Safe with Naif

Alright, so it’s day two in New Orleans and I am personally having a blast! My feet are a little achy and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while, but this trip has already been so worth it. Today we went to the St. Louis Cathedral first thing, which is absolutely gorgeous. I am not a religious person and do not attend church, but those stained glass windows are way too pretty. The tour guide was a soft spoken man but it was interesting to hear about who certain paintings or statues were of, and it was interesting to hear about things that were gifted to the church. There was a painting that caught my eye as soon as I wanted to the front of the church. It was a picture of a man who was being struck by what looked like beams of bright light. We learned that it was a painting of St. Francis, who the current Pope was named after, and that the beams of light were referencing the Stigmata, which means that certain people who are highly spiritual may have endured the same wounds that Jesus had. We also visited the Ursuline Convent, which was also a beautiful church with an interesting background. I learned that I could pray to St. Lucy, the Patron Saint of eyes, since I am losing my vision and will probably need glasses soon!

We went to the French Market today as well. I quickly realized that a lot of the stuff there was interesting to look at, but overpriced and I didn’t find anything I could not live without.

My favorite part of the day was the cuisine tour! I didn’t expect to leave feeling so full. First, we had creole beef brisket. I have never had beef that I could eat with just a fork and no knife. It was so tender, and the sauce that came with it was thick and mustard-y, with a ton of horseradish. I love horseradish because it gives food that hot flavor but it doesn’t last long and make my mouth tingle. At the next location, we first tried Mardi Gras dip and chips which caused us all to run into the store and buy a packet to take home. It is a thick, creamy dip, similar to a French onion or ranch dip. We also had red beans and rice there, which was slightly bland until I added a splash (way more than I intended) of hot sauce. The hot sauce was not painfully spicy, thank god, but it did give the beans a lot of flavor. We got to have a muffaletta as well and I already knew that I loved them, so I was looking forward to it. I do prefer them cold rather than warm though. I DID NOT like the funky, sour tasting buttermilk gelato, but that was the only thing I can say I really would not eat again. Cannoli’s are great! I was happy to notice that they aren’t sickeningly sweet. Even turtle soup was great. It sounds disgusting, but I liked it a lot. Its thick, more like a hearty stew. I highly recommend for anyone visiting to New Orleans to take the cuisine tour, and request to have Naif as the guide. You’re always safe with Naif!