Eating in NOLA:

It’s getting to be summertime here in New Orleans. While most of us are dreading the heat, there are a few things to look forward to during the summer months.

It is not surprising that in New Orleans, at least two famous frozen concoctions exist. While both the New Orleans Frozen Daiquiri and the New Orleans Sno-Ball are icy, syrupy, delicious summertime staples, only one is fun for the whole family (depending on your parenting style).

The New Orleans Sno-Ball, finely shaved ice topped with a generous helping of flavored syrup, has been a city tradition for over 70 years. Originally served by push-cart vendors and shaved by hand, the sno-ball’s popularity exploded with the creation of Ernest Hansen’s Sno-Bliz machine in 1939. Today it is hard to travel a few blocks without coming across a neighborhood sno-ball stand offering flavors like cherry, strawberry, nectar cream, cake batter, chocolate or limeade.

While sno-ball stands are easy to find, there is little doubt that the city's favorites are the original Hansen’s Sno-Bliz and Plum Street Snowballs. Arguments about whose sno-balls reign supreme have torn friendships apart.

Hansen’s at 4801 Tchoupitoulas Street, has the honor of being the inventor of the sno-ball machine and the first to open up a permanent shop in 1944. The walls are covered in news articles and other Hansen’s memorabilia and they dish out everything from a $1.50 one flavored small cup, to a tub of sno-ball covered in crushed pineapple, crushed strawberries, condensed milk, whipped cream and cherries… with ice cream in the middle.

On the other hand, over at 1300 Burdette, Plum Street Snowballs can fit only three ordering customers at a time and its limited wall space has barely enough room to list the dozens of flavors they offer. Plum Street has its own long history to boast, having opened in 1945, only a year after Hansen’s. If you venture to Plum Street Snowballs don’t blink or you might miss it tucked into the surrounding residential neighborhood.

What better place to spend a birthday than Freret Street Market? We went on Saturday. Normally it happens the first Sat of each month at the corner or Freret and Napoleon but they switched it up this month.



As big a fan as I am of the Crecent City Market the Freret Market is the supeior market when it comes to food. Just look below at the fish tacos we picked up.



Not a terrible deal at $3.50 each. I'm not sure what kind of fish it was but there was a lot of it and they were tasty. And then for dessert an all natural watermelon lemonade sno-ball. This I was a little disappointed with... Maybe I prefer my sno-balls Plum Street style and not so "all natural.". Either way I was looking for more sugar, more lemon and less watermelon seed pieces.



And we also picked up some corn that we had for dinner with... You guessed it - bacon wrapped potatoes. The corn was sweet and good just the right amount of all natural.


-- Post From My iPhone

We are a few posts behind. There is really no way around it. This is from a few days ago but we are gonna catch back up and my buddy Jordan is coming into town this week so we should have a few good ones coming up.

Monday we went to the LBC for Red Beans and Rice day. We decided to use it as a bench mark for the Red Beans and Rice meal we have coming up in the next few days. Kerry found a recipe the other day and we are itching to make our own.

Just like last time, the traditional New Orleans meal was pretty good. Even better, maybe, was that right before we sat down to dig in I found a friend. Here is a picture of us.


Afterward we walked outside right into some free sno-balls from Plum Street Snoball (another New Orleans tradition). They were giving them out for something to do with the Hullabaloo, Tulane's student newspaper. Kerry used to write for the Hullabaloo so we didn't even feel guilty about taking the sno-balls and not filling out the survey they were pushing. In case you're wondering, we got a mixture of Nectar and Cake Batter syrups on our sno-balls.


I promise there is more to come soon.