Hurricanes and Hangovers

I was watching Anthony Bourdain's show, "No Reservations" earlier and the city they were showcasing was one of my favorite food destinations, New Orleans.  I couldn't help but to remember my first visit to the Crescent City.  I was 22 years-old and my husband and I were there to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  The first thing on the agenda?  Food!  We immediately set out to find the best places the city had to offer to satisfy our appetites - and found them we did!  Boudain Blanc from the Gumbo Shop, Muffaletta sandwiches from Central Grocery, Po' boys from Mother's, Beignets from Cafe du Monde, Banana's Foster from Brennan's, and the ubiquitous Jambalaya, Red Beans & Rice, and Gumbo found on almost every menu in town.  It only took us about one day to discover that if we got up early and stayed up late, we could squeeze in more meals per day.  Genius!  Good thing Nawlins is a great walking town!

The most talked about (still) tale from this trip was our visit to Pat O'Brien's bar in the heart of "Party Central" on Bourbon street.  We got settled in at our table and ordered up a couple of their world famous Hurricanes.  Beautiful, fruity, delicious, and huge!  Boy, did they go down easy.  As we're enjoying the dueling pianos I finish off mine and the hubby slips me the rest of his with only about 1/4 of it gone then proceeds to order two more.  Repat the process - drink mine and finish his.  All was well until I stood up to find the restroom.  The table rocks, a glass hits the floor, and bouncers come out of the woodwork.  Oops!  What's worse is that I discover the ladies room is up a spiral staircase...great!

I managed to survive the staircase scare and we headed for the front door to walk back to our hotel.  Since there is no glass allowed on the streets of New Orleans, the kind folks at Pat O'Brien's will box up your souvenir Hurricane glasses so you can take them with you to "remember" what a great experience you had there.  Mind you, while New Orleans is a great city, it still has some dicey areas.  I assured my husband that if anybody tried to mess with us I'd hit them with my four Hurricane glasses.  He had to keep reminding me that I only had three glasses because I broke one, to which I slurred my response, "Well, I drank four!"

We got back to the hotel and the first thing I do is lie down on the bed.  Bad idea!  So this is what "bed-spins" feel like!  Let's just say it was a very rough awakening the next morning.  Dry heaves are not the Breakfast of Champions!  I couldn't stand the thought of eating anything until about 3:00 that afternoon and discovered that a Jambalaya Omelet is great for hangovers...who knew?

Before we left the city we bought two packages of Pat O'Brien's Hurricane mix to bring home and share with friends.  That was 22 years ago and those same two packages have moved from house to house with us and have never been used.  I think I keep them as a reminder to never do that to myself again.  Have I experienced a Hurricane since?  Only the weather-related kind.  However, for those who want a little taste of what I went through I've included a recipe for a Hurricane cocktail.  Enjoy, my friends, because I'm not jumping aboard that crazy train again!

Ingredients:

·         2 oz light rum

·         2 oz dark rum

·         2 oz passion fruit juice

·         1 oz orange juice

·         juice of a half a lime

·         1 Tbsp simple syrup

·         1 Tbsp grenadine

·         orange slice and cherry for garnish

Preparation:

1.    Squeeze juice from half a lime into shaker over ice.

2.    Pour the remaining ingredients into the cocktail shaker.

3.    Shake well.

4.    Strain into a hurricane glass.

5.    Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice

Laissez le bon ton roulette!