New Orleans Cooking School
Yesterday the class started out at the New Orleans Cooking School where groups were assigned a different course of the meal. My team was in charge of salads, so we made Creole Salad. Here we are with the finished product!
Archive for date: March 20th, 2016
French Quarters
Today we started at the New Orleans School of Cooking. The group picked fresh food from local market and prepared an appetizer, soup, salad, entre, and dessert. My group prepared the shrimp jambalaya entre with rice, peppers and vegetables. Everything came out delicious and was an amazing experience.
The rest of the day was left to explore the French Quarters. The light drizzle kept it interesting as visited this historic area of town. The music, food and culter are quite different than any other cities.
Cooking up a storm
New Orleans cooking school was a blast! The French Quarter is a unique mix of sounds, smells, and colors. And the rain doesn’t slow any of it down! It was great to soak up some new cultures today.
3/19
Today we spent time cooking at the New Orleans School of Cooking learning to cook the Creole and Cajun style of food. Than we explored the French quarter and enjoy music and food.
Vegetables
Today we took a cooking class and for the first time since we got here we had a meal with delicious fresh vegetables from the local farmers market here in New Orleans. As Jay said earlier today, ” [we] didn’t think New Orleans believed in vegetables” given that we have been having a lot of foods with food really high carbs, tons of brisket, pork, Mac n cheese, and coleslaw. Highlight of the day was trying an amazing avocado Popsicle and exploring more of the city. 
*Avocado Popsicle 
Tomorrow will be our first day out in the field where we begin our wetland restoration work and really start getting intimate with the swamps and the unique ecosystem New Orleans has. Should be fun and exhausting.
Day 3
Today was a full day of fun in the French Quarter. We attended the New Orleans School of Cooking that was led by our host Michael. We formed teams & he walked us to the farmers market. There we had a $20 budget to but whatever we wanted to make our assigned course. Patrick & Sadie were my partners and we were in charge of the entré so we decided to make a version of gumbo (the best we could seeing as we wanted to accommodate our vegetarian friends!) So we bought shrimp, onions, tomatoes, carrots, & mushrooms. Back at the school we peeled all the shrimp and de-veined them with Kiki.
When everyone was done with their assigned course, we all gathered to eat together and as we ate each couse, the group who prepared it explained how they did it. The food was delicious!!!! Michael said he had never tasted a better red gumbo so that was exciting.
After the cooking experience we were let loose in the quarter to explore for the rest of the day. We stopped a lot to watch street performers (one of my favorite things to see!) We also went into the cathedral which was amazing. It was so intricate and detailed in the arcitecture. It was a result of the French influence in NOLA.
It started to rain pretty heavily so we stepped inside a coffee shop and played cards. When it settled down we made our way to Burbon Street to meet some others for food but got swept away when we saw Patrick, Jay & Michaela dancing away with the 2 line band barreling down the street. We joined in & it was one of the most fun moments I have EVER had. There were so many people having a good time and the energy was amazing. Definitely a moment I will always remember (oh, and it was raining, how much better can it get?)
Once we were all together as a big group we went to D.B.A. where we saw John Boutte play/sing. It was a fun time! Overall an amazing day(:
18/3/2016
Heute hab ich ganz viel gemacht. Wir habben Creole Essen gekocht, wir haben ein Zwei-Stufen-Marsch an Bourbon Straße getanzt, und wir haben so viel im der Französische Viertel gelaufen
Day 2
Today we all left the hotel and headed to the New Orleans Historical Collection and walked through the history of the city.
There were old maps and paintings as well as other artifacts. Pictured below was one of my favorite pieces. It is an illustrated newspaper that dip it’s sicknesses in the city.
After we went to a Vietnamese place called 9 Roses and I tried spring roles which were super good! Leaving we all walked through the rain and went on our way to our levee tour led by a professor from Tulane University. It was very informational and put the failure of the levees in perspective because we were able to see the neighborhoods effected.
Aside from the amazing history and science we learned, one of the highlights of the day was the flat tire on the Escalade. The second highlight was eating BBQ and watching Paul Sanchez perform all Chicke Wah Wahs.
Today was all about food!
Today we went to the New Orleans Cooking school to learn about classic New Orleans food. It was super unique in that we went to farmers market to buy the ingredients for ourselves. The teams were: appetizer, salad, soup, entree, and dessert. I was head of the dessert team and we made calas. These are known as the predecessors of beignets. They are sweet rice patties deep fried with powdered sugar. We added strawberries from the farmers market to the rice patties and made a sweet strawberry sauce to the plate as well. Traditionally, these were made by slaves who used left over rice to make them. They sold them in front of parishes in an attempt to buy their freedom, but it hardly ever worked. All in all the food each team made was delicious and learning the history of each dish really made me appreciate the food and culture even more. I also got to try a piping hot fresh beignet which was something I really wanted to do while I was here. But I have to say the most interesting food I ate today was an avocado sorbet Popsicle from the farmers market.
Day three
We learned how to cook calas, which is a desert that was sold by slaves in an attempt to buy their freedom back. We definitely had a great meal today.
This is Jambalaya, and it was an amazing meal that we had throughout a five course meal.
