I had a great time at Essence, and to think I almost didn’t go. It was such an empowering weekend watching people of color come together unified and uplifting one another. The weekend offered various activities from health care tips, beauty and hair care workshops, inspirational seminars, giveaways, and concerts. The concerts took place in the evening and there were so many artist lined up to perform it was impossible to see them all, but I would find myself going in and out of performances trying to see if I could. Serani was performing in one room and Idris was in the other and while I wanted to see them both I had to figure out how I’d do that. After looking at the line up I realized that I’d be able to maneuver between each room and see both artist perform. There were many other performances I was looking forward to seeing like- Blackstreet, Mary J. Blige, SWV, and Fantasia, but the artist I was most looking forward to seeing was Janet Jackson. All my friends that have seen Janet in concert tell me how she is such a great performer and knows how to put on a show. I had never seen her preform live so I was excited, and she did not disappoint.
While Essence is a time to come together and party with a purpose, it can also consume you with all the activities they have to offer. We wanted to do every activity but we also wanted to hang out in the French Quarter and eat all the yummy food, so time management was something we would have to do in order to eat- beignets, gumbo, chargrilled oysters, and so much more.
Café Du Monde would be the first place we would stop for beignets before getting our day started. After arriving at Café Du Monde we realized that they did not serve brunch, so we ordered beignets and went for gumbo and po’ boys at Ya Ya Gumbo.
The next day my friend recommended that we eat brunch at the Ruby Slipper which was founded in 2008 after hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. After we arrived we were told by the hostess that it was a two hour wait and that the location we were at had the shortest wait time. We discussed if we wanted to wait because it was a second time trying to eat brunch at the Ruby Slipper, the previous day we tried they told us it was a three hour wait. We decided that we wait and during our wait we would walk around and take pictures.
A few pictures from our time waiting.
After my name got called and we sat down to eat, I ordered the shrimp benedict with fried green tomatoes and my sister ordered the cheesecake stuffed French toast. The food was really good and we pleased with out decision to wait.
Prior to leaving for New Orleans my coworker told me that I had to try chargrilled oysters, so that was on the top of my list. We decided to make this our last meal before leaving New Orleans, mainly because that was the only time we had. And we are glad we did because we saved the best for last. We sat down at Acme and ordered two dozen oysters, we quickly realized that wasn’t enough. Each oyster sat in a garlicy butter sauce that melted in my mouth with every bite and they were the best oysters I have ever tasted in my life and ever since having them I have been on a search for something similar since.
New Orleans has so much history and culture every time I visit I experience something new.
Takiyah Travels 