Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 2012, part 1

Tim and I stopped at Pom Pom's for some road food on our way out. He got this Snickerdoodle cupcake from BlueBird Bakery and let it sit there teasing me for like an hour. Then I made him finally eat it. Oh yeah, it was his birthday so I made him this card on the RedStamp app.We arrived at our B&B, Elysian Fields Inn, at about 11 at night. The Inn Keeper, Jim, waited up to check us in then we went straight to bed.Unfortunately for Tim, one of the reasons we went to Louisiana was to visit his dying Grandpa. The next morning we woke up early and drove 2.5 hours to New Iberia through this shitI met some of Tim's family and hung out with them in his Grand Parent's kitchen while Tim went in a back bedroom to see his Grandpa. It was sad. His Grandpa died a week and a half later.
We hung out there for about an hour then drove some crazy back road route to Abita Springs for 2.5 hours for the ABITA BREWERY TOUR!! Sorry. Abita Amber is my favorite beer. 
That tour is awesome. They give you a plastic Abita cup, put on a 15 minute video, and let you hit the taps for as many times as you can in 15 minutes while the video plays. Then they walk you into a huge room with all the casks and mashers and whatnot, talk to you for 10 minutes, then let you hit the taps again for another 30.

Then, after the brewery tour, we headed to Chef John Besh's La Provence.  I made reservations a month in advance but apparently we didn't need them because when we arrived it was empty.  But it was kinda cool for a minute because it felt like the whole restaurant was ours.

I made some friends.....

Now on to the food......

When we arrived, we were given a chicken liver pate with crostinis.  Best free food nosh ever.

The bartender that's been there for 20+ years asked me if I wanted her to make me a drink.  I was like "are you kidding? you've been bartending since I was ten."  So she made me a Cosmo.  And squirted lime juice on me in the process.  It was the best Cosmo ever.

As apps I got the Oysters Ooh La La and Tim got the Quail Gumbo.  Both good but not 'oh my goodness, I'm glad we traveled 600 miles for this good.'

I forget the exact name of the entree that we split, but I call it Venison x 3.  It was rare seared venison loin on top of slow roasted venison stew surrounded by house made venison sausage.  Best venison dish I have ever ate in my life.  No joke.

We ended with the best bread pudding I have also, ever had.