Tag: tourism

  • My Day in Shinjuku: Cinnamoroll, Shrines, K-pop, & City Vibes

    My Day in Shinjuku: Cinnamoroll, Shrines, K-pop, & City Vibes

    By day 16 of our honeymoon in Japan, you might think the novelty of Tokyo would have started to wear off, but it hadn’t. Not even close! This ended up being one of the days of our trip that perfectly combined so many of the things that I love about Japan: ridiculously cute food, shrines tucked into the middle of the city, K-pop and Korean culture, street food, shopping, and wandering around Tokyo after dark to take in all the big city vibes and night life happening all around me.

    Starting the Day at the Cinnamoroll Café

    We started the day with an early lunch at the Cinnamoroll Cafe, which had been high on my list ever since we discovered it while planning our trip. I’m a huge fan of Sanrio and themed cafés in general, so naturally, eating food shaped like Cinnamoroll was something I absolutely needed to do while in Tokyo. And the café definitely delivered on the cute factor!

    Tim ordered Japanese-style curry and rice, and I went with the omelette rice, both complete with an adorable little Cinnamoroll made out of rice. We also ordered a Cinnamoroll dessert afterward, because obviously.

    The food was good and I’m very glad we came here. I even picked up some souvenirs in the gift shop on our way out! Including a pin featuring artwork of the omelette rice I ate.

    If you plan to come here on your trip to Japan, I recommend lining up 20-30 minutes before it opens! They don’t take reservations, and it gets very busy! There is also a location in Osaka.

    A Sunday Flea Market at Hanazono Shrine

    After lunch, we headed to Hanazono Shrine. And, since we happened to visit on a Sunday, we were lucky and got to shop around at the flea market that is held on the shrine grounds once per week.

    The flea market had all sorts of things to look through, including ceramics, figurines and other little vintage objects. I got a couple of vintage looking lucky cats to gift to friends as well as a cute fox figurine. But even without the market, Hanazono Shrine would have been worth visiting. I loved how peaceful and traditional it felt despite being right in the middle of one of Tokyo’s busiest neighborhoods.

    K-Pop Heaven in Shin-Okubo

    Next, it was time for somewhere I’d been particularly excited to explore: Shin-Okubo, Tokyo’s Koreatown.

    As both a huge K-pop fan and someone who loves Korean food and culture, this was my kind of neighborhood. I visited multiple K-pop stores, wandered through the streets filled with Korean restaurants and K-beauty shops, and heard K-pop playing seemingly everywhere we went.

    It was so much fun getting to indulge my K-pop obsession while in Japan. I loved browsing merch and albums and seeing which groups seemed particularly popular there. A lot of the shops sold bootleg/unofficial items, and I bought a huge unofficial Sana photobook that I really love. I love girl groups, and especially Twice, and shopping for both official and unofficial merch was a blast. Shin-Okubo in general felt really energetic and colorful and I loved exploring.

    Of course, we also had to eat! One of our street-food stops was for cheesy tteokbokki: chewy rice cakes covered in spicy red sauce and smothered in melted cheese. Tim got a hotteok, which is basically a Korean street food pancake. Between the K-pop stores and Korean snacks, I could have happily spent much longer wandering around Shin-Okubo.

    Small Plates, a Musical Surprise, & Shinjuku After Dark

    Eventually we made our way back toward Shinjuku proper and decided on an izakaya for dinner, where Tim and I ordered a bunch of sushi and small plates to share. We absolutely love eating at izakayas. For those unaware, an izakaya is basically a bar or pub in Japan, where it is expected that you purchase a drink. Think of it like a table charge. They typically offer small plates as well.

    I went straight for two of my favorite Japanese foods: salmon sashimi and takoyaki. Tim ordered Wagyu, okonomiyaki and tuna sashimi. One of my favorite parts about eating in Japan was being able to order several small dishes like this instead of committing to one huge entrée. It gave us an excuse to try a bunch of things at once. I love eating this way in general because it is so hard for me to choose just one thing. I am a huge foodie, especially when traveling, and I want to try EVERYTHING.

    After dinner, we started walking back toward the general direction of our hotel, but we took our time exploring the city and popping into any store that happened to catch our eye.

    Shinjuku at night really is an experience in itself. Giant neon signs cover the buildings, restaurants and bars occupy every available inch of space, and the streets are densely packed with people. Shinjuku feels like the quintessential “big city”, and at night it is truly beautiful, bustling, and wondrous. Below is one of my favorite pictures that I took during my whole 18 day honeymoon in Japan, and I really feel that it captures the overall vibe of Shinjuku perfectly.

    One of our spontaneous stops that night ended up being particularly memorable. We popped into Tower Records and discovered that a J-pop group called .BPM happened to be performing! We stopped to watch for a while, and they were really good! It was such a cool, unplanned little travel moment that we never could have put on an itinerary. Their music and vibe would please any K-pop girl group fan, so definitely look them up if that’s your thing. These girls are very talented and clearly have some very dedicated fans!

    And because we obviously hadn’t yet eaten enough adorable and delicious things that day, we finished the night by splitting a strawberry cheesecake crepe for dessert.

    Looking back, this day was the perfect snapshot of why I love Tokyo so much. Within the span of just one day, we went from a Cinnamoroll-themed café to a traditional shrine and flea market, spent the afternoon surrounded by K-pop in Koreatown, ate sashimi and takoyaki at an izakaya, stumbled across a live J-pop performance, and finished the night eating a crepe beneath the neon lights of Shinjuku.

    There wasn’t really one enormous bucket-list attraction anchoring the day. Instead, it was a collection of smaller experiences. And despite that, this was one of the days that ended up being the most memorable!

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  • Everything I Ate in NYC: Asian Food Edition

    Everything I Ate in NYC: Asian Food Edition

    It would be very easy for me to plan an entire trip to New York City around food alone.

    As someone who especially loves Korean and Japanese food, I was in heaven getting to spend so much of our weekend eating our way through Koreatown, with a little Chinatown dim sum and conveyor belt sushi thrown into the mix. We managed to fit a surprising number of delicious things into just three days, ranging from casual late-night noodles to a Michelin Guide-featured Korean restaurant.

    Here’s everything I ate!

    1. Kimchi Cream Udon at Mew Izakaya

    After seeing a concert at Kings Theatre, my husband and I headed back to Koreatown in search of a late-night meal and ended up at Mew Izakaya. I ordered the kimchi cream udon, and it was exactly what I needed after a day that had been book-ended with a 6AM flight and a pop music concert. I needed carbs!

    The noodles were thick and chewy, and coated in a rich and creamy kimchi sauce with just enough of a kick. It was hot, comforting, and incredibly satisfying. This was one of my favorite dishes of the entire weekend.

    2. Okonomiyaki at Mew Izakaya

    Tim went with the okonomiyaki, and naturally I had to steal some.

    Okonomiyaki is a wonderfully comforting Japanese savory pancake that’s full of different flavors and textures and then covered in sauce. It’s usually made with batter and cabbage but sometimes it has noodles in it as well. Between his okonomiyaki and my giant bowl of creamy kimchi udon, Mew Izakaya turned out to be an excellent spontaneous post-concert dinner choice.

    3. Conveyor Belt Sushi at Kaiten Zushi

    We also managed to fit in conveyor belt sushi at Kaiten Zushi.

    Conveyor belt sushi is such a fun experience. You get to choose a whole array of sushi and side dishes from a tablet and wait for it to travel to your table via conveyor belt. Instead of committing to one big entrée, you can keep trying different plates and get a lot more variety for a reasonable price than a traditional sushi restaurant.

    This was a casual meal compared to some of the other restaurants we visited, but that’s okay! Sometimes you just need to sit down, watch sushi come by on a conveyor belt, and see how many plates mysteriously accumulate in front of you!

    4. Spicy Octopus with Bori Risotto at Seoul Salon

    One of our more elevated meals was at Seoul Salon, a Korean restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide.

    I ordered the spicy octopus with bori risotto. Bori means barley in Korean. The dish paired tender, spicy octopus with a creamy barley risotto. I hadn’t eaten anything quite like it before, and I loved the combination of spicy octopus with creamy and comforting risotto.

    It was flavorful, beautifully presented, and definitely one of the more unique things I ate all weekend.

    5. Tteokgalbi Wagyu Sliders at Seoul Salon

    Tim and I also shared the tteokgalbi sliders at Seoul Salon, made with wagyu beef, garlic mayo, and soft potato buns.

    These were SO good. Tteokgalbi is traditionally made from ground, seasoned meat formed into patties, and turning it into a tiny wagyu slider was an awesome way to serve it. The beef, garlicky mayo, and fluffy bun worked very well together.

    They were playful and approachable while still feeling special enough to fit the restaurant, and they ended up being one of my favorite things we ordered.

    6. Korean Fried Chicken at Seoul Salon

    Tim chose the Korean fried chicken as his main dish, which of course meant that I also got to try some!

    It’s easy to see why Korean fried chicken has become so popular. When it’s done well, the crispy exterior and spicy chicken combination is hard to beat. Seoul Salon’s version fit right in with the rest of our meal and gave us something a little more familiar alongside dishes like my spicy octopus and the tteokgalbi sliders.

    Between all three dishes, Seoul Salon was easily a standout of the weekend.

    7. Black Sesame Ice Cream at Food Gallery 32

    After dinner, we went back to our hotel for a couple of hours before somehow deciding that we needed dessert. We headed back into Koreatown and stopped at Food Gallery 32, where I tried black sesame ice cream for the first time.

    I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but it was surprisingly mild and easy to eat. The flavor was subtly nutty and with just enough sweetness, and I ended up enjoying it. It was one of those little things I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to order at home, which is exactly why I love trying things like this while traveling.

    8. Dim Sum at Jing Fong

    We saved Chinatown for our final day in New York and started the morning with an early dim sum lunch at Jing Fong.

    The food was delicious, but I also love the experience of eating there. Servers periodically wheeled carts loaded with freshly prepared dim sum through the dining room, stopping at the tables so you could see what was available and choose whatever looked good.

    We ended up with an assortment spread across the table, making it a perfect meal for sharing and trying different things. I had been here before, and I was eager to introduce this place to my husband, who loves dumplings and pork buns and basically all things dim sum.

    It was also a great way to end the food portion of our trip before spending our last few hours exploring the city.

    Basically, I Ate Very Well!

    If there’s one thing this weekend confirmed, it’s that I could very happily spend an entire NYC trip bouncing between Koreatown and Chinatown to eat everything in sight.

    I loved that we got a little bit of everything: comforting creamy kimchi udon after a concert, casual conveyor belt sushi, an elevated Korean dinner at Seoul Salon, a new-to-me dessert in the form of black sesame ice cream, and a table full of dim sum in Chinatown.

    As much as I love sightseeing when I travel, food is such a huge part of how I experience a destination. Some of my strongest memories from trips are tied to specific restaurants or dishes, and I already know that several of these will be things I think about when I remember this trip.

    And considering how many restaurants in Koreatown and Chinatown we didn’t even get to try, I clearly have an excuse to go back.

  • 3 Days in NYC: Koreatown, BINI, & Incredible Food

    3 Days in NYC: Koreatown, BINI, & Incredible Food

    I will apparently travel to another city for a concert at the slightest provocation. This time, the culprit was BINI. After discovering the 8-member Filipino girl group from videos of their Coachella performance earlier this year, I quickly became a fan. So, when I had the chance to see them at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, that was more than enough justification for me and Tim to turn it into a full 3 days in New York City. And, sure enough, the concert quickly became 3 days of spending time in Koreatown, eating at Michelin-recognized restaurants, Japanese book and toy stores, dim sum, tourist attractions, and a cable car ride over the East River.

    We stayed at the Virgin Hotel with an incredible view of the Empire State Building, and we managed to pack a ton into 3 days! Here’s how I spent my weekend in NYC.

    Day One: Koreatown, Our First Michelin Star Restaurant, & BINI

    After arriving in New York, our first stop was the Virgin Hotel to drop off our luggage. From there, we immediately headed to one of the places I was most excited to visit: Koreatown.

    First, we got lunch at an all-you-can-eat conveyor belt sushi restaurant called Kaiten Zushi. I love conveyor belt sushi restaurants. No notes!

    As a huge K-pop fan and lover of Korean food and culture, I could happily spend hours exploring K-town’s shops, and that’s basically what I did! We checked out K-Popsy, K-Pop Nara, and Ellicor, but Koryo Books was probably my favorite of the bunch. I absolutely love being surrounded by shelves of albums and K-pop merchandise among tons of fellow K-pop enthusiasts. There is only one K-pop store in Pittsburgh (the city I live in), and I don’t make it out there too often, so places like this make me feel like a little kid at Christmas time. After wandering around the shops, we went to Grace Street Coffee & Desserts and shared an iced strawberry matcha while we rested for a bit at one of their tables.

    Then, we were able to check into our room at the Virgin Hotel, where we discovered one of my favorite features of our stay: our view! My husband and I have a travel card that occasionally upgrades our hotel room as a perk, and we had been upgraded to a “Sky Chamber” room with a full view of the Empire State Building. Our view out the window was so awesome that even just hanging out in our room managed to be exciting, especially at night.

    Before heading to dinner, we carved out a little time to check out St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And suffice to say, this was a very welcome and very drastic change of scenery from the last few hours of shopping in Koreatown. The cathedral is very impressive in person, and so beautiful, especially when you consider its location right in the middle of Manhattan.

    That evening, we had a reservation at Estela, our first-ever Michelin-starred restaurant. We shared five small dishes, which was a great way to experience their menu. My favorites were the ricotta dumplings and the fried arroz negro with squid, although everything was very good. We had scallop and lobster dishes that we both liked, and I tried beef tartare for the first time ever, and quite enjoyed it! The restaurant was creative and elevated without feeling too fussy.

    Then, it was time for the main event!

    The entire reason this weekend happened in the first place was BINI. I went down the BINI rabbit hole after discovering them earlier this year and have become a very big fan! They have great music, choreography, visuals, and they definitely have K-pop vibes!

    The concert was at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, which is an absolutely beautiful venue in its own right, and it was easily the highlight of the trip for me. The girls were amazing live and they were clearly having so much fun performing. After the concert ended, I decided that I couldn’t leave empty-handed, so I picked up a t-shirt and photocard set at the merch table. Thank you for a wonderful show, BINI.

    After taking a train back to the general area of our hotel, we realized that we were starving, and decided to get some food at a Japanese izakaya called Mew. I ordered the kimchi cream udon noodles, which were SO good and the perfect comfort food to end the night, and Tim got an okonomiyaki.

    After we finished eating, it was finally time to get some sleep. We had been awake for 20 hours and sleep was calling our names.

    Day Two: Midtown, RiseNY, & Even More Incredible Food

    Our second day was largely dedicated to Midtown sightseeing and shopping. We visited several iconic stores right in the heart of Manhattan: American Girl, Nintendo, FAO Schwarz, and the M&M store before heading somewhere considerably more niche: The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine.

    I enjoy tinned fish and eat it pretty often at home, so I knew I wanted to check this place out as soon as I found out about it. And while it’s definitely overpriced and tourist-trappy, I appreciated it for what it was. It has a fun carnival aesthetic and lots of different souvenir tins to choose from. I ended up buying four tins, including one featuring my birth year and one featuring, for some reason, the state of Maine (where I am from). I also got spicy smoked sardines and sardines packed with lemon. It feels wrong to actually open and eat these beautiful tins, but maybe I will after I feel that I’ve enjoyed them as souvenirs for long enough!

    One of our biggest activities of the day was RiseNY. The experience begins with a video about the history of New York while you’re sitting inside a simulated NYC subway car. From there, you walk through a series of exhibits exploring different aspects of the city’s culture and history. There were some really cool pop culture pieces on display, including dresses worn by Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan!

    The best part of this experience comes at the end. RiseNY concludes with a flying theater ride that is immediately reminiscent of Soarin’ at EPCOT. You’re lifted into the air in front of a huge screen and “fly” over New York City, complete with movement and effects. As a theme park lover, I knew that this ride would be my favorite part of the experience, and it absolutely was!

    I think RiseNY is an especially good experience to add to a first-time NYC itinerary. It breaks up the shopping and restaurants and traditional sightseeing while also being educational. You’ll learn a lot about New York City and have fun while doing so. And the ride at the end is genuinely fun and makes this experience quite unique.

    From there, we headed to Kinokuniya Books, a Japanese bookstore where I proceeded to spend considerably more money than I had anticipated.

    This store has two floors filled with books, manga, puzzles, Studio Ghibli merchandise, stationery, and more. And, as anyone who knows me can tell you, I cannot resist cute stationery or Studio Ghibli. I would even go as far as to say that this was my favorite store we visited during the entire trip. I got birthday cards to send to my friends, a coffee table book about Studio Ghibli heroines, a couple of cute notebooks and a cute pen, and a couple other things. And after we left, Tim ran back in to get me something for Christmas that he’s keeping a secret, which I am very excited about!

    And then, because I apparently couldn’t stay away, we went back to Koreatown for dinner.

    Dinner that night was at Seoul Salon, a Korean restaurant featured in the Michelin Guide, and this ended up being a standout meal. I got spicy octopus with a creamy risotto. Tim got the Korean fried chicken, and we shared the tteokgalbi sliders, which featured wagyu steak, garlic mayo, and a potato bun.

    The sliders were such a fun dish, Tim’s chicken was delightfully crispy and spicy, and my spicy octopus and risotto was easily one of my favorite meals in recent memory. This dinner really reinforced how much I love Korean food. I cannot recommend Seoul Salon enough.

    After dinner, we went back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours relaxing and looking out the window from our bed. But eventually, dessert called! We headed to Food Gallery 32 (yes, in Koreatown) and tried black sesame ice cream for the first time. It was surprisingly mild in flavor and quite palatable! We also shared an Oreo churro. Food Gallery 32 has many vendors, and I bought a Blackpink keychain from a lady on the second floor. This was a fun little outing!

    Day Three: Chinatown, Roosevelt Island, and an Iced Latte

    On our final morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Chinatown. There, we had an early lunch at Jing Fong. Jing Fong is a popular dim sum restaurant where the servers periodically come through the dining room pushing carts loaded with freshly prepared dishes. You can look at what’s available and choose whatever catches your eye! It’s a lot of fun to eat dim sum this way because you don’t know exactly what you’ll end up trying when you sit down. I had been here before in 2022, so I knew I wanted to bring Tim here. He loves dumplings and pork buns!

    After lunch, we wandered around Chinatown for a while and spent some time exploring the Elizabeth Center, a small shopping mall filled with various little stores.

    Our next destination was Roosevelt Island, but getting there was arguably more exciting than what we actually did once we arrived. Instead of taking the subway, we rode the Roosevelt Island Tramway.

    The tram is part of New York’s public transportation system. But rather than traveling underground, you’re suspended above the city in a cable car! And as you go higher, you get an amazing aerial view of Manhattan and the East River.

    We didn’t have an elaborate Roosevelt Island itinerary once we got there. We mostly enjoyed the waterfront and wandered around a bit before heading back. The tram ride itself made it worthwhile! Seeing the city from above was a very cool experience and it was something very different from the rest of our weekend.

    Back in Manhattan, we stopped at Say Coffee, where I ordered a creme brulee iced latte and Tim got a strawberry smoothie. This was nice, because the cafe was quiet and peaceful, and a much needed slice of calm during an otherwise crowded and slightly overstimulating day! Plus, my creme brulee iced latte was super good. One of the best iced lattes I’ve had in quite a while, easily.

    With our flight home approaching, we spent the last part of the afternoon sitting and people-watching in Greeley Square Park.

    Three Days Well Spent

    There are approximately one million different ways to spend a few days in NYC, and I am very happy with the version we chose. We had both been to NYC before, so we chose things to do that specifically appealed to us and our interests, rather than feeling like we needed to rush to see every iconic landmark.

    As someone who loves Korean and Japanese food and culture, I felt very much in my element. I loved getting to spend so much time in Koreatown, eating great food and shopping for K-pop merch. And eating at a Japanese izakaya and shopping at the Japanese bookstore were clear highlights as well.

    Of course, seeing BINI was the biggest highlight, and the impetus for the trip in the first place. And I also have to give RiseNY a special mention for being such a fun and unique experience that ends with a ride!

    We came to see BINI. We left with four tins of sardines, a concerning amount of stuff from Kinokuniya Books, several excellent meals, and another fun New York weekend in the books! I would call that a successful trip.

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  • How to Spend 4 Days in New Orleans: My Complete First-timer Itinerary

    How to Spend 4 Days in New Orleans: My Complete First-timer Itinerary

    New Orleans had been on my travel bucket list for years. Between the food, the history, the music, and the unique culture, it neared the top of my list of US cities to visit. I knew I wanted to experience it at least once. Earlier this year, my husband and I finally made the trip. After four days of eating our way through the city, staying at a French Quarter hotel, visiting museums, and even taking a swamp tour on an air boat, I can confidently say that NOLA lived up to the hype!

    Day One: French Quarter, Jackson Square, and the Garden District

    We arrived the evening before our true “Day One”, and headed straight to our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western French Quarter on North Rampart, just a short couple minutes on foot away from the famous Bourbon Street. We checked in, set down our bags, got dinner at Mambo’s on Bourbon, and came back to our room to crash for the night.

    Our dinner at Mambo’s shortly after landing in Nola. We had a crab cake appetizer, Tim had a “taste of New Orleans” trio, and I had redfish with corn grits and collared greens. A great dinner at this very busy and bustling restaurant!

    The next day, we slept in a little bit and headed straight to the French Market around lunch time. Our first stop at the market was Loretta’s Famous Pralines for some authentic New Orleans beignets. We had heard that his place was beloved by locals, and we were hoping the line would be shorter than the famous and always busy Cafe du Monde. We should have gone in the morning instead of sleeping in, as we did still have to wait a fair bit! Our beignets were delicious, though, and I think the wait was worth it. We had praline beignets and crab beignets.

    Loretta’s was clearly a local favorite as well as a tourist hot spot

    One of our crab meat beignets

    After enjoying our beignets and wandering around to take in the sights of the many vendors, food stalls, souvenirs, trinkets, and live music, we got a muffuletta to share. A muffuletta is yet another staple of New Orleans cuisine. They are round Italian sandwiches with salami, ham, provolone, and olive salad. Tim really enjoyed it. And although I’m generally not a fan of olives, I also found it to be quite good!

    The muffuletta we shared at the French Market

    After our afternoon at the French Market, we headed to Jackson Square, which is home to St. Louis Cathedral. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in the US in continuous use. It was beautiful and a very cool historic landmark to check out. While you’re there, make sure to get some photos in front of the cathedral and the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson.

    Don’t mind the Crocs- I had a broken toe and needed loose shoes to walk around in!

    After some souvenir shopping and a little more sight seeing, we took a ferry across the Mississippi River and back before taking a bus over to the Garden District of New Orleans. The Garden District is beautiful, with impressive architecture and very old oak trees with branches that arch over the streets. There are historic mansions to admire as well. The energy here is completely different from the French Quarter, and offers a different side of New Orleans. I strongly recommend taking a stroll through the Garden District on your trip. Getting to see those oak trees was easily a highlight for both me and my husband.

    My pictures don’t do it justice!

    For dinner, we tried a Haitian restaurant near our hotel called Fritai. I ordered crab mac and cheese with Creole hot wings, and Tim had a plantain sandwich. We shared some vegetable fritters with a spicy house-made sauce called pikliz. This was a delicious meal and I highly recommend eating at Fritai. It was also a great reminder that New Orleans is influenced by many different cultures beyond the well known Cajun dishes!

    Finally, we went back to our hotel room for the night. There, we were greeted by Gary the hotel cat, who turned out to be an unexpected highlight of our trip! We met her when we heard her meowing outside of our room, and then she proceeded to barge in and make herself at home! And yes, despite her name, Gary is a girl.

    Day two: museums, Mardi Gras, and Bourbon Street

    On day two, the first stop on our agenda was the National World War 2 Museum. Even if you’re not a huge history buff, I’d still recommend visiting if you enjoy museums. This one is huge and quite impressive, with different themed areas that were clearly designed to be part of an immersive experience. There were several interactive exhibits as well. The museum does a great job of bringing history to life. We left after a couple of hours but there was still more to do and look at if we had stayed.

    After that, it was time for lunch. We went to a restaurant called Cochon. Tim got brisket with deviled egg potato salad, and I got fried alligator tossed in chili garlic mayo and macaroni and cheese casserole. Both of our meals were delicious and distinctly Louisiana! If you haven’t had alligator before and are nervous to try it, I would say to give it a shot. If I had to compare it to another meat, I would say it’s most similar to chicken. It’s not a perfect comparison, but trust me that alligator tastes very inoffensive.

    After lunch, we took an Uber to our next stop: Mardi Gras World. This ended up being one of my favorite attractions of our trip, and it was easily the highlight of our second day in NOLA. It’s a huge warehouse where Mardi Gras floats are made, and they offer tours every half hour. We took one, and it was so much fun! Everyone in our group got to have a piece of King Cake too, which was a fun touch for the experience. King Cake is a long held New Orleans tradition.

    During our tour, we learned about the history and traditions of Mardi Gras. Many of the city’s famous parade floats are made and stored here, and we got to see those too. It was so cool to see a little bit of the process and the craftsmanship behind making the iconic Mardi Gras floats and props. I personally had a more enjoyable time here than at the WWII museum. And it felt more distinctly New Orleans, too.

    After killing some time and taking a quick nap in our hotel room, we went to Bourbon Street for dinner at a restaurant called Rex House. I had Cajun stuffed fish with crawfish cream sauce and a side of jambalaya, and Tim had the jambalaya entree with blackened chicken and smoked sausage. We also got bread pudding to go, which we enjoyed later that night at the hotel. Bread pudding is a dessert frequently enjoyed in NOLA, and it’s easy to see why. Make sure to get some at least once on your upcoming trip.

    Tim’s jambalaya from Rex House

    After dinner, we took some time to wander through Bourbon Street. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and it was cool to see all of the hustle and bustle and the excitement! There were hundreds of people walking around with drinks (it’s legal to have alcohol in public in certain areas of the city, including the French Quarter), street performers, and people throwing Mardi Gras beads from their balconies. It was such a vibe, so festive and lively, and I loved getting to take it all in. Someone threw alligator Mardi Gras beads at me, and I kept them as a memento! A fun souvenir from a uniquely New Orleans experience.

    Day 3: Swamp tour and one last night in the French Quarter

    This was our last full day in NOLA, and we made sure it was a good one. And, I will say, if there’s one excursion I’d recommend to nearly everyone visiting Louisiana, it’s a swamp tour. We spent the morning racing through the bayou on an airboat, and it was a hell of a good time.

    Our boat reached speeds of about 30 MPH. And despite the cooler weather, we still spotted a dozen or so alligators. Several of them swam right up to our boat! We got to throw marshmallows to them, which was definitely a highlight. How many people can say they’ve fed a marshmallow to an alligator in the Louisiana bayou?

    Our tour guide, I wish I could remember his name, was hilarious, knowledgeable, and clearly very passionate about the swamp and the local ecosystem. He also did a good job of using humor to put our group at ease at first, since a couple of us (myself included) had never been on a high speed air boat before. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be. I was nervous for the first minute but my fears quickly dissipated.

    Who knew alligators like marshmallows?

    For dinner, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at a restaurant in the French Quarter called Succotash. Usually, when my husband and I take a trip, we try to make a reservation for a nice sit-down restaurant with a touch of bougie vibes. This time, we went with Succotash, which also happened to be conveniently located just a couple minutes from our hotel.

    Succotash had a very nice atmosphere and very inventive dishes. The staff were extremely nice and it was fun chatting with the host. We started with an order of gochujang deviled eggs topped with fried shrimp before ordering our main dishes.

    For our mains, we decided to get seafood to keep the experience as New Orleans as possible. I got a dish called “Crab Menage a Trois”- fried softshell crabs with some lump crab and coconut crab curry. Tim got U10 Japanese scallops. This was easily one of the most memorable meals I had in New Orleans!

    Crab Menage a Trois

    To finish our final full day, we explored Armstrong Park, walked through the French Quarter once more, picked up a few souvenirs, and visited a local chocolate shop.

    And yes, Gary the hotel cat stopped by again.

    Gary walked in like she owned the place and napped for 2 hours on our bed!

    Day 4: Po Boys, pharmacy history, and Royal Street

    Before heading to the airport, we had one more afternoon ahead of us to squeeze in a few more New Orleans experiences.

    First, we said goodbye to Gary.

    Then, we got lunch at NOLA Po Boys. A po boy is a New Orleans staple sandwich. And while shrimp po boys are the classic choice, I was kind of over fried seafood by this point in the trip, so I opted for ham instead. It was good, despite the ham making me feel like it wasn’t a truly authentic po boy! Tim had a crawfish pie, which he enjoyed as well.

    After lunch, we visited the Historical Pharmacy Museum. It was really interesting to see all of the very old medicines and devices that we used to treat people with. And suffice to say, I’m very happy to be alive during a time where medical science has advanced far beyond what we were seeing at the museum. There was some pretty crazy stuff. This turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly interesting stops of the trip.

    After that, we went to The Legendairy Milkshake Bar. There, we shared a bananas foster milkshake topped with a torched banana. It was very over the top and very Instagrammable, as you can see.

    Finally, we spent our last couple hours wandering down Royal St, browsing art galleries, gift shops, and watching street performers. The vibes on Royal St are absolutely immaculate and I do recommend checking it out on your upcoming trip. It’s artsy and luxurious and a lot of fun to explore.

    Final Thoughts

    Our trip to New Orleans was wonderful. And although we were only there for a few days, we packed in a lot of attractions, museums, and experiences. I expected great food, great history, and great culture, and that’s exactly what I got. It definitely has a very rich culture. And, as a foodie traveler, I loved the cuisine. No one does macaroni and cheese like New Orleans!

    Four days felt long enough to get a perfect introduction to the city, and I left feeling like I had barely scratched the surface.

    I’m glad I got to cross New Orleans off my bucket list, and if you’re planning your own trip there, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to meet a hotel cat named Gary, too.