TulaneLSU's 2012 French Quarter Fest Day One Reviews

What a gorgeous day to start the 2012 FQF. Last year I remember was uncomfortably warm, and the organization on Thursday was poor. A lot of food booths didn't open last year until the afternoon. No such problems this year. By 1:00, all the booths near the Aquarium were open. The bands were playing and the weather was great.

In years past, I was meticulous about my dining planning. I saw what was available, decided which ones I wanted to eat, and then drew out a map, detailed with time and distance specific instructions. I also budgeted, and used techniques like "By 2:00, I will have spent $18.00 and walked 1.27 miles."

This year, I wanted to be a little more spontaneous. I did no planning and decided I would only try the stands that were near where I was sitting, which was near the Aquarium. Much to my surprise, it's not all about big named restaurants. A lot of people talk about restaurants almost like they do car companies or clothing brands. They feel a lot of pride having eaten at certain restaurants and look down on others who do not share the same stripes. At the FQF, many food snobs say get Muriel's crepe. It sounds good; it's the trendy thing to say; and people get a sense of pride having gotten to eat a sample of food from a nice restaurant at Muriel's. I once fell to such peer pressure, but fall no more. I will not be swayed by fads and what the in-crowd says. I will make my own paths from now on.

And that's what I did today. I threw my OCD tendencies to the wind and just ate. And it was the best FQF dining experience I've had yet.

Ranking my tastings today:

5) Rotolos Pizza - Had a hankering for pizza and had never tried this chain, so thought, why not. It was okay. Like a cheap, half-butted version of the delectable Sbarros, RIP, Canal Place Sbarros.

4) Boucherie - I'm one of Boucherie's biggest supporters on the Food Board. But boy was I disappoint. Got the roast beef po-boy. Very light in the meat. That bun easily could have handled twice the meat that they gave me. The horseradish sauce was nice, but for $5 they need to up the amount of meat they put in it.

3) Crescent Pie and Sausage Company - I'm a tepid fan of their food. I think it tastes really good, but prices are high for what you get. I got the jambalaya, loaded with their great sausage, and a boudin on a stick. $8 was fair, I suppose, and it was 8/10 material. Really nice work, guys.

2) Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Cafe - I need to revise the TulaneLSU's 10 best dessert emporiums list to bump Buttermilk higher and higher. Serving the best buttermilk drops I've ever had. So perfect. I went back. And then back again. $2 each was higher than they should have been, but worth every penny in taste.

1) Grand Isle - If you have to try one thing this year at the FQF (don't listen to anyone who makes assertions like this), try the Shrimp Caminada poboy. I believe this won the PoBoy Festival award a couple of years ago. I now know why. What a perfect array of herbs. Fresh dill should be a requirement in all shrimp poboys. The cabbage was excellent as well. It reminded me of Liuzzas By the Track BBQ shrimp and a bahn mi, but brought together so that the sum was infinitely better than its parts.