When you mention New Orleans to most people, visions of Mardi Gras and living it up are usually the first things that come to mind. True, those are both definitive aspects of the city but to only see it as a party town is really selling it short. This year I specifically chose to go to New Orleans at a non Mardi Gras time. I wanted to see what this place really had to offer 365 days of the year, festivities aside. Also, truth be told, the flights were cheaper and it was easier to get a room.

We arrived on a Thursday, early afternoon. Luggage retrieved and thoughts of Cajun and Creole food dancing in our heads we grabbed the first cab we could and headed for our bed and breakfast located on the outskirts of the French quarter. Unfortunately, the cabby drove like a bat out of hell so our stomach's stayed behind at the airport and caught up to us about 30 minutes later.

The Royal Street Courtyard was going to be our home for 5 days and it looked really nice. A find on the Internet we didn't really know what to expect but when we entered the main house to check in we were bowled over by the beauty of it. The owners definitely love Christmas and being this was the end of November, we were in time to get the full effect. Lot's of really nice decorating but I digress.

Let me repeat the main house was beautiful. Our room was not however in the main house but in a separate building located across the courtyard in what would have been known as the servants quarters. This point however, was never mentioned to us when we made our reservation. What this tiny room lacked in space (miniscule bathroom) it made up for in quiet. Mildly disappointed that I wouldn't be soaking my time away in the claw foot bathtub I'd seen in one of the main house's guest rooms, I quickly got over it. Fellow guests the next morning told us the house was very poorly insulated sound wise. Also, I think it needs to be noted that the Breakfast part in the name of this place was not what I'd envisioned and would disillusion most. I awoke from dreams of thick biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, and country ham to mediocre coffee, Little Debbie pastries, bad watery orange juice and cereal. So it wasn't the best breakfast, but hey for 80$ bucks a night double occupancy I guess I couldn't really complain. This is New Orleans, a town with much to see and do, how much time would we really be spending here anyway?

Let's get to the food, we went for lunch to a place that was recommended to us by the receptionist called The Praline Connection. It wasn't his first choice but it was close and he said they made good friend chicken. Please note: the fried chicken was good, the gumbo was bad. Watery and tasteless, I was heartbroken. A serious foodie, I had traveled for miles and miles to taste the Holy Grail of Gumbo and my first encounter with the stuff was the equivalent of Dorothy figuring out the Wizard of Oz wasn't.

The best part of this place is the waitresses who walk around with tilted fedoras and call you "Honey" and "Sugar" all the while maintaining a pleasant but surly demeanor. We also got a kick out of a young movie star who was trying really hard to pretend he wasn't trying desperately to remain anonymous. To respect is privacy and right to consume greasy food in private, he shall remain nameless. The pralines here however, that famous Louisiana sweet are outstanding and worth the trip. Get them when they are fresh though. Their charm wears off like a lady of the evening's makeup the morning after.

Want really good Gumbo at an incredibly affordable price, head to where else? The Gumbo Shop on Saint Peter Street. It's located in a 1795 building and has a prix fixe Creole dinner that for about $18 plus tax and tip is one of the best deals around. It includes a choice of Appetizer featuring seafood, Chicken Andouille or Herb Gumbo also salad for those who don't realize why they came to New Orleans in the first place. Your main dish can be the Creole Combination platter, which has a variety of local specialties, Chicken and Tasso Pasta, or Chicken Espagnole a.k.a. a local version of Paella left behind by the Spaniards when they were here some time ago. Choice of sides includes: Macque Corn Choux, New Potatoes, Creole creamed Spinach or my favorite, smothered Turnip greens. For dessert if you are still hungry you can pick between the Praline Sundae, Chocolate Brownie Pie or the most decadent and unbelievable hot bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce. If you eat anywhere at all for Creole food, don't bypass the Gumbo Shop. It's an amazing value and really good.

O.K. so we've eaten, what else can you do? Just walking around New Orleans is entertainment enough. It makes me think of Amsterdam, Paris, Williamsburg VA, New York City and some parts of Spain all rolled into one. So many things to do. Forget the typical Pat O'Briens that every tourist flocks to, save that for later when you really need a drink and a rest. If you want entertainment, try any one of the bars just off of Bourbon Street. Most will be playing some form of outstanding jazz, blues or hybrid of the two. Another cool place is the Café du Monde on Decatur Street (open 24rs), famous for their chicory café au lait, fresh beignets and their dictator like wait staff; it is still a great place to hang and listen to street musicians who set up nearby at various times of the day. Several fortunetellers, artists and street musicians surround Jackson Square in front of the Cathedral. Watch your wallet but enjoy the fun as well. There are also several upscale shops nearby that sell everything from custom perfume to fine linens.

After all that, we are hungry again, where to eat? It's not that there's a lack of choices more like there's too many. Not being in the mood for a fancy meal we decide to check out a place close to our B& B called La Péniche which is known for it's outstanding burgers and breakfasts. It's 9pm so we skip breakfast and head for the burgers. The Kathryn burger is without a doubt the finest burger I/We've (we shared it was soooo big) have ever had. It has grilled onions, ham, Swiss cheese and the traditional burger fixings. Great seems an inadequate word but really it was. We also had something called their combo boat, which consists of shrimp, oysters and fish delicately seasoned and fried accompanied with fries and slaw. Equally delicious in it's own right. When we got our food we understood why our waitperson had been so insistent to ask "are you sure you want to order all that?" twice. A huge amount of food it was, dieters and small eaters don't even think of going there. Part II of More to New Orleans than Mardi Gras in the next issue. ©MBMGrapeEvents.com 2001 all rights reserved

Seaview Sparkling Brut NV $9

Recently I attended a gourmet dinner at The Black Olive restaurant, a local eatery nationally acclaimed for it's seafood and wine list. Owner and wine guru Dimitri Spiliadis put together a phenomenal menu with wines to match that had the whole purpose of blowing away any misconstrued ideas you might have about Greek wines.

We started off the evening with a selection that juxtaposed Retsina (you can't get away from Retsina in a Greek restaurant) and Viogner. This was to show where Greek wine making had been for the past decades (Retsina) and where it was heading, (Viogner). I don't care what people tell you, Retsina, for all it's pine, hospital disinfectant aroma and weird albeit strangely pleasant taste, is a great match for Greek finger foods. It meets spiced olives and garlicky Tarama and Tzatziki head on and holds it own. The Viogner was delicate and floral in contrast but didn't back down to the food either. It had backbone and substance. Lovely wine.

Next we had the wine that sparked my interest in Greek wines that night, Pape Johanou Nemea 95(see Nemea on your right), what can I tell you? It was gorgeous. Had I closed my eyes… I would have thought I was drinking a premium California Cabernet that had been properly cellared and was almost at its peak. My eyes were open and I definitely saw this wine was Greek. This wine was from Nemea, which is located on one of the larger Greek islands called Peloponnese. Fantastic stuff made of the Agiorgitiko grape or St George as it's also known, a native noble varietal. Noble it is, it makes terrific wine. The second wine we tasted was Gaia Estate Agiorgitiko, it was chewy and in my opinion definitely too young but oh… the promise it held.

We tasted a sparkling Spiropolous Organic Sparkling Matinia that was good but didn't excite me, however if you are a sparkling aficionado it's a must try. Besides, how many times can you say: "I had a really neat sparkling Greek wine the other days" to your friends? It's worth the shock value alone.

Lastly, accompanying the Black Olives infamously great Baklava (it's a recipe from Constantinopole handed down from the family) we had an outstanding Sweet Muscat wine from the Union des Cooperatives Vinicoles de Samos. Succulent, sweet but not cloying it was a perfect match for the honeyed dessert that was brimming with walnuts and almonds.

To learn more about Greek wine click here

All these wines are findable, where exactly is another story. A good wine shop should be able to track them down for you and be willing to do so. Dimitris of the Black Olive advises seeing the folks at Rotunda who are noteworthy for their ability to track down weirdo wines. The effort is worth it, believe me. ).©MBMGrapeEvents.com 2001 all rights reserved.

You could say I was a 20-year-old desperately trying to be a woman of the world with an educated palate. Sophisticated people drunk wine and paired it with food: now this was something I wanted to get into! Leave the beer to the boys. My boyfriend routinely piled empty bottles of it on my coffee table when he entertained at my house (a woman of the world, I lived on my own). Brew dude still lived with his parents; he also left the bottles for me to clean up. Both beer and boyfriend went by the wayside for me as a result, and I stayed away from the stuff pretty much until many years later I started tasting wine professionally.

I soon learned that beer is the beverage of choice that you will seek out after tasting 200+ wines ( no, I am not kidding). As Garrett Oliver, highly acclaimed Brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery in Brooklyn (NY) puts it: "it's the scrubbing bubbles" that work so well to cleanse one's palate. I recently attended a beer and artisanal American cheese tasting held by members of Slow Food in Washington DC. Garrett, a Director of Slow Food's board, was the honored guest and in 3 hours he single handedly changed my perspective on beer. You could say I was ripe for the picking. Having been in the food and wine industry for four years, I am constantly on the lookout for "taste" epiphanies. Beer and cheese was a huge one for me.

We started with a Brooklyn Pilsner, which is crafted in a true Pilsner style from pale malt. The Pilsner style is a result of the mass production of glass that began mid 1800's. Prior to that, mostly everybody's beer was muddy and brown, but with the advent of pretty clear glasses for the masses everyone wanted to be drinking something, shall we say more esthetically pleasing. In the brewing process of Pilsner, lager yeast drops to the bottom and leaves a clear beer above. Et voila! Pretty beer with a fantastic taste, the style is badly imitated by many industrial beer makers but rarely achieved for a variety of reasons…but that’s a whole other story.

The above is the fascinating kind of fact that emerged during Garrett's talk. You can see why I was hooked. It got better, way better, especially when we got to the cheese and beer pairings. The Lager, which is considered Brooklyn Brewery's flagship beer, was paired with a Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog that comes from the outskirts of San Francisco and is lovingly made by Mary Keene. The Lager, a burnished coppery gold brewed in a Viennese style had a floral aroma and caramelized taste that went brilliantly with the complex and deceptively delicate seeming goat. The cheese was at its peak, almost runny and gorgeous. A match made in heaven I have to say…©MBMGrapeEvents.com 2001 all rights reserved

Beer has been around in the US for a long time; there was a time when there were thousands of local breweries scattered all over the country. In the early 1900's there were 18 brewery's in Brooklyn, now there is only one: Brooklyn Brewery. Garrett considers the American Microbrewing movement "to be the purest expression" of Slow Food. I would have to agree it's definitely one of them. His Brooklyn Monster Ale, a heady, complex Barley Wine (with a whopping 11% alcohol content) brewed from an heirloom barley from Scottland is dated and meant to be cellared. It was one of the first products to enter Slow Food's Ark of Taste in the US. Barley wine has a noble heritage, as it used to be brewed for aristocracy by their butlers. Thankfully today, it's democratized and everyone can enjoy it if they dare to.

When you consider it, beer is an affordable luxury. Almost everyone with a few dollars in their pocket can buy themselves a premium bottle to have on its own or with a meal.

We also tasted the Brown Ale, and we learned that the roasted malt imparts the deep dark reddish brown color. I swore I could taste notes of chocolate and chicory in this brew and wouldn't you know it, Garrett said one of the ingredients he used to brew it had a definitive "chocolate" characteristic. Here I learned that tasting beer is much like tasting wine, there are a plethora of flavors to delve into. Beer making is also similar to cooking in the sense that the recipe aspect and brewmasters blending of the flavors is really responsible for the outcome. Wine largely relies on the grace of Mother Nature for a good harvest of grapes.

The India Pale Ale Garrett brews also wooed British beer makers at a recent conference. Interestingly enough, there is more of this historically-British product brewed in the US than in England. Thankfully, American Brewmasters such as Garrett have seen the beauty of this style of beer. It hails back to the time of the British rule of India and has a higher alcohol content (to sustain the then long ship voyage from England to India) but is dryer than most beers, and accompanies fiery and spicy foods really well.

So, now I can say, as a woman of the world, that I like beer, good beer, I truly do. When I asked Garrett how his involvement with Slow Food has impacted him personally, he said that without a doubt it's been the people he's met and the things he's learned. I'll lift my pint and drink to that! ).©MBMGrapeEvents.com 2001 all rights reserved