When life gives you Monday, dip it in glitter and shine all day. Feeling shiny and new after a few days exploring NOLA, followed by a family and food extravaganza over the Thanksgiving holiday. So much thanks to give this time of year…for the man behind the camera who humors my every whim (and photo request), explorations in new cities and a cuddly pile of wrinkles who’s always thrilled when his pawrents come home.

New Orleans was filled with newfound treasures that had me throwing gratitude like confetti on the jazz-filled streets. Read on for my favorite food and fitness finds!

P.S. Jump to the bottom if you just want the top 10 list. 

New Orleans is probably best known for Bourbon Street and Mardi Gras, but we wanted to get a vibe for how the locals live day-to-day. For the first two days, we spent out time in a quaint Airbnb in the Uptown neighborhood on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Most of the homes were built in the 19th century and still feature a lot of the quintessential architecture like intricate ironwork, colonial style homes and gas lanterns that flicker all day and night. We were just a few blocks from Magazine Street, which featured rows of locally owned shops, restaurants and art galleries. We were also just a few skips from St. Charles Avenue, where streetcars still run past some of the most renown mansions. You can ride the streetcar for just $1.25 to the French Quarter or buy a day pass for just $3.

Another surprising oasis in Uptown was Audubon Park, which was filled with centuries old Oak trees, a 1.8 trail that looped around the exterior of the park and Oschner Island, better known as Bird Island for the hundreds of birds that nest there. It was a welcome retreat for a morning run as well as a meditation walk the next day to the Labyrinth and Tree of Life. The stone Labyrinth was laid to symbolize healing following Hurricane Katrina and the Tree of Life is 280-year-old tree that is a local favorite for climbing and potential giraffe sight-seeing since it grows alongside the giraffe complex at the Audubon Zoo. We hadn’t read up on the giraffe sighting beforehand so we were pleasantly surprised to spot the clan on our walk!

After our jaunt through the park, we happened upon Max Well on Magazine Street, a plant-based cafe serving veggie-filled bowls, salad and fresh pressed juices. If there are greens to be found in New Orleans, you bet I will find them. Currently obsessed with the kitchari that topped my salad adorned with spirals of raw beets, carrots, red cabbage and avo. Check out my post on kitchari to find out more about this cleansing Ayurveda dish.

If you fancy white table cloths or just like being fancy, La Petite Grocery was an adorable corner spot on Magazine Street for a traditional dinner. The restaurant was home to a grocery store in the early 1900’s and features creative spins on traditional Louisiana dishes like the Turtle Bolognese I enjoyed with hand cut linguine and a fried, soft-boiled egg.

Honorable mention also goes to Toast for delectable little Aebleskivers, puffed pancake balls that are a traditional Danish dessert served with a variety of sauces for dunking, like the lemon curd shown.

We enjoyed our low-key time in Uptown, but had to experience the quintessential French Quarter. Our trip ventured to an Airbnb in the Central Business District, a few blocks from the hub bub of Bourbon Street. And what did we do first? Indulge in the infamous beignets at Cafe du Monde. We visited in the middle of the day, so the line out the door was expected, but relatively fast-moving and only a 15 minute wait for a small table under the canopied patio. We ordered the traditional chicory coffee and order of beignets, which included 3 pillowy pastries the size of a palm. Light, fluffy and slightly crispy from the fryer, it was worth the trip and the hype. Interestingly enough, we learned that the inclusion of chicory in coffee was a cost-savings venture during the American Civil War when the port was blockaded from receiving coffee shipments. The chicory root delivers a similar flavor, but without the caffeine. It’s a tradition that has since stuck over time.

Next, we had to find some traditional Creole/Cajun food. And not the touristy stuff or the new age spins at fancy restaurants. The legit, down home soul food. Post beignets, we took a walking tour and our guide tipped us off to Coop’s Place for the ultimate soul food sampling. Zagat even says Coop’s is “where the not-so-elite go to eat”. We split the Coop’s Taste Plate to get a sampling that included a cup of seafood gumbo, shrimp creole, cajun fried chicken, red beans & rice and sausage jambalaya. We were scraping for more after that teaser of a feast and ordered what was the best thing I ate the entire trip: Jambalaya Supreme. This wasn’t your average jambalaya as this was embellished with shrimp crawfish and the game changer: tasso, a smoky cut of pork that was juicy, smoky and crisp on the edges. If you have just one day in New Orleans, this is a must.

We were filled to the brim post our visit to Coop’s, so what else other than to work it off the next morning? I discovered that we were staying just a half mile from Tour Cycle Studio in the Central Business District, known as the CBD. If you follow my blog, you’ll know that I have pretty high standards for spin studios since I taught for many years and this studio lived up to those standards. I was able to sign up the night before on class pass and the studio offers free shoes (a bonus for travelers and those used to paying at studios like Soul Cycle). The 45-minute high intensity class was a combination of performance driven sprints and climbs measured by computers that tracked your rpm’s and resistance, as well as more rhythmic moves like jumps, tap backs and presses. The class also lit up with a cosmic array of lights in the dark room orchestrated by the instructor, which electrified the sprints and choreography throughout class. This is the place to spin in NOLA.

A workout deserves a sweet treat and Willa Jean is the place to indulge. While Willa’s is on every list for the best of brunch, the gem to order is the cookies and milk. This plate is only $5 and comes with three salty sweet warm chocolate chip cookies laced with salted caramel and a glass of vanilla sweetened milk to wash it all down. There’s not cherry on top, but there is a whisk laden with cookie dough for those of you who prefer your cookies in dough form. Definition: yum.

All good trips must come to an end and we saved the best for last: Bacchanal. This isn’t just a wine shop, but a passage to the best backyard patio in the city. Situated in the Bywater neighborhood, but it’s worth the hike for a low key evening outside while sipping wine and indulging in the charcuterie plate of your dreams. Here’s how it works: enter through the wine shop to select from an array of bottles, then choose a couple of cheeses and meats for the kitchen to create a masterpiece of a plate. We selected a genoa salame, proscuitto, goat’s milk cheese and an aged cheddar that the kitchen then paired with warm slices of bread, a Valencia orange chutney, sundried tomato spread, black olives and sweet pickles. It was the perfect relaxing way to end a trip that was filled with open air music and food that will have us coming back for more soon.

Looking for the Cliff’s Notes of our trip? Here’s the short list of the top 10 hits.

NOLA FAVORITES

Uptown Neighborhood
1.) St. Charles Streetcar for a ride down Millionaire road in style.
2.) Audubon Park for an urban oasis including the Labyrinth and Tree of Life
3.) Max Well for fresh plant-based eats
4.) La Petite Grocery for a creative spin on traditional Louisiana fare
5.) Toast Cafe for pancake puff pastries that are heaven-sent

French Quarter / Central Business District
1.) Cafe du Monde for the infamous chicory coffee and beignets
2.) Coop’s Place for a sampling of the best cajun/creole food
3.) TOUR Cycle Studio for a high intensity, illuminated spin class
4.) Willa Jean’s for the milk & cookies
5.) Bachannal for the wine, charcuterie plates and backyard tunes

Yes, we ventured down Bourbon Street and it’s absolutely worth the stroll too, but these were some of the less obvious corners of New Orleans that made our trip.

Did we miss anything? If so, would love to hear your tips for our next visit!

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So this is September. Feeling a lot of gratitude these days as we enter a new moon and an opportunity for a reset. I don’t know about you, but August was rather tumultuous for me with Mercury in retrograde and a swirl of emotion that had me contemplating a lot of personal decisions about career, family and…purpose. Like, am I mindlessly climbing the ladder…or am I truly following my passions, the things that light me up? It reminded me that what truly excites me is not random. It’s connected to my purpose. And I needed to follow those passions. Like reigniting my passion for travel, my passion for driving innovation and my passion for creating connections. Read on for what sparked my clarity and creativity while in Venice Beach.

What better way to express gratitude than through food? At Cafe Gratitude all of the plant-based dishes are named for inspiring feelings like “Nourished”, “Bountiful” and “Restored”. Flavorful dishes like the “Evolved” bowl (shown above) feature local, organic produce like the oyster mushroom bulgogi, daikon, cucumber, kim chee and chickpea frittatas that top the crispy brown rice with bibimpap sauce. So much texture and flavor going on! These dishes live up to their names. But also, isn’t it amazing how just a name like “Restored” can reset your entire mood?

My lust for travel…and ice cream was fulfilled and then some at Wanderlust Creamery. This artisinal ice cream shop on Lincoln features flavors inspired by global travels. Each scoop takes you to a new destination like the Ube Malted Crunch (above, purple) inspired by the Philippines and featuring sweet purple yams with malted milk pieces. The bottom layer (green) is a Japanese Neapolitan with layers of matcha, hojicha (a more mellow green tea than matcha, with a slight nutty flavor) and black sesame seed ice cream. I have no desire to site on a flight for 10+hours to visit Japan, but I will take a walk to this ice cream shop again!

If you’ve been watching my Instagram feed, you know my new obsession with Erewhon Market. This pizza is what raw food dreams are made of. Erewhon may be “nowhere” spelled backwards, but the name of this organic grocery store and cafe might as well be spelled h-e-a-v-e-n. The crust is a crispy blend of buckwheat, sunflower seeds and flax that is topped with a creamy cashew “ricotta”, walnut pesto, cherry tomatoes and olive tapenade. This is the kind of pizza you could eat every dang day.

This gourmet grocery store is a Mecca of healthy foods that’s named after the book with the same name in which the world is a utopia where everyone is responsible for their own health. The market continues to be a pioneer in functional foods with a tonic bar (where I ordered an activated coffee of ghee, collagen peptides and…), raw food bar and aisles filled with everything under the sun from local produce to every adaptogen you can name.

The Class by Taryn Toomey may have a generic name, but it’s anything but generic. This was my second time returning to The Class, this time at The Space, formerly know as Cardio Barre. I wanted to see if it could carry the same luster the second time around and whether it would be as insanely hard, or if that was a one-time event at Wanderlust Hollywood. The verdict? Just as mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting…in a good way. Check out my prior post for a low down on what to expect.

The Butcher’s Daughter featured vegetarian fare just as clever as the name. I’ll be dreaming about the Spaghetti Squash Carbonara for days. Carbonara is a classic turned plant forward with a bed of “angel hair” spaghetti squash layered with the most decadent and creamy cashew “ricotta”, adzuki “bacon” and a soft poached egg nestled amidst spinach and seared cherry tomatoes.

Adzuki might sound like something you would sneeze, but it’s actually a red bean that is indigenous to the Himalayas. It has a relatively neutral flavor that pairs well with buckwheat and liquid smoke to create a bacon-like flavor and texture. It’s not quite as crumbly as the real deal, but I can’t wait to try making it on my own!

The Venice Canals were my serenity on this vacation. It was a quiet and calm oasis of gorgeous homes lining these man-made canals off the coastline. The canals were developed back in the early 1900’s, but were left to erode. In the early 1990’s they were resurrected to their current state of beauty for the public to wander the sidewalks and dream of Italian Villas.

The theme of my trip was really wanderment (yes, I made up that word). I so often plan every minute detail of my life, and my trips, that it sometimes takes away the joy of discovery. I happened upon this exotic sausage shop and beer hall on my way back from yoga. Now that I’m working in innovation again, I take every opportunity to discover new foods, like this rattlesnake rabbit jalapeno sausage. Like I’ve heard before, the rattlesnake tasted surprisingly like…chicken. And the jalapeno was just the kicker to spice things up.

Usually when I run out of time during my weeks, the first thing to go to the wayside is yoga. On this trip, I cultivated the time for some much-needed introspection at Love Yoga. The practice at Love Yoga is a blend of Katonah Yoga, Iynegar and Vinyasa with inspiration-laden narrative winding through challenging poses. The hands-on practice made it personalized and was especially needed for some of the unique movements. Ultimately, I left feeling radiant, transformed and ready to take on September!

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