by the legendary Acme Oyster House and great French bread three city blocks long; add two dozen of New Orleans' best chefs and let them loose to each take a car-length section of the bread, plenty of those oysters, and whatever else they deem delicious and create 20 feet of the best po boy they can conceive."

John and Lindsay ended up with choosing an oyster po'boy smuthered in a sherry based brown sauce, while I chose a crawfish sausage po'boy with mayo and hot mustard! They are decent portions, roughly 6 inches long, and go from $5-$7 depending on the ingredients. After one, we were tempted to grab another but had already worked our way back to the start and couldn't muster the energy for another six block trek. Though both po'boys were mouth wateringly delicious!

As most days, the festival was interrupted every other block by one amazing street performers after another. In a city that breaths music, it's not surprising that many well known bands have started out by playing on the streets in the French Quarter.

In typical New Orleans fashion, we managed to enjoy an afternoon filled with great food, good music, and good friends!

p.s. You have to love a festival where they are pitting the NOPD officers against the city's firemen for a Beignet eating contest!! For those of you who have never tasted the magical wonder that is a Beignet, its basically a French donut covered in powdered sugar!! So yes, its the police vs. firemen donut eating contest!