Things to do in New Orleans: Food Tour by Destination Kitchen
Now that we’ve given you a stomping New Orleans Jazz Tour, let’s dive into NOLA’s soulful food, shall we? I’ve always heard about great things about their food – of how rich, comforting, and distinctly flavorful they are. And I think it was just high time for Karlaroundtheworld and I to take a legit food tour around New Orleans on the second day of our trip. Read on to check out our favorites during New Orleans Food Tour by Destination Kitchen. Bon appétit!
Destination Kitchen Food Tour
New Orleans Food Tour Snapshot
Destination Kitchen’s New Orleans Food Tour is a 3-hour guided tour filled with eating, drinking, walking and exploring. It features 6 food stops to serve both cajun and creole food that NOLA is best known for.
Trivia: NOLA is known for both cajun and creole food. The main difference is creole food uses tomatoes while cajun does not. Therefore giving it a herby, sour flavor. While cajun food is famous for being very well seasoned, sometimes misunderstood as being spicy.
Meetup Point/1st Stop: Roux Royale (French Quarter)
Located at the heart of the French Quarter, we met up at Roux Royale for our New Destination Kitchen Food Tour. It’s a quaint giftshop filled with charming souvenirs, gift items, and novelty food (their pralines and biscuits are quite popular. This is where we met our tour guide, Susan, who’s by the way originally from New York and has been in New Orleans for quite awhile. We then took off for our New Orleans Food Tour shortly after.
2nd stop: French Market (Open from 10 AM- 5:30 PM daily)
As we were building our New Orleans itinerary, the French Market seemed to be a crowd favorite. Lucky for us, we had a local to take us around and sample what it’s best known for. Now just a little FYI, The French Market is a sort of flea and artisan market spanning six blocks in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It’s right by Decatur and Dumaine Street in East NOLA, and is the oldest of its kind in the United States.
While waiting for our food, Susan let everyone roam around for 5-10 minutes around the shops. I had a few things in mind, so I rushed to buy some magnets ($ 1.00!) and trinkets in the rows of flea vendors at the far end. There’s also a whole lane of artisan makers fronting the food stalls. When I got back, I was warmly welcomed by Alberto’s Muffuleta Sandwich.
The Muffuleta is a type of round Sicilian sesame bread that was originally invented at the Central Grocery Store in 1906. However, as legend has it, locals have created varieties of it since then. And now the one served in Alberto’s seems to be the best that NOLA has to offer. The one we had was very tasted and had a generous amount of olive bits, salami, ham, provolone, and Swiss cheese in it. I’m not much of an olive fan so I took most of them out but it still had a strong flavor yet very tasty. Karla on the other hand, paired her muffuleta sandwich with her favorite Bloody Mary.
3rd Stop: Tugaje’s Restaurant (823 Decatur St.)
Having a great appetizer in the French Market, Susan then took us to one of NOLA’s oldest restaurant bars: Tujague’s! The place is actually quite old (built in 1856) but Tujague’s still serves some of the best classic Creole food in New Orleans. And we cannot help but agree!
We had Tugaje’s famous Beef Brisket with Creole Horseradish dip and it was one for the books! The meat had a deep, savory taste to it, so tender that we didn’t need knives to cut through it. And the horseradish dip? Just wonderful. It had a distinct sour-savory flavor that made us all very happy diners. (Save the spooky tales behind Tugaje’s for later!)
Pit Stop: Jackson Square
On the way to our 4th stop, we took a quick breather at the historic Jackson Square. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. Mainly because of it’s the site where in 1803 Louisiana was made United States territory pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase. Loved the open space that invites dozens of people to gather round and street performers alike.
4th Stop: New Orleans Creole Cookery (Toulouse St.)
Next on our New Orleans Food Tour stop was the New Orleans Creole Cookery in Toulouse Street. Now, we’ve previously had Jambalaya the night before (Gumbo Shop) but was sadly a disappointment.
Jambalaya by New Orleans Creole Cookery. The best one we’ve had in NOLA.
Good thing it was shortly redeemed by the one we had at the New Orleans Creole Cookery. Extra delicious! It was well-seasoned and had a soft mildly-spiced texture in it. I honestly wanted more!
5th Stop: Kingfish Kitchen & Cocktails (Chartres St.)
Our 5th stop on the Destination Kitchen Food Tour took us to a modern restobar called Kingfish Kitchen & Cocktails. Kingfish prides itself in serving Southern dishes and cocktails with a contemporary spin.
We had their Boudin Balls (Creole mustard aioli, red pepper jam) and Pork Cracklins’ (similar to the Filipino chicharon or fried pork rind). I enjoyed both but would have been better if we also ordered Kingfish’s famous cocktails like the Sazerac, Pimm’s Cup, or even the Vieux Carre.
6th Stop: New Orleans School of Cooking (St. Louis St.)
After all that rich and savory flavors, we were all ready for dessert! For the last stop of our New Orleans Food Tour, our group found ourselves at the highly popular New Orleans School of Cooking. Of course we weren’t going to cook (although Destination Kitchen does offer it too), but just to sample on their famous Pralines.
Pralines from New Orleans School of Cooking (the best in NOLA for me)!
Little discs of yumminess, made mostly of nuts and sugar. Available in classic and chocolate flavors, they were the perfect sweet-enders to a delicious New Orleans Food Tour. Thanks Susan and Destination Kitchen! See you at the next bite!
Click here to book your next New Orleans Food Tour. Or follow Destination Kitchen over at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DKfoodie).
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