Christmas 2008 In New Olreans

Photos courtesy of Logan (5 years old) and a new digital camera. I love the perspective he put on the photos.

Technorati : christmas, family, holiday, vacation

My Son as a Fireman

I was reading the New Orleans Daily Photo blog and saw this entry, Destination: imagination. My wife recently took my son to one his favorite spots in Lakeland, FL - Lakeland Explorations. We have an annual pass. Anyway, the photo in the photo blog reminded me of that because of the picture below. One of the exhibits is a firetruck and my son likes to dress up as a fireman. It's not quite Storyland but it'll do in a pinch.

Randazzo's King Cakes

A long time ago, as a consultant far, far away, I worked at Yale university as a consultant on Project X (that was it's real name, I swear. Do a google on "yale project x"). Anyway, I had never lived anywhere but New Orleans and San Antonio, TX. New Haven, CT was a different kind of place for me. After an interminable grey winter, the spring approached. Mardi Gras time! But I was stuck in yankeeland, New England. Don't take offense at the label of yankeeland. I wasn't going to make it back for the parades so I did the next best thing (me and a friend of mine from Slidell who was working there too), we ordered some Randazzo King Cakes to be overnighted to us. I think we ordered 4 large. An original and three stuffed with different kinds of goodness. We went through the history of the king cake with our co-workers and then chowed down. I have several very fond memories of my time at Yale and this is one of the best. I'll have to tell the story about setting the crawfish free sometime. The link below is about a bakery called Randazzo's. I don't know for sure that it's the same one, but I can't imagine there is more than one. I'm glad to see they're back. FOXNews.com The Sweet Smell of Starting Over Tags: mardi gras new orleans King Cake

Happy Birthday Mardi Gras

Only if you aren't from New Orleans can you ask "Why don't they cancel Mardi Gras?" You can no more cancel Mardi Gras than you can cancel Christmas or Thanksgiving. Mardi Gras is a day that you can choose to ignore but it will still happen. Parades can be cancelled but the day will go on. As long as there's music in New Orleans, there will be some kind of Mardi Gras. BTW, I think CNN is doing the best job of covering New Orleans and Katrina. Much better than the networks or the other cable news channels. CNN.com - Through war and yellow fever, the party rages on in New Orleans - Feb 19, 2006 Also, the link above talks about the flood of 1979. I was 13 during that flood. Me and two of my buddies help push a car that was stuck out of some people's yard. A photgrapher happened to pass by and took a picture of us. We were on the front page of the east bank guide, a local weekly news paper. My father was a New Orleans cop. He died in the line of duty that year. Tags: mardi gras new orleans 150

Katrina and missing family members

Read this story. CNN.com - Viewer call leads to missing mom's body I felt a lot like the woman in the story for a few days after Katrina. I couldn't get in touch with my mom, sisters or brother for most of a week. I tried the Red Cross after a couple of days and they said it was too soon for them to do anything. They said they would call back when they could. They called back after a month. I didn't have to wait that long, though. My mom was able to get a call out after they eventually made it to West Monroe, La. When the water started sloshing things off her kitchen table she decided it was time to hike to my sister's apartment. Her and my nephew practically swam through neck high water (at times my mom was on her tip-toes). They made it the 4 miles to my sister's 3rd floor apartment. When they were able to get out of there two days later, they made their way to a hotel in West Monroe. My nephew was able to text message my niece and everyone was able to contact each other. I finally heard from her and by that time she had heard from all three sisters. It was another couple of days before we heard from my brother. Everyone made it through although my brother died 7 weeks afterwards. I can't imagine what state my mind would have been, or would be now, if it had been months before I found out anything. I really feel for the lady in the story above. And her family. Katrina sucked. Still sucks. It's like the neverending storm. Tags: family new orleans katrina

Jazz Fest 2006 is a go!

Jazz Fest is on. Same place as normal. You can get the details here. Unfortunately, I'll be in New Orleans in late May for a wedding so I won't make the fest. Jazz Fest 2006 From New Orleans.Com! Since I will miss the food, I try to make up for it by eating at the cajun cafe as often as possible. The food is amazing! It's real cajun. The whiskey bread pudding is killer! Tags: Jazz Fest New Orleans Music Food

Homeless again in New Orleans

This is an etremely well written and mind boggling journal entry. It talks about a lot of things that I think most people don't realize. I saw the camps in City Park when I went to New Orleans at Christmas. Homeless again in New Orleans. It's a painful read. Tags: rebuild new orleans katrina

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? - New York Times

Here's an op ed piece by Anne Rice in the New York times. This is what I would like to have said. Anne Rice is kind of strange but she got this one right. Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? - New York Times Tags: rebuild new orleans katrina

Slidell Mayor is upset

WWLTV.com | Slidell mayor fumes: All we hear about is Ninth Ward I just read this on wwltv.com. Slidell is where two of my sisters live. My brother lived there a long time and I hung out there quite a bit in my teenage years. That was the first place I stopped when I went 4 months after Katrina. It was still wrecked. The houses and busineses along hwy 11 just don't exist anymore. The things that are still standing look like a bomb went off. The hotel that my wife and I and our wedding party stayed in on Gause Rd is damaged and still not open. The chapel we got married in has roof damage but is at least still there. Tags: slidell new orleans katrina

Chocolate New Orleans

Earlier this week, New Orleans' mayor Naggin made a comment about New Orleans being a chocolate city. I'm not going to argue about how racist that sounds or how bad that is for tourism or even how mentally damaged he may or may not be, many others have been doing that. Nope, I'm going to take the high road here and talk about the gritty side of a chocolate New Orleans. My first stop is Blue Frog Chocolates. Check out the link to the "New New Orleans". That's a good read. Next up is Candy and Chocolate at CitySearch. If you have a sweet tooth, this is a good place to visit. And my last stop will be Cafe Du Monde. Not normally known as a chocolate shop but since I'm not particularly fond of coffee, I just happen to know they make a fine cuppa hot chocolate. So why did I write this? Because New Orleans is not a city of racists. It is a city of black people and white people and gay people and straight people and crooks and sinners and saints and just plain folk. There are winners and losers. Most people got flooded, a few didn't. Some live uptown, some down, some by the river and some by the lake and whole bunch live in between. They all love food and music and having a good time. Mostly they love food. And chocolate. All kinds of chocolate. And when a New Orleanian hears about a chocolate city, he imagines a kind of edible Oz. New Orleanians are not defined by the idiots they occasionally elect. Even though we do have a loooong history of electing idiots and crooks, don't let people like the mayor define who New Orleanians are. We snorted in disgust at his "chocolate City" and "god is mad" comments too. Of course, if you really want to see Noggin make an ass of himself, hop over to IFilm and watch the video. What an idiot. Later, LewisC

New Orleans Takeout: The MRE

In December, I took my wife and son to New Orleans for a visit with my family. That trip and the things we saw, the people we spent time with, the gifts my son wracked up are for a different story. What I want to write about today is the nouvelle Orleans cuisine. For once I was able to bring back to Florida a real new Orleans meal.

The NEW New Orleans that is. I brought back 6 packs of what my family has been eating for the last few months. Everybody says they're great. My mom has her favorite. My sister's do too. When my brother-in-law was giving them to me he asked me not to take one of the pastas; his personal favorite.

My mom told me about the red cross coming by each day with water and food. MREs. Meal Ready to Eat. I can't tell you how consistently I heard, "This is really good food!" This from people who live to eat. People who on any particular day could, before katrina, get shrimp po-boys, gumbo, boiled crawfish, etouffee, and other excellent, make me drool, food.

Let me tell you what kind of person my mom is. She lost her house in katrina (along with everyone else in my family and all of their neighbors). She was living cramped up in an tiny apartment with 4 other people: no electricity, no water, no AC. The first floor apartment was a reeking, unhealthy mold factory. No TV, cable, internet, radio or newspapers; no news of any kind. The red cross was delivering food and bottled water daily. They were bathing with bottled water in addition to drinking with it and flushing the toilet with it. She had every right to be depressed and despondent. She could have been angry and resentful.

I asked her how she was doing. She said that red cross was bringing them food and water and that the food was military style (she can't seem to remember MRE). I asked her how it was. She said it was really good and that made her glad because now she knew that our military over in Iraq at least had good food to eat. That was so out of left field that I will never forget it and it makes me proud that she's my mom. Everything she has to worry about and she was worried about the troops.

But I still had a hard time believing that the military, with it's propensity for totally destroying food (at least on M*A*S*H and in the military cafeterias I've eaten in), could create these non-refrigerated bundles of goodness. After a little online research I find that they didn't get it right the first time. These "meals ready to eat" have at times been know as "meals rejected by everyone", "meals rejected by ethiopians", "materials resembling edibles", and due to a low fiber content, "meals refusing to exit". That one had me crying I was laughing so hard.

I didn't take a full case of the goodies. Just a sampling so that when we talked about them I would have some experience with them. I got one pack each of Beef Roast with Vegetables, Sloppy Joe, Chicken with Noodles, Vegetable Manicotti, Cheese Tortellini, and Jambalaya. I HAD to try the Jambalaya.

I packed them in an empty MRE case, i.e. A card board box. The box says that no additional refrigeration is required. That's true although from my research, refrigeration can extend their life. An MRE is planned to be "good" for about 6 months at 80 degrees and for about 3 months at 100 degrees. Katrina hit just in time for the MREs to sit in 100 degree weather. Hopefully the packs I got arrived at a later date.

Just for completeness, here is the entire list of entrees: Grilled Beefsteak with mushroom gravy, BBQ Pork rib, Beef ravioli, Cheese & vegetable omelet, Chicken breast filet, Chicken fajita, Chicken with salsa, Hamburger patty, Beef stew, Chili with macaroni, Penne with vegetables and sausage in spicy tomato sauce, Veggie burger in BBQ sauce, Cheese tortellini, Vegetable Manicotti, Beef enchiladas, Chicken with noodles, Sloppy Joe filling, Cajun rice with sausage, Pot roast with vegetables, Spaghetti with meat sauce, Chicken Tetrazzini, Jambalaya, Chicken with cavatelli, Meatloaf with gravy. I believe my brother in law said his favorite was the penne. I wish I had gotten one of the cajun rice packets. That sounds delicious.

So, what is an MRE? It's a brownish-tan plastic package. Inside that package is an entree, a desert, spices, napkins, matches, etc. It also includes a chemical heater. Real cool stuff! I'll talk about the heater first.

The heater uses water and magnesium (with a few other chemicals) to produce hydrogen. This chemical change produces heat. Basically, you have a little flat heating element in a plastic bag and an entree in a plastic cover inside of a flat cardboard box. You add a few tablespoons of water to the heating element and drop your entree into the plastic bag with the heater. Fold it up, put the entire thing back in it cardboard cover and in 10-15 minutes you have hot food.

Each meal is supposed to be between 1200 and 1400 calories. These are carb heavy. They're meant to suffice as the only meal for a day if they have to and are designed for soldiers, carrying heavy packs, who are on the move.

For dinner last night, my wife and I decided to try a couple of MREs. I grabbed the Jambalaya and she grabbed the cheese tortellini.

Here are the menus:

Cheese Tortellini:

• Cheese Tortellini
• Vanilla Poundcake
• saltine crackers
• peanut butter
• spices apples
• hot apple cider
• plastic spoon, moist towelette, napkin, matches, salt, spices, gum

Jambalaya:

• Cajun Jambalaya
• Wheat Bread
• Pineapple pound cake
• Blackberry Jam
• tobasco sauce
• coffee (not CDM)
• Vanilla Dairy Shake
• plastic spoon, moist towelette, napkin, matches, sugar, coffee, gum, non-dairy creamer

I have to be honest. I didn't drink the coffee or the vanilla shake. I was stuffed from the meal. My wife skipped the hot apple cider. We ate the rest of it though.

So how was it? Well, my wife is a lot pickier than I am and she liked it. She put it on par with a microwave meal. I have to agree with that. I'd say it's a little better than almost any frozen meal I have ever had but not nearly as good as I would get in a restaurant in New Orleans. I've ordered Jambalaya in other parts of the country that I regretted putting in my mouth. I would eat this jambalaya again. The pound cake was downright delicious. The wheat bread was good, moist. It reminded me of middle eastern flatbread. I spread the jam on it. Mmmmmmm.

Because it was our first MRE, I over filled my heater some and my wife heated her spiced apples instead of the entree. Unlike the people in New Orleans who were living on this, she was able to nuke the tortellini in the microwave.

And that gets to the gist of it. These MREs are a novelty to me and my wife. I wanted to try them because my family spoke so often and so highly about them. But for a few hundred thousand people in New Orleans, a few hundred thousand more (million maybe?) in the gulf coast, these meals are what kept them alive. In the comfort of my living room, in the AC watching television, I can critique these meals. If I was sitting in my mom's house last September, November, etc, I would eat these things up. I think I would tell the world how good they were. They are good. In the right situation, they'd be great.

I am somewhat humbled by what all of my relatives have gone through, and are still going through. It's not over yet. All of them have shown a consistent strength that I hope I would have shown had I been there.

What more can I say except that at least I know they have good food to eat.

Katrina is gone but her impact remains. Everyone in the gulf coast can use your help. Check out Charity Navigator for a list of valid charities. Give what you can.

For more info about MREs, visit Wkipedia, How stuff works, or the Federation of American Scientists.