Tag: trying local food places

Posted in: Exploring Louisiana, Food

Eating New Orleans: Willa Jean Restaurant

Written by tepetravels

We saw some amazing breakfast images online of the food at Willa Jean and wanted to give this restaurant a try. We went early in the morning on a Sunday. It seemed like all available parking nearby were paid spots. We found a pay lot just a block down.

The inside was really cute and had a great atmosphere. My favorite decorations were the lights that looked like egg whisks. However, while the indoor seating was spaced out more than what they probably usually are, it was not quite 6 feet apart. We were seated inside, but a nearby table had someone coughing several times. There weren’t any seats open further away from him, so even though I got an eye roll, I asked to be seated outside. The restaurant had part of the street outside blocked off for some outdoor patio seating. The outdoor tables did not have table service. You ordered at the inside counter and they would call your name at the front door when your order was ready.

The chicken sandwich was by far the best. It was delicious and had a little bit of a kick to it. The sausage egg and cheese sandwich was good, but very messy with a runny sunny side up egg. The hangover bowl was ok, the grits were a little bit…chunkier…more textured…than what we were used to. The key lime pop tart was also a winner. I normally don’t like key lime, but this was subtle, more of a tart citrus taste. The pop tart shell had a flaky texture that reminded me of a puff pastry.

I am glad we tried the restaurant. However, I would not order the coffee again (expensive for the size) and would stick to the pastries and the amazing chicken sandwich.

Posted in: Exploring Louisiana, Food

Eating in New Orleans: King Cakes

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Eating in New Orleans: King Cakes

We have King Cake back home in bakeries for Mardi Gras, but it’s all one kind (cinnamon filling). Don’t get me wrong, it’s good and we buy one every year. But, there are different kinds down here! We were surprised, and wanted to try some new flavors. We stopped at King Cake Hub, where they sell king cakes from a variety of local bakeries.

So many King Cakes! There’s even ice cream!
Our haul. We may have spent too much.
Sample plates

We added our Rouses King Cake to the samplings. This one was bought in a Rouses grocery store, not at the specialty King Cake Hub. They do offer several different types of king cake, and it was a nice change from the cinnamon filling we normally have. We picked the Cream Cheese Pecan Praline King Cake.

Sugar Love Bakery Bread Pudding: I am a sucker for bread pudding, so we had to give this one a try. Even Ben liked it, and he is not normally a bread pudding lover. It had a great taste, with maybe a slight rum aftertaste. I loved it.

Bittersweet Confections Chocolate. This king cake had a cocoa type of filling, but it wasn’t a strong taste. I think most of the chocolate flavor came from the icing on top. It was a nice soft bread and the chocolate crunchy balls on top add nice texture.

Cannata’s Rougagooey: Tough to say, but delicious to eat. This one was my favorite. It was baked really well. Day one, it had a sweet bread taste with icing that tasted like a cream cheese icing to me. The decorations were fun and the information card was a nice touch. The boys enjoyed reading it. This one was even better the second day! It didn’t make it to the third…

NOCCA Cake Cafe Apple Goat Cheese: We saw raves about this on Instagram and gave it a try. Ben liked it. It was okay, but not one that I would buy again. It was not an overly sweet filling. The apples were still slightly crunchy, with the peel on. The crunchy apples were nice. It could have been the one we got, but the bake wasn’t the best. I don’t know that I would buy this one again. #Soggybottom

We didn’t even really make a dent in the types of King Cakes offered! There was a coffee one I was interested in, and several types of fruit filled cakes as well. However, at an average price of $25-$30/King Cake, we probably won’t get through all of them. Plus the RV door is only 24 inches wide. Not sure which would lose first our bank account or our waist line, but we will show some restraint in the Big Easy…at least as far as king cakes go.

~Sarah and Ben (just the funny parts)

Posted in: Exploring Louisiana, Food, Sightseeing

Eating In New Orleans: Toast

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Eating In New Orleans: Toast

We found this awesome breakfast place called Toast. It is by the French Market in the French Quarter, which gives it a nice view and the opportunity to people watch.

Everything was delicious. It was a chilly morning, so Ben and I started with coffee and we got the boys hot chocolate. We picked 4 items from the menu and shared between us, so everyone got to try the different foods. We ordered chicken and waffles (it came with a delicious container of Cajun butter), a savory Florentine crepe, Aebelskivers (puffed pancakes) with chocolate sauce, and coconut cream stuffed french toast.

The puffed pancakes were little round balls of fun, and tasted like…well, pancakes. The crepe had a lot of flavors going on and was the most savory out of the things we ordered. Chicken and waffles are always a hit with our family. The Cajun butter was a nice surprise, not very spicy, just enough to add flavor and cut down on the sweetness. I think they used white and dark meat for the chicken. The stuffed french toast was huge. The macadamia nuts added a nice crunch and texture. I enjoyed it even though I normally don’t like coconut. It was a very sweet dish though.

Our waitress even brought us to-go coffees, which was super nice on a chilly morning. I would definitely recommend eating here!

When we eventually get more storage room, I may give making the Aebleskivers (puffed pancakes) a try. There is a special pan for them and I found a couple of recipes online (Recipe 1, Recipe 2).

Posted in: Exploring Arizona, Food, Sightseeing

Sonoran Hot Dogs In Tucson, Arizona

Written by tepetravels 3 Comments on Sonoran Hot Dogs In Tucson, Arizona

Have you ever heard of, or had, a Sonoran Hot Dog? We hadn’t either. Nathan sent Ben a link and recommended we try one while in Arizona.

These hot dogs are insane. They are wrapped in bacon, had pinto beans, tomatoes (or a mild pico de gallo), sauted onions, sour cream, and a chile sauce. There was a roasted jalapeno on the side. They were so good!

If you want to make your own at home, I found a recipe for Sonoran Hot Dogs online. Kroger has these bolillo rolls for sale near the bakery department (they are stupid cheap too, normally $1), that look identical to the buns used on the ones we ate.

Posted in: Food, Injuries, Sightseeing

Too Much Sun and a California Burrito

Written by tepetravels

Many of you may know I am not a big water drinker. Give me coffee any day and I can (and will) drink it all day long. I’ll venture into the lands of sweet tea and flavored fizzy water, but honestly it’s mostly coffee and the occasional hot tea. I’ve been trying to do better and have been buying carbonated water to help get me to drink more. Why carbonated water? I gave up soda years ago and the carbonation makes it feel like a treat.

I must not have drunk enough yesterday after being outside and in the sun most of the day. No sunburn, as we kept applying sunscreen, but I woke up with a huge headache and was nauseous. After some salty crackers, at least 4 cups of water, and some Aleve, it finally died down to a manageable ache.

We kept it pretty low key today. We checked out the 99 Cent store that we kept seeing everywhere and then drove down to Coronado. We parked near where the ferry docks and explored the little shopping area. We finally managed to find some postcards! It’s had been hard to find postcards around San Diego.

Ben had read about California Burritos on things to try while in California, so we stopped and picked one up for dinner. It’s a burrito with french fries in it! It was delicious! I’m not entirely sure the fries added a whole lot to it, but it was very tasty.

The spot on the truck isn’t just a pickle holder! It can also hold sauces!

Posted in: Exploring Nevada, Food, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Breakfast and a Bass Pro

Written by tepetravels

The morning started with breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Casino. We made our reservations online, and once we were there we requested a patio seat. We wanted to sit outside for the view and also for social distancing. We ordered a few items to share: berry crepe, French toast (with blueberries/syrup), a baguette with butter and raspberry jam, crispy bacon (date glazed). The bacon had a great flavor, but was maybe more chewy than crispy. The French toast was delicious. The baguette was nicely baked and the butter and jam really made it tasty. The crepe was…crunchy. I think it was overdone, especially compared to other crepes I’ve had. Everything but the middle was very hard and crunchy. It was hard to eat and not that enjoyable. It was still a nice breakfast and had a great location. (Video walking through Mon Ami Gabi restaurant.)

We then went on a search to find me a new hat. My current one had a wide stretch of mesh and it was getting my forehead a little too much sun.

After not having a lot of luck with Target and Wal-Mart, we thought we would try an outdoors store. We found a Bass Pro close by. It was attached to the Silverton Casino, so it was a little strange to see slot machines at the end of of the store.

This was the biggest Bass Pro we have ever seen. In the fishing area, the ceiling was painted blue and had bottoms of boats attached with sharks and fish hanging from the ceiling in schools. It looks like you are under the water looking up. It was so neat! (Video of walking around the fishing reels area.)

I’m not into fishing, but I loved this ceiling! I think this was the most time I had ever spent in the fishing area of a store.

They had a taxidermy giraffe, lions, and bears. In addition to the “required” aquarium, they also had two water features, an indoor archery and rifle/pistol range.

Real fish and ducks swimming around!

It was fun just walking around and seeing what this store had. I did end up finding a fuzzy sweatshirt and a hat. I also introduced the kids to the joys of circus peanuts.

Posted in: Exploring Utah, Food, Sightseeing

Trying Local Bakeries

Written by tepetravels

Friday the boys did not have live school sessions, so we ran moved back the start of school by an hour and ran into Moab to try some of the local bakeries. They were usually open from 7:00 am until 12 or 2pm. It hadn’t worked out yet to try them with school hours.

We found a parking spot near our first stop, Red Rock Bakery. We grabbed a plain and an everything bagel with cream cheese. They were delicious! It is a really cute bakery.

We walked over to Doughbird. It is a super cute donut shop. They also sell chicken at 11:00, but we were too early for that. Nick was very disappointed. We got an Oreo Cheesecake, a Caramel Apple Pie, and Raspberry Delight donuts. These looked like more artisan type of donuts.

Next stop was just for me…coffee! It was a very nice mocha, which I really enjoyed. We also got a cinnamon roll there.

Our final stop was at The Donut Shop. This shop had more traditional donuts. We bought a few donut holes, a Bavarian Cream with chocolate icing (like a Boston Cream), a raised glaze, and a Raspberry Bismark (filled).

Donuts were definitely more expensive in Moab than at home. A glaze was $1 and the other donuts were $2 to $3 per donut.

We brought our goodies home and cut them up so everyone could experience each one.

The Raspberry Delight and Raspberry Bismark were everyone’s favorites for the donuts.

After breakfast, the boys worked on homework. When they were done with school for the day, I took them to the pool and worked on laundry.

It was the night before we left for our next stop, so we also started getting ready and packing up. It was a pretty good day.

Posted in: Exploring Utah, Museums & Tours, Sightseeing

Hole N” The Rock

Written by tepetravels

We had always turned left out of the campground to head into Moab. This time Ben wanted to turn right and see what was the other way.

After driving for a little bit, we came across the Hole N” The Rock. It’s hard to miss with a Jeep sitting on top of the rock and huge white letters painted on the rock face. We stopped in and walked around the outside. They have a petting zoo, a couple of stores (souvenir/gift shop type of stores), and a few wacky outside decorations. There is also the “hole in the rock”, which is a house built into the rock. It started as a homesteading site in the 1940’s. A couple dug out their home in the side of the sandstone. They created a diner that catered to local miners and later added a gift shop. There is a 12 minute tour of the inside of the house for $6.50/person.

They didn’t have electricity in the house until the 1960’s! The inside is incredible, and just goes to show what people can do when they don’t have video games (Ben’s pep talk to the boys to encourage them to do more instead of playing on electronics.). The house is quirky and honestly, they must have been bored out of their minds with no electricity to get it all done. The bathtub itself is carved out of the rock, which is pretty cool to see.

I would say it is worth the side trip if you are near Moab (it is maybe 15-20 minutes from town). We did not go to the petting zoo, just took the house tour and browsed the stores and the outside grounds.

After the tour, we went back towards Moab and stopped at Lop’s Pop Stop (a soda stand). The boys tried Gummy Bear water (made with fruit juice and puree) and I tried a Happy Camper soda.

We were getting a little hungry and saw a local diner (Milt’s Stop & Eat) that was crowded, so we gave it a try. We ordered an onion ring, fries, cheeseburgers, and one cheeseburger with fried bacon and an egg on top. Everything was very tasty. We continued further into town and stumbled upon a local outdoor market. They had puppies to pet, so I got my dog fix in! We got some groceries and headed home.

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