This is the second of two posts on New Orleans foodie travel...my first post was focused on eating well while visiting the Big Easy.  This one is all about enjoying your beverages and the nightlife just as much as the food! I have to give credit where it's due on this one though, my friend from business school and New Orleans native, Dave Heap, provided almost every single one of the recommendations below. Trust me on this...when it comes to drinking and having a good time, Dave is your man so I'm confident that we are all in extremely good hands with this inside source.

Have any favorite spots to imbibe of your own in NOLA that you don't see listed here?  If so please share! Otherwise, happy drinking...and as Dave said to me, "be safe and have fun out there. But not too much fun....we want you back in NOLA for more!!"

New Orleans has a very special place in my heart...the first and only time I've ever been there was 11 years ago on my cross-country road trip to move from my hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts to San Diego, California with my now husband.  Since we were tight on cash and camping our way across the country, New Orleans was the only big city on our 2-week trip and we totally fell in love!

I'm finally heading back for a work conference and Jazz Fest, so while my time will be tight I'm going to make the best of it! Luckily I know a few locals so my 11 year gap shouldn't slow me down at all.  Between all of the conference meals and Jazz Fest food I will only have a few meals to explore on my own, but in typical SavoryGirl style I'm going in prepared and sharing my full itinerary for all of the places I would want to check out if I had the time.

So next time you're heading to New Orleans go ahead and use this foodie itinerary as a starting point to plan all of your great culinary adventures in the Big Easy and then let me know what you think.  The drinking and nightlife version will be coming next week, so stay tuned.  If you like what you see, feel free to check out my past foodie travel posts here.

I've only been to Peru once...and to be fair, I've seen very little of it.  Just a small part of Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. But I would like to think that what I did see was pretty representative of all the great food, fun, beauty and people that the entire country has to offer. As you'll see below, one quick trip has already led to a pretty huge itinerary of what I would suggest if you were to plan a visit of your own but I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface...so for those of you who've travelled more extensively in Peru: What am I missing? Where have I gone wrong?  What would you suggest?

Wherever you visit and  whatever you decide to do and eat...happy travels.  You'll love Peru!  Need some more convincing to start planning your own trip?  Check out my Peruvian Foodie Photos here!

So you've explored Napa and Sonoma and fancy yourself a CA Wine Country enthusiast.  Not so fast...there's a whole lot more exploring to do!  When you first move to the Bay Area, you spend a lot of time in Napa and Sonoma and bring all of your visitors there...but after a while you branch out a bit, and fall in love with the California wine country all over again.  So when we don't have Wine Country virgins in town (who really should be first introduced through Napa in my opinion) our preference is actually some of these lesser known regions.  We prefer them for the more laid-back, humble feel and because they make wine (and sometimes food) just as good as the more famous and expensive regions.  So here are my favorite regions beyond Napa and Sonoma and a few recommendations for where to taste, eat and stay for each...photos to help inspire can be found here:

It's been a little over a year since our last big trip to Thailand and Cambodia and we are itching for some exploring and gastronomic globe trotting.  Up next...Ecuador & Peru!  We're heading to South America for a little over 2 weeks on our very first organized/guided trip.  We typically like to do our own thing and create our own itineraries, but since the focus of this trip is two activities that you are required to have authorized guides for, the Galapagos Islands and hiking Machu Picchu, we figured this was the right trip to try out a guided tour.  So we did some research and booked this tour with G Adventures.  A few of our friends have vacationed with G Adventures in the past and they have a sustainable and local flavor focus, so it sounds like a good fit for us...fingers crossed!

 

In case you're interested in following along on our adventure, a high-level itinerary is below.  I'll get into the good stuff, all of the local cuisine that we are going to try to hunt down and try during the little bit of free time that we have, when I return.  All of the foodie related activities that I have on my list are recommendations from my fellow T-Bird alumni who are either from Ecuador or Peru or have lived there for extended periods of time...so I trust they'll be spot on, but I'd like to try everything for myself and have photos before recommending any food to you...

Ah, Sonoma.  This is a different experience than Napa...a bit slower paced and gives you a glimpse into what Napa maybe used to be like before it got so popular.  Don't get me wrong...there are still plenty of tourists, but there's just a different vibe.  The people working at the winery linger to talk to you longer and there's a sense of simplicity that is both welcome and comforting.   You do have to drive a bit more in between wineries if you follow my list below, so as with all wine tasting please be careful and make sure you have a designated driver.  Sonoma's a bit harder to do in a day and get the full experience so I suggest a weekend to truly enjoy it at the leisurely pace you should adopt while visiting this unique and tasty region.

My recommendations for what to do, where to eat and of course where to taste are below...and to see some pictures of many of the wineries and surrounding valley check out my Sonoma Photo Album.

Summer is right around the corner; the grapevines are starting to fill out and soon will be heavy with grapes and lush foliage.  It's a wonderful time of year in wine country.  Living in the Bay Area and being passionate about food and wine means I often get asked for wine country suggestions, particularly since I actually used to live in Napa and worked at a winery for a summer.  I love wine country and boy do I have lots of recommendations!  So consider this the first of a three part series on Wine Country....Napa, Sonoma, and Beyond. First up, Napa!  If you've never been to wine country before, Napa should be first on your list. Yes, it's touristy and at times a bit cliche but it's Napa!  You should experience all Napa has to offer first and then move onto the smaller and more quaint wine regions like Sonoma, Russian River and Alexander Valley.  Exploring and understanding Napa will allow you to appreciate the others even more.  Trust me. If you can, try to go during the week since the weekends are more hectic. My recommendations for what to do, where to eat and of course where to taste are below...and to see some pictures of many of the wineries and surrounding valley check out my Napa Valley Album.  It will inspire you to start planning your trip right away!

Chi-town, the Windy City, Chicagoland, Second City, New Gotham (God, I love the new Batman movies!)...whatever you call it, Chicago is an exciting city.  Especially in the summer and fall before the frigid lake breeze starts to pick up.  So we considered ourselves pretty lucky when I had a business trip to Peoria, IL scheduled for late September... weekend trip to Chicago, anyone?  Definitely!

I actually haven't been to Chicago more than quick stop overs in years, but my Grandfather lived there and I have lots of friends who have lived there for extended periods of time so we had lots of good recommendations and resources when planning this trip.  Christian's never been to Chicago at all, so it will be excited to explore it together.  We only have 2 1/2 days so it will be a quick trip, but we're packing as much in as we can!

Of course, please leave me a comment if you think we're missing out on any must-eats or must-sees from our itinerary below...

 

Austin, Texas...boy have we heard great things about this place!  But until now, we haven't had a chance to get there so we were super excited when we found out that our good friend Michelle was getting married there.  So excited that we decided to take a normal quick wedding trip and turn it into a 5 day trip so we really have time to explore.  As usual, I've tapped into my fellow T-Bird network and done my usual research to create the itinerary below.  Not surprisingly, there's a big focus on BBQ and music which sounds like a fun vacation to us!

We're leaving on Friday 9/23 so if you think we're missing something big from our trip leave a comment and let us know!  As always, our itineraries are meant as starting guides, but totally flexible in nature so we can swap things around and abandon others completely once we land and start talking to locals...