We love seafood! How about you? If you’re like us, The Louisiana Seafood Festival is perfect for you. Free admission and tons of seafood vendors. You pay for what you eat so you control how much you spend.
Mr. B’s served bacon-wrapped shrimp and grits at the 2013 Louisiana Seafood Festival. So good. (photo by Carlie Kollath Wells, New in NOLA)
#NewinNOLA tip: It’s cash only so bring your money.
My brother-in-law, Tommy Ratchford of Pensacola, isn’t much of a cook, but he knows a thing or two about seafood. Hearken to his “Southfacin’ Cook” recipe for perfect boiled shrimp.
Patsy R. Brumfield
The Southfacin’ Cook
His “West Indies Salad” is a delicious, light, crisp, tart combo of vinegar-sweetened onions, brine and juicy lump crab meat. Can’t get much tastier than that!
It’s gorgeous on toasted French bread slices and even prettier in a stemmed cocktail glass as a true salad or a buffet specialty.
Easy, delicious. A great change of pace with summertime fare, too. Enjoy any time of the year, so long as the crab meat is fresh.
We filled our belly June 1 at the New Orleans Oyster Fest (first-timer tips). The food-centric fest was held in downtown New Orleans at Woldenberg Park. Fav part – free admission.
The day started with an oyster-eating contest in the rain was rounded out with sunshine and food.
Check out our Storify post for food pix from the fest.
In a Half Shelf blog also has a spectacular photos and tips. Check them out.
The 2014 New Orleans Oyster Festival is this weekend (May 31 and June 1). The food is the same both days, but the music is different.
Want to see the oyster shucking contest? That’s Saturday at noon. Interested in the oyster eating contest? That’s Sunday at 11:45 a.m.
We’re tagging along with a Meetup group going Sunday at 11 a.m. Join us 🙂
The Oyster Fest serves up all sorts of bivalve goodness. Here are some of eats in 2013. (photos by Carlie Kollath Wells/New in NOLA)
The fest is at Woldenberg Park, which is next to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas (map). We like this festival because it is free admission and there’s parking around the French Quarter. When we take a car, we usually park in the garage above Saks Fifth Avenue. Tip – if you get in before 9 a.m. at most garages, parking is $10 for the entire day.
You can also take a bus or streetcar and not fool with parking at all. It takes a little longer than driving, but it’s cheaper than parking and you don’t have to worry about a designated driver.
We went to the fest last year and had a really good time. See our pix.
Tips we learned about the New Orleans Oyster Festival:
Have leftover crawfish from a boil? Try this easy recipe for crawfish chowder. We Southerners smugly think “chowder” (or “chow-dah”) is something Yankees invented and shouldn’t be trotted out in kitchens south of the Mason-Dixon line. Fear not, intrepid cooks. Chowder is just a milky stew of goodness, no matter where it comes from.
Patsy R. Brumfield
The Southfacin’ Cook
This recipe comes to me from a colleague when I worked at my alma mater, the University of Mississippi. I gotta tell you, it’s so good that you’d serve it to Prince Charles and Prince Harry, if they were lucky enough to be in your dining room.
Add a crusty loaf of French bread or steamy cornbread and butter for soaking up the juice, and you’ll be dancing! I can’t tell you how many compliments I’ve gotten from this recipe, which has become a favorite with my friends. Now, it’s yours!
Happy Oysters on the Half Shell Day! Really, it’s a holiday. How do you like your bivalves – raw or on the half shell?
Our favorite oyster restaurants in New Orleans so far:
• 50 cent oysters during happy hour at Superior Seafood. This restaurant is right next to the streetcar line at St. Charles and Napoleon. It has nice indoor and outdoor seating. Happy hour is from 4 to 6:30 daily. It also has tasty frozen drinks.
Superior Seafood on St. Charles has happy hour specials for raw oysters. (photo by Carlie Kollath Wells, NewinNOLA.com)
We’re eating & drinking our way through New Orleans with the #NewinNOLA crew. For the week of Oct. 7 to Oct. 14, we filled up our bellies at:
crawfish bread at the Louisiana Seafood Festival (photo by Carlie Kollath Wells/New in NOLA)
We’re doing an informal food outing tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 13) at the Louisiana Seafood Fest and would love to see you. The fest is free and has free cooking demonstrations and music. 
We each pay for the food we eat. Cash only. Food samples are good for sharing (I’ll bring extra forks). Food vendors and their dishes:
Shrimp & grits is a dish that’s gone from the mundane to haute cuisine in just a decade or so. My rendition is a bow to the famed version at City Grocery on Mr. Faulkner’s fabled Square in Oxford, Miss., although I’ve always thought City Grocery’s was too pepper-hot. I’ve adjusted this one accordingly.
Patsy R. Brumfield
The Southfacin’ Cook
The recipe is a perfect entree for 4, plus french bread and a tasty salad.
The New Orleans Oyster Festival served up mouth-watering food June 1 and 2 on the riverfront in downtown New Orleans. We ate our little hearts out, along with the rest of NOLA.
We also got to cross this event off our bucket list.
We pulled together the fest’s most mouth-watering photos shared on Twitter and Instagram. And here they are via Storify:
New in NOLA 