Café du Monde – “Now Hiring”
Hey! Café du Monde is hiring. Vietnamese ancestry appears to be the only prerequisite.
Every drunken, boob-flashing, Yankee tourist knows about Café du Monde. It’s near the riverfront, off Jackson Square – not far from that cloying (but pleasingly dissonant) steamboat/calliope – by the fake antique shoppes, the sports bars, &c. &c… i.e. amidst all the Lower Vieux Carré wonders.
It’s only from nostalgia that I went there at all. The first coffee I ever tasted was Café du Monde – made from that ever-present orange can that resided in the pantry.
My grandmother could’ve just as easily combined chicory with regular coffee to get the same effect, but like all old ladies, she loved pre-mixed foods. She would pour two cups, add bourbon to both… and then set one on fire. She’d offer me the café brûlée once the alcohol had burned off, but I could only take a sip and then grimace. Naturally, she would drink the unburnt one.
I guess Café du Monde is famous for its beignets too, but I wasn’t about to stick around and listen to some hokey live jazz band while involuntarily eavesdropping the lifeless conversations of semi-retired Bostonians and get powdered sugar all over my fingers. I took my iced coffee in its charming styrofoam cup and marched over to Washington Park, where I eavesdropped a bunch of grade school kids instead.
[An aside, but for the record: Annette's Diner (219 Dauphine) - a place that bills itself as "American, Greek, Cajun" will make vegan beignets if you order in advance. I got some funny looks as I added pepper sauce to the top of my sugary doughnut (as is my custom!). Otherwise they're nice folks. They normally make po-boys and the like. Oh, and good spinach pie. Their coffee is not worth mentioning.]
I’ve only been to New Orleans a handful of times, but I’ve had beignets from there once or twice. They were a little on the sinful side and I enjoyed them.
My opinion is that homemade beignets or even some of the donuts from mom ‘n pop bakeries are 10x better. :-)
Concur.
If I had a home, I’d make them homemade.
I am from the area of N.O. and this is a favorite of mine. A visit back to that area would not be complete without a trip here. I overlook the tourists and sit back, enjoy the music, ambiance, the sounds of the cooking in the back. This just goes into making N.O. more of my memories. They are wonderful hot covered in sugar.
Merci pour votre commentaire, mamselle.