Day 25 (May 27): Nouvelle Orléans, LA

Well, after three straight late nights, today was a bit of a write-off. There was a lot of seemingly aimless wandering, without really getting to where I thought I wanted to go. Yeah, it was one of those days. it was far from being a complete loss, however, because, hey! this is New Orleans, how could it be:

- I dropped a whack of money at Louisiana Music Factory, a kick-ass record shop that I had found the day before on Decatur Street in Le Vieux Carré. Now, record stores are my kryptonite (along with cute barmaids), but still, this place was amazing. Specialising in New Orleans and Louisiana music, the shop features bin after bin of jazz, cajun, bayou swing and creole music, both historic and new. (Evidently, the store ships to Canada.). I spent well over an hour in there and probably could have spent an afternoon. Of note, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of artists I recognised as past Ottawa Bluesfest performers. The store even had about 10 listening sections, each featuring 16 discs; I have not seen a listening station in years. My favourite find was three CDs from The Pine Leaf Boys, a young cajun band that was featured in the New York Times roughly seven years ago in an article about the rebirth of cajun music. I have never been able to find their discs in Canada. Also, I bought a t-shirt. (T-shirt count is at two for the trip; it is still manageable.)

- I stopped into Café du Monde, a New Orleans institution (well, at least for tourists) for café au lait and their famous beignets. The beignets were a lot lighter than I expected.

- Departing slightly from Canal Street (although not coming anywhere to making it to the Garden District which had been the plan; you know, one of those days...), I had dinner at Cochon on Tchoupipoulas (now my favourite street name ever, by far) in the Warehouse District. Cochon, which describes itself as providing 'Cajun Southern cooking' offers a mixture of small plates and main courses, with a local feel.

I opened with some fried, stuffed oysters, which had a nice kick to them owing to them being drizzled with a sauce that included chili flakes. My main course was a catfish courtbouillon, in great part because I had never heard the word 'courtbouillon' before coming to New Orleans. Essentially, it is quite a fair bit of catfish served with a broth of tomatoes, green onions and herbs along with rice. (The catfish was, I think breaded, so I am assuming it was pan-fried before being served with the bouillon. In any event, it still had consistency, so this was not fish soup...) It was extremely good and tangy.

Cochon had six local beers on tap, from four different breweries. (Faithful readers: are you detecting a pattern about the ubiquity of local and/or American craft beers in US bars and restaurants? Some of that is no doubt because I am seeking out good bars, but it is not just in those establishments...) Of note, I tried a Belgian amber that was infused with cane sugar ('Canebrake' beer) from Parish Breweries, which I did not notice anywhere else. I will give them points for originality.

I would definitely rank Cochon ahead of Three Muses, both for the quality of the food and for the approach to the menu, which offered mostly local cuisine, but with a different, more modern approach than most of the French Quarter restaurants aimed mostly, I am guessing, at tourists.

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