For years I have listened to Mary Margaret wax about the most remarkable pastry and delicious coffee she has ever had. The pastry is called a beignet which is a French type of donut swimming in powdered sugar. The coffee is chicory coffee which is a blend of roasted chicory root and coffee beans. The use of chicory became popular in France during Napoleon’s ‘Continental Blockade’ Of 1808, which resulted in a major coffee shortage. Chicory which is native to France, was added to coffee beans as an extender.
Mary Margaret was last in New Orleans way back in the early 1980’s when she went to a Nursing Conference with a few other nurses from the hospital they worked at. Since then, she has shared with me how she would love to revisit the Café du Monde in New Orleans to share with me this wonderful combination.
Well, today was the day. Shortly after we woke up, we hopped in our little Fiat and drove across the Mississippi River and into New Orleans. Soon we were in the French Market part of New Orleans and ordering our beignets and chicory coffee at Café de Monde. The café is open 24 hours a day and even at this early hour was filled with revelers of this delight. I was amazed to learn that the café just served beignets, chicory coffee and hot chocolate. That’s it! Wow, to have such a restricted menu and to have been in business since 1862
.
As you can see, the beignets are swimming in powder sugar and there is no way to eat these treats without being covered in white. They were so good we ordered a second order of beignets (you get three beignets with each order) and they went down as easy as the first three. Yum!
Since our former brother-in-law, Larry, and his wife, Ruth, will be driving into New Orleans from Florida tomorrow, to be our guides to New Orleans, we decided to wait until tomorrow before we really start exploring New Orleans. Thus, we returned to our campground and explored the bayou instead.
As we did, we spotted a couple of fan boats coming down the river that is besides our park. They looked so fun we have decided that while here, we too will take a tour of the bayou in one of these neat boats.
We also ogled over the floating cabins that one can rent at part of our state park. Wow!
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 