A Big Easy birthday brunch

I figured I should get around to posting about my birthday before my memory begins to fail me.  Besides, I lost enough brain cells that night as it was.  New Orleans is a city that celebrates gluttony, and I certainly did my part on my birthday.  And, as fate would have it, I was accompanied by a mysterious and exotic Gypsy who helped me along the way.

As my last blog entry might have led you to believe, we got a late start to the day (I didn’t even cover dinner and bar hopping from the night before … perhaps fodder for another future blog?).  But we started it off in style with the famous jazz buffet brunch at Court of Two Sisters.  What makes it a jazz brunch?  These folks …

What makes it famous?  The eggs benedict, for starters.  Or you could choose a seafood or shrimp Creole omelet especially made for you and served to your table.  But I didn’t want to load up on eggs with all this great food to sample.

I don’t want to turn this blog into a review of Court of Two Sisters, but I have to mention some of the highlights.  The turtle soup au sherry is off the chain good.  And you’ll fill a plate with their salad bar selections alone … my favorites were the ceviche, the bleu cheese potato salad, the smoked salmon and, of course, the gulf shrimp with remoulade sauce.  On the buffet side, I recommend not missing the veal grillades, catfish roulades or the crawfish Louise.  Even the peas and mushrooms are worth raving about.

I washed it all down with a brandy milk punch and excellent coffee.  Gypsy had a bloody Mary and reported it was quite tasty (admittedly, it’s hard to get an “ordinary” bloody Mary in New Orleans).  The one-of-a-kind drink stirrers were a nice touch and may have inspired her for a future jewelry project.

Earrings, maybe?

As if that wasn’t enough, I decided to have bread pudding with whiskey sauce and a slice of pecan pie for dessert.  Both were about as excellent as you’d expect.   

After brunch, we had to walk off the overload of food we had eaten, so we went shopping in the Quarter.  And if you happen to have a Chihuahua owner on your Christmas list, I recommend you look up this place.  We bought a sweater here for one very happy little varmint. Laissez les bon temps rouler, Pebbles!

    
We also found this interesting place called Yesteryears on Bourbon Street, and Gypsy treated me to a tarot card reading for my birthday (no worries, good news mostly, and nothing too bad I didn’t know about already). 

We also noticed they were hiring.  Future employment someday for a Gypsy artist, perhaps?

Well, it looks like I did make this blog mostly about Court of Two Sisters, so I'll stop here.  I try not to make any of my blog entries too long.  I’ll hit the birthday pub crawl next time, including the demonstration on how to properly pour absinthe.