NEW ORLEANS
Mardi Gras, meaning Fat Tuesday in French, lives up to its name. For some, the day before Lent is dedicated to flashing their goods for plastic beads, but for many pious foodies it’s a chance to indulge before the start of the yearly fast that accompanies Lent. Mardi Gras is a celebration dedicated to the foods our stomachs adore so tonight, jump right in to a bucket of Cajun crawdads or a heaping serving of gumbo to celebrate this holiday right. Whatever your reason for celebrating Mardi Gras, here are a few great NYC New Orleans-inspired restaurants celebrating today’s holiday in big ways.
South Beach Wine and Food Festival
South Beach, FL
Interested in learning how to taste wine like a master sommelier? Or dining in the dark?
It is time for the 11th annual Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE. This four-day long event gives you the opportunity to see the culinary stars you know and love as well as the producers of the world's most popular wine and spirits.
This festival is hosted by Southern Wine and Spirits of Florida and Florida International University. Both benefit from this event and the festival has raised more than $14 million for FIU.
Heading down to the Big Easy is always a favorite time for us (my fiancé’s a New Orleanian) so when I caught wind of lineup addition’s Snoop Dog and Girl Talk, I knew we had to go. The trek to Voodoo began last Thursday, October 27th, when we flew from NYC to Nola, in excited anticipation of the opening day. After a day of walking around the quarter, hitting up the flea market, costume shops, and snagging a few beignets at Café du Monde, we headed over to check in at the Hotel Monteleone and went to bed early (and yes, it's New Orleans, and drinking is everyone’s part-time job there, but we were too exhausted to go guzzle hurricanes that night).
New Orleans will be getting its yearly dose of Halloween weekend madness with this year’s VOODOO Experience. An annual celebration of music, art, and the Big Easy nightlife, VOODOO 2011 will make its way down to Louisiana from Oct. 28-30.
The weekend’s biggest names will take to the stages of Le Ritual in New Orleans’ City Park. Famous for featuring a melting pot of the hottest artists from past and present, this year’s lineup includes Blink-182, Soundgarden, Snoop Dogg, and Fatboy Slim. House heads can make their way over the Le Plur, VOODOO’s space for electronic dance music where acts such as Claude VonStroke, Craig Richards, Tanner Ross, and Wolf+Lamb will keep crowds entranced throughout the night. Last but not least, Le Flambeau will be the place to go to pay tribute to the roots music that helped shape NOLA into the musically rich city it is today. Every night of the sensory-assaulting weekend will be capped off by Deja Voodoo is Verboten, a series of after-show parties that will feature prominent DJs spinning from midnight to 6 a.m. including Cassy, Danny Howells, Deniz Kurtel, Lee Burridge, Maya Jane Coles, Soul Clap, and Voices of Black.
Nation's Bravest: Firefighters Unite, the first ever national firefighter calendar, features a dozen courageous firefighters from across the U.S. These gentlemen are praised for their work ethic, physical aptitude, and admirable personalities! To represent these twelve men, the calendar will benefit twelve separate charities in Charlotte, Chicago, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Tampa.
Come out to meet and mingle with these gorgeous and model men as they come together for the first time in NYC for the official launch at Greenhouse USA!
Lil Wayne will join Drake, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, and Chris Brown as performers at the 2011 BET Awards, which airs live on the cable network on Sunday, June 26th at 8pm ET/PT.
It seems like Weezy's been in the rap game forever. He's been spitting his lyrical wisdom song after song, album after album, and the flames of this New Orleans Hot Boy are not going to die out anytime soon. Best rapper alive? Most would say yes. Even while serving time at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex, Weezy made chart history when his album I am Not Human debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200. He joined Tupac Shaukur (Me Against the World) as the only rapper to have a #1 album while incarcerated. This guy really isn't human. This year Weezy is nominated for five awards including Best Collaboration, Best Male Hip-Hop Artist and Video of Year. He is set to perform music from his forthcoming album Tha Carter IV.
Currently filming a new movie in New Orleans, the 47-year-old actor was taken into custody Saturday night and was charged with domestic abuse after he had a public argument with his wife.
In a released statement, the NOPD says, "Cage and his wife were standing in front of a residence that he insisted was the property the couple was renting. She disagreed, and Cage grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her to what he believed was the correct address. There were no visible signs of injury on his wife's arm,"
"The actor then began striking vehicles and later attempted to get into a taxi. At that point, an officer who had been flagged down by onlookers drove up on the couple, immediately observed that Cage was heavily intoxicated and ordered him out of the cab, which prompted Cage to start yelling. The officers subsequently took Cage to Central Lock-up."
Cage who was reportedly drunk has been bailed out by reality star Dog the Bounty Hunter. He will appear in court on May 31.
Angelina flew the entire family to New Orleans on Friday where daddy Brad is into the production of thriller Cogan's Trade. Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox and Vivienne came along for the ride. It's not often that they go out in public en masse!
They headed to Louisiana's staple VertiMarte Deli: "They came in and got some juice and chips and stuff like that for the kids. They don't get a lot of pop for the kids. They like to get the whole family out and walk around on a pretty day like today." told a source to PEOPLE
The Jolie-Pitts were all smiles and even waved to admirers from the Deli.
Angelina and the kids headed back to L.A. last night. Brad will stay in The Big Easy a few other weeks.
Candy Chiang and a great group of volunteers turned an abandoned house in her neighborhood into a chalkboard confessional. It was an effort that took over a month, but Chiang created a blackboard out of wood that wrapped around the entirety of the large house’s wall.
Covering that wall over and over again was the phrase “Before I die I want to_____________.” It is food for thought and the blank spaces seemed in such dire need for filling. Chiang was guaranteed a few responses and thanks to some strategically placed bowls of chalk, she would get an overwhelming response.
1118 Cortelyou Road
Ditmars Park, Brooklyn 11218
347-240-5850
The first time I tried crawfish was on a hot and sticky night last summer at a friend's barbeque. We were all sitting around a table in her backyard, enjoying beers, burgers and banter, when out strolls a friend of ours with a big bag full of what I could only decipher to be miniature lobsters. She plopped the bag down on the table and said, "It's crawfish! Dig in." A few of my friends did just that, but the rest of us held back, completely unsure of how to approach the dead critters. Once we were taught have to de-shell them, we tentatively held their lifeless bodies to our lips, inhaling the strong scent of the sea mixed with unknown spices, and then finally dropped them in our mouths. Slightly spicy, briefly chewy and definitely salty. However disturbing their appearance before my eyes, inside my mouth - we got along just fine.
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