USA 22 - Don't Wear Black

There should be a warning sign "DO NOT WEAR BLACK (OR PURPLE) WHEN EATING BEIGNETS".

I wore black one day. Purple the next. Bugger.

Beignets - French donuts - are a tradition in New Orleans. Everyone I spoke with about New Orleans insisted I head to Cafe du Monde at the French Market for the famous Beignets and Cafe au Lait. So, that's where I headed on my first afternoon.

I tracked down those suckers in about 15 mins! You can't keep a good donut lover down. So I ordered the 3 beignets and my Cafe au Lait, waiting with immense anticipation. And they arrived, with about 545kg of icing sugar on top (pic 1)!!! By the time I left the cafe, I looked like a Dalmatian!

So, how were they? Well, I hate to report that I was very disappointed. The beignets were fried in oil that should have been changed last month and they were awfully dry and hard to swallow - how on earth did this place gets its super reputation??? If I were you, I'd skip this tourist trap. I walked away very sad.

Never fear, though, sportsfans, a good food blogger fights the good fight and goes in search of better beignets! (But she doesn't learn that dark clothes are ridiculous when eating this stuff!)

I found FANTASTIC beignets, coincidentally just across from Cafe du Monde. Gato-Me-Crazy, on the corner of Madison and Decatur, was my luckiest find in New Orleans. It looks divey and silly from the outside, but OH MY GOD, they serve the most divine Cajun Donuts (they don't use the term beignets) - I had them for breaky the next day just before I headed to my cooking class. Oh my goodness, they were little circles of hot, light gooeyness in a fresh wonderfully crisp outer...smothered in the same 545kg of icing sugar! The beauty of these is that the hot oil melted the icing sugar a bit to make a wonderful sticky sweet coating...mmmmm. You can see them there above in pic 2! When I ate them the first time, I didn't have my camera with me, so I had to take one for the team and go back the next day and order another batch so I could take that pic - it's a tough gig!

Now sportsfans, I do have to admit that I did try one other place for beignets. And they were really really really good, not as good as the cajun donuts above, but they were ten times better than those at Cafe du Monde. Cafe Beignet on Bourbon Street is the place - they will make them fresh while you wait, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait.

So, some simple Beignet Rules for you, readers...

1. Don't wear black (or purple)
2. Always be prepared to wait, all of the beignet places only make to order
3. Don't wear black (or purple)!!!

Btw, that last pic is a pic from the Marigny area, it's next to the French Quarter and is a wonderful place to walk around, it's a local neighbourhood full of these gorgeous little colourful cottages.