Text 34414, 90 rader
Skriven 2015-12-20 10:13:44 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: St. Louis #1 695
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Free tours by foot St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery

Our guide was an enthusiastic local with flaming red hair (perhaps
augmented) named Kathy Harrell whose action-packed narrative was
apparently mostly accurate, as she was challenged only once by one 
of the dozen clients, who included history buffs as well as Asian
tourists and us, and that by a date (she had the two last numbers
transposed or something like that).

We started off on Dauphine St. in the quarter, as she lectured on
the French and Spanish roots of the city; then we went past the
(photo op) Last official whorehouse in town, then to Our Lady of 
Guadeloupe, of which she is a parishioner. Through that church,
which is on weekdays a bit of a refuge for the homeless, and all
the time a melting pot of Catholic and voodoo; then across Basin
St. to the cemetery itself, where we spent an hour and a half
looking at the tombs of local celebrities including Ernest Morial,
first black mayor of the city; Marie Laveau, voodoo queen; Paul 
Morphy, the first American world chess champion; Homer Plessy,
the losing party in the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson,
which established the toxic doctrine of separate but equal; and
Bernard Marigny, all-around roue and reprobate who founded the
neighborhood that goes by his name today. Interesting stuff but
an hour plus of it was a bit much, especially in the warming sun.

It's a pay-what-you-want thing; we gave the guide a 20 between
us, and she didn't seem displeased.

While we walked back to the Quarter, Lilli was feeling a little low, so 
we decided to visit the nearest open food place, which turned out to be
Willie's Chicken Shack on Bourbon St., claimed to be the best outlet of
a small local chain. The chicken was reheated to order - coating hard
crisp (to the point of lacerating one's palate), the meat fairly juicy,
with dominant flavors of garlic salt and lemon pepper. A fresh batch of 
fries was pretty good, again crisp outside and tender inside. Not cheap
- $10ish for three pieces dark (I asked for two thighs and got two
drummers), $5 for an Abita amber.

After some sustenance, Lilli felt better, and we walked down to the water 
and strolled past a holiday festival that didn't seem to be very happening
and back to the hotel by slow degrees.

At the airport Lilli had sat next to some young guy who had been a cook
at Commander's, so she talked food with him, and one of the gems she
took back was that Drago's, the restaurant at the Hilton, was actually
good and a local favorite. So I called down to see if I could reserve a
spot, but the answering machine was on. I left a message for them to call
the room if there would be a problem getting a table at 6:30. They didn't.

So we went downstairs and were seated immediately at 6:30. By the time we
left at 8-ish, it was completely packed.

Our waiter was that gruff sort that we have become accustomed to; he was
actually not too bad.

I started with 6 oysters, half a dozen big buxom beauties, close to
twice the size of the ones at Acme, but a bit mild in flavor; make your 
own cocktail sauce with a couple lemon wedges and a scant tablespoon of 
horseradish to be diluted with the ketchup that was on the table. As
always I didn't bother.

Following this the infantilely named shuckee duckee, a small half duck 
breast, blackened and rare next to a big blob of linguine expertly reheated 
- almost as good as made to order -, in a very rich garlicky cream sauce 
with 9 big plump oysters (and one small one, it turns out, hidden 
underneath the pasta). A lot of food and actually very tasty.

Lilli ordered twin petite filets, two 5 to 6 oz pieces of very tender
meat, ordered rare and cooked extra rare. Normally this comes with
collards,
but she ordered a substitution of corn maque choux, having failed to
negotiate replacement by red beans and rice (she offered to pay extra).

A small salad to precede - pretty fresh greens - for her to munch on while
I had my oysters. When the time came, collards did as well. We kicked up
a small fuss, and a rather gloopy mess of corn and confetti peppers in a
sweetish sourish cornstarch sauce arrived. I tasted them both; the collards
were better (actually quite good).

For her we got the Chloe Pinot Noir (Monterey) 13, which was not bad but
was blended with an excess adulterant of flowery Viognier or similar.

The same brand Pinot Grigio (Valdadige) 13 surprised me at how true to type 
it was (only later did I find out that it wasn't Californian but northern
Italian).

The prices were reasonable, and we got out for well under a hundred,
everything included.
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