Eating and Drinking in New Orleans

I'm not gonna lie, we researched the food in New Orleans far more than the attractions. So the first night we walked to Bon Ton for dinner and it was delicious. Here's my shrimp etouffee.

During our week in New Orleans we tried Gumbo, Jambalaya, Red Beans and Rice, Shrimp, Crayfish, Beignets, Coffee with Chicory, and Andouille sausage.

We also had drinks at Compère Lapin, the Den, Pat O'Briens, the District, and Bamboula's. I particularly enjoyed meeting Abigail, the bartender at Compère Lapin. She fixed me this lovely Campari and grapefruit, and two delicious Sazaracs for the boys.

For those of you who've never been to New Orleans, I've got to say, they make drinking too easy there. To-Go cups are de rigueur and nearly everyone walks around with a drink in their hand. Bars can stay open past 2am so drinking is possible almost 24 hours a day.

One of our funniest memories was in the elevator early one morning when a bachelorette party attendee said, "I'm going to need a liver transplant when I get home." We were still laughing after she left the elevator.

One of our best meals was Sunday Brunch at The Court of Two Sisters. We had Champagne, Eggs Benedict, fresh fruit, crayfish, and pecan pie for dessert, but the lavish buffet had many other items as well.

One cannot go to New Orleans without trying a beignet, so one morning we got some to go and ate them as we drove out to the Swamp Tour. They are basically a square donut doused with powdered sugar. Locals know not to eat them in their car, or wear black pants when they eat them, but we did both and paid the price. There is still powdered sugar in the car, but it's a sweet memory from our time in the Big Easy.

Refrigeration Recap

Ta-Dah! The galley project is finished.

On the left is the Vitrifrigo DW70 freezer with a cupboard below for its small Danfoss compressor and a trash bin. The Captain made the cabinet doors match the others on the boat.

The trash bin is attached to the door by a little bracket and a bungie. It's a very small bin and we use shopping bags for liners. The door can be secured open at anchor or while preparing a meal, then closed while underway.

In the center, below the stove, is the original pan storage area; a small, dark, difficult-to-access cave. That's one thing that bugs me about the cabinet design on the Aldens; large storage spaces are limited by small access doors. I understand there must be faceframes, but they should be narrower to make the doors as large as possible.

On the right is the new Vitrifrigo DW100 refrigerator with a cupboard below for its compressor and more pan storage.

Ventilation is a big issue with refrigeration units, so each compressor area has a 6" diameter hole to the bilges to bring in cool air, and another 6" hole up high, behind the stove, to exhaust the warm air. There is about 3" of airspace on the side of each box, 4" on the top, and 8" behind, so I think we have good airflow.

Another important requirement is proper wire size. The Vitrifrigo manual suggested 9ga wire for our length run, but we used 8ga. Heck, the wire cost more than the cherry wood!

Vitrifrigo has several sizes of drawer units. The smaller units can be either freezer only, refrigerator only, or a combination. They have two types of latches: traditional flush or bowed designer style. They all have lights inside, one sliding top rack, plenty of stainless steel dividers, and sturdy Blum drawer guides.

http://www.vitrifrigo.com/ww/en/drawer_refrigerator_and_freezers

At only 3.3 cubic feet, our refrigerator is a little small, but we just couldn't fit a larger unit into our boat. The freezer, at 2.6 cubic feet is a little large, but we have plenty of room to make ice and I'm experimenting to find out what can be stored in the freezer without getting ruined.

When perusing the Vitrifrigo website, keep in mind the number after the "DW" refers to cubic liters which you can easily translate into cubic feet.

If you need help, the folks at Vitrifrigo are easy to talk to. The Vitrifrigo warehouse is located in Florida, so purchasing from Hanson Marine in St. Augustine meant quick delivery, and he was cheaper than Defender.

Now, let's drink that champagne!

During the Refrigeration Installation

Here's a photo of the boat during the installation of the new refrigeration system - and this is why you can't live aboard during a project like this.

As you can see, there's barely room to walk through the boat because the stove, floorboards, and the new freezer drawer are on the port settee, and the temporary refrigerator and new refrigerator are on the starboard settee.

The electrical panel had to be opened up to run the new circuits. The Captain is also redoing the navigation panel because some of our instruments were fried in the lightning strike two years ago and the new ones are a little different.

Floorboards had to be removed and the generator area had to be opened to run the wires. Tools are scattered everywhere. Someone is trying to stain and varnish while the other someone is trying to run wires and fit doors. It's chaos!

We were able to slip the freezer unit in without too much trouble, but we had to lower the refrigerator down from above before the countertop was put on because the space was just too tight. We also had to remove the drawer front to get the drawer into the unit.

I'll bet you didn't know that you had to be authorized to purchase or install Corian solid suface countertop material. But with persistence, we found a countertop installer in Jacksonville who would sell us the eight square feet that we needed. We took a scrap of the old top and found the perfect match. We re-used the old fiddle rails. With lots of sanding, and fresh stain and varnish, they look like new.

This little panel next to the sink had a controller for the old refrigeration system, so we had to make a new one since we removed that controller. With more space we were able to move the generator instruments down a bit which makes them easier to see.

The compressor for each unit is mounted directly below but only uses half the space, so we are utilizing that extra space for storage. On the right we will store large pots and pans, and on the left we found space for a trash bin. The Captain made the new doors match the old ones exactly. We think its very important to match existing details in any remodel.

So far we love the new refrigerators and the new storage space that we created. We'll do an update on power consumption after we've lived with them for a few weeks.

SOURCES:

Refrigerators - Hanson Marine, St. Augustine, 904 825-7448

Cherry - Florida Southern Plywood, Jacksonville, 904 786-4382

Corian - Wellcraft Fabrication, Jacksonville, 904 880-6921 wellcraftfab.com

Hardware - Fisheries Supply fisheriessupplies.com

Fingerbreakers aka Fingerpulls - LaLuna ♡