Personal Narrative: My Trip To New Orleans

Just in case you need to catch up on my New Orleans adventure here's some interesting facts about NOLA and here's how I navigated the Big Easy.

When I was initially planning my trip to New Orleans, I knew that I wanted to eat some extremely good food but I didn't want to eat at the traditional stops in the French Quarters. I wanted to to try and eat like a local and I did just that at Grand Isle.

Grand Isle is a really cool seafood restaurant in Fulton Street promenade in downtown New Orleans. It's conveniently located to several hotels including Loews New Orleans, Harrah's New Orleans, Omni Riverfront and the hotel where I stayed, Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery. The restaurant has been in business since 2007, but recently has welcomed a new

I've never been a huge tomato fan but the seasoning and preparation of these made me keep eating them long after the catfish was gone. At one point, I told them to leave the plate because I was still eating tomatoes and rice.

He Said: This dish was an unusual spin on catfish, as it relied less on the catfish itself, but instead placed most of its flavor in the total package of the catfish and the chef-made creole sauce it sat upon. The chef clearly had the mixture in mind, as you won't find much added flavor on the catfish (which was fried to a more than satisfactory level of crispness), but you will find a taste of total New Orleans when you dip it in its bed of Creole sauce.

EEEEKKK Alligator Wings-The front legs from medium sized alligators, marinated in Jerk seasoning for 48 hours, fried, taken out to rest, fried again then tossed in a sweet hot peach glaze served with whipped bleu cheese.

She Said: Gator does not taste like chicken as people will have you to believe. Gator tastes like gator. I had a tiny piece because umm it's gator. I did however thoroughly enjoy the whipped bleu cheese. Chef Haigler told me they puree bleu cheese and add heavy cream to it and whip it all together. Yall! I kept sticking my fork in it while Brandon enjoyed the

What you get are nicely sized, wing-shaped pieces of alligator meat that are quite tasty. The wings have a seasoned taste to them, and while I was forewarned that they would be a bit spicy, I did not find them to be offensively spicy, if at all. The meat is not tough and gamy, but instead is very tender and easy to bite off the bone. You will also find these to be very meat-intensive wings, not cluttered with fatty "danger zones" that make you want to skip areas of traditional chicken wings. Though my manner of eating these large wings was very "interactive", I did not find my face or hands to be excessively greasy, which was very nice. Although this was listed in the Appetizer area of the menu, the serving size (in addition to the size of the wings) could easily be a main course for those who don't desire a huge dish.

Shrimp and Grits

She Said: Whoa! I think this may be my favorite dish. At some point of reading the description I completely ignored "andouille gravy" and was so suprised at the andouille forward flavor when tasting the sauce. If you're not a pork eater or a fan of smoked sausage, this is not the dish for you. The grits were creamy, the shrimp were tender and the andouille gravy was smokey without being too dark. I could taste Chef Haigler's South Carolina roots in this dish. A definite winner! Brandon