We seen a lot of gator hunting during our swamp tour

Fats Domino’s house Post -Katrina

New Orleans superdome from the highway, post- Katrina

After Hurricane Irene  passed through NYC, I’ve been thinking about hurricanes. A few years ago we took a trip to New Orleans. It was my first trip down there and I thought all we’d do was drink, drink, drink. But as soon as we arrived I realized how great the cuisine was in this “party” city. We visited two years after Katrina and the city was still reeling from the disaster. We purchased a self-guided Katrina tour CD from the car rental location (proceeds donated to rebuilding the city) and drove through the still devastated areas of the lower 9th ward. It was an overwhelming and humbling experience as the damage was still extensive and the infrastructure of the city was not yet very functional. We even grabbed a picture of Fats Domino’s house, which is in the lower 9th ward from which he was evacuated from after the storm, and we drove up to those famous breached levees. But up on Bourbon Street, which was not damaged too badly by the storm, it was a different city. Live music and food was abundant; you had the feeling that this city was on the verge of rebounding from the storm. We visited the Praline Connection off Bourbon Street (542 Frenchmen St) where I had some alligator sausage to die for, and my girlfriend, Emily, had the jambalaya, which was deelish as well. Acme Oyster House yielded fresh oysters but no clams, which we were told were more expensive because they had to be imported from up north. It didn’t matter, though, because the cajun/creole cuisine was top notch. I was thinking about that trip when I decided to cook this dish, a cajun-spiced riff on pasta, shrimp and steak. Recipe Coming Soon