Travelogue-New Orleans (Day 3-Lunch and Mardi Gras World)

As mentioned before, the day started off on Canal towards the river. First destination would be Mardi Gras World, MGW. You can get there by bus or by their shuttle. To make a long story short, I waited several hours for neither to come. By the time my frustration boiled over, it was close to lunch time and I decided to walk to lunch before going to Mardi Gras World.

I walked down Tchoupitulous and was gladdened to see Cochon a half block away.  This is the main restaurant but not my objective.  The place that I was headed to is around the corner.

Cochon Butcher is a much smaller place with a few tables and primarily counterspace for eating.   There in contains a small butcher shop from which they sell meats, sausages, and cold cuts.

People rave about the pork belly that they produce here.  Of course I had to order that.  Plus, I heard they have a pretty good boudin sausage, so I ordered that too.  Later I find that they also have a smoked version of their boudin.

Boudin is a pork sausage filled with rice along with the meat.  The consistency is like that of canned roast beef hash.  Soft and smooth with a bit of heat.  Homemade bread and butter pickles and hearty german mustard accompany the links.  I ended up buying a pack of each to take home.

When reading about the description of the sandwich, I was a bit put off by the mint dreassing.  The think slices of pork belly is served on toasted break with said dressing cucumbers.  Pretty simple and really tastey.  There was a chewyness to the meat due to the layers of fat between flesh.  I thoroughly enjoyed this and would make this my first destination on my next visit.

Still put off by the unattentive transportion options, I walked from Cochon butcher to Mardi Gras World.  I dont choose to walk much but I was fortunate that it was fairly close.  I have been told that this was previously located across the river before landing here.

Greeted by costumed harlequins, the site is located near the cruise terminal just south of the bridges.  Emblazened on the warehouse alongside MGW, Blaine Kern Studios runs this museum/working business.

Some displays, or props as they call it, usher you into the gift shop where tickets for the tour can be purchased and some souvenirs too.  There happened to be this display of my hometown NFL team.  Superbowl XVI was played in NO at the Superdome and the 49ers beat the Bengals.

Other characters abound from the familiar to the unknown

There is a video presentation that you can partake of if you please.  Before the video, participants have the freedom to try on some costumes hanging on a few racks.  a couple of props are on hand to take pictures with.  The video goes through the history of the MGW celebrations and those involved with its production.

As a parting shot, we are given samples of a local pastry called King Cake.  Its a cinnamon pastry with a load of colored frosting atop it.  A tradition is to have a small plastic baby baked into it.  Whoever gets it has to pay for the next round of King Cakes.  Is it just me or does that sound like all kinds of wrong.  I hope there are better versions out there and this is something concocted for the tourists.

This is a working studio where they start making the next years floats as soon the current years festivities have run their path.  The studio produces and rents the props to the crewes for their floats.  Crewes is the correct spelling for the organizations that put on the parades.

Some of the props are made from pieces of styrofoam stuck together and the form is shaved out of it.

Drawings help to guide the builder mock up the props and their position on the float.  These are highly sensitive images not to be published to the world.  Now that you've seen them, I must kill you now.

Others are made in a different manner.  However, I forgot how these were constructed.  Dont pay attention to the creepy character near the ceiling..  Its odd how I didnt see him before then all of a sudden shows up in a pic.  Hmmmm, could the be place be haunted?  If you think about, it can be spooky at night, lights out, and all these things staring at you.

A collection of props past.  King Kong in back is the tallest they can make one.  Maximum height of eighteen feet clear wires, street lights, etc

The longest float depicts a paddlewheeler.  Its articulated into 3 sections to make maneuveraing around city streets much easier.

We're next to the river but someone parked their Bat Boat here. We were told this is an actual movie prop from one of the Batman movies. I dont personally recall which movie it came out of

Hey, Dark Knight, you're boat is illegally parked over there!