New Orleans #4: Cooking Class and Whitney Plantation

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Another busy day! We were up early again in the morning as there was a lot we wanted to pack into today. The first thing on our itinerary for the day was to attend the New Orleans School of Cooking. The cuisine of this region is one of things that attracted me to visit the South and I was looking forward to learning more about it. Even though the cooking school is centrally located, we drove there. Having a car is making me so lazy on this trip! Once, we were there, we got all checked in and headed through to the kitchen and dining room. I'm a bit disappointed that this cooking class is really just a demonstration as I would have preferred something more hands on, but meant we got to be lazy, which is nice. The chef doing the demonstration was great, a real old school Southern gal. I loved it when she told us that she didn't follow the recipes that we had been given (these were from the chefs who had started the cooking school), but liked to follow her own recipes. I loved the individuality. We spend a few hours at the cooking school watching the chef prepare and cook three dishes, which we then got to feast on. There were quite a few tables of people in the room, but it didn't feel too crowded. We watched the chef make gumbo, jambalaya, and pralines. I enjoyed eating everything, of course. However, my favourite was the jambalaya. It was just perfect, in fact, I am scared to have it anywhere else as I feel that it just won't live up to how good this dish was. I was definitely feeling full by the time the class was over. We headed into the gift shop to by some of their cookbooks and spices.

It took us about an hour to an hour and a half to drive to Whitney Plantation, it was in the same area as the other plantations we had visited a couple of days ago. After parking up, we headed into the visitor centre and paid the entrance fee. We had to wait about five to ten minutes for the next tour, so we took a look around the shop. There were loads of books there and I really wish that I had more space in my backpack as I would have liked to have bought so many of them. Once again, it was a guided tour, so we followed the guide around the plantation learning all about what went on here. Whitney Plantation is different to the other plantation that we had visited as focuses on the enslaved, what happened to them on the plantation and the experiences they went through. Our first stop on the tour was the plantation's church. This was a beautiful building and inside there were lots of life sized sculptures of the enslaved children. The church was not originally part of the plantation and was constructed on the east bank of the Mississippi River in St. James' Parish after the Civil War. It had been for many years the only African-American church in the immediate area. Many former slaves, those from the River Road plantations, attended services there. When a new church was built in 1999, this structure was donated to Whitney Plantation. The sculptures of the children inside the church were created by Woodrow Nash, an Ohio-based artist and the collection of sculptures is called The Children of Whitney. The sculptures were created from the work that the Federal Writers' Project had undertook in 1936, when an active African American unit interviewed former slaves. Since a long time had passed since the end of the Civil War, most of the people interviewed at been children at the time of emancipation and it was their stories that were told and recorded.

From the church, we headed over to the outdoor memorials. The first one was a series of wall, covered with plaques that were inscribed with the former slaves accounts of what happened to them, their family and friends at the time they were enslaved. It was harrowing to read, my friends and I were disgusted at the brutality shown towards them. This plantation pulls no punches and gives an honest, straight forward account of what went on at the time of slavery. We also visited the Field of Angels, which is a monument to the 2,200 slave children of Louisiana who died before reaching the age of three. So many wasted lives, children that never got the chance to grow up or even experience childhood fully. We headed over to the slave quarters next. There were quite a few buildings and they depicted what the living conditions were like for the slaves at the time. There had been 22 cabins there originally. They must have been pretty spartan places to live. There were some sculptures of children there, too. We also visited the Big House, which is where the plantation owner lived. The house was built in the Spanish Creole style. It is a beautiful building. We also looked around some of the outhouses before our tour concluded.

It only took us an hour or so to drive back into the city. By this point, we were hungry again and since I hadn't had a legit American burger yet, we decided to have burgers for dinner. As we drove back to the city, my friend looked for a place online. The Company Burger had high ratings and a choice of two locations in the city, so we headed to the one that would be closest. When we got there, the place was packed. There was some kind of youth church camp going on in New Orleans that weekend and there were young people everywhere. I am not used to seeing young people being so into religion as it not popular in England. I think one of my friends thought I was taking the piss and being a bit rude. But it is fascinating to me, it is definitely one of the biggest culture differences of the English speaking countries. The queue was out the door for The Company Burger, so I took that as a good sign. However, we got in and since we were (are?) adults, we were able to sit at the bar. The perks of being over 21. We looked over the menu and ordered some alcoholic beverages, since it would be rude not to seeing as we were sitting at the bar. I ordered the single Company Burger, their signature burger, which is a double would have been too much. My friends also ordered burgers, I forget if they got the same or different and we also ordered some sides. The sides were sweet potato waffle fries and rinds n' pimento, which were bacon rinds covered in pimento cheese. Delicious! The Company Burger also have a sauce bar, where you can help yourself to different suaces for dunking your sides into. We tried a few and they were good.

We chilled back at our AirBnB for a bit before deciding to head back out. There were a couple of things that we really wanted to do in New Orleans and nighttime was the perfect time to do them. First, we headed to Cafe Du Monde to try Beignets, which is a famous pastry/doughnut in the New Orleans and especially Cafe Du Monde. We went there at night in order to beat the queues, I think this place is open 24 hours. Going at night was the right move, as although the place was busy, there were plenty of tables available. We ordered a plate of beignets to share and some coffees. I ordered an iced black coffee and the waiter totally wasn't listening/comprehending as he repeated back to me an iced cafe latte, and I replied no an iced black coffee, to which he replied again, yes an iced cafe latte. I just knew I was going to get the wrong drink and sure enough I did. That was sent back to be changed, which could have been avoided if the waiter had actually listened to me. The funniest bit was the waiter was hovering at our table after we had been given our order and one of my friends politely told him to jog on. After he had gone, my other friend pointed out that he was waiting for his tip. To which my friend replied that he should wait until we had finished our food and not messed the order up. The one time we didn't tip on the trip, and I didn't feel guilty. The coffee and beignets were good. The beignets were very sweet as they were covered with icing sugar. It was a good idea to share a plate as I don't think I could have eaten a whole plate to myself.

After our late dessert, we went for a stroll around. We had decided to head back to Bourbon Street so that we could finally hear some jazz, properly this time. We had seen a nice looking place a couple of days ago so headed there. The bar was called the Bourbon O Bar and is attached to a nice hotel. We decided to get one of their signature cocktails, a Gin Fizz. I enjoyed the cocktail and also enjoyed listening to the music. The band that were playing that night were G and the Swinging Three. It was relaxing to listen to them. After they had finished, we headed back out into the French Quarter, looking around and taking some more pictures. It still amazes me that one street feels fine and safe, but just walk to the next street and it starts to feel a bit sketchy. The gates of Armstrong Park looked really nice all lit up.

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Photos

Gumbo
New Orleans School of Cooking

Jambalaya
New Orleans School of Cooking