On the way back to the city in the rental car, we visited a really excellent smokehouse, sorry I can’t remember the name at all. But we had their specialty, strawberry beignets, for dessert. Totally different shape from the square Cafe du Monde beignets, these were more the size and shape of hush puppies or donut holes. The strawberry glaze was amazing though! Nice to get a bit of in season strawberries while we could, since Michigan strawberries have several months to go before showing up in our farmer’s markets!
We then went to visit the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood in New Orleans, which wasn’t within walking distance of where we were staying, and easiest accessed by car. The Lower 9th is bordered by a canal and was one of the places where the levees were breached during Hurricane Katrina almost 10 years ago. The area is known for the devastation the hurricane caused there, but there is a pretty amazing amount of work now to rebuild. One big project is the Make it Right foundation’s building of sustainably designed houses that will float in case the levees breach during a future storm. The designs are lovely (my photo is not… I think there was something smudgy on my phone camera lens), and there is a little park with information about the project.
Good idea to rebuild with houses that can float. At least we hope so. Lots of color on the exterior of the houses.
I meant to say first time I read this that I was at a talk by one of the head guys involved in the reconstruction of New Orleans… He was talking about the need to act fast but also ensure they weren’t ripped off. Was v interesting take on preventing corruption