WW2 Museum and Couchon Butcher.

Yesterday we visited the WW2 museum. We saw the Tom Hanks movie. It was amazing. A full surround sound experience. The movie really gave a sense of how huge the conflict was. The special effects were really something. Seats that shook when bombs went off,fake snow that fell during the Battle of the Bulge, they even lowered the front end of a B-17 bomber to give a 3-d effect of the bombing raids over Germany. This is a must see if you ever visit NOLA!! We ate lunch at John Besh's place in the museum. Crew all decked out in period clothes,dishes that reflect the 40's served on tiny butcher blocks with chips served in "tin cans". The food was OK..nothing to get excited about. Still better than what I could get back in AK. We stopped at the Couchon Butcher on our way home. Let me tell you a little about this guy. I first saw them on the Travel Channel's Tony Bourdain's show. These guys do some amazing things with pork and poultry. They cure and smoke all their own salami's and sausages. There are terrines with duck fos grai, tasso ham(we bought some there and used it in our first batch of gumbo..made the dish) I bought Kurobatta bacon. This is the "Kobe"beef version of pork. I bought that,some salami and a slightly smoked,boned chicken that was stuffed with jambalaya. We had that with mashed potatoes,gravy and peas. My in-laws loved it. I've learned that if you buy stock from the store and reduce it by half,add a rue it makes excellent gravy. Gravy is an art and I never knew what a rue was till I married my wife. She has taught me so much. Down in the Quarter is a shop called "Greg's Antiques and Assorted Junk" very cool shop. Greg is a way cool guy. They have an amazing collection of furniture that they purchase from Europe and around the country that they sell at very reasonable prices. The place has a large collection of rugs,nic nac's general cool stuff.. And he supports local artists. He's sitting there sucking on a smoke as we tell him we love his shop and had just moved here. I told him I had dropped in during our August visit. He said he remembered me(more about that later) and said the same thing so many locals have said to us "We need good people here"..we seem to qualify.or at least pass the audition! He asked what we do. When he found out that Allison is a book keeper he offered her a job on the spot saying that after the first of the year he was gonna be looking for a book keeper. Cool huh? He said there were several small businesses that were in need of a book keeper. This could be the start of a decent living for my wife. I saw it as another thing God was preparing. What is so cool is as we were walking away Allison goes"Well I can smoke at work"...we just seem to fit in here. Almost without exception I have found so many of the locals to be wonderful "Salt of the Earth" types..just like the wife and I...There continues to be this thing..I don't recall meeting Greg when I was here yet he remembered me, I seem to stand out from the crowd. As my wife says...I ooze musician. Had a guy swear the other day that he had seen me play somewhere..I haven't played note one here yet. Makes me wonder what will happen when I do. My gear is still in transit from AK. I am getting Yancey to play. It's a New Year and a new life here in NOLA..the adventure continues...s