Mardi Gras

It's Fat Tuesday and if you were down in New Orleans you would be getting ready for the biggest celebration of the year. New Orleans is a beautiful city filled with interesting history, great music, welcoming people and some of the best food. We are talking Po-Boys, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya, Muffelettas, King Cakes, Bananas Foster and my personal favorite Beignets covered in powdered sugar.

About ten years ago I went down to New Orleans with my mom and some friends and we had a blast. My mom and I toured Mardi Gras World, which is a warehouse outside of the city where they store the floats for the parade. I remember jumping on them pretending that it was Mardi Gras throwing fake beads to mom (no flashing required). We also visited a sugar plantation called Oak Alley, named for the canopy of live Oak Trees that lead you to the mansion. The plantation was beautiful and as we walked around we sipped on Mint Juleps (a typical bourbon based drink from the south). Mom and I enjoyed beignets at a Cafe Du Monde kiosk on the River Walk and then finally one night enjoyed them at the real Cafe Du Monde. We dined at some great restaurants, Emeril's NOLA, Mr B's Bistro, The Court of Two Sisters and some place on Bourbon that had a great Po-Boy and a deck!! It seemed no matter the place, the people of New Orleans were so proud to me residents of the area and they were happy to share their way of living, if only for a few days, with all the visitors that come through day after day.

I hope to one day travel back to New Orleans and treat myself to some southern life. Now I would like to share with you a beverage I loved drinking while I was down in New Orleans and it is the Cafe Au Lait....

First a little history with the Cafe Au Lait stems from the same tradition as "cafe con leche" in Spain, Milchkaffee in Germany, and cafe com leite in Portugal all meaning the same thing, coffee with milk. In homes you would typically find this drink made with a dark coffee and hot milk from the stove top, but in cafes typically milk is steamed using an espresso machine and sometimes espresso is used in place of the dark coffee.

In New Orleans the cafe au lait was made popular by Cafe Du Monde and there they use a very dark coffee with roasted chicory root which makes the coffee slightly bitter, they then add warm milk to the coffee and enjoy. So, the difference between European style cafe au lait and New Orleans style is mainly the addition of of the chicory root to the coffee and that the milk is warmed on the stove. The end result should be equal parts coffee and milk that have been joined together in the cup to create a creamy and rich coffee drink. Remember the chicory does make the coffee slightly bitter and the coffee in New Orleans is dark, but it is delicious! Happy Fat Tuesday Everyone!! Get out there and eat some King Cakes!