Day 2 in NOLA

Day 2 was a little more auspicious, falling as it did on a Sunday (Sunday brunches being a bit of an extravaganza it seems). I wound up at Mr. B's Bistro, and am I ever glad I did. The food was good, the jazz was jazzy, but best of all was my bouncy, exuberant waitress. She was my kind of girl. We chatted restaurants up and down (I even pulled out my six page, sortable Excel spreadsheet) and she proceeded to go up and down the list, checking off the must-hits and the run-screamings. I'm pleased to say that my list met with her approval, though she also gave me a heads up about the snootier places on it (that I may well skip).

After starting with a Bloody Mary ("We drink. That's what we do."), I dove into my triumvirate of soups: the gorgeous gumbo yaya, a boring seafood gumbo, and the soup du jour, which in my case was an oyster eggplant bisque, much livened by a generous addition of Crystal hot sauce.

OK. The soups were good. But the main dish was phenomenal. Try a pork belly and sweet potato hash, topped with poached eggs and lighter-than-air Hollandaise sauce. I could barely finish my plate (but don't worry - I did).

Brunch culminated with a bread pudding with Jameson's sauce (no the alcohol is not cooked out). That I could not finish. In fact, I'm such a lightweight that for dinner, all I had was a couple of oranges.

I'm working my way up to gluttony. I'm not quite there yet.