The Best Breakfast in New Orleans

The Pudding Lady!

Regular readers will remember that a while back I wrote about how we have a new partner providing us with bread pudding and corn bread.  She read our blog entry and was kind enough to send us a picture of herself in cartoon form.  Here's a link to her website in case you want to get into the mood of what we like to serve for breakfast.  

A gold medal

We recently got another award for being an outstanding New Orleans B&B.  That's always nice.  In addition, if you read Canadian French, we're featured in the Ulysse Guide published in Quebec.  They provided a very nice write up of our inn and there's even a picture of the house.  Thanks Ulysse!

I would say, doing some back of the envelope calculations, that about 40% of our guests are from outside of the United States.  It depends on the time of year and what's going on in the city, of course, but we have the pleasure of hosting a large number of international travelers.  It makes life interesting.  The breakfast conversations are always interesting, but they are especially so when we have a world-wide smattering of perspectives converge over the bread pudding and crawfish pie.

Take the path less traveled

You can always have scrambled eggs and toast (don't forget that dried-out bacon that was cooked a couple of hours ago) at a hotel.  We don't do breakfast that way.  We don't cook.  We aren't licensed for that and if anyone says anything about Frau Schmitt and humble narrator, it's that we like to do things by the rules.  

We have some friends who are innkeepers who aren't licensed to cook and they do anyway.  Every time we see one of them, he likes to say, "We can't operate at that disadvantage.  Nobody plays by the rules anyway in New Orleans."  We play by the rules and we don't see it as a disadvantage.  Instead, we go to neighborhood shops, delis, restaurants, caterers, bakers, farmers' markets, whatnot, and pick up what looks good, what's fresh, and what tastes good.  We try to give our guests a taste of the neighborhoods that make up this wonderful city we call home.

I like to leave the house at 6:30AM every day to pick up what's on the menu and to pick up the juiciest gossip.  We like to share.

You can eat scrambled eggs at home.  

You don't have boudin for breakfast at home, unless you're from somewhere else in Louisiana, like out in Cajun Country, like in Lafayette.  Here's the Wikipedia entry on boudin.  Note, Cajun boudin is not blood sausage.  Louisiana boudin is described, too briefly, under the boudin blanc part of the article.  

Good boudin is a thing of ethereal flavors.  We like to serve it with Creole mustard and with some garlic jelly that Miss Loretta makes in her praline shop in the Marigny.  

Note: In New Orleans, praline is pronounced PRAW-leen.

Food is different in New Orleans.  Things taste different; they taste better.  It is a city full of surprises.  Arrive with an open eye, an open heart, and ready for any possibility.  You won't be disappointed.  Bring your appetite.

À votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.