Although I have attended the Festival in the past, this time there was a new purpose behind the visit. It wasn’t about seeing my favorite artists perform or witnessing close to a half of million people take over the city for three days. This time there was an agenda that involved food and lots of it.
So our first stop was a day at the Festival to check out the culinary selections and hopefully catch a few artists to see if they were foodies or not. When asked, each artist knew the difference between what he/she should and shouldn’t eat as part of their daily diet. If he had his way, R & B artist Ne-Yo would enjoy a good hamburger or hot dog any day, but is keeping it healthy by eating grilled salmon and salads. Salt from the group, Salt-n-Pepa, is a big fan of Jamaican and soul food and admits that when on the road there is a lot of eating out. But when at home, she enjoys cooking for her family in her very own kitchen.
Moving on, we caught up with New Orleans Bill, owner of New Orleans Creole Potato Salads. A native of New Orleans who is currently living in California, Bill was our right hand man in painting a culinary picture that was nothing but trouble to the digestive system and the hips. If you heard about it, it was there. Crawfish, crawfish pies, shrimp etouffee, creole gumbo, file gumbo, stuffed crab with potato salad and catfish almondine with potato salad where some of the hot picks of the day and highly sought after traditional cuisines in the Marketplace held each day before the concerts at the Festival. www.essencemusicfestival.com.
Now it was time to just tour the city and take in some more history. The French Quarter continues to be a local favorite with restaurants and markets for buying fresh ingredients. Although many were there to enjoy the Festival, if there was time to take in some history, a perfect spot to explore was the Southern Food & Beverage Museum located at the Riverwalk Marketplace. Since opening in June of 2008, the museum has been dedicated to celebrating the food, drink and culture of the South. A single exhibit can cause you to really loose track of time very easily. An interesting initiative that the museum is currently working on is the Menu Project. The goal is the collect menus from every restaurant in the South to create a database for future research. So the next time you are eating out in any southern state, be sure to grab a copy of the menu and pass it along to the museum. www.southernfood.org.
There was one thing left on the agenda to do before heading home; to enjoy a delicious meal at Mother’s Restaurant. With several failed attempts in the past, this number now went up by one more. Clearly a strategy needs to be in place for the next time. But overall, the city of New Orleans continues to be an oldie but goodie travel destination with new gems to discover each and every time.
(Southern Museum photo credit to David Gallent and artists to Michael Foster)