New Orleans, LA

Fox and NOLA.com have gotten together and you can watch the k-ville premier right now. Go to the NOLA Entertainment section to see it.

Spoiler Alert: I am discussing the new K-Ville show on Fox and I have seen the ending. If you have not seen the premiere (the link above) and don’t want to be spoiled, do not continue reading. You’ve been warned!

Unless you’ve been under a rock (or have absolutely no interest in New Orleans topics), you have heard of K-Ville. If you haven’t heard, it’s a cop drama in New Orleans about two years after Katrina hit. New Orleans now. Crime drama. Just like real life. Only here the bad guys are rich white women and mercenaries that work at casinos. And I thought there was enough crime with the scum bag murderers, gang bangers, dopers, pimps, etc.

From the blurb on fox.com:

From writer and executive producer Jonathan Lisco (“NYPD Blue,” “The District”) comes K-VILLE, a heroic police drama set – and filmed – in New Orleans. Two years after Katrina, parts of the city are still in chaos, but hope has emerged. Battling an upsurge of violence, understaffing of police forces and a lack of crime labs and other facilities, the cops who remain in the New Orleans Police Department have courage to burn and a passion to reclaim and rebuild their city.

MARLIN BOULET (Anthony Anderson) is a brash, wry, in-your-face veteran of the NOPD’s Felony Action Squad, the specialized unit that targets the most-wanted criminals. Even when his partner deserted him during the storm, Boulet held his post, spending days in the water saving lives and keeping order. Now, two years later, he’s unapologetic about bending the rules when it comes to collaring bad guys. The stakes are too high, and the city too fragile, for him to do things by the book.

Boulet’s new partner, TREVOR COBB (Cole Hauser), was a soldier in Afghanistan before joining the NOPD. He’s tough and committed, but if he’s less than comfortable with Boulet’s methods, it’s because he’s harboring a dark secret. Cobb has come to New Orleans seeking redemption, but redemption can be dangerous. Will Boulet be able to trust him? Will Cobb’s past endanger them both?

Rounding out the crew are wisecracking JEFF “GLUE BOY” GOODEN (Blake Shields), the team’s comic relief; tough-as-nails GINGER “LOVE TAP” LeBEAU (Tawny Cypress), the only female on the squad; and CAPTAIN JAMES EMBRY (John Carroll Lynch), who wrangles the eclectic personalities of his squad with equal parts humor and tenacity.

Through its no-holds-barred crime stories and dramatic personal stories, this intriguing series will take viewers from the Victorian mansions of the Garden District to the rubble of the Lower 9th Ward.

K-VILLE, executive-produced by Lisco and Craig Silverstein (BONES, “Standoff”), is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Deran Sarafian (HOUSE, “CSI”) directed the pilot.

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Here’s something I have never heard of, read beans can make you sick. I ran across this article, Why Red Beans And Rice Can Be Nauseating. I knew red beans could make you fart and if you eat too much it’s like a fiber bomb but I didn’t know it could literally make you sick.

According to the article:

Scientists have discovered how lectins, a family of proteins believed to be a natural insecticide that is abundant in undercooked legumes and grains, can make you feel temporarily miserable.

I searched around to see what a lectin is. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins or glycoproteins which are highly specific for their sugar moieties. Yeah, that didn’t help me either.

Have you heard of ricin? It was used by the Russians to kill a spy. They poked him with a special umbrella and it injected ricin into him. He died shortly after. Ricin comes from the castor bean and is highly toxic. Apparently, under cooked read beans can have something of the same effect.

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I took my wife to a restaurant here in Florida, near where we live. The place is called Po Boy’s Creole Cafe. It looked very promising. Inside it looked more like a sports bar than a New Orleans restaurant but they have some awesome black and white New Orleans prints on the walls.

The menu looked good too. Appetizers included fried pickles (mmmmm!), cajun popcorn and other goodness. Actually, you can view the menu yourself. I don’t see the fried pickles so they may not be selling them anymore. That’s a shame as that was my favorite item.

Anyway, my wife and I are both huge fans of red beans so we ordered the read beans and rice appetizer. The read beans came with great big chunks of tomato in it which kind of grossed us out. It was super thick and I didn’t like the flavor at all.

The wife likes nothing better than a shrimp po-boy so that’s what she ordered. It was kind of small, about 9 inches maybe, and not over stuffed but the breading was spiced decently and the shrimp weren’t over cooked.

I’m a muffuletta fanatic. The description of the muffuletta at this restaurant is:

MUFFULETTA: A New Orleans legend. A round, baked concoction of ham, salami, swiss, and provolone dressed with home-made olive dressing, creole mustard and mayo.

Close but no cigar. Mayo? On a muff? Blech. I asked if they could hold the mayo. The answer was, “No. We have them shipped in special from Louisiana. It’s very authentic. That’s where we get our read beans and rice, too!”

Ugh. I got it anyway. It had been too long since I had a muffuletta. It was an ok sandwich. The olive dressing was good and the meat was very thinly sliced. Worth eating but a far cry from New Orleans.

We’ve been back a few times since it’s so close but it’s not our favorite. Now that it looks like fried pickles aren’t on the menu, there’s not much point in going back.

A much better restaurant, and very authentic, is the Cajun Cafe on the Bayou. This place has EXCELLENT food!

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Just wanted to share my current New Orleans blogroll. If you know of any other good sites, please post a comment.

New Orleans Metroblog
NOLA View
Think New Orleans
Blogging New Orleans
New Orleans Wiki
New Orleans City Business
New Orleans Newspapers
Bayoo Buzz
New Orleans Levee (satire)

Thanks,

LewisC

new orleans, blog, blogroll, links, sites, nola

Dooky Chase’s to reopen after $500,000 in repair. According to the New Orleans City Business news, Leah Chase has been able to get the requires repairs funded and implemented. We’re coming up on the two year anniversary and while the article says no date is yet set, I hope it’s on the anniversary. That’s the kind of message the world needs about New Orleanians. The job will get done.

I watch Leah on PBS when I see that she’s on. Her show is “Creole Cooking with Leah Chase” and it’s a hoot to watch. She is one spunky lady. The article above says she is 84 and wikipedia says she was born on January 6, 1923.

She’s a local. She was born in my mom’s home town of Madisonville on the north shore. Even now, Madisonville is fairly rural (growing lot’s of very large homes right now, though) so I can imagine what it was ike in the 1920s. When I was kid, many of the roads were made up of little river rocks (and I’m not that old).

She moved to New Orleans when she was 18 and got a job at Colonial Restaurant . In 1945 she married Dooky and, after starting a family, she began working at his family’s restaurant, part-time. She soon took a more direct involvement and eventually changed the menu and became chef. The rest is history.

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This is not the classic Iko Iko but I like it. It has a very Caribbean flair to it. You may have to download the DivX player to see the video.

Captain Jack - Iko Iko

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The New York Times recently had a good article about the impact that Katrina has had on local musicians: The Katrina Effect, Measured in Gigs. It’s a good article but pretty sad. For a city known as much for it’s music as it is for its food and good times, the fact that very talented musicians can’t get work pretty much sucks.

Of course, since Katrina, it’s been hard for every one. There’s no reason it wouldn’t be hard for musicians. It’s just a shame that one of New Orleans’ main tourist attractions, and one of the things that improves everyone’s morale, is having such difficulties. The fear is that if the musicians can’t get gigs in New Orleans, will they go where they can?

The Times article has some important figures. They are disturbing, but not unexpected, for anyone living in the area:

Conventions, typically a strong source of music gigs, are running at 70 percent of 2004 levels, but leisure travel remains far below pre-Katrina levels, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. Over all, visitors generated $2.9 billion in spending in 2006, down from $4.9 billion in 2004, according to the bureau. About 3.7 million people visited the city in 2006, compared with more than 10 million in 2004.

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Need a place to relax and get away from your stress for a little while? Try some of these popular New Orleans spas:

• Balance Spa & Salon
  Located in the French Quarter, Balance Spa & Salon offers a wide variety of services, including bridal packages to pamper the bride and groom.
• The Spa at the Ritz-Carlton
  Located on Canal Street, The Spa at The Ritz-Carlton is luxurious and lavish. Treat yourself to a decadent spa day and forget about your worries.
• Belladonna
  Belladonna is a day spa and retail therapy center located on the popular Magazine Street in New Orleans. They offer a full range of servcies, inculding manicure/pedicure, facials, and massage. You can even download the Belladonna spa menu on their website to see what services they offer.

New Orleans, NO, Louisiana, New Orleans getaways, New Orleans vacation, vacation ideas, getaways

Getting ready to head out and about New Orleans? Here are a few events that you might be interested in…

FRIDAY

Bywater Art Market
For more info visit: http://www.bywaterartmarket.com/bam/index.htm

**Skinny Puppy, White Mice, Otto Von Schirach performing at the House of Blues (225 Decatur St.)
Time: 8 pm
Cost: $28

SATURDAY

*Willow Family Band, playing at Jax Brewery (600 Decatur St.)
Time: 11:30 am
Cost: Unknown

*Mark Penton and Plan B, appearing at the Old Opera House (601 Bourbon St.)
Time: 2 pm
Cost: Unknown

*Soul Fest at the Audubon Zoo (handmade arts and crafts, Creole cuisine and soul food) - June 16th and 17th

SUNDAY

**Toy Camp, all-kids cast musical with live jazz band
Time: Fridays 7:30 pm, Saturdays Noon, Sundays 3 pm

*Source: Nola.com
**Source: New Orleans CVB

New Orleans, New Orleans events, what’s happing in New Orleans, jazz, Soul Fest, musical, blues, art