We ventured down to FQ Fest on Friday ready for a gourmandtastic walking tour from the Aquarium to the U.S. Mint and back. We were a little disappointed with some of the food, but all in all it was a good time.
We rolled into town at about 11:15 A.M. and found our usual parking lot full. So, we headed toward one Canal Place's parking lot and ended up on level 10, which I think is the highest level of this parking structure.
click on pictures for larger versions
The view from this height was quite nice.
But if you don't like heights, don't look straight down!
We headed for Jackson Square, hoping to catch Pete Foutain, but he wasn't there. We did happen to catch our "neighbor" Ronnie Kole, being briefed for his performance.
Jackson Square had some of the better food offerings, from Mrs. Wheats Meat and Crawfish Pies
To Jacques-Imo's slow-roasted duck poboy and Crepes a la Cart's hazelnut and strawberry crepes.
The crowd in the square was pretty mellow, which made for an enjoyable moveable feast.
Deciding to walk off the calories we just ingested, we headed for the U.S. Mint, which supposedly had a lot of good food to offer. Of course, our route took us thru the newly-renovated-and-still-in-renovation French Market, where we spotted this beautiful frieze or bas relief just on the outside of the Market
The Market looks much better than it had been looking and hopefully it will be completely renovated come Creole Tomato-New Orleans Seafoood-Zydeco Fest in June.
The crowd at the U.S. Mint wasn't so bad and the weather that day made it bearable. We looked around, trying to decide what to eat first when we located "Eat New Orleans" booth, serving Black Eye Pea Salsa and Coconut Buttermilk Pie and we ordered both.
The Salsa was pleasant, with just the right amount of cilantro. The pie was ho-hum.
Around to the back of the Mint we found Bravo Cucina Italiano's Crawfish Ravioli
Served tepid, it was pretty good; I would love to have tasted it at the proper temperature.
We headed over to Jack Dempsey's booth to experience their mac and cheese while hubby made a beeline for The Original New Orleans Po-Boys for a French Fry Po-Boy with Roast Beef Gravy......I hate to say we wasted $10 on these two dishes.
The mac and cheese was starchy with no cheese flavor whatsoever and the poboy's "roast beef gravy" was nothing but watered down gravy from an envelope. We threw both dishes away after a few bites. Bleck.
Disappointed, we headed back to Woldenberg park, where we knew the food had to be better and we were right.
Emeril's Delmonico had Confit (cooked in fat) pork cheeks (the best part of the pig) with creole dirty rice. Good stuff
After some people watching along the river, enjoying the fantastic breezes and cloud cover, we decided on each of the three tacos offered by Serranos Salsa Company
Yummy
Our last stop was Four Power Bakery's booth for a strawberry creole cream cheese bavarian. It was so good, we couldn't get a clear picture of it.
All in all it was another enjoyable FQ Fest and hopefully we walked off all we consumed.
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