Activities:
Bourbon Street- This popular Mardi Gras spot, located in downtown New Orleans’ French Quarter, contains restaurants, bars, strip clubs, and souvenir shops.
Parades- Visit MardiGras.com for parade dates, times, and locations. There is also a Mardi Gras parade iPhone application.
Beads- Mardi Gras goers can catch free beads in two places–from Bourbon Street balconies, which span the width of almost every establishment on the block, and parade floats. People throw beads from the balcony to the people walking down the street. Also, most people who participate in the parade throw beaded necklaces to the spectators. You don’t have to flash to obtain these traditional beads. As long as you can catch, you’ll have several dangling from your neck. Unique beads, necklaces that contain ornaments in addition to the round plastic pieces, are harder to secure, and often require flashing.
Food:
King Cake- This cake is a twisted, ring-shape Brioche bread with cinnamon filling and a small plastic baby, decorated in traditional Mardi Gras colors–purple, symbolizing justice, green for faith, and gold for power. The baby signifies good luck for whoever finds one inside their slice.
Beignet- These are New Orleans-style square pastries made from deep-fried dough topped with confectioners sugar. Cafe Du Monde, located in New Orleans’ French Quarter on Decatur Street, is famous for beignets.
Po’boy- This traditional Louisiana french bread sandwich can be filled with fried shrimp, duck, lobster, sausage, hamburger, and more. According to the Wall Street Journal, “…Tenney Flynn, chef of the French Quarter seafood restaurant GW Fins…fried-Maine-lobster po’boy took ‘Best of Show’ at last November’s festival.”
Jambalaya- This Spanish influenced Louisiana dish consists of rice with meat, fish, and vegetables seasoned with herbs.
Gumbo- This well-known Louisiana meal is a dark, thick soup or stew filled with meat and/or seafood.
Crawfish (Broil)- The broils contain crawfish, or crayfish, small, broiled lobster-resembling crustaceans, red potatoes and corn cut into halves. “Traditionally, the crawfish is dumped onto a newspaper covered table,” according to FoodNetwork.com.
Sources:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576174883513962972.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/foodnation-with-bobby-flay/crawfish-b…