In honor of the Saints winning the Super Bowl, we did some research into New Orleans street food. While New Orleans is a great food town with some amazing restaurants and chefs, it’s not known for street food. However, there are some very good street food carts and trucks around if you know where to look. After reading this, you’ll know where to look.
The Que Crawl is fairly easy to spot because it’s a large purple truck. This vendor has gained a lot of attention because of the fantastic barbecue ribs and Cajun side dishes. The truck is usually located right outside the famous nightclub Tipitina’s. An exact address is hard to come by, but the closest I found was “on the corner of Tchoupitoulas Street and Napoleon Avenue”. Their phone is 504-232-9344. The video below should get your mouth watering for some Que.
| The Que Crawl |
The counter of Verti Marte at 1201 Royal St. offers fantastic food that is a must try for anyone craving a big of Cajun and seafood. The prices are affordable and their portions are large. They are busy 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Be sure to try the jambalaya.
Then there’s Yo-Mama’s Bar and Grill located at 727 Saint Peter St. They get points for their name alone, but their burgers are reputed to be among the best around. The peanut butter burger is supposed to be really good; like beef satay with peanut sauce.
The El Chaparral Truck came about shortly after Hurricane Katrina as the city was recovering and rebuilding. It has a wonderful reputation among the locals for serving hearty Mexican food. The truck can be found at 2013 S. Claiborne.
New York has their hot dog vendors and the Big Easy has Lucky Dog. These street carts are shaped like hot dogs and are located throughout the French Quarter. They’ve been around for over 50 years, and locals love running up to a cart and grabbing a famous Lucky Dog. John Kennedy Toole featured the Lucky Dog street vendor carts in his book The Confederacy of Dunces.
When it’s time for dessert, there’s the Roman Candy cart, which has been around since 1915 and is still owned by the Cortese family. Back in 1915, they designed a cart that would be pulled by a mule so that they could get around and sell more candy. That design is still in place today. Since this is a moving cart, there is no address for it, but can be found popping up all over New Orleans. The listed address is 5510 Constance Street and their phone is 504-897-3937.
For something to cool you off in the hot New Orleans summer, try Hansen’s Sno-Bliz. Patience is key at this 70-year-old concrete-block family business that serves the closest thing you’ll find to snow in New Orleans. The line runs out the swinging screen doors, but once you finally enter you’re lulled into a hypnotic trance. The patented Sno-Bliz machine hums and jackhammers enormous frozen blocks of ice into the fluffiest cold treat imaginable. Methodically, the sno-balls are layered—ice, then syrup, then both again, and one last time—to ensure that the handmade flavors fully coat yet don’t deflate the ice. The cream flavors are truly outstanding, especially cream of coffee, cream of nectar, and the amazingly named cream of ice cream. Open March through Labor Day. 4801 Tchoupitoulas St. Phone: 504-891-9788.
For another scrumptious dessert, try the Sucre Gelato Truck, which sprang up recently and serves gelato. While the Sucre Gelato Truck travels all over the city, it hangs mostly around Frenchmen Street and Audubon Park. For their current location, check Twitter. http://twitter.com/SucreGelatoVan.
Now there’s even more reason to visit New Orleans. If you go, let us know how your trip went.
