Fun in Baton Rouge and New Orleans ... minus the food

First, a few pics from our New Orleans, Baton Rouge trip a couple of weeks ago. I understand this would have been the weekend to go, since it was Bayou Fest and Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band were playing, but Hart's graduation trumped all that. So, here's what you get from our trip.
 

What do you know? Gene Simmons at Live After Five in downtown BR! Marilyn Monroe was there, too, but we didn't get her pic.

This is just a chick Dorsey and I were fascinated by because she was drunk and dancing with anyone and everything.

Ha! Me.

Thanks to the nice man who just offered to take our pic. 

Live music. They do this every Friday night. It's free, except for the alcohol. 

Saturday in New Orleans. Lots of great people-watching.

I found the best place in the world. "It's So Good," or something like that. The inside is all pink, and it's all jewelry and accessories. I got that pink necklace and pink rhinestone hoop earrings I'm wearing. I also got a fleur de lis necklace and bracelet. I already want to go back.

Inside Margaritaville.

These people were having fun. They had already had quite a lot to drink and were pretty boisterous.

Dorsey's fascination. 

This guy was really good. He played "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" for me, as well as "Sweet Home Alabama."

On the balcony of Crescent City Brewery. I had crawfish. That's a new thing for me.

See the Hand Grenade? Dangerous drink. Dorsey is already in search of the recipe.

This was a thing called "Sunday in the Park," also done in downtown BR. It was just OK. Didn't like zydeco music. People were fun to watch, though. 

Dorsey's oysters on the half-shell at The Chimes near the LSU campus. .37 cents each. Great deal if you like that crap.

Me at the Chimes. The bar behind me is famous for its many different beers. It has a wall of fame for those who have drunk every beer offered in the bar. I am not one of them. Hee hee. 

Dorsey's the foody. I'm the funny. :) Tell him to get busy with the food part of this blog!

Who puts eggs on a burger?

The K.G.B burger and garmesean frites.

There's no doubt that people in Louisiana are a little different.

Not different in a bad way, but definitely different.

Maybe it's the French influence, maybe it's living life in hurricane alley, maybe it's the 110 percent humidity ... I'm not sure, but these folks have a different way of looking at life, and to be honest, I love it.

My co-worker Scott Braucher
never stops working.

So, when the group I'm working with this week suggested we dine at Curbside today and have us a K.G.B. burger, I followed their lead.

One cool thing about working at The Advocate is that each day, they have another food vendor serve lunch in the parking lot. Employees start lining up well before noon to partake of that day's offering. When we were here a couple of weeks ago, I remember them raving about Curbside and their K.G.B. Burger.

What makes a plain old hamburger into a K.G.B. burger?

Why the fried egg on top, of course! Oh, and the praline bacon (but more on that in a minute).

I have to admit, I've been all over the country, but I've never heard of putting an egg on a hamburger (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Someone apparently thought a big juicy hamburger wasn't messy enough, and that it might be a good idea to put an over-easy egg on top. That way, when you bite into it, you can have egg yolk spray all over your shirt.

To be honest, I'm not sure how much the egg actually added to the sandwich. It definitely didn't hurt, but I'm not going to rush home and start adding eggs to all my hamburgers.

The praline bacon is another matter.

As if bacon by itself isn't good enough, I now know that it should be coated in a mixture of brown sugar, butter and cream to give that salty goodness a twist of sweet decadence. I'm not sure who came up with that idea, but I tell you, he or she was a genius.

Curbside packages their burgers with fresh frites (fries), and I chose the garmesean frites covered in garlic and parmesean cheese, and a warm diet Coke.

I'm not sure how you find the Curbside Truck on any given day, but it would be worth it to drive around town until you spot the beat-up panel truck and brave the long lines. They have several other burger models if fried eggs aren't your thing. Frankly, by themselves, the burgers are darn good, but when you add that bacon, you'll want to move to Louisiana and become a part of the Who Dat Nation.

Buck a Shuck

It's always fun starting a new project. One of the best parts of my job is getting to travel to new places, work with some great people and leave with a sense that we've accomplished something.

For those who don't know, I work as an implementer for Digital Technology International. My company produces fully integrated publishing software for both print and digital (online). Most of our customers are newspapers, and the projects take anywhere from about nine months to more than a year, depending on the size of the company and the extent to which they implement our software.

Beginning a new project is a special time. You're getting to know people you will be working with for months to come, and you know that several of them will remain friends long after the project is over. You're also getting the chance to explore a new place.

Right now, I'm in Baton Rouge, La., working with The Advocate. A group of about six DTI employees was here a couple of weeks ago, and we began the most crucial phase of the project -- finding the good restaurants in town.

OK, maybe that's not the most crucial phase of the project, but it's at least a crucial part of surviving life on the road.

The first week on site is always stressful and tiring. After all, you have to be on your best behavior because the site doesn't know you yet, plus there are usually a few upper muckety mucks around who keep you from really letting your hair down, so to speak.

That's a long way of saying I was just too tired during that first week on site to update this blog, but I promise to do better this week.

During that first week, I managed to eat seafood for every meal. I'm wondering if I can continue that trend this week. Let's face it. It's hard to get get fresh seafood in Amarillo. Anytime I get close to the ocean, I start scoping out the best places for catch of the day.

Tonight, my co-worker Scott Braucher and I went to Ralph and Kacoo's. Don't let the cheesy gift shop that greets you when you enter the door deter you. You'll be tempted to run for the hills, thinking that you've stumbled into a Red Lobster meets Stuckey's. But if you can make it into the humongous dining area, you'll find some pretty good seafood.

We ate there our last time in Baton Rouge, and I have to admit, I was drawn back by the Buck a Shuck promotion. During the month of April, oysters on the half shell are only a buck apiece.

I know oysters aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I love them, and I can personally report that the little oil spill they had down here awhile back hasn't seemed to have caused any irreparable harm to my favorite little molluscs. These Gulf of Mexico beauties are plump and meaty, and much better than the scrawny ones they serve up north in fancy cities like Chicago.

After starting off with a six-pack (of oysters, that is), I selected the King Louis salad as my main course. It comes in three versions, but I chose the "Seafood" version, which features shrimp, crab and most importantly, crawfish.

Louisiana is smack dab in the middle of crawfish season, so you can get fresh crawfish just about anywhere on just about anything. The ugly little critters go by a lot of names -- crayfish, crawdads, mudbugs -- but I just call them good.

I had ordered the King Louis Salad for lunch the last time, so I was shocked when they brought the dinner version, which was at least twice the size of the lunch portion and packed full of plenty of seafood. Ralph and Kacoo's serves their King Louie with a mildly spicy seafood dressing that's very tasty.

Now, I'm a big salad fan. Rarely do I find a salad that I can't finish, but this one was too much for me. You could easily split this between two people and have a satisfying meal.

I'd be remiss in failing to mention R&K's bread selection. They bring a basket of hot hush puppies and some kind of garlicky, cheesy soft rolls that are downright dangerous. Be careful you don't fill up before they even bring you the menu.

Ralph and Kacoo's may not be a glamorous seafood restaurant. The service is a little slow, and the decor is strictly "mounted sailfish" vintage 1970s, but the food more than makes up for those shortcomings.

And with less than two weeks left in the Buck a Shuck promotion, I'll probably have to swing by at least once more this week to slurp another dozen or so.