New Orleans restaurant limited time review

New Orleans is one of those cities for eating out; lots of very good restaurants and lots of seafood.   So TPP has done his best, mostly with the help of Mrs. Phactor and the recommendations of others, to sample several restaurants that are well above average.  Our choices included two well established classics and two up and coming restaurants: Mulates, NOLA, SoBou, and Kingfish. Take these comments for what they are worth; but TPP would not steer you wrong.
Mulates is old New Orleans, Cajun home cooking and live Cajun music.  Definitely family friendly and a reasonable value; you will not leave hungry; the portions are big, too big really.  But it is a classic.  You can't get a better value on food and music especially if you have kids.  Who's in the kitchen?  Someone's Cajun mother.  Here's the near perfect red beans and rice with Andouille sausage.  NOLA - This is Emeril Lagasse's casual restaurant, and it too is now a classic.  This is a good as Cajun food can get.  A few more progressive elements do sneak onto the menu like blueberry-lavender sorbet (quite memorable).  Without question this is fine dining based on Cajun classics.  TPP had a garlic-parmesan cheese crusted filet of drum.  Wonderful, although two decades ago no one would have thought of eating drum, but so it goes in a world of overfishing.  Mrs. Phactor had smoked duck, a very rich dish.  SoBou (south of Bourbon) is a relatively young restaurant that in terms of ambiance seems a bit out of place in the French Quarter.  It's décor would be more at home in New York.  The menu is sort of a New Orleans fusion.  The BBQ pork ribs came with a habanero infused cotton candy that was pretty funky, but very good.  TPP had an heirloom tomato salad with beans and corn that was excellent.  Also his Old Fashioned cocktail was the best he's ever been served, although Stephanie Izzard's (Girl and a Goat) was a close second.  Last, but not least, Kingfish is only 4 months in business, but you would never know; it was running on all cylinders. TPP would call this modern New Orleans from the nicely renovated but period décor, the Huey Long memorabilia, and an up-dated menu.  Rather than sports, the TV over the bar was playing old Doris Day movies.  Go figure, but a nice change of pace.  TPP got the best mint julep ever.  All four of us rated our meals superior, flavorful, attractive, nicely presented, and just plain excellent.  It was impossible to pick the best dish.  A warm loaf of fresh bread came to the table in its paper wrapper along with a zesty pimento cheese spread.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience.  The heat and humidity this week have been a might oppressive, but NO remains irrepressible.  Love this place.  TPP should mention that the waiters and waitresses here are the most personable, friendly, and professional you will ever experience, and it seems quite genuine, not just smoozing for tips.  Let TPP know if you've been in any of these places.

Botanical meetings - New Orleans

Well,  TPP is back in New Orleans for the annual botanical meetings, back because we done this here before, so while fond and the memories are rather foggy because that was 40 years ago.  So two of my older colleagues, one seven years my senior, and one thirteen years my senior, and both still active faculty, and myself took our lovely wives out to dinner at NOLA.  Wonderful place, wonderful food.  The blueberry lavender flower sorbet was just magical.  The duck and Andouille sausage gumbo was excellent.  This is New Orleans and the food is wonderful.  The street scene is amazing; lots of costumes of various sorts, if you get my drift.  So for the next few days the blogging may be erratic, but it'll be coming from the botanical meetings, live and direct.  Tomorrow is for field trips, and meetings, and a big social mixer.  Another group is also having a conference here in NO, but they won't get mistaken for botanists, or us for them; they dress pretty fancy, black tie and evening gown type of thing tonight.  Botanists just don't do formal, except for one guy, a past-president, who once came in a tux, and everyone just figured he was weird, or making a joke, or something.  Hawaiian shirts are a more usual fashion statement in the botanical world and khakis.  Of course, after so many years, these people are my friends and it's great fun to see them once each year except what with all the science going on it can be hard to socialize with many of them.  There isn't enough time.  Science is a community, and we interact at many different levels, so socializing is a very important thing to do.  The symposium "Yes, Bobby (Jindal), Evolution is True" symposium is on Monday, and TPP will let you know how it goes. 
TPP sees elsewhere that another blogger is getting paid to report on the protist meetings out west in Vancouver.  TPP has been there twice for meetings and it's a lovely city, and again the meetings were nearly 30 years apart.  It does kind of rub my rhubarb that a science blogger is accepting money to do something that they should do anyways, and even worse that TPP hasn't been offered any such support, which is why food came first.  So now, having driven too far, and eaten too much, it's time to get some sleep because the field trip starts early.