Eating is my favorite

I've never had the Ham.

When people ask me if they should visit New Orleans I normally respond, "Only if you like food, music, or booze." And seriously, if you don't like any of these three things, don't come to New Orleans. You'll be wasting your time, and seriously if you don't like any of those three things, don't talk to me either, you'll be wasting my time. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I'm probably going to write a lot about food and music, and to a lesser extent booze. It's not that these three things are the Holy Trinity of New Orleans (or should I say mirepoix) but they're damn important, and they're damn fun.

Always Jambalaya. Always.

So eating, eating is my favorite. So is live music, but we'll get to that, for now, eating is my favorite. And when y'all come visit me I'm going to take you to one of four places, Mother's, and three other places I'll go to and write about soon enough. But first, Mother's! My God, I love this place. This past Friday night I went to Mothers, where people have been getting grub since 1938, and I got what I always get: Jambalaya. If you've never had the Jambalaya at Mother's get off your butt and go get some this week, if you live in New Orleans that is. It is honestly the best Jambalaya I have had in the city. It has big chunks of chicken and nickels of andouille, and I like to add just a little hot sauce myself. And if you're feeling like you want to overeat to the point of gluttony - get a pancake. Mother's has all the New Orleans Favs: Etouffe, Shrimp Creole, Gumbo, Po-Boy's, (and I've tried most everything, and never had a bad meal) but their breakfast is just as good, and their pancakes, which will cover your plate are about as fluffy as a, well, a pillowy bunny-cat, cloud thingy - that's really freakin' fluffy. Just do it. Get a pancake and feel better. Supposedly they have the world's best baked ham, but ... I've never had it. (Fun Fact: There are recipes on the Mother's website for all their best dishes.)

Now, once you have some good stick-to-your-rubs New Orleans Noms, you're ready to party, or at least I am. And if there is anything we do well in NOLA, it's party, all you gotta do is find it. On Friday during the Summer, that's a pretty easy thing to do, since Tipitina's has FREE FRIDAY'S. Every Friday there is a free show on the corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas and the party lasts 'til, well whenever it happens to end. This past Friday, the "Iko Allstars," played a set of Grateful Dead covers, which, if you ask around, are hard to come by. This might be because the Grateful Dead (and Fleetwood Mac) were arrested in NOLA in 1970. "Busted down on Bourbon Street, set up, like a bowling pin. Knocked down, it gets to wearin' thin, they just won't let you be." ~from Truckin' by The Grateful Dead.

Anywho, the Iko Allstars were a lot of fun, comprised of New Orleans musicians, coming from bands as different as the Wild Magnolias, The Radiators, and the Neville Brothers, it was a heck of a show. While some of the GD die-hards didn't like the New Orleans funky-spin put on the songs, I enjoyed the hell out of it, and will be watching out for this band to come around again. Lead man Billy Iuso, led the group through GD classics, like One More Saturday Night, and Shakedown Street, even playing the drums for the mandatory 15 minutes that Dead shows require. All in all, it was a Good Friday, and if the past is any indicator I'll be back to Tip's pretty quick. In fact, Galactic is playing September 8th, so I'm in.

Yeah You Right, Joe.