Travel Bites - New Orleans and Bucerias, Mexico

Frozen Irish coffee from Molly's on the Market

Picking up where we left off, in the deep south. New Orleans (Nawlins to the locals) is all about the creole influence, so it’s a bit of a melting pot (sometimes literally) of French, Spanish and African cusine, as well as a few others thrown in for good measure. Gumbo is a traditional choice and I had this, as well as some other local specialities when we went to Coop’s Place. This place is pretty much the definition of ‘dive’ but the food is what I imagine to be fairly accurate down-home cooking. I had the tasting plate with a cup of seafood gumbo, shrimp creole, Cajun fried rice, red beans and rice with sausage, and rabbit and sausage jambalya; and all this for US$13, you can’t really go wrong. Napoleon House is also worth a look. The building itself is 200 years old and was inhabited by Nicolas Girod, the mayor of the city in the early 1800s. In 1821 he offered his house to Napoleon as refuge during his excile. He didn't take him up on his offer, but the name endured and the walls are covered with every kind of portrait of Napoleon. I had a Pimms cup followed by a shrimp remoulade stuffed avocado - which was so creamy and delicious. The boy had the muffuletta, which sounds like some sort of couch to me, but is in fact a sandwich with salami, ham, mortadella, mozzarella, provolone and olives. It's also a local delicacy and there are any number of places around New Orleans that claim to have the best one.

Honourable mention has to go to frozen Irish coffees at Molly’s at the Market. It was in the high 30s while we were there, with very high humidity, so whilst walking around and checking out the sights, you needed something cool and refreshing to imbibe almost every few metres. You can get take-out, alcoholic drinks everywhere and at any time of day, but this has to be one of the best. A boozy, creamy coffee slushy - so good. Oh and don't miss beignets at Cafe du Monde. These crispy, fried pastries are coated in so much powdered sugar that the people who work there must just seep it out of their pores. It's always busy in there so get them at the takeaway window and eat them elsewhere - like on the bus to do a swamp tour, like we did.

Fish tacos at Chilly Willy's

 After Memphis and New Orleans we were ready for a break from all the fried foods, so Bucerias in Mexico was a welcome relief. We stayed directly across from the beach so a lot of our meals were at the many restaurants right by the water with tables in the sand. We ate a lot of fish tacos, but the best dinner was at Armando’s Place. It was a few blocks back from the beach, and in the middle of what seemed to be an entirely residential neighbourhood. We got a plate of fresh grilled mahi mahi with sides including vegetables (hooray!). It was some of the freshest fish I've had in a while, and whilst it was a bit more pricey than most of our other meals (NZ$20), it was well worth it. We spent a day in Sayulita, a small hippy beach town not far from Bucerias. After quite a bit of searching, we managed to locate Chilly Willy's a place that came highly recommended. It was essentially a road side shack, with a senora cooking out the back and no English spoken - damn they were good fish tacos. We had some agua fresca here, a drink we took a bit of a gamble on as we had no idea what it was when we ordered it. It had a sort of sweet but bitter taste and had weird lumps
in it. I looked it up later and worked out it was made from tamarind pod - not bugs as we were slightly concerned it might have been. I also had a pretty good seafood plate at a little beach spot back in Bucerias, Mar y Sol. And of course you can't go past a bueno cerveza for about NZ$4, with your toes in the sand and a beautiful ocean view.

Seafood at Mar Y Sol