New Orleans -- Bayona

So M and I took a little trip to the big easy for Spring Break and my birthday. He'd been down to Baton Rouge for some work recently and thought it would be fun to do a combination work/play thing in New Orleans.

When I mentioned to my mom where we were going, she kind of freaked out on me. She was saying that it still isn't clean, safe, etc. I even talked to my sister and she agreed with my mom. So I consulted an expert, my friend B, who works for an environmental clean-up agency and had been down to N.O. a multitude of times. He said if we stayed in places like the French Quarter and the Garden District, we should be fine. So we went!

We stayed at a beautiful old hotel called Hotel Monteleone. We never actually ate there, but we liked our room and did have a damn good rye and ginger at the Carousel Bar off the lobby. We flew in on Thursday (my birthday!!!) and went fancy schmancy by way of a great little restaurant called Bayona.

The food at Bayona was fantastic. We didn't want to make ourselves ill, so we shared an appetizer and then shared a salad before we had our entrees. The appetizer was a special that day -- it was a spectacular scallop dish, I think they were seared, and then served on scallop shell halves with a lovely, delicate sauce. Our server recommended a glass of reisling to complement the flavors in the appetizer -- it was an excellent suggestion. The pear and quail salad was next. I noticed there were some nuts on the salad, and had to ask if they were walnuts. When I mentioned that if I ate walnuts I would die, he got a little freaked out. It turned out they were pecans and I avoided eating them anyway, but our poor server never really recovered from being so rattled. Oh well.

We didn't let the nut issue get to us, though, because we had more eating to do. For my entree, I ordered another special of the day, it was buttermilk battered fried rabbit (not heavy at all). I LOVED this dish. It was so good, I had nothing left on my plate by the time I was done. M had the grouper with purple coconut rice and thai pineapple chutney. He loved his, too.

Our only regret is that we should've sat outside. It was slightly nippy, and we thought it might be too chilly to eat in the garden, but the inside of the restaurant was pretty brisk, too. Oh well.

E.O.D. Bathroom Rating: I did get to check out the ladies room before we left for the evening. When I walked in the bathroom, there was a mirrored wall to my left, and as I came through the door, I thought I was walking in to someone. Other than that, the bathroom had an old feel to it because of it's small size. It was nice, though. I'd give it 3 out of 5 flushes.