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Beignets. Fried dough + Powdered sugar = Light fluffy heaven on a plate. A beignet is virtually a donut with powdered sugar. Though many places offer their version of this sweet delicacy, Café du Monde is known as the originator in these parts having established their presence in 1862.
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One evening, after dinner, we went down to the original Café du Monde location. The line for take-out was huge but moved rapidly. Like many older establishments, there were only a few items on the menu. This typically means that the restaurant has perfected those items and doesn't veer off the beaten path. After procuring our order, which consists of 3 beignets, we were off to the river which was right around the corner. As I had mentioned previously, in downtown, it's okay to drink in public. Thus we had a glass of wine and secured a bench along the Mississippi. The beignet is very fluffy inside with a nice textural contrast on the outside. The powdered sugar gives the night sweetness to bind the textures together. We would stop here one more time on our visit.
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The other delectable sweet bites we indulged in were pralines. Pralines originated in France using caramelized sugar and almonds. However, the settlers in Louisiana noticed an abundance of Pecans; thus the recipe was changed. On our first full day in NOLA, we took part in a Cajun Swamp Tour. On the way back to the hotel, our shuttle driver pointed to this building: Southern Candymakers. Nothing special at all... from the outside. He said that this was the best place to buy pralines. Several nights later, we found out that this was true. It's a candy shop as well as where they manufacture this deliciousness. There were so many options of pralines to try/buy. We sampled the Rum Praline, Sweet Potato Praline, and the Original Praline. We settled on purchasing the Sweet Potato and the Original. The crunch of the nut plus the melt-in-your-mouth-goodness of the caramelized sugar is a force to be reckoned with. One at a time is all you need, or you'll be visiting the dentist soon. Definitely a good place to go for pralines. But be careful buying for others. The pralines might not make it to their end destination. :-)
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