New Orleans.
I had a call in Chalmette yesterday and after it was over I went down into the The Quarter.
Just as stanky as ever. Bourbon St. runs through the middle of the quarter like an open sewer line. It produces this violently acrid cloud of stale beer, urine and vomit that grudgingly dissipates the closer you get to the river.
Of course, state law prohibits you smoking in The Old Absinthe House so you needn't worry about your health down there. Get blind drunk and pass out on the steps of one of those dank strip clubs ridiculously billed as a Cabaret...your plans of living forever will not be affected.
That's Bourbon St. though and despite it there are some lovely places in The Quarter.
You can even get books down there.
Crescent City Books.
Of all the bookstores around...Square Books, Lemuria, Choctaw (Allan's favorite...they use a peculiar shelving system there that really puts his mind at ease and allows him to linger so he can find the title he's huntin) are all great and all have their specialties. Crescent City caters to mine. That's the British History shelves (complete with the mandatory separate section for Winston Churchill). Africa, India and the rest are well represented too. I've got a book in my bag from there now...The Rise and Fall of the Asante Empire. On my shelves at home, among others, are a copy of The Pro-Boers, a review copy of The Seed is Mine, and a collection of Boer primary documents translated into English (you try to find it). I love that place.
I'll tell you what else I love.... muffalettas!
There's no better place to get 'em than Central Grocery.
You just can't beat the place...that's all.
I had a half...washed it down with a frigid root beer.
Then it was time to go.
I've got a few calls in Picayune, Mississippi...which means one thing.
Paul's Pastry.
I'm a little worn out with the road and can't wait to get home to the boy and Martha...but, I reckon there are worse places to be away from home.
So Bourbon Street is properly skanky, then? And not in a louche, avant-garde way but more a leaking-body-fluids-indiscriminately kind of way? I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteThe bookshop looks like heaven (ever been to Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street, London? Put it on your list if not.), and that muffaletta (new term to me) has got my name all over it. Gimme!
Yes ma'am. Skanky as a mens' room in a train station...and yesterday was right at 100 degrees...just rank.
ReplyDeleteIt always makes me laugh a little when I hear Las Vegas being referred to as Sin City.
I should point out that there are some lovely streets in The Quarter. Royal at night is a still and quiet treat...especially from inside the Mona Lisa.
Crescent City is two stories of that...and there are others. One seems to have an endless supply of those old Modern Library prints. I got the snazziest copy of Handful of Dust last time I was in there. Only problem is the fella runs it out of what looks like a house...there's no sign and no hours...it's either open or it's not. Book people!
I have not been to Daunt Books. I went to some places in Covent Garden but, my habits back then were less cerebral than they are these days. It's now on the list.
Muffalettas are New Orleans creation. In fact Central Grocery claims to have invented it (there used to be a place a few doors down called Progress Grocery that made the same claim). They are scrumptious and the longer you let 'em sit the better they get...wash it down with a Dixie Beer and you're done for the day.
So you were at Central Grocery, the home of the best muffaletta on the planet, and you only ate a half?! I think all that smoking must be killing your appetite.
ReplyDeleteRonnie
Welcome to the party Ronnie.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't even hungry when I went in there...and I wasn't gonna eat it til later but, I couldn't resist it.
I eat all day long...partially because of the work I do but, mainly because looooove it.
It is the best on the planet...the universe.